Twitch Emote Sizes and Design Tool: A Complete Guide

Looking for everything there is to know about Twitch emote sizes?

With Twitch hosting an average of 92,300 concurrent channels and 2.46 million viewers at any given time, having perfectly optimized emotes is more crucial than ever. 

In this blog post, we’ll dive into the specs you need to create standout Twitch emotes, guide you through the approval process, and introduce you to a tool that can help craft high-quality emotes for your channel.

What is a Twitch Emote?

If you’re new to the world of Twitch, let’s start at the very beginning and look at what a Twitch emote is. A Twitch emote is similar to an emoji you’d use in instant messaging. The difference is that they’ve taken on a life of their own on Twitch. 

Emotes are used as a means or response in Twitch chats windows. Twitch emotes are usually created by streamers/channel owners and offered to viewers to use in chat, while watching a stream. Emotes can also only be offered by affiliates and partners.  Often, many emotes are created due to a trend or meme that’s caught on through other channels, social media or the web. 

Like emojis, each emote carries a special meaning, with some being more popular and used than others. For example, one of the more popular emotes today is called Kappa, and there’s a good chance that you’ve seen it floating around the Twitch and the web. 

It was designed and uploaded by a former employee of Justin.TV called Josh DeSeno. The story goes that DeSeno was responsible for setting up the chat client. He could, in a sense, be known as one of the unofficial fathers of Twitch’s chat client. DeSeno uploaded the image of himself along with other staff. Why is Kappa so popular? It’s got to do with what the emote itself. 

Source: knowyourmeme.com

Kappa is an image of DeSeno’s face. In the image, DeSeno appears to be giving off an almost wry smile. And that’s all Twitch streamers and viewers needed to take the emote and run with it. Today, Kappa is used to respond in a sarcastic way to commentary taking place in chat. There are also various versions of Kappa. For example, KappaPride and KappaClaus have been used on Twitch, too.

Source: redbubble.com

KappaPride

Source: imgur.com

KappaClause

But not all emotes are negative. Some are used to express surprise, like PogChamp. It’s an image of pro Street Fighter gamer, Gootecks looking surprised. 

Source: redbubble.com

PogChamp

Why do Twitch Emotes Matter?

Twitch emotes are a smart way to build a relationship with streamers and grow your brand. They make the otherwise challenging process of growing in popularity easier by spreading your custom emotes like wildfire. But that’s not all. For viewers, they take on a deeper meaning, one that’s rooted in psychology and has to do with reciprocation. 

As you make custom emotes available to your viewers, the more they watch you, the more inclined they are to support your channel by reacting to what’s going on during your stream with your emotes. Twitch emotes take on the form of a gift just for supporting your channel, something viewers love.

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Twitch Emote Sizes

Twitch emotes come in three sizes. These are 28px x 28px, 56px x 56px, and 112px x 112px. These are easily uploaded to your Twitch account (more on this later). Creating your emotes to match these Twitch emote sizes isn’t a challenge, but you will need a graphics tool capable of producing high-quality images and exporting them in PNG format with transparent backgrounds (more on this below). Emotes you create must also be limited in size to 25kb. They also need to be in perfect squares to ensure they render clearly on Twitch.

Twitch Emote Guidelines

Being responsible for a large and growing global community means creating a safe and inclusive place for all. And Twitch does its best to keep their ecosystem as open and free from all negative experiences. Like all online platforms, to see this vision through, Twitch has created a set of guidelines that streamers must adhere to for their emotes to feature.

While the Twitch emote sizes focus on dimensions, missing these important policies during the ideation and design process of your emote could lead to it not being approved. Here’s a look at the guidelines (including important policies) you must know.

Twitch Policies for Emotes

Twitch’s emote policies prohibit content that includes hateful conduct, harassment, threats of violence, obscene content, sexual content, nudity, illegal drugs, and vulgarity. Twitch has also stated that it does not allow emotes that glorify or encourage violations of Twitch community guidelines, are political in nature, are animations, use individual characters and letters, and violate Twitch brand asset guidelines or its emotes based on their global emoticons. While you can build a personal brand on Twitch, the platform will not approve emotes that include copyrighted images, names and logo. 

As you can tell, Twitch is serious about creating a safe environment conducive to growing a community in the spirit of gaming. If you need to better understand these and other guidelines, please see Twitch’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.

