Disclosure: we make ThumbnailPeak, a thumbnail tester. The steps come from Facebook's and Meta's help pages as of 5 November 2026, and every size was measured on Facebook's public website, signed out, that day. How we measured is at the end.
Since 2025, every video posted to Facebook is shared as a reel, so a video's thumbnail and a reel's cover are now the same thing. Here's the short version:
- Size: Facebook publishes no thumbnail size and no minimum. Meta's developer documentation recommends "the same aspect ratio as the video" and allows up to 10 MB. So use 1280×720 for a 16:9 video and 1080×1920 for a vertical one.
- How to add one: on a computer. Meta's help pages say you can upload your own image when you post a video from a Page or create a reel in Meta Business Suite. They describe no way to choose a thumbnail in the Facebook app.
- What gets cut off: we measured every video tile Facebook's website showed a signed-out visitor. A 16:9 thumbnail loses little in most places, but video search shows only its middle square. A vertical cover is shown almost whole in Reels tabs, but a Page's Videos page on a computer shows only its middle third.
Our guide to thumbnail sizes on every platform has the rest.
Every Facebook video is now a reel
"All videos posted to Facebook are now shared as reels," says Meta's page about Facebook Reels, and "Reels can be any length or orientation." The Video tab became the Reels tab, in a change that rolled out from June 2025. The help pages still use both words: "thumbnail" when you post from a Page or Meta Business Suite, "cover image" when you post a reel from your profile.
How to add a custom thumbnail on a computer
Some guides say Facebook only lets you pick a frame from the video now. Meta's own help pages say you can upload a picture, on a computer. These steps are from Facebook's and Meta's help pages, as of 5 November 2026.
From a Page, on facebook.com (Facebook's help page):
- Log into Facebook, click your profile photo in the top right, click See all profiles and choose your Page.
- Click What's on your mind, [Name]? at the top of your Feed.
- Click Add video and choose your video.
- Click Video Options. Under Change Thumbnail, choose Upload Image, which Facebook describes as "To upload your own image to use as a thumbnail." The other choices are Choose From Video, for a frame, and Choose Suggested.
- Click Post.
In Meta Business Suite (Meta's help page):
- Go to Meta Business Suite and click Create reel, on the home page or the Content tab.
- Under Post to, choose your Facebook Page.
- Under Media, click Add video.
- Under Thumbnail, "choose a thumbnail or upload an image".
- Click Next, then Share, Schedule or Save.
Meta Business Suite can also A/B test up to four versions of a post or reel, and the thumbnail can differ between them. The winner is then published to your Page.
From your personal profile: go to your profile, click Reels, then Create reel, and add your video. Facebook's help page says you can then "select a cover image". It doesn't say whether that can be your own picture or only a frame, and we couldn't check without an account.
How to change the thumbnail after posting
On a Page, use a computer: go to your Page, find the video, click Options in its top right, then Edit post. Facebook's editing steps don't name the thumbnail, but its help page says Video Options is there "when uploading or editing a video".
In Meta Business Suite, open Content, find the reel, click the … icon, then Manage post and Edit reel. The help page doesn't say whether that includes the thumbnail.
In the Facebook app, Facebook's help is direct: "To edit a video on your Page, log into Facebook or Meta Business Suite on a computer." For a reel on your profile, the app's edit option covers only the description. No Meta help page describes choosing a thumbnail or cover in the app, nor in Meta's new Creator Studio app for phones.
What size is a Facebook video thumbnail?
- Size: Facebook doesn't publish one, and sets no minimum.
- Shape: the same as your video. Meta's developer documentation says: "We recommend that you use thumbnails with the same aspect ratio as the video." Meta lists three orientations for reels: 9:16, 16:9 and 1:1.
- So: 1280×720 for a 16:9 video, 1080×1920 for a vertical one, 1080×1080 for a square one. 1080×1920 is also the resolution Meta's developer documentation recommends for a reel's video.
- File size: up to 10 MB, the limit in that developer documentation. Facebook's help pages give none and don't list image formats.
Where viewers see a Facebook video thumbnail
- In the Feed, before the video plays. "Autoplay videos begin automatically as you scroll," says Facebook's help page, so many viewers see the video first; people with autoplay off see the picture.
- On a Page's Reels tab and Videos page, and on a profile's Reels.
- In Facebook's video section. Meta calls it the Reels tab; on the website, signed out, it's still headed "Video", at facebook.com/watch.
- In video search, in embedded players on other websites, and in shared links: a video's page offers the full thumbnail, at full size, as its preview picture. The app you paste the link into decides how to crop it.
What Facebook shows of your thumbnail
We measured every video tile on Facebook's website and mobile website on 5 November 2026, signed out, in layout pixels. Most aren't the shape of your picture.
A 16:9 thumbnail (1280×720):
- A Page's Videos page on a computer: tiles of 270×162, or 400×240 in a grid. Both are 5:3, so Facebook cuts 39 pixels off each side.
- Video search on a computer: squares of 265×265. Only columns 280 to 1000 show, with the Page's name, date and views written over the bottom.
- Facebook's video section on a computer: 300×171 in a 1920-wide window, 435×248 at 1366 wide. About 17 pixels go from the right.
- A video post on a phone: the whole picture, 393×221 on an iPhone 15, with a round play button in the middle.
- An embedded player: the whole picture, but a dark fade 72 pixels tall, with the Page's name and picture, covers the top. In a 560×314 player, that's the top 165 rows of the thumbnail.
