If your account is older than 30 days and is in good standing, you may have the ability to upload custom thumbnails for their video uploads.
Uploading custom thumbnails
To upload a custom thumbnail when you upload a video:
- Record or upload your video.
- At the end of the video processing stage in the upload interface, you will see an option to choose a Custom thumbnail under the "Video thumbnails" section.
- Go to your channel Video Manager.
- Locate a video and click the Edit button.
- Click the Custom Thumbnail button and upload a thumbnail.
- Once the thumbnail is uploaded, don't forget to click the "Save Changes" button.
Custom thumbnail best practices
Size
Your custom thumbnail image should be as large as possible, as the image will also be used as the preview image in the embedded player. We recommend your custom thumbnails:
- Have a resolution of 1280x720 (with minimum width of 640 pixels).
- Be uploaded in image formats such as .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG.
- Remain under the 2MB limit.
- Try to use a 16:9 aspect ratio as it's the most used in YouTube players and previews.
Policy
All custom thumbnail images must follow our Community Guidelines. Thumbnails that are sexually suggestive, violent, or graphic may cause your video to be age-restricted. Age-restricted partner videos will not have advertising served against them and will not appear on browse pages.
The ability to upload custom thumbnails may be revoked for creators who consistently use thumbnails that don't follow our guidelines. If your thumbnail privileges have been revoked, we will not be able to restore this privilege.