Where to Find The Best Twitch Emotes

Looking or a little inspiration, want ready-built emotes, or want someone to create something custom for your channel? Here’s a collection of resources you can use.

Own3d.TV

Own3d.TV produces high-quality Twitch emotes. They also have a large collection of over 1240 emotes that you can browse through. Emotes come as packs designed according to Twitch emote size restrictions, and they all meet Twitch guidelines. While you can purchase single packs (one emote in each size), Own3d also offers 5-pack and 8-pack emote collections. 

When browsing through Own3d.TV’s collection, you’ll also find that their emotes are true to gamer spirit. Emotes are based on favourite characters you’ve seen, heard of, or played in major games. You’re also able to collect emotes for different moments. These include “RIP” (when a streamer loses a life), “GG” (good game), and many more.

Source: own3d.tv

While you can purchase a pack and get back to streaming, Own3d.TV also caters for creatives. If you’d like to build your own emotes, simply head over to the Emote Maker. It’s an easy and fun tool to use, and it’s packed with loads of features you can tweak to build your avatar emotes. 

Twitch Emotes and BetterTTV

Need some inspiration? Try BetterTTV. BetterTTV is a browser extension that allows Twitch users access to a range of emotes not approved by Twitch. While this sounds illegal, it’s above board. BetterTTV also does more than just offer extra emotes, it also helps users keep track of what’s happening in chat by highlighting usernames, words and phrases, can split chat lines to make it easier to read comments, offers a chance to see deleted links and messages, and can also hide Bits. BetterTTV is available for Chrome, Edge, FireFox, Opera, Safari and other browsers. 

Source: betterttv.com

Fiverr

If creating your own emotes isn’t your thing, Fiverr is a good place to visit. There are tons of talented graphics designers ready to help you create custom emotes for your channel. Prices start from $5 and can range up to $20 or more, depending on the quality and number of emotes you’re after. 

Source: fiverr.com

How to Build Your Own Avatar Emotes:

Step One: Select Your Character

First, head over to the Emote Maker. Own3d offers a selection of three characters, one female and two males. 

Source: own3d.tv

Step Two: Define Your Appearance

This is where you begin to appreciate all that Own3d.TV’s Emote Maker has to offer. It gives users 10 design options. You can change your skin colour, hair variation and colour, have your hair tied back or let loose (with various style options), find your eye colour, and also choose clothing for your avatar. It also allows you to add “specials”, which are headgear (think caps and beanies), pick a nose, select a pair of glasses, and choose eyebrows.

Source: own3d.tv

Once you’ve made your selections, click on Generate Emote.

Step Three: Choose Your Emotes

Lastly, Own3d.TV will present you with 26 emote variations to choose from. While you can opt for one or three, you can also purchase all 26 in a pack and at a discounted price.

Source: own3d.tv

Top Three Twitch Emote FAQs

Creating your perfect Twitch emote is one thing, but often, there are grey areas. Here’s a collection of FAQs we’ve put together to help.

How Long Does Twitch Take to Approve Emotes?

While Twitch offers emote options to affiliates and partners, only partners in good standing will have their emote automatically approved. All emotes for partners and affiliates not in good standing will go through Twitch’s manual review process. Twitch doesn’t mention how long the review process takes.

What is ‘in good standing’?

Twitch enforces its policies strictly. If a partner or affiliate has infringed upon them within the last 90 days, they are deemed to not be in good standing.

How do I add Emotes to Twitch in 2024?

Emotes are added to your channel through your dashboard.

Wrapping Up

Adding Twitch emotes for your channel is a smart idea. It’s a quick and easy way of developing a relationship with your community, one that will also help grow your brand. There are many places to find inspiration, and, if you’re so inclined, you can also create your own. But be sure to stick to Twitch’s guidelines to have your emotes approved. 

About the Author

Nadica Naceva

Writer

Nadica Naceva, Head of Content at Influencer Marketing Hub, is a seasoned writer and reviewer with in-depth expertise in digital and content marketing. Leveraging her extensive experience in guiding content creation and strategic direction, Nadica brings a critical eye and analytical approach to reviewing articles and educational pieces. Her commitment to accuracy, integrity, and innovation with each review helps IMH grow as a leading source in influencer marketing. Her insights are backed by first-party data, ensuring content meets the highest standards of relevance.