A vertical cover (1080×1920):
- A Page's Reels tab: 162×280 on a computer, which trims 29 rows from the top and bottom; 127×232 on an iPhone 15 and 116×213 on a Pixel 7, which trim 12 to 15 pixels from each side.
- A Page's Videos page on a computer: the same 5:3 tiles as above. Only rows 636 to 1284 show, so two thirds of the cover is cut off. On phones, the Videos page lists 144×80 thumbnails showing rows 663 to 1259.
- A video post on a phone: a 4:5 frame. On most pages the whole cover sat in it, with empty space at the sides; on one Page's timeline on the Pixel 7 it filled the frame, showing rows 285 to 1635.
- Facebook's video section on a computer: the whole cover, with black bars down the sides.
- Video search on a computer: a square from the bottom of the cover, rows 1157 to 1920. Both vertical videos we saw in search were cropped this way.
Facebook also draws on the picture:
- The video's length, in a dark box 8 pixels in from the bottom-right corner, on a Page's Videos page and in the video section on a computer, and as white text in the same corner on phones.
- A play icon and the view count at the bottom left of Reels tab tiles, on phones over a dark fade covering the bottom sixth.
- A round play button in the middle of phone video posts and embedded players.
On a computer, hovering over a Videos page tile plays the video in its place.
A safe zone for Facebook video thumbnails
For a vertical cover, the middle third is what counts. On a 1080×1920 design:
- Above row 636 and below row 1284 is cut off on a Page's Videos page on a computer; above 663 and below 1259 in its list on phones.
- The bottom left, from about row 1580, holds the view count in Reels tabs.
- The bottom right, from column 695 and row 1068, can hold the video's length.
- The top 290 rows sit under the dark fade in an embedded reel.
- The very middle (columns 378 to 702, rows 825 to 1148) gets a play button in embeds and phone video posts.
- Rows 663 to 1060, at least 15 pixels in from the sides, were shown in every view we measured except video search, with nothing drawn on them but that play button. Put the words and the face there.
Video search cropped both vertical covers we saw to a square below row 1157. That's only two, so we can't say Facebook always does it.
Download the Facebook cover safe zone template (PNG, 1080×1920, transparent). Put it on the top layer of your design, check that no face or word sits in a red box, then hide it before you export. It marks the areas listed above in red, the play button in orange, and rows 663 to 1060 in green.
For a 16:9 thumbnail, keep faces and words between columns 40 and 1240, small text out of the top 165 rows, and the bottom-right corner free for the video's length. If video search matters to you, keep the main subject between columns 280 and 1000.
Using your YouTube thumbnail on Facebook
A YouTube thumbnail is 16:9, so it fits a landscape video on Facebook as it is, at the 1280×720 YouTube uses. Just check that the headline reads without its ends, since video search shows only the middle square.
A vertical cut of the video, posted as a reel, needs a vertical cover. The free thumbnail resizer makes one in your browser with its Instagram Story / Reel 1080×1920 preset (YouTube Shorts 1080×1920 is the same size), two ways:
- Crop: drag the frame over the subject. You keep 405 of the 1280 pixels of width, so a headline across the top won't fit; move or rewrite it.
- Fit, on a blurred or solid background: the whole picture sits at rows 656 to 1264, almost exactly the band a Page's Videos page shows, though it's small in a Reels tab.
Our post on pictures that aren't 16:9 compares cropping and fitting. If the 16:9 picture is your YouTube thumbnail too, ThumbnailPeak's critique can score it as one; it doesn't judge how it does on Facebook.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still upload a custom thumbnail on Facebook?
Yes, on a computer. Facebook's help page for Pages lists Upload Image under Video Options, and Meta Business Suite's reel form says "choose a thumbnail or upload an image". Meta's help pages describe no way to do it in the Facebook app.
What size is a Facebook video thumbnail?
Facebook doesn't publish one. Meta recommends the same aspect ratio as the video, so use 1280×720 for a 16:9 video and 1080×1920 for a vertical one, up to 10 MB.
What size is a Facebook Reel cover?
1080×1920, at 9:16, like any vertical video thumbnail, since every Facebook video is now a reel. Keep words and faces between rows 663 and 1060: a Page's Videos page on a computer shows only rows 636 to 1284.
Why can't I change my Facebook video thumbnail?
Usually because you're on your phone. Facebook's help says to edit a Page's video "on a computer", on facebook.com or in Meta Business Suite.
Why does my Facebook video thumbnail look cropped?
Because most tiles aren't its shape. A Page's Videos page uses 5:3 tiles, which cut the sides of a 16:9 thumbnail and two thirds of a vertical one; video search uses squares.
How we measured: on 5 November 2026 we opened Facebook in an automated Chrome browser, signed out, in US English, closed the login box it shows, and measured every video tile in layout pixels (CSS pixels): two large public Pages' Videos pages and one's Reels tab (the other showed none), the video section at facebook.com/watch, video search and embedded players, on a computer at 1920×1080 and 1366×768, and on Facebook's mobile website at the screen size and settings of an iPhone 15 and a Pixel 7 (which Facebook lays out 360 pixels wide). We recorded what Facebook drew over each tile, and where it served a pre-cropped picture, we matched it against the full thumbnail. We couldn't measure the Feed on a computer: signed out, both Pages' Posts tabs said "This page isn't available right now". We didn't measure the Facebook apps, search on phones (it asks you to log in) or signed-in views. The steps come from Facebook's and Meta's help pages. The sample thumbnail is ours, made from "Big motorcycle in Tokyo" by Syced (CC0).
