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CropPhoto
Crop a photo

YouTube Thumbnail Crop

Thumbnails that fit YouTube

16:9 at 1280×720, under the 2 MB phone limit, ready to upload.

Free · No sign-up · Your photos never leave your device

A landscape print on a cutting mat, with a glowing crop frame placed over it
Which photos work?

Drop a photo anywhere on the page, paste one from the clipboard, or press Enter to browse.

Drop several at once, or a whole folder, and they stack up in name order — each one is cropped in turn, and the count under the photo tells you where you are.

JPG · PNG · WebP · HEIC* · AVIF* · GIF* · BMP*

*opens wherever your browser can decode it, and saves as JPG, PNG or WebP. An iPhone HEIC photo opens in Safari; other browsers say so and explain how to get a JPG. An animated GIF or WebP gives its first frame. Up to 80 megapixels and 150 MB per photo.

Three taps

From photo to perfect crop

  1. Choose a photo

    Tap the button, drop it on the page or paste it. It opens right here, straight away.

  2. Drag the frame

    Pick a shape or size, then move and resize the glowing frame until it looks right.

  3. Download

    Save your crop as JPG, PNG or WebP. No account, no waiting, no watermark.

Good to know: The YouTube thumbnail preset is on, with a 1,950 KB ceiling. Drag the box, then Download a 1280×720 JPG.

Crop a photo, image or picture into a YouTube thumbnail. The box locks to 16:9 and the file comes out at 1280×720, with the JPEG quality lowered only if needed to stay under 1,950 KB, inside the 2 MB ceiling YouTube gives for thumbnails uploaded from a phone.

YouTube Help asks for at least 640 pixels across and now recommends 3840×2160 for videos and 2160×3840 for Shorts, the same shapes with more pixels. Type 3840×2160 under Export if your photo is that big; the contract says if it would have to enlarge. The Shorts chip switches to a 9:16 frame at 1080×1920.

A channel banner: cover photo crop. Instagram sizes: crop for Instagram. Any other ratio: crop to aspect ratio. Exact pixels and KB: crop and resize.

What you can do here

  • 16:9, locked

    The box keeps YouTube's shape however you drag it, and the file is 1280×720.

  • Under 2 MB on phones

    A 1,950 KB ceiling keeps the file inside the 2 MB limit for thumbnails uploaded from the app.

  • Shorts at 9:16

    One chip switches to a tall 1080×1920 frame for a Shorts thumbnail.

  • A size check

    If your crop is smaller than the file, the contract says how much it was enlarged.

How to youtube thumbnail crop

  1. 1
    Open the photo

    Drop a frame grab or photo on the box.

  2. 2
    Frame it

    Drag the 16:9 box over the moment you want, or switch to Shorts under Destination.

  3. 3
    Download

    The contract shows 1280×720 and the bytes, under 1,950 KB. Download saves the JPG.

Questions about cropping

What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?

YouTube Help (read 31 October 2026) asks for at least 640 pixels across, recommends 3840×2160 for videos and allows up to 2 MB when uploading from a phone. 1280×720 is the same 16:9 shape and the size most thumbnails use; type 3840×2160 under Export if your photo is big enough.

Why 1,950 KB and not 2 MB?

1,950 KB is 1,996,800 bytes, which stays under 2 MB however the app counts a megabyte. The quality is only lowered if a file would go over it.

My photo is smaller than 1280 pixels across. Is that a problem?

The file is still 1280×720, so the pixels are enlarged, and the contract says by how much. YouTube's own minimum is 640 pixels across; a sharper source makes a sharper thumbnail.

What size is a Shorts thumbnail?

9:16. The Shorts chip makes a 1080×1920 file; YouTube Help recommends 2160×3840, the same shape at twice the pixels each way.

JPG or PNG?

The preset writes a JPG, because it fits the 2 MB limit easily. PNG is available under Export, but PNG has no quality setting, so a PNG over the limit would be made smaller in pixels instead.

Does anything get uploaded to YouTube?

No. The thumbnail is saved to your device; you upload it yourself in YouTube Studio or the app.