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?

Capital

Here are some PHP functions I created to get the best thumbnail available from the URL method w/o pinging the API, based off of the many good answers on this page: gist.github.com/squarecandy/30ec9f6779c0e8cdf12e337c665d96c5 – Victor

From now on you need to use it to extract thumbnail image from YouTube video ID img.youtube.com/vi{VIDEO_ID}/maxresdefault.jpg – Immaterialize

Answer 1

Each YouTube video has four generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/3.jpg

The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. The default thumbnail image (i.e., one of 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) is:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg

For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg

There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a URL similar to the HQ:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg

For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg

For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg

All of the above URLs are available over HTTP too. Additionally, the slightly shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com works in place of img.youtube.com in the example URLs above.

Alternatively, you can use the YouTube Data API (v3) to get thumbnail images.

Mallet

Just in case anyone else makes this dumb mistake - you can't use http://www.img.youtube.com, only http://img.youtube.com – Casey

@KeyLimePiePhotonAndroid, I think queries about playlists would work better as a separate question. – Seabrooke

Additionally, you can use these hostnames i.ytimg.com, i1.ytimg.com, i2.ytimg.com, i3.ytimg.com, i4.ytimg.com or s.ytimg.com. – Centigrade

This is useful as I am trying to eliminate "still picture" videos from my search results. If thumbnails 2 and 3 both exist and are identical it's a very strong likelihood I have a still photo video and I can eliminate it – Premonish

I just tried it and even though they look identical there were small differences. 1 and 3 were closer matching as they were identical size but differed in a few places. – Premonish

sddefault.jpg and maxresdefault.jpg formats are no longer working – Cofield

@munissor that is NOT TRUE, 0.jpg IS NOT ALWAYS fullsize version... It might be, but it is not a rule... – Intuitivism

On maxresdefault.jpg, if using a custom thumbnail in YouTube, we found the image must be a 16:9 aspect ratio otherwise it will default to the YouTube image. – Sitka

to fetch the ID this question might be helpful: #3453046 – Pumphrey

@Intuitivism @Cofield Since the sddefault and maxresdefault are not always available . Does the mqdefault works for all videos? What is the best URL to get thumbnail without the 2 black boders (at the top and the bottom)? – Cyclograph

@Llg 2 black boders is something you can't really predict, it depends in what ratio is thumbnail vs in what ratio is video. I am not sure about which are always available, if you are too concerned about that, you should use some YouTube API. Sidenote: lately I haven't noticed video without maxresdefault but that is just subjective... – Intuitivism

While this works for most of the videos I tried last couple hours but strangely it didn't work out for this: img.youtube.com/vi/vJ5ZCBbAPk/0.jpg . But Youtube seems to generate the video thumnail in website just fine. Any thoughts guys? – Cabinetwork

I have noticed that depending on the age of the video and the uploaded quality, some images will not be a standard expected size. Mainly the "maxresdefault.jpg ". So for testing image size, I made this page myonlinelocation.com/YouTube_Play/VideoThumbnails – Christoperchristoph

It's not working when there is a ' - ' symbol in the video id (-oCXMrICJgY in m.youtube.com/watch?v=-oCXMrICJgY ) how to solve this issue ?? – Hyperkinesia

I have to manually select <insert-youtube-video-id-here> every time. Can this be updated for easier use? If it was https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/default.jpg it would just need a double click. – Paterson

If someone is wondering how to get sizes for not default: I just tried (and it actually works) that format names work as prefix. So you can get maxres2.jpg, hq2.jpg, hq3.jpg, etc. – Trainman

is this somewhere officially documented?!! – Kenti

some videos do not have the thumnail. why? – Nutriment

This approach worked well for me, but the only URL format that worked was https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<video-ID>/hqdefault.jpg – Pursley

It doesn't work for some videos.. Is there maybe some settings from videos owners that restrict us from getting thumbnails? – Weintraub

This answer no longer works – Sepsis

Answer 2

You can use YouTube Data API to retrieve video thumbnails, caption, description, rating, statistics and more. API version 3 requires a key*. Obtain the key and create a videos: list request:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key=YOUR_API_KEY&part=snippet&id=VIDEO_ID

