YouTube Banner Size and the Safe Area for Every Device

A YouTube banner can look fine in the upload preview and then show up on a laptop with the logo cut in half. One image has to work on a TV, a computer and a phone. This guide gives the YouTube banner size from YouTube’s own help pages, the safe area where text and logos are never cropped, and how to resize a photo to fit without stretching it.

All the numbers come from YouTube Help and were checked on 7 November 2026. If anything here disagrees with Manage your channel branding, trust the help page.

Quick answer: Upload a 16:9 banner of 2560 x 1440 pixels, which YouTube recommends especially for TV. The minimum is 2048 x 1152. Keep text and logos inside the safe area of 1235 x 338 pixels at the minimum size (about 1544 x 423 on a 2560 x 1440 image), centered. The file must be 6 MB or smaller.

YouTube banner size: the official numbers

YouTube’s branding page lists these rules for the channel banner, and its banner and profile picture tips repeat them.

Both sizes are exactly 16:9 (2560 ÷ 1440 and 2048 ÷ 1152 both come to 1.78), the shape of a TV screen.

The help page lists file types for the profile picture but not for the banner. Export it as JPG or PNG and you won’t have trouble.

The safe area, and where 1546 x 423 comes from

Search for the banner safe area and you will find two numbers: 1235 x 338 and 1546 x 423. Only the first one is on YouTube’s help page, and it is measured on the 2048 x 1152 minimum image.

The second number is what you get when you scale the first one up to a 2560 x 1440 canvas. 2560 is 1.25 times 2048, so 1235 x 338 becomes about 1544 x 423. Older templates round it to 1546 x 423. Either way it is the same strip, just drawn on a bigger canvas.

YouTube gives the size of the safe area but not its position in pixels. The table assumes it sits in the center, and the crop preview in YouTube Studio is where you confirm it for your own banner.

The second row is computed from YouTube’s figure; YouTube doesn’t publish it. In proportions, the safe area is about 60% of the banner’s width and 29% of its height. So most of your banner is decoration that some viewers will never see. Put the channel name, logo and upload schedule in the middle strip and let the background run to the edges.

The schedule idea comes from YouTube: the tips page suggests putting it on the banner so fans know when to come back.

How the banner looks on TV, desktop and mobile

YouTube’s branding page says the same banner image is used on computer, mobile and TV, but it shows differently on each. On larger devices the image fills the screen. In other views it gets cropped.

In practice:

• On a TV, the full 16:9 image can show, which is why YouTube asks for 2560 x 1440 there.
• On a computer and on a phone, the banner is a wide, short strip across the top of the channel page, so only part of the image shows.
• After you publish, open the channel on both a phone and a computer and check the text.

YouTube doesn’t publish the pixel size of each device’s crop. The “desktop” and “tablet” sizes some guides list don’t come from YouTube. The safe area is the only part YouTube promises to show, so design for that.

When you upload in YouTube Studio (Customization, then Profile, then Change under the banner image), you can adjust the crop before you click Done and then Publish. Look closely at the text before you publish. If a word sits near the edge of the strip, move it in.

How to resize an image to YouTube banner size

ResizeAny works in your browser. Your banner is never uploaded to a server.

1. Open the YouTube channel banner preset (2560 x 1440). The YouTube banner and channel art presets are the same size. For the smallest file, use the 2048 x 1152 preset.
2. Add your image and open Ratio & fit. The preset starts on Stretch, which squashes anything that isn’t already 16:9. Choose Crop to fill the banner and trim the edges evenly from the center, or Fit to keep the whole image and fill the empty sides with a color or a blurred copy of the photo.
3. Choose JPG as the output format.
4. If the file comes out over 6 MB, type 5.9 in the target file size box and pick MB. ResizeAny lowers JPG quality until the file fits and keeps the 2560 x 1440 size.
5. Download it and upload it in YouTube Studio.

The crop tool in ResizeAny has no 16:9 button. If you want to choose which part of a photo stays, rather than taking the center, crop with Freeform first and aim for a pixel readout like 4032 x 2268 or 3000 x 1688. A 4:3 phone photo of 4032 x 3024 loses 25% of its height when cropped to 16:9, so check that nothing important sits near the top or bottom.

ResizeAny doesn’t add text, logos or guide lines. Design the banner in your graphics editor with the safe area marked, then use ResizeAny to hit the exact pixel size and the 6 MB limit.

Common banner mistakes

Text near the edges is the big one. A design that looks balanced on the full canvas can lose its outer words on a laptop.

A blurry banner is usually a small image scaled up. A 1280 x 720 picture can’t become 2560 x 1440 without going soft, so start from one at least 2560 pixels wide.

Borders, frames and shadows get cropped unevenly, and YouTube asks you not to add them. Squashed faces mean the image was stretched, so use Crop or Fit as in step 2.

The rest of your channel art

Your profile picture sits next to the banner. YouTube Help says it shows at 98 x 98 pixels, can be up to 15 MB, and can be JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG, but not an animated GIF. Square or round images work best. A square of 800 x 800 pixels gives plenty of room for that small display.

For video thumbnails, which have their own 16:9 rules and file limits, see our YouTube thumbnail size guide. Sizes for other platforms are in the social media presets.