Guide
YouTube banner size and safe area
Upload your YouTube channel banner at 2560 x 1440 pixels, and keep everything important inside the centre 1546 x 423 pixels. That centre strip is the only part guaranteed to be visible on every device.
| Upload size | 2560 x 1440 px |
| Safe area (visible everywhere) | 1546 x 423 px, centred |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Maximum file size | 6 MB |
| Formats | JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP |
Why there are two different sizes
YouTube shows your banner at wildly different crops depending on where someone is looking at it. On a TV the full 2560 x 1440 image fills the screen. On desktop you see a wide, short slice. On mobile you see even less: roughly the centre 1546 x 423 pixels. YouTube does not scale your design to fit each one, it crops. So the image has to be built at the largest size while the actual message lives inside the smallest crop.
What that means in practice
Put your channel name, tagline, logo and any upload schedule entirely inside the 1546 x 423 safe area. Treat everything outside it as decorative background that most people will never see: colour, texture, a repeating pattern. Never put text near the outer edges, and never put anything you need read in the corners. If your design only makes sense at full width, it is broken on phones, which is where most of your audience is.
Common mistakes
Designing at 1546 x 423 and upscaling produces a soft, blurry banner on TV. Designing at 2560 x 1440 and centring text by eye usually pushes it outside the safe area. Exporting a heavy PNG can break the 6 MB limit, in which case a JPG at high quality is the fix. And a busy photo behind small text reads fine on a monitor and turns to mush on a phone.
Banner Maker
Banner Maker draws the safe area on the canvas while you design, so you can see exactly what gets cropped on mobile, desktop and TV before you export. Free, in the browser, no watermark.
Open Banner MakerFrequently asked
What size is a YouTube banner in 2026?
2560 x 1440 pixels, 16:9, under 6 MB. The safe area that displays on all devices is the centre 1546 x 423 pixels.
What is the YouTube banner safe area?
The centre 1546 x 423 pixel region. It is the only part of the banner guaranteed to be visible across TV, desktop, tablet and mobile, so all text and logos belong inside it.
Why does my banner look cut off on mobile?
Because YouTube crops rather than scales. Anything outside the centre 1546 x 423 area is trimmed on smaller screens. Move your text inward and re-export.
What file size limit does YouTube have for banners?
6 MB. If a PNG export exceeds it, save as a high-quality JPG instead; the difference is invisible at banner scale.