YouTube's requirements
A channel watermark is the small mark YouTube lays over the corner of your videos. YouTube Help gives three rules for the image: it must be square, at least 150 × 150 pixels, and less than 1 MB. It can be shown for the last 15 seconds of a video, from a custom start time, or for the whole video.
| Square | Always — the export draws your mark centred on a square canvas, 6 % in from each edge. |
|---|---|
| At least 150 × 150 | The size control starts at 150 px and goes to 800 px; 300 px is the default. |
| Under 1 MB | The real PNG is made as you move the size, and its bytes are shown against the limit. Over the limit, the save button stays off. |
Square, transparent, under 1 MB
The page opens on a transparent 1,000 × 1,000 board — no photo needed — with a sample mark: your channel name on a dark pill, which reads over bright and dark footage alike. Change the words, the face and the colours under Text, or switch the mark to your logo, a drawn signature or a designed badge. Everything in the studio applies: outline, plate, effects such as glow or emboss, auto ink.
Then open the Export panel. The YouTube section draws the mark alone, fits it into the square you choose, encodes it as a PNG on this device and tells you exactly how big that file is. A mark of a few words at 300 pixels comes to tens of kilobytes at most — far under the limit.
How it looks at player size
The preview draws your square at 150 pixels on a 1,920 × 1,080 frame — the smallest size YouTube asks for, on a full-HD picture — with a progress bar for scale. The player decides the size it actually shows the mark at, so treat the preview as a check that the mark is still readable small, not as a promise of where every pixel lands.
- The preview frame is a drawing, not a frame from your video. Footage that is very busy in the corner needs a plate or a glow behind the mark.
- This page does not upload anything to YouTube. You add the saved PNG in YouTube Studio yourself.
When it shows
Display timing is set in YouTube Studio when you add the image, not in the file. For a watermark on the picture itself rather than YouTube’s overlay — on a thumbnail, a still or an exported frame — use the watermark studio on the image instead, or save the mark alone as a wide transparent PNG from the watermark maker for a video editor.
YouTube watermark questions
What size is a YouTube watermark?
YouTube Help asks for a square image of at least 150 × 150 pixels and less than 1 MB. This page saves a square PNG at any size from 150 to 800 pixels (300 by default), shows the real file size against the 1 MB limit as you change it, and will not save a file that breaks either rule.
Does it need a transparent background?
It does not have to, but it should: a see-through background lets the video show around your mark instead of a white or black square sitting in the corner. The PNG saved here is transparent everywhere the mark is not, and the preview shows it over a video-like frame so you can see that.
When does it show in the video?
You choose that in YouTube Studio when you upload the image: for the last 15 seconds of the video, from a start time you set, or for the whole video. This page makes the image; the timing is YouTube's setting.
Can I use my logo instead of text?
Yes. Choose Logo in the mode column and open your logo file — PNG, SVG or a flat JPG whose background can be knocked out — or build a small design from a name, a logo and a shape under Design. The square export takes whichever mark is on the board.