Example PHP Code

$data = file_get_contents("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key=YOUR_API_KEY&part=snippet&id=T0Jqdjbed40");
$json = json_decode($data);
var_dump($json->items[0]->snippet->thumbnails);

Output

object(stdClass)#5 (5) {
  ["default"]=>
  object(stdClass)#6 (3) {
    ["url"]=>
    string(46) "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T0Jqdjbed40/default.jpg"
    ["width"]=>
    int(120)
    ["height"]=>
    int(90)
  }
  ["medium"]=>
  object(stdClass)#7 (3) {
    ["url"]=>
    string(48) "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T0Jqdjbed40/mqdefault.jpg"
    ["width"]=>
    int(320)
    ["height"]=>
    int(180)
  }
  ["high"]=>
  object(stdClass)#8 (3) {
    ["url"]=>
    string(48) "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T0Jqdjbed40/hqdefault.jpg"
    ["width"]=>
    int(480)
    ["height"]=>
    int(360)
  }
  ["standard"]=>
  object(stdClass)#9 (3) {
    ["url"]=>
    string(48) "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T0Jqdjbed40/sddefault.jpg"
    ["width"]=>
    int(640)
    ["height"]=>
    int(480)
  }
  ["maxres"]=>
  object(stdClass)#10 (3) {
    ["url"]=>
    string(52) "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T0Jqdjbed40/maxresdefault.jpg"
    ["width"]=>
    int(1280)
    ["height"]=>
    int(720)
  }
}

* Not only that you need a key, you might be asked for billing information depending on the number of API requests you plan to make. However, few thousand requests per day are free.

Source article.

Duckboard

FYI: i did not change the code to fit the new JSON structure. The code in your getJSON is wrong. You used jsonc instead of json for getJSON. It's failing because of your wrong JSON structure. – Comical

Only the first example can use jsonc. The jQuery and PHP examples MUST use json. And I have updated the code to conform to the new JSON structure. I am using the code right now and it's working LIVE. so don't say it's not working without reading the changes. Thanks! – Comical

The jQuery and PHP examples MUST use json... can you provide a reference? Also, requesting a specific API version number (v=2) takes care of API changes. – Duckboard

The gdata call does not return whether maxresdefault.jpg is available for videos where it is available, only mq/hq/sd. – Ahrens

API v3 is VERY badly documented. They give you sample code but the "reference" section is very short of detail. Some things that should be relatively "obvious" seem to require extreme workarounds. – Premonish

Answer 3

What Asaph said is right. However, not every YouTube video contains all nine thumbnails. Also, the thumbnails' image sizes depends on the video (the numbers below are based on one). There are some thumbnails guaranteed to exist:

Width	Height	URL
120	90	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//1.jpg
120	90	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//2.jpg
120	90	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//3.jpg
120	90	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//default.jpg
320	180	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//mq1.jpg
320	180	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//mq2.jpg
320	180	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//mq3.jpg
320	180	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//mqdefault.jpg
480	360	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//0.jpg
480	360	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hq1.jpg
480	360	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hq2.jpg
480	360	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hq3.jpg
480	360	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hqdefault.jpg

Additionally, the some other thumbnails may or may not exist. Their presence is probably based on whether the video is high-quality.

Width	Height	URL
640	480	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//sd1.jpg
640	480	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//sd2.jpg
640	480	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//sd3.jpg
640	480	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//sddefault.jpg
1280	720	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//hq720.jpg
1920	1080	https://i.ytimg.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg

You can find JavaScript and PHP scripts to retrieve thumbnails and other YouTube information in:

• How to get YouTube Video Info with PHP
• Retrieve YouTube Video Details using JavaScript - JSON & API v2

You can also use the YouTube Video Information Generator tool to get all the information about a YouTube video by submitting a URL or video id.

