Free tool

YouTube Banner Size Checker (FREE TOOL)

Drop your channel banner in and see what YouTube crops, and the centre strip it keeps safe on every phone, computer and TV. Nothing is uploaded.

Simon Beno Co-founder, CEO & CMO, Selzee Updated September 29, 2026 7 min read

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Width in pixels

Height in pixels

JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP. The file stays in your browser.

The short answer

A YouTube banner is the wide image across the top of a channel page. YouTube recommends 2560 x 1440 pixels at 16:9 and refuses anything under 2048 x 1152. The file has to be 6 MB or less.
Only the centre strip is safe on every device: 1235 x 338 on a 2048 x 1152 file, about 1544 x 423 on a 2560 x 1440 one.
A TV shows the whole banner; a phone may show little more than that strip.

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Two banners, three views

Colin and Samir's banner and Codie Sanchez's, run through this checker. The LinkedIn banner and the Facebook cover have their own shapes: see the LinkedIn banner size checker and the Facebook cover photo size checker.

Colin and Samir's whole YouTube banner: two men above the words About Creators, for Creators — On a TV: all of it. Colin and Samir's whole 2560 x 1440 banner. A TV is the only screen that shows every pixel.

The centre strip of Colin and Samir's banner, showing the headline and two pairs of eyes — On every screen: the centre strip. The safe area, 1544 x 423 on this file. The headline sits inside it; both faces are cut at the eyes.

The safe area of Codie Sanchez's banner: a book cover and the words More profit, less pain, out now — At the minimum, 2048 x 1152: Codie Sanchez's banner cut to YouTube's 1235 x 338 safe area. The book and both lines of text sit inside it.

Every YouTube banner figure

What the checker grades against. A row with no qualifier is YouTube's own figure.

	Figure
Export at	2560 x 1440
Ratio	16:9
Minimum	2048 x 1152
Safe area	1235 x 338, centred (at 2048 x 1152)
File size limit	6 MB
Formats	JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP (not in the banner guidelines)

Verified 2026-09-29.

Four real banners, four results

Measured on 29 September 2026, the largest file each channel page serves.

Colin and Samir, 2560 x 1440

The recommended size and shape, 305 KB, far under 6 MB. The safe strip keeps their headline but cuts both faces at the eyes.

Codie Sanchez, 2048 x 1152

The exact minimum at 16:9, 1.4 MB. The safe strip is exactly 1235 x 338, and the book and both lines of text sit inside it.

Alex Hormozi, 5121 x 2880

Twice the recommended size at 16:9, 3.5 MB, under the 6 MB limit. The logo and the tagline sit inside the centre strip.

Gary Vaynerchuk, 7111 x 3999

Almost three times the recommended width at about 16:9, 3.5 MB, under 6 MB. The name and the line of text sit inside the centre strip.

How to check a YouTube banner

Drop the banner in, or type the size

The checker reads the file in your browser, so nothing leaves your device and nothing is uploaded.
See what YouTube does with it

Refused, cropped, resized or kept, with every problem listed and the safe area drawn on your own banner.
Download it at the right size

If the file needs a fix, one button returns it cut to 16:9, at least 2048 x 1152 and under 6 MB.

Why check a banner before you upload

One file has to work on the biggest screen and the smallest one, and YouTube decides the crop for each.

Two safe area numbers, one box

YouTube prints 1235 x 338. Most guides print 1546 x 423. Both are right: they are the same strip on a 2048 x 1152 file and on a 2560 x 1440 one.

A TV shows everything, a phone may not

The same file is cropped for every screen. Design for the TV alone and your channel name can land in the part a smaller screen cuts away.

Old templates still circulate

1024 x 576 templates are still shared, but YouTube now asks for at least 2048 x 1152, so they start at half the width a banner needs.

Why two safe area numbers are both right

Search for the YouTube banner safe area and you find two answers. YouTube's own help page says 1235 x 338. Most of the guides that rank for the question say 1546 x 423.

Neither is wrong. YouTube gives its figure "at the minimum dimension", a 2048 x 1152 upload. Scale that same strip up to the recommended 2560 x 1440 and it becomes about 1544 x 423, within two pixels of the number the guides print. It is one box, measured on two canvases: about 60% of the width and 29% of the height, in the centre.

