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YouTube Shorts thumbnail size: 1080 × 1920, checked on your image

A Short is a vertical 9:16 video, so its thumbnail is a 9:16 picture.

Drop the image you want as the cover. This page measures its shape, size and file weight, shows it in the Shorts player with the areas the buttons and title cover, and at small shelf sizes. If it is the wrong shape, one tap makes a 1080 × 1920 copy and opens it in the editor. The image stays on your device.

1080 × 1920pixels

9:16vertical

Under 2 MBsafe file size

JPG or PNGformat

Drop or click to choose

Any image: a vertical one is checked as it is; a wide one gets a 9:16 fix

JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF your browser can open. Up to 50 MB.

Nothing uploaded Shorts safe zones Fix opens in the editor

What your image measures

At shelf size

180 px wide

120 px wide

Shelf cards are small. If the face and the words still read at these widths, they will read in the feed.

In the Shorts player, 1080 × 1920

Show Shorts safe zones

Fix the shape

Drag the picture to choose what stays in frame.

Bar colour

The safe-zone overlay is a guide on this page only; it is never drawn into the image.

YouTube Shorts thumbnail size, and where each number comes from

We only print numbers we can point to. Where a number comes from our own tools, the table says so; where we could not confirm something, the next section says that too.

What	Number	Where it comes from
Size	1080 × 1920 px	The full frame of a vertical HD video. Our Shorts cover maker and horizontal to vertical video tool both produce exactly this size, and the editor opens at the size of the image it receives.
Shape	9:16	A Short is a vertical video; 1080 × 1920 is 9:16. This checker accepts a ratio within 1% of 9:16.
File size	Under 2 MB	YouTube's help page allows 2 MB for a thumbnail uploaded from the YouTube app and 50 MB from a computer; our 16:9 thumbnail pages cite the same figures. We found no separate figure for Shorts, so we treat 2 MB as the line.
Format	JPG or PNG	The formats our YouTube thumbnail maker recommends for any thumbnail. The fixed copy this page makes is a JPG at 92% quality.
Safe zones	Top 10%, bottom 25%, a right-hand band from 45% to 75% of the height, 14% wide	The overlay our vertical video tools draw. It is approximate: the app moves its buttons and text between versions, so treat it as a margin to stay clear of.
Length of a Short	Up to 3 minutes	The limit our Shorts cover maker quotes when a video is too long. It is about the video, not the thumbnail, but it is the line between a Short and a normal upload.

What we could not verify

Whether your app lets you upload an image for a Short. The YouTube app has long let you pick a frame of the video as the cover when you upload, which is what our Shorts cover maker is built for. Whether your version also takes an image file changes with app versions and accounts, and we have not confirmed it. If it only offers frames, show your designed cover as a still for a moment inside the Short and pick that frame.
The exact crop of the Shorts shelf. On a channel's Shorts tab and in some feeds the cover is shown in a small card, sometimes cropped closer than the full 9:16. We have not measured those cards on every surface, so the shelf previews above are a legibility check at small sizes, not a pixel spec. Keep the face and the words near the middle.

How to check a Shorts thumbnail

1. Drop your image

Choose the picture you want as the cover. It is decoded by your browser and never sent anywhere.

2. Read the checks

Shape, pixel size, file size and format are measured on the file itself, and the detail inside each safe zone is compared with the middle of the frame.

3. Fix the shape

A picture that is not 9:16 is cropped to fill, with a drag to choose what stays, or placed on blurred or solid bars. The player preview updates as you go.

4. Open it in the editor

One tap opens the 1080 × 1920 copy in the editor, where you can add a title, an arrow or a sticker, then download.

Limits, in numbers

Files up to 50 MB. Anything your browser can decode as an image: JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF everywhere, HEIC in Safari. An animated GIF gives one still frame.
The fixed copy is always 1080 × 1920. A smaller source is enlarged, and the page tells you by how much.
The safe-zone check measures detail, not meaning. It compares edge strength inside each zone with the middle of the frame and flags a zone above 1.1 times the middle. It cannot tell a face from a busy background.

Questions, answered

What size is a YouTube Shorts thumbnail?

1080 × 1920 pixels, a 9:16 vertical picture, the same size as a full vertical HD frame. Keep the file under 2 MB, the limit YouTube's help page gives for thumbnails uploaded from the YouTube app, and save it as a JPG or PNG.

Can I upload a custom thumbnail for a Short?

The YouTube app lets you pick a frame of the video as the cover when you upload a Short. Whether your app version also takes an image file is something we have not been able to confirm, so this page does not promise it. If it only offers frames, put your cover inside the Short as a still for a moment and pick that frame; the Shorts cover maker finds the sharpest frames for you.

My image is 16:9. What happens to it?

The check marks it as the wrong shape, and the fix makes a 1080 × 1920 copy: Crop to fill keeps a 9:16 slice that you drag into place, Blurred bars keeps the whole picture on a blurred copy of itself, and Solid bars keeps it on a colour you choose. Your original file is not changed.

Is my image uploaded?

No. The image is decoded by your browser and drawn on a canvas on your device. The fix is handed to the editor inside your browser's own storage, and the counter under the upload box shows how many bytes of request body left the page while you worked.

What do the red areas mean?

They mark roughly where the Shorts player draws its top bar, the like, comment and share buttons on the right, and the title, channel name and sound line along the bottom. They are approximate, so keep faces and words in the clear middle rather than right up to a line.

What files does it take?

Any image your browser can open, up to 50 MB: JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF in every current browser, HEIC in Safari. The download is a 1080 × 1920 JPG at 92% quality with no watermark.