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Crop your YouTube channel picture

YouTube asks for a large square and shows a small circle. Frame against that circle here, export at the size YouTube recommends, and nothing leaves your browser.

Runs in your browser Real circle preview Transparent PNG

Drop a photo or click to upload

JPG, PNG or WEBP, any shape

Measured

What each export size actually weighs

We put the same 600 by 600 portrait, a 42.9 KB JPG, through this tool at every size offered above and weighed the PNG that came out. Default zoom, no ring.

65.6 KBat 200 by 200
216.4 KBat 400 by 400
647.4 KBat 800 by 800
942.7 KBat 1024 by 1024

800 is the recommendation and it already costs 647.4 KB from a 42.9 KB source photo. Going to 1024 adds another 295 KB for pixels YouTube is unlikely to ever show.

Where it appears

Every place YouTube draws your avatar

Your upload is a square. Every one of these is a circle cut out of it.

PlacementWhat it isShape
Channel pageThe largest view, still modestCircle
Video pagesBeside the channel name under every videoCircle
CommentsSmall, next to each comment you leaveCircle

YouTube recommends a far larger upload than it ever displays. That is deliberate: the big file is the master its thumbnails are generated from, and a clean downscale beats a stretched small file every time.

Sizing

Upload 800 by 800, seen at under 100 pixels in most places

YouTube stores the square you give it and generates every smaller version from that one file. The size you upload is therefore a master copy, not the thing anyone looks at, and the sensible target is the size that downscales cleanly rather than the biggest number available.

Device pixel ratio is why the upload is bigger than the display. A phone or modern laptop packs two or three physical pixels into every CSS pixel, so an avatar drawn at 40 pixels on screen needs 80 or 120 real ones to look crisp. Platforms also generate their own thumbnail set, and a server downscaling a generous file beats a browser stretching a small one.

The trap is going too far the other way. Exporting above your source resolution does not create detail, it interpolates, and you pay for it in file size. Check what your original actually is before reaching for the largest option here.

Geometry

The circle keeps 78.5 percent of your square

A circle drawn inside a square covers pi divided by four of its area, which is 78.5 percent. The missing 21.5 percent comes entirely from the four corners, and a corner pixel sits about 1.41 times further from the center than the nearest point on the circle. Anything out there is not close to surviving the crop.

That is why framing against a square and hoping goes wrong so often. A photo composed for a square is usually framed too wide for a circle, which is how avatars end up as a small head floating in the middle of a lot of background. Keep what matters inside roughly the central 80 percent of the circle and it will still read when YouTube draws it small.

Honest limits

What this tool will not do

It will not find your face for you

There is no face detection. You drag and zoom, which takes a few seconds and never crops the wrong person out of a group shot. To trim the original to a rectangle first, use the image crop tool.

It will not fill the circle below 100 percent zoom

At 100 percent the photo exactly covers the circle. Zoom out and you get transparent wedges at the rim, because the file genuinely has nothing in those pixels.

It will not rescue a small photo

Exporting a 300 pixel photo at the largest size gives you a big file that still looks like a 300 pixel photo. Enlarge on purpose with the image upscaler first if you need to.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What size should a YouTube profile picture be?

800 by 800 is the widely published recommendation and the default here. You will never see it at that size. YouTube draws channel avatars small, well under 100 pixels in most placements, and generates those from the large square you upload.

Why upload 800 when it displays under 100?

Because every small version is derived from your upload, and downscaling produces a cleaner result than upscaling. Device pixel ratio compounds it: a 40 pixel avatar slot on a modern display needs 80 or 120 real pixels. Giving YouTube plenty of resolution means every derived size benefits.

Should I use 1024 instead?

Only if your source photo is genuinely 1024 pixels or larger. Exporting above your source resolution interpolates rather than adds detail, and in our test the 1024 export cost 942.7 KB against 647.4 KB at 800. You would be paying 295 KB for invented pixels.

Is the channel picture the same as the banner?

No. The avatar is the square that becomes a circle, which is what this tool makes. The channel banner is a wide image with very different dimensions and safe areas, and it is not what this page is for.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. Everything happens in your browser on a canvas. You can verify it with your network tab open, or offline.

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