YouTube Shorts thumbnail maker
On this page
ClipFlame makes vertical thumbnails for YouTube Shorts at 1080 × 1920. Add a photo of your face and screenshots from the Short, or press Thumbnail on a clip, pick the 9:16 format and one of six Shorts layouts, and you get two AI designs with your face and big, readable text, plus two covers cut from your screenshots. The same cover works for Instagram Reels and TikTok.
In the Shorts feed, the video plays on its own, so the thumbnail isn't what gets the view. It matters everywhere else: on your channel's Shorts tab, in search, on the home page shelf and in shared links. That's where a random paused frame of you mid-blink loses viewers.
Six layouts made for a tall frame
| Layout | What it is | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Podcast | You at the mic, headline stacked above | Podcast and interview clips |
| Background Split | The topic in the top half, you in the bottom | Reactions and commentary |
| Text on Image | A full-frame scene with one bold line | Facts, tips, faceless Shorts |
| Object in Hand | You holding the thing the Short is about | Reviews and unboxings |
| In the Scene | You in the place the Short is about | Travel, food and vlogs |
| Timeline | Steps or dates down the frame | How-tos and stories |
Need a 16:9 thumbnail for the long video too? Switch the format to 16:9 in the same project.
Keep it inside the crop
Shorts thumbnails are cropped differently depending on where they appear. The channel grid and the home shelf show the middle of the frame, and the title and buttons cover the bottom. Keep the face and the text in the middle of the frame so they survive every crop. If a design puts a word too low, make the text editable and drag it up.
How to add it to your Short
YouTube is rolling out custom thumbnail uploads for Shorts in YouTube Studio on desktop. Where you have it, open the Short in Studio, choose Upload thumbnail and pick the 1080 × 1920 JPG. Where you don't, you can only pick a frame from the video in the YouTube app. Step by step: how to change a YouTube Shorts thumbnail.
Shorts from your long videos, with thumbnails
ClipFlame's YouTube Shorts maker cuts Shorts out of your long videos. Each clip it makes has a Thumbnail button that designs a cover from that clip's own words.
Common questions
What size is a YouTube Shorts thumbnail?
9:16. YouTube recommends 2160 × 3840 and accepts 1080 × 1920, as JPG or PNG up to 50 MB from a computer. ClipFlame downloads at 1080 × 1920.
Do Shorts thumbnails matter?
Less in the swipe feed, where the video plays straight away. More on your channel page, in search and in the home page shelf, where people choose what to tap.
Can I use the same cover on Reels and TikTok?
Yes. All three are 9:16. See the Reels thumbnail maker and TikTok thumbnail maker for where each app crops it.