How do I get a YouTube video thumbnail from the YouTube API?

Question

If I have a YouTube video URL, is there any way to use PHP and cURL to get the associated thumbnail from the YouTube API?

Answer 1

YouTube is serving thumbnails from 2 servers. You just need to replace with your own YouTube video id. These days webP is best format for fast loading of images due to small image size.

https://img.youtube.com https://i.ytimg.com

Examples are with https://i.ytimg.com server just because it’s shorter, no other particular reason. You can use both.

Player Background Thumbnail (480x360):

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//0.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//0.jpg

Video frames thumbnails (120x90)

WebP:
Start: https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//1.webp
Middle: https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//2.webp
End: https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//3.webp

JPG:
Start: https://i.ytimg.com/vi//1.jpg
Middle: https://i.ytimg.com/vi//2.jpg
End: https://i.ytimg.com/vi//3.jpg

Lowest quality thumbnail (120x90)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//default.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//default.jpg

Medium quality thumbnail (320x180)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//mqdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//mqdefault.jpg

High quality thumbnail (480x360)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//hqdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hqdefault.jpg

Standard quality thumbnail (640x480)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//sddefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//sddefault.jpg

Unscaled thumbnail resolution

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp//maxresdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg