

Here in this article, we provide you the best ways to download thumbnails from YouTube videos that you have liked the most and use them freely for your purposes.īasically, there are two natural methods to download the thumbnails from YouTube. With the new design layout, YouTube not only increased the viewing experience for users but also placed some stringent security options that will enable the integrity of the overall videos that are uploaded to YouTube daily. N.B.: I know this is nothing new or heart-shattering, but I always seem to forget which URL gives which image.It never happens. Of course, Google makes it even easier by providing us with a YouTube API: - what you're looking for specifically is the information about the media:thumbnail tag: Will bring back the third small thumbnail (120x90):īy knowing this logic behind YouTube's thumbnails and preview images, writing up a simple script able to show the images for any given video becomes rather trivial and will be left, as the saying goes, as an exercise for the reader.

Will give us the second small thumbnail (120x90) or the thumbnail chosen by the uploader for that video (this is the default thumbnail for YouTube): Will give us the first small thumbnail (120x90): Will give you the default large preview image (480x360). Try them out for size by replacing the hash ( #) with a number, like this: You first need to decide which thumbnail you want. Replace VIDEOID with the aforementioned string, by typing it or pasting it in.

In order to get the YouTube generated thumbnails, you'll simply use the following address: Take note of (or copy) that VIDEOID string. You may have an ampersand ( &) and some arguments after that ID, but you can safely ignore them. Where VIDEOID is a string of letters and numbers uniquely identifying it.

YouTube automatically generates (at least) three thumbnails and one image preview for every uploaded video, and you can easily get to them once you know how.įirst of all, take a look at the URL of the video you're interested in. If, for instance, this is your video:, simply type in your address bar, and voilà! Let's say you need an image preview of a YouTube video. Are you looking for a way of doing this with Vimeo? Have a look over there:
