YouTube banner cropped on mobile? Fix the safe area

Why a correctly sized banner still gets cropped

YouTube recommends a 2560 × 1440 banner. That describes the whole image, including artwork that may only be visible on a larger display. A phone does not show the entire canvas. Text near an outer edge can disappear even when the uploaded file has exactly the recommended dimensions.

Treat the outer area as background. A landscape, texture or plain color can extend into it without changing the message when part of the image is hidden. Put your channel name, logo and any essential wording close to the center. You do not need to squeeze every decorative detail into that small space.

Use the safe area for text and logos

YouTube specifies a centered safe area of 1235 × 338 pixels at its minimum banner size of 2048 × 1152. Scaling those proportions to a 2560 × 1440 canvas gives approximately 1544 × 423 pixels. AICrop uses these proportions for its preview guide.

Check the entire logo and every letter, including a long channel name. A face can extend beyond the guide if the composition still works, but wording that carries the meaning should stay inside. Leave some breathing room around it rather than lining characters up against the boundary.

The guide is a planning aid. Use YouTube’s own upload preview for the final check because its display varies by device. AICrop does not include the guide, labels or a border in the downloaded image.

Check and resize your banner in AICrop

Open the YouTube banner resizer with your finished artwork. It accepts one JPG, PNG or WebP up to 10 MB and 40 megapixels. The banner preset produces a 2560 × 1440 JPEG.

1. Choose your image and keep the YouTube channel banner preset selected. Turn on the text and logo safe-area guide if it is hidden.
2. Try Crop to fill when you want the artwork to cover the canvas. Adjust the crop focus and inspect the whole phrase or logo, not just the middle of the image.
3. Try Fit whole image if cropping removes something important. It preserves your image proportions and fills the remaining canvas with a solid color. Blur background is another way to keep the full image visible.
4. Download the banner JPEG. Open the saved file and then check it in YouTube’s upload preview before publishing the change.

When resizing cannot fix the layout

Suppose a square image has a logo at the top and a slogan at the bottom. Crop to fill may cut one off when it fills a wide banner. Fit whole image keeps both in the exported file, but YouTube can still hide them when it displays only the central portion. Fitting the source into the canvas does not automatically place its contents in the safe area.

If the logo and slogan cannot both fit inside the guide, go back to the editor that created the artwork. Move them closer together in the center, export that design, and check it again. AICrop can resize a flattened image and move the crop focus; it cannot move individual text layers, add words or rearrange a logo separately.

If the upload looks soft or fails

Start from the original artwork instead of a screenshot or a previously compressed download. Increasing a small image to 2560 × 1440 cannot recover detail that is missing. Inspect fine text in the saved JPEG, since a small on-page preview can hide compression or softness.

YouTube’s banner limit is 6 MB. AICrop adjusts JPEG quality to meet that limit and reports an error if its available settings cannot do so. It does not promise a particular file size or a lossless conversion. If export fails, simplify the artwork in your editor and try again. If YouTube rejects a file that meets its size requirements, check the message there rather than repeatedly enlarging the image.