YouTube Thumbnail Tester
See how your thumbnail and title look in YouTube's feed before you upload.
0 / 100 characters
I tried meal prepping for a whole month. Here's what actually stuck
Kitchen Notes
84K views · 2 days ago
Your video title goes here. Long titles get cut off after two lines
Your channel
1.2K views · 3 hours ago
Beginner home workout, no equipment needed
Daily Movement
1.2M views · 1 year ago
How a small bakery plans a full week of social posts in one afternoon
Small Shop Stories
9.4K views · 5 days ago
Budget travel: 3 days in a city on a student budget
Packed Light
312K views · 3 weeks ago
Fixing the most common mistake in beginner photography
Frame by Frame
47K views · 1 month ago
Sidebar size
Your video title goes here. Long titles get cut off after two lines
Your channel
1.2K views · 3 hours ago
How a small bakery plans a full week of social posts in one afternoon
Small Shop Stories
9.4K views · 5 days ago
Budget travel: 3 days in a city on a student budget
Packed Light
312K views · 3 weeks ago
A generic video-feed mock-up for comparing thumbnails, not an exact copy of any app. Real feeds change layout with screen size, so check your title still makes sense when it's cut to two lines.
A thumbnail that looks great full screen in your editor can turn into an unreadable smudge at the size people actually see it. This free YouTube thumbnail tester shows your thumbnail, title and channel name inside a mock video feed, next to other videos, so you can judge it the way a viewer scrolling past would.
Switch between desktop and mobile to see it in a grid, in a narrow sidebar and in a full-width phone feed. Flip between light and dark mode to check that your colors and text hold up on both backgrounds. Titles are clamped to two lines, so you'll see straight away if the important words fall off the end. Your image stays in your browser and is never uploaded.
Need to get the size right first? The image resizer has a 16:9 YouTube thumbnail preset, and our video dimensions cheat sheet covers the video itself. When the thumbnail is ready, upload and schedule the video with the PostJay YouTube scheduler.
Frequently asked questions
Is my thumbnail uploaded anywhere?
No. The image is shown with a local preview link that only exists in your browser tab. Nothing is sent to PostJay or anyone else, and it disappears when you close the page.
What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?
YouTube's help center recommends a 16:9 thumbnail at 3840 × 2160 pixels, with a minimum width of 640 pixels, saved as JPG or PNG. It also lists file size limits of 50 MB when uploading on desktop and 2 MB on mobile. A 1280 × 720 image keeps the same 16:9 shape if you need a smaller file.
Why does my title get cut off?
Feeds show titles in a fixed space, usually about two lines, and anything longer is trimmed. This preview clamps titles to two lines like a typical feed, so put the words that matter most at the start of your title.
Does this look exactly like YouTube?
It is a generic video-feed mock-up, not a copy of YouTube's interface. It is designed to answer the practical questions: is the thumbnail readable at small sizes, does it stand out next to other videos, and does the title still make sense when truncated.
Related free tools
YouTube Title Length Checker
Check your YouTube title and description length before you publish.
YouTube Handle Checker
Check if a YouTube @handle is available for your channel.
YouTube Tag Generator
Generate relevant, search-friendly YouTube tags for any video.
YouTube Engagement Rate Calculator
Calculate the engagement rate of a YouTube video or channel.
Now schedule it with PostJay
Plan, schedule, and auto-publish to every platform from one calendar. Try it free today.
Get started free