The other image every channel needs: the thumbnail checker

The banner next to every other surface: the table of every surface

How to export one that survives

Build at 2560 x 1440

That is YouTube's recommendation, and the size a TV shows in full. Anything that is not 16:9 is cropped from the centre.
Put every word and logo in the centre strip

On a 2560 x 1440 canvas that strip is about 1544 x 423, centred. Treat everything outside it as background you can lose.
Fill the edges with something that can go

A texture, a colour or a wide photo. It shows on a TV and costs nothing when a phone crops it away.
Keep the file under 6 MB

A photo saved as PNG at 2560 x 1440 can pass the 6 MB limit. If the checker flags the size, export as JPG instead.
Check it before you upload

YouTube Studio shows a preview only after the upload. The checker shows the same problem before you export at all.

Who this checker is for

1

Creators setting up or rebranding a channel

The banner is the first thing a new viewer sees on the channel page, and the crop stays invisible until it is live on a phone.

2

Brands running a YouTube channel beside other socials

The X header, the LinkedIn banner and the YouTube banner are three different shapes, so each one needs its own export.

3

Designers handing a banner to someone else

The person who uploads a banner is rarely the person who made it, so one check before handover saves a second upload.

What the checker tells you

Every check returns the same four things, so the answer has the same shape whichever file you drop in.

The verdict

Refused, cropped, resized or clean. One line that says what YouTube does to this exact file, before you upload it.

The problems

All of them, worst first, not only the first one. A file can be the wrong type and too small at once.

The preview

Drawn on your own image: the 16:9 crop dimmed, and the area outside the safe strip marked as the part that may be cropped.

The fix

Export at 2560 x 1440. It says what to export again, and where a new export will not help because the detail is missing.

Frequently asked questions

What size is a YouTube banner?

YouTube recommends 2560 x 1440 pixels at 16:9, especially for TV. The minimum it accepts is 2048 x 1152. The file has to be 6 MB or smaller.

What is the YouTube banner safe area?

The centre strip that shows on every device. YouTube gives it as 1235 x 338 pixels on a 2048 x 1152 upload. On a 2560 x 1440 banner the same strip is about 1544 x 423, within two pixels of the 1546 x 423 many guides quote. Keep your channel name, logo and any text inside it.

Why does my YouTube banner look cut off on my phone?

YouTube uses one image for computers, phones and TVs, and crops it differently on each. A TV shows the whole 16:9 image. Smaller screens show less, and the only part YouTube tells you to trust on every device is the centre strip. Anything outside it can disappear.

Is 1024 x 576 still a valid YouTube banner size?

No. It is an old minimum that still circulates in templates. YouTube now gives 2048 x 1152 as the minimum for upload, so a 1024 x 576 file is refused.

What file types can I use for a YouTube banner?

JPG, PNG, BMP and GIF, up to 6 MB, and a GIF should be a still one. The banner guidelines do not list formats, so the checker marks that row: the list comes from the profile picture rules in the same help article, and the major design tools give the same list for banners.

What is the aspect ratio of a YouTube banner?

A YouTube banner is 16:9. The recommended 2560 x 1440 and the 2048 x 1152 minimum are both 16:9, and a file of any other shape is cut to 16:9 from the centre.

How many MB can a YouTube banner be?

A YouTube banner can be 6 MB or smaller. A photo saved as PNG at 2560 x 1440 can pass that; if the checker flags the size, export as JPG.

Watch: sizing a YouTube banner

How to Size a YouTube Banner Correctly (2026 Update), a walkthrough by The Creator Classroom on YouTube.

How we checked these figures

Last checked: 29 September 2026. Every figure on this page comes from YouTube Help, read at the source, not from other size charts; the file types are marked because the banner guidelines list none. We ran the checker on four real channel banners on 29 September 2026.

To save the thumbnail of a video instead, use the YouTube thumbnail downloader.

A banner under 2048 x 1152 is refused.
The shape is 16:9 and anything else is cut from the centre.
The file is 6 MB or less.
The safe strip is drawn at 1235 x 338 on a 2048 x 1152 file and scaled to about 1544 x 423 on 2560 x 1440.
File types are labelled as not in the banner guidelines.