YouTube Community Post Image Size & Dimensions (2026)

Community Post Image Dimensions

The feed is the whole argument for square. YouTube shows post images as squares wherever they appear in a feed, so a landscape upload isn’t letterboxed into the space — it’s cropped to its centre square, and whatever sat outside that square is gone at the moment of the scroll.

• 1080 x 1080 is a resolution choice, not a spec. Any 1:1 export works — 1000 x 1000 and 1440 x 1440 are equally valid. Pick a square that is at least as wide as a phone screen renders it, and stop there; YouTube re-encodes for display, so a 4000 px monster only costs you upload time.
• 16MB is per image, not per post. A 10-image post gets 10 separate budgets. A 1080 x 1080 JPG is typically a few hundred kilobytes, so the cap only bites on huge PNGs or long animated GIFs.
• GIF is a supported type, so animation is on the table. Same 16MB ceiling — animation is where that limit actually gets tested.
• WEBP uploads are accepted. Handy if your editor exports it by default; there is no need to convert to JPG first.
• Reusing a 1280 x 720 thumbnail is the common mistake. It is 16:9, so the feed keeps only the middle 720 x 720 — and thumbnail text is usually set hard against the left or right edge, which is exactly what gets cut. See YouTube thumbnail size for what that canvas is really for.

Resize an image to 1080x1080 → Pick YouTube, then the Community Post preset.

Poll Image Size

An image poll is a poll whose answers are pictures. YouTube publishes no separate dimension for them either — they are images in a post, so the 16MB cap and the four file types apply unchanged. What it does publish is the shape of the poll itself, and that is what should drive the artwork:

• Design for a tile, not a poster. Four options share the space one image would have had, so each one renders at a fraction of the size of a single-image post. One subject, high contrast, no fine detail.
• Keep the options identical in shape. Feeding a poll one square and three landscapes makes the row look broken. Export all four from the same 1:1 canvas.
• The caption is a label, not a sentence. 36 characters is roughly “Option A — the blue one”. Anything that needs explaining belongs in the post text above the poll.
• Don’t put the answer text inside the image. It will be too small to read at tile size, and the caption field exists precisely so it doesn’t have to be.

Resize four poll images to 1080x1080 → Or grab the blank Poll option canvas above and design on it.

How Community Post Images Display on Mobile vs. Desktop

The crop is the same on both — square, because that is how YouTube shows post images in a feed regardless of device. What changes is where the post surfaces and how big it gets when it does.

• Image posts can land in the Shorts feed. YouTube says posts show up on the channel page, the homepage, and the Subscriptions feed, and that image posts may additionally show on the Shorts feed — a full-screen vertical surface with the title, channel name, and action rail drawn on top. Your square gets bands above and below it there, and the bottom edge is the one competing with the interface. Keep the subject centred and off the lower edge. The Shorts dimensions guide maps that overlay.
• Set type larger than feels necessary. Neither surface renders a post image large. A headline that reads comfortably at 1080 px in your editor can be a smear at the size a phone actually draws it — check by shrinking the export to about 350 px wide and reading it at arm’s length.
• The first image carries a multi-image post. Ten images are allowed, but the feed leads with one. Put the image that works alone in slot one and let the rest reward the tap.
• Posts aren’t universal. They’re unavailable on supervised accounts and on channels set as Made for Kids, and YouTube states posts are not currently available in Germany.