YouTube community post size: YouTube suggests 1:1 and names no pixel count. What a business channel should do with that.

Google autocomplete, checked on 6 November 2026, finishes "youtube community post" with "size", "image size" and "size width and height".

So I went to the source for the number.

There isn't one.

YouTube's Create a post page, read the same day, gives a ratio and a file limit and stops there. No width. No height.

That is the complication behind every result on this search. Pages that print a pixel size as if YouTube issued it are giving you a convention, and most do not say so.

This is the short version of what we would tell a business that runs a YouTube channel through VALORAE Media, plus the bigger question sitting behind the size: whether posts deserve your time at all.

Step 1: What YouTube publishes

Here is the entire image spec, as written on that page on 6 November 2026.

Size: up to 16 MB.

File types: JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP.

Suggested aspect ratio: 1:1, because that is how images are shown in the feed. Viewers can see the full image by clicking to expand it.

And you can upload up to 10 images in a single post.

Text posts can carry a video, image or GIF, but YouTube says they cannot be combined with polls.

That is all of it. If a checklist hands you more detail than that, ask where it came from.

Step 2: The size to export

Export square, at 1080 by 1080.

That number is mine, not YouTube's. It is a common square size and it sits well under 16 MB as a JPG or PNG, so you will not run into the limit unless you are saving huge files.

If a designer already has square assets from Instagram at another resolution, use them. Nothing on the page says you must match mine.

What matters is the ratio.

The page says the feed shows images at 1:1, and the full image only appears when someone clicks. So a tall or wide image will show cropped in the place most people see it.

Put your words and the face in the middle of the frame. Leave the corners for things you can afford to lose.

Then check it on your phone before you post. A chart that reads fine on a monitor often turns into grey mush at feed size, and that takes ten seconds to spot.

Step 3: The other limits, in one place

These all come from the same help page, read the same day, and they catch people mid-post.

Text polls allow up to 4 answers, at 65 characters each.

Image polls allow up to 4 images, with captions of 36 characters.

Quizzes allow up to 4 answers at 80 characters each, or 30 if the answer has an image, and only one can be correct. The optional explanation runs to 500 characters.

There is also a daily cap. YouTube limits how many posts a channel can create in 24 hours, and if you see a limit reached error it says to try again in 24 hours. It does not publish the number, so don't plan a launch day around one.

Posts can be scheduled. Pick a date, time and time zone from the down arrow next to Post.

Step 4: Where a post appears

This is the part that should decide whether you bother.

YouTube's posts page says posts show on your channel's Posts tab and on a Posts shelf on the Home tab. They may also show on viewers' homepage and Subscriptions feed, and image posts may also appear in the Shorts feed.

Subscribers may get a notification.

Note the words "may" and "may also". YouTube promises no reach, and I have no number to give you on how often any of this happens. Your own Studio data is the only honest source.

Two more details are worth a minute.

The Posts shelf sits at the bottom of your Home tab by default. You can move it up under Customization, then Home tab, then Layout. A business that posts offers or event dates should move it higher.

Channels set as Made for Kids cannot create posts at all, and the tab shows only to the owner. And access can change based on channel role, so if your manager cannot post, check their role before you assume a bug.

Step 5: Don't post polls for the sake of it

Posting more is the obvious advice. It is wrong here.

YouTube's Spam policy, read on 6 November 2026, lists "fake engagement" as an example of a violation. It describes exploiting community features such as polls or image posts to force engagement, and its example is posting high volumes of low-effort, repetitive polls several times a day.

Plenty of growth advice tells you to run a poll every day to keep the channel warm.

Read that policy before you do.

A strike can follow, and YouTube's Create a post page says images that break the Community Guidelines may be removed and a strike applied. Spam flags can go further. YouTube is testing a 30-day locked period for some channels that would otherwise be terminated, and that is a bad way to spend a quarter.

So ask for an answer only when you plan to use it. Which product to film next. Which question to answer in the next video. Which date works for a live session.

Then show people what you did with their vote. That gives the poll a reason to exist, and it gives you your next post.

Step 6: What a business channel should post

I would use posts for four jobs and skip the rest.

Point at the upload. A post can carry your video, and YouTube says a post about a video already in a viewer's feed might not show again. So a post is the weaker pointer. If the upload is a podcast episode, VALORAE Arc, the group's short-form clipping agency for podcasts and founders, tells owners to join clips to the episode with the related video link on a Short. Let that link do the pointing, and write the post as something new rather than repeating the title.

Ask a real question. Use polls as above.

Show what did not fit in the video. A photo set from the shoot, a before and after, the one chart you cut. Up to 10 images gives you room.

Say something dated. An opening, a sale, an event. Schedule it, then move on.

Weekly is plenty to start, and that is judgment, not data. VALORAE Media runs channels end to end, so posts get judged as one part of the whole channel. Ask first whether the long videos are working. If they are not, a square image will not rescue them.

Fix the videos first. Posts come after.

Full Page at VALORAE Media runs $2,000 to $3,500/mo and covers every platform plus the calendar. If you only want a person handling the posting, Edit and Manage are quoted on the call.

The short version

• Export square. YouTube suggests 1:1 and names no pixel size.
• Stay under 16 MB in JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP.
• Use up to 10 images, and keep the subject in the middle.
• Check it at phone size before you post.
• Move the Posts shelf up if your posts carry offers or dates.
• Ask only poll questions you will act on.
• Fix the long videos before you plan posts around them.

This is one small part of what we run at valoraemedia.com.