The Right Cover Size for Every Platform: A Quick Reference

Every platform crops and displays cover art a little differently, and a design that looks right in one spot can end up cut off or stretched in another. Here are the dimensions that actually matter, the same ones Bolicover's own format picker uses.

Square, the universal default

1500×1500px (1:1) covers Spotify and Apple Music playlists, YouTube Music, and a standard Instagram post. If you only ever export one size, this is it.

YouTube video thumbnail

1280×720px (16:9). A thumbnail this wide needs its subject and title positioned to survive being shown at a fraction of that size in a suggestions feed, keep both away from the very edges.

Stories and vertical video

1080×1920px (9:16) for Instagram and TikTok Stories. This one is nearly twice as tall as it is wide, a square cover cropped into this shape almost always loses the title, design vertical compositions separately instead.

Podcast cover art

Apple Podcasts and Spotify both expect a square image, but at a much higher resolution than a playlist cover, 3000×3000px. Apple in particular will reject anything under 1400px per side, so start big even if the final display is tiny.

Banners and headers

Profile and channel banners are wide and short, 1500×500px (3:1) is a safe starting point for a Twitter/X header or Facebook cover photo, though LinkedIn and YouTube each crop slightly differently, check the platform's current spec before a final export if pixel-perfect framing matters.

Bolicover's format picker already has every size above (and several more) built in, so switching platforms is a click, not a redesign.