YouTube specs
Dimensions, safe areas, and limits for the channel. YouTube's hardest constraint is the channel banner — it renders at wildly different sizes on TV, desktop, and mobile, so everything critical lives in one small shared safe area.
Channel art & profile
Channel banner 2560 × 1440 px with the 1546 × 423 TV-and-mobile safe area; channel icon 800 × 800 px (circular crop); video watermark. Full spec table to come.
Thumbnails
Export at YouTube's current recommended 3840 × 2160 px, 16:9; minimum width 640 px. Keep upload files at or below 2 MB for mobile workflows (desktop uploads currently allow up to 50 MB). Use a direct-to-viewer gaze, one strong emotion, and a 2–4-word hook. YouTube Shorts do not accept a separately uploaded custom thumbnail, so choose the designed frame-zero cover from the Short.
Video
Resolution and frame-rate targets, 16:9 vs. Shorts (9:16), captions / transcripts, chapters, and end-screen / card-safe regions in the final 20 seconds.
Titles & descriptions
Titles have a 100-character maximum; descriptions have a 5,000-character maximum. Put the question and useful answer in the first lines, make every description unique, link the source article, and use 1–2 main keywords naturally. Chapters start at 00:00, contain at least three ascending timestamps, and each chapter lasts at least ten seconds.
Sample: chapter explainer
A finished 16:9 chapter explainer showing the format end to end — dark navy ground, gold eyebrow, serif display titles, the key motif, numbered card rows, burned-in captions in the lower-third safe zone, and the episode title in the footer rail.