Thumbnail Studio's AI comes in two stages: concepts (the idea) and images (the finished thing). Both are on Plus and Pro.
Concepts
Describe your video and get thumbnail concepts written specifically for it — the composition, the subject, the emotional beat, the text treatment.
Concepts are cheap in credits and are the right place to start. Generating four concepts and rejecting three of them costs very little and is far faster than staring at an empty canvas.
Images
Generate the actual thumbnail image, then open it in the editor to adjust, add text, or layer your own assets on top.
Images are priced by quality tier. Standard quality — the right choice for most thumbnails — costs about 5 credits per image. Lower and higher tiers cost less and more respectively. The Studio shows you the exact credit cost before you generate, so you're never surprised.
Making generations count
Be specific. "A person looking shocked" produces something generic. "Close-up, face filling the left third, wide-eyed shock, bright orange background, product held up at the right" produces something usable.
Concept first, image second. Settle the idea in cheap text generations before spending credits on images.
Use a [persona](/personas-keep-the-same-face-across-thumbnails) if you appear in your own thumbnails. It keeps your face consistent across videos, which is worth more for channel recognition than any single thumbnail.
Generate, then edit. The AI gets you 80% there fast. The last 20% — exact text placement, crop, contrast — is faster by hand in the editor than by re-rolling the prompt.
Credits
Both features draw from your shared monthly balance: 300 credits on Plus, 1,000 on Pro, resetting at the start of each month. See [AI credits explained](/ai-credits-explained).