YouTube Lower Third Templates
A YouTube lower third template is a ready-made name-and-role caption that animates into the band along the bottom of the frame, editable for the text, the colours and how long it holds.
A lower third names whoever is speaking, or what is on screen, in the band along the bottom that footage usually leaves empty. It is the oldest graphic in television and still the clearest way to answer "who is this?" without stopping to say it.
The name comes from the position: the lower third of the frame, above the very bottom edge where a player draws its controls. Two lines is the standard — a name and a role, or a title and a detail — because a third line turns a caption into a paragraph nobody reads.
Timing matters more than styling. A lower third should arrive a beat after the person starts speaking, hold for four to six seconds, and leave. One that stays for the whole interview stops being information and becomes clutter.
These are built as a plate, a name and a subtitle, animated in from the side. The text, the typeface, the plate colour and the entrance are all editable, and they export with alpha so they sit over your footage.
Every template here is free to open, free to change and free to watch back, with no account needed to browse. Exporting the finished file costs $5 once for that project, or a plan covers every export.
All 15 Lower Third templates
- Video Title BarVideo title above a channel row with subscribe.
- Lower ThirdClean name plate for talking-head footage.
- YouTube Editorial IdentityEditorial presenter identity with editable name, role and channel handle.
- Channel Lower ThirdChannel identity lower third
- Editorial SlabSolid slab with an accent edge and a masked text wipe.
- Frosted Name PlateFrosted pane that reads over bright and dark footage alike.
- Hairline RuleA rule that draws itself under a name. Nothing else.
- Bracket TitleTwo brackets that close in on the name and hold it.
- Stacked BlocksName and role on two offset blocks, arriving a beat apart.
- Ribbon FoldA ribbon with a folded corner and a soft drop.
- Mono CaptionMonospace documentary caption with a blinking marker.
- Gradient SweepGradient bar with a light sweep that crosses once.
- Outline CardOutline only, for footage too busy to sit a fill on.
- Avatar PlateRound avatar beside the name, for a face people know.
- Lower Third Pro 4KEditorial name plate with avatar and accent sweep.
Using lower third graphics
- What is the correct size for a lower third?
- Build it in your project's own resolution — 1920×1080 for standard video — and keep the text inside the safe area, roughly the middle 90% of the frame. Text closer to the edge than that gets cropped on some displays and covered by player controls on others.
- How long should a lower third stay on screen?
- Four to six seconds. Long enough to read twice, short enough that it does not become part of the shot.
- When should it appear?
- A beat after the person begins speaking, not on the cut. Arriving with the cut makes the viewer read instead of listen; arriving a second later answers a question they have just started to ask.
- Does a lower third export with a transparent background?
- Yes, and it has to. A name plate on a black rectangle covers the shot it is naming. Export with alpha as a WebM or MOV, put it on the track above your footage, and only the plate and the type are drawn — Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and CapCut all handle it without a plugin, and none of it involves After Effects.
Rather build your own?
YouTube Lower Third MakerA lower third is a text graphic pretending to be a design. Almost everything that makes one good or bad is legibility, and legibility on YouTube is decided by a strip of screen you do not control.Next
- Make it yoursChange the words, the colours and the timing without breaking the animation that was built for the shape.
- Export it with transparencyWhich format your editor actually reads, and why a black rectangle behind your graphic means the wrong one was chosen.
- Keep it out of the controlsA lower third lives in exactly the strip the player takes back whenever somebody touches the screen.
- YouTube Lower Third MakerBuild your own name plate from nothing, sized for the screen most of your audience watches on.
- What exporting costsOpening this template, changing it and watching it back are free. Getting the finished file out is $5 once for this project, or a plan if you make them often.