Build the thumbnail
that earns the click.
Your real face. Five ideas with titles. A director’s notes before you publish.
Paste a video, script or link. Get five different angles with matching titles, not five versions of one idea. Render your pick at 2K with your own face and every word spelled right. A creative director flags what’s working against you, with one-click fixes and no made-up score. Publish to YouTube and see what it actually earned.
[Review’s verdict line goes here, word for word.]
[Phone-size check result goes here.]Anything can make a picture.
This one helps you decide.
A prompt box gives you five versions of the idea you already had. The bench gives you five different ideas, tells you which parts of a cover are working against you, and then shows you what the one you published actually earned.
Five ideas, five angles
Paste a link, a script or a video file. Five concepts come back, each with the angle, the emotion, the scene and a title written to pair with the cover instead of repeating it. Free, and no credit is spent until you pick one.
Explain any cover
Paste a thumbnail that is beating you. Get what the eye does, what question it leaves open, why a stranger clicks, what belongs to that creator and should not be copied, and a strategy you can reuse on your own video. Free.
Your real face, no training
Upload one selfie. A clean cut-out is ready in about twenty seconds, with eight expressions at one credit each. No twenty-photo upload, no fifteen-minute wait, no model of you sitting on someone else’s server.
A director’s notes, not a number
What to keep, the faults that would cost you the click, and a one-click fix for each one. It checks the cover at phone size and tells you whether the face still looks like you. It will never invent a score or a click-through rate, because nobody can.
Publish without leaving
Send the cover straight to the video. Two screens, never one: pick the video, then see your new cover beside the one it is about to replace, and tick a box, before anything on your channel changes.
What it actually earned
About two days after you publish, YouTube reports the impressions and the click-through for that video. The bench shows it beside your own channel’s 28-day average, so you find out whether the cover beat your normal, not somebody’s benchmark.
Publishing and click-through need you to connect your YouTube channel. That connection is open to test accounts while Google reviews our app; everything above it works today without one.
You picked the idea.
Here it gets built.
Send a concept straight from Plan, or start cold: bring a cover that is not working, paste the YouTube link, or type one line. Same maker either way.
Remake or create from scratch
Upload any image or paste a YouTube link to remake it, or describe the shot. Add a headline and the bench renders the scene, the face and the words in one pass.
Add a look with one card
Pick a style, then add cards from the reference library: subject looks like 3D Pop-Out or Speed Blur, text effects like Fire or Gold. The bench renders them into the image.
The idea is the hard part.
The rest is craft.
Your face, your words, a look from the library, and a way to go again when the first one misses. One bench, one credit balance.
Describe your vision. Upload it. Get it back, ready.
A sentence, a photo or a YouTube link becomes a finished cover with your headline rendered into the image, in the ratio you picked.
Close, but not quite? Go again.
Tweak uses a result as the source for the next render. Remix a past render with a new headline or style. Every version is kept.
Then do it again
next week.
The parts that make the second cover as good as the first: a saved face, real text layers, a version of every edit, and exports ready for YouTube.
Your face in any scene
Save a face in Face Lab, then put it into any render. The treasure chest, the trading floor, no photoshoot.
Headline field
Type the words that go on the thumbnail. The AI renders them into the image, in the style you picked.
1 to 4 options per render
You pick how many. One credit per image, so a render of four costs four. Failed renders cost nothing.
Region edit
Draw a box on a finished result and change only what is inside it. Two options, two credits.
Real text layers
Add text with real fonts on top of any render in the editor. Move it, resize it, no credits spent.
Versions and export
Every edit is saved as a version per image. Export HD for YouTube or the full 2K render.
Pay for renders,
not for seats.
One credit is one image. Pick 1 to 4 options per render and pay only for those. Plan credits roll over one month. Paid plans drop the watermark. You own what you make on every plan.
- Create (text to thumbnail)
- Recreate (image to thumbnail)
- Your face and 8 expressions
- Reference library
- Editor with real text layers
- Small watermark on downloads
- No watermark
- 2 renders at once
- Your face and expressions
- Reference library and editor
- Everything in Creator
- 3 renders at once
- Higher daily limits
- Everything in Studio
- 4 renders at once
- Highest daily limits
Need more in a launch week? Top-ups: 50 credits for $12, 150 for $36, 500 for $120. Good for 12 months. How credits work
Questions, answered.
What exactly is Thumbnail Bench?
A packaging desk for YouTube. Paste your video and get five thumbnail ideas, each with a matching title. Render the one you believe in with your real face and the words spelled right, at 2K. Then read a creative director's notes, fix what they flag, and publish. Think of it as a designer sitting at your bench.
Is it really free to use?
Yes. Every account starts with 8 credits, which is 8 images. Four arrive at signup and four more after your first render. No card required.
Will my thumbnails have a watermark?
Free exports carry a small watermark. Every paid plan removes it. You own the thumbnails the bench makes for you on every plan, free included. Renders are 2K on every plan, free included.
Can I use my own face?
Yes. Upload a selfie to Face Lab and the bench cuts it out. Generate up to eight expressions of it, one credit each, and drop any saved face into any render. You confirm you have the right to use the face first.
Do I need to be a Photoshop pro?
No. If you can type a sentence or paste a link, you can use the bench. The editor adds real text layers and region edits when you want them, but nobody needs them to ship a good cover.
Does it work for Shorts, Reels and TikTok?
Yes. Pick 9:16 or 1:1 before you render and the bench composes for vertical or square, with the same style and headline.
How long does a render take?
Usually one to three minutes for a 2K render, longer when the queue is busy. The bench shows the clock while it works. Paid plans can run 2 to 4 renders at once. A failed render never costs a credit.
Learn what earns the click.
Guides on why viewers click, how titles and thumbnails work together, and how to test what you make. Free, no account.
The YouTube Thumbnail Guide
What a cover has to do in the feed, the five parts, the eye path and the pre-upload checks.
Click psychologyWhy people click
Curiosity, emotion, stakes, specificity and novelty, and how each one shows up on a cover.
TestingHow to A/B test thumbnails
YouTube's Test & Compare, the manual swap method, and how to read the result.
CTRYouTube CTR explained
What impressions click-through rate measures and what a good number looks like in context.
Your next cover,
decided, not just generated.
4 free credits, 4 more after your first render. No card. The five ideas and the director’s notes cost no credits at all.