YouTube Thumbnail Analyzer

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A thumbnail rater that evaluates your design and suggests improvements.

How the critique works

  1. 1

    Upload your thumbnail

    Add the video's title too, if you have one — the critique then also scores how well the thumbnail fits it. No thumbnail yet? The AI thumbnail maker designs one from your video link, scored by this same critique.

  2. 2

    Seven AI passes grade it

    Each pass independently grades seven visual dimensions — ten with a title — on a five-level scale. Legibility is judged at 168×94, the size YouTube shows in the sidebar.

  3. 3

    The score is calculated, not guessed

    Code turns those grades into the 0–100 score — the AI never writes the number — and the confidence label shows how closely the seven passes agreed.

  4. 4

    You get the fixes

    Up to three, in priority order, each a specific change with the effect to expect. Make them yourself or with AI Improve, then run it again to see the score move.

Example report

A real critique of MacroMachines' “Cleaning a 70 Year Old Engine with Electrolysis” thumbnail, run with the video's title. Open any dimension to see the evidence behind its grade.

9:51
The critiqued thumbnail
MacroMachines
Cleaning a 70 Year Old Engine with Electrolysis
MacroMachines
716K views • 7 years ago
Solid
ThumbnailPeak Score: 74/100high confidence
Visual score 71/100 · content fit 88/100

What to improve first

Visual dimensions

Judged at YouTube feed sizes, including the 168×94 suggested-video sidebar.

Content fit

Based on your title/summary — the tool takes your description of the video at face value.

Yours looks the same — upload a thumbnail above to get one.

What the critique checks

Your thumbnail is judged the way viewers actually meet it: tiny, in a crowded feed, for a fraction of a second. The report scores seven visual dimensions — legibility, hierarchy, subject clarity, contrast, curiosity, distinctiveness and polish — and, when you add a title and description, three fit dimensions covering how well the thumbnail matches and reinforces them.

What you get

A 0–100 score with a plain-words band, the evidence behind every dimension, and up to three prioritized fixes — each one a concrete change with the effect you can expect, not generic advice. Run it again after editing to see the score move.

A critique uses 1 credit, and a free account comes with 12 credits; Pro adds 300 every month. Any thumbnail here can also be dropped into a real YouTube search-results preview.

Comparing two versions

Torn between two thumbnails for the same video? Upload both — or pick two of your uploads — and choose “Compare these 2”. Each one gets the full critique described above. Then a head-to-head pass looks at the pair side by side, at full size and at 168×94. It names the stronger one or calls a tie, says how decisively it wins, and lists the visible differences that decide it, next to both thumbnails' grades on every dimension.

The verdict's confidence is the weakest of three checks: how consistent each critique was, how far apart the two scores are, and whether the pick agrees with them. When the pick and the scores disagree, the report says so. A comparison uses 2 credits, and the critiques of both thumbnails are included. It judges the design, not your click-through rate — to see which one viewers actually pick, run both in YouTube's Test & Compare. Start a comparison.

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