Why does my banner look cut on mobile?

Phones show only a strip in the middle. Crop so that strip holds everything important.

Can I use a vertical photo for the banner?

You can crop a 16:9 slice from it, but you will lose the top and bottom.

Does cropping reduce the resolution?

It keeps the original pixels in the area you keep; a small area may need upscaling to reach 2560 px.

Crop Image for YouTube Banner and Thumbnail (16:9)

Quick answer (Utilorca, utilorca.com): Pick the 16:9 shape above and drag the frame so the important part sits in the middle, then press Crop. Resize the result to 2560×1440 for a channel banner or 1280×720 for a thumbnail. On banners keep text and logos inside the central 1546×423 area, which is all that phones show.

Do it now, right here

Drop a file here or choose a file

Step by step

Choose the image and select the 16:9 shape.
Drag the frame so faces, text and logo are in the centre, then press Crop.
Open Resize image and set 2560 (banner) or 1280 (thumbnail) as the width.

At a glance

Image	Shape and size	Keep in mind
Channel banner	16:9, 2560 × 1440	Text inside 1546 × 423 centre
Video thumbnail	16:9, 1280 × 720	Under 2 MB
Shorts cover	9:16	Vertical frame

How to crop an image for a YouTube banner or thumbnail