Blackcock

You can also achieve same result with official youtube link img.youtube.com/vi/mJ8tq8AnNis/mqdefault.jpg where mJ8tq8AnNis is video id – Doubleacting

The tool "YouTube Video Information Generator" is currently not working. Consider editing the answer. – Mitre

Suggest removing all three links. None of them produce anything useful that I could see. – Neddra

FWIW, the YouTube frontend hardcodes mqdefault.jpg to be 320x180 – Bethesde

Answer 4

In YouTube API V3 we can also use these URLs for obtaining thumbnails... They are classified based on their quality.

https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg -   default
https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg - medium 
https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg - high
https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg - standard

And for the maximum resolution..

https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg

One advantage of these URLs over the URLs in the first answer is that these URLs don't get blocked by firewalls.

Belisle

Are these images suppose to be placed in an img tag and should just work because I am trying to include the link with the right youtube video id and put them within the img tag but I keep getting a 404 – Dioptase

@Dioptase These URLs works fine when it is placed in an img tag..The problem might be a wrong video Id or the requested resolution may not be available but you won't get the 404 with these errors.Please check the url of the img tag. – Belisle

Is it confirmed that the urls will keep working after API v2 will be stopped? – Etiquette

@DanieleB These URLs still work. Do you know how to check whether these URLs will work after API v2? – Belisle

Answer 5

If you want to get rid of the "black bars" and do it like YouTube does it, you can use:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<video id>/mqdefault.webp

And if you can't use the .webp file extension you can do it like this:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<video id>/mqdefault.jpg

Also, if you need the unscaled version, use maxresdefault instead of mqdefault.

Note: I'm not sure about the aspect ratio if you're planning to use maxresdefault.

Sugary

This is not available for many videos. Eg: i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/mJ8tq8AnNis/mqdefault.webp – Contingent

@Contingent : It works if you remove _webp and change the extension to .jpg. Working example : i.ytimg.com/vi/mJ8tq8AnNis/mqdefault.jpg , I'm not sure about the aspect ratio. – Sugary

Thank you. Is there a way to get sddefault without black bars? img.youtube.com/vi_webp/dQw4w9WgXcQ/sddefault.webp keeps returning image with black bars. – Shaughnessy

Answer 6

If you want the biggest image from YouTube for a specific video ID, then the URL should be something like this:

http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/SomeVideoIDHere/0.jpg

Using the API, you can pick up the default thumbnail image. Simple code should be something like this:

//Grab the default thumbnail image
$attrs = $media->group->thumbnail[1]->attributes();
$thumbnail = $attrs['url'];
$thumbnail = substr($thumbnail, 0, -5);
$thumb1 = $thumbnail."default.jpg";

// Grab the third thumbnail image
$thumb2 = $thumbnail."2.jpg";

// Grab the fourth thumbnail image.
$thumb3 = $thumbnail."3.jpg";

// Using simple cURL to save it your server.
// You can extend the cURL below if you want it as fancy, just like
// the rest of the folks here.

$ch = curl_init ("$thumb1");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER,1);
$rawdata = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Using fwrite to save the above
$fp = fopen("SomeLocationInReferenceToYourScript/AnyNameYouWant.jpg", 'w');

// Write the file
fwrite($fp, $rawdata);

// And then close it.
fclose($fp);

Adelric

I found an example where 0.jpg has a resolution of 480x360, while maxresdefault.jpg has 1280x720 – Preamplifier

Answer 7

I made a function to only fetch existing images from YouTube

function youtube_image($id) {
    $resolution = array (
        'maxresdefault',
        'sddefault',
        'mqdefault',
        'hqdefault',
        'default'
    );

    for ($x = 0; $x < sizeof($resolution); $x++) {
        $url = '//img.youtube.com/vi/' . $id . '/' . $resolution[$x] . '.jpg';
        if (get_headers($url)[0] == 'HTTP/1.0 200 OK') {
            break;
        }
    }
    return $url;
}

Felicidadfelicie

i get this in laravel controller get_headers(): This function may only be used against URLs – Ibrahim

FYI - it seems like it does not fetch existing images but the first available. – Concentric

Answer 8

YouTube is owned by Google and Google likes to have a reasonable number of images for different screen sizes, hence its images are stored in different sizes. Here is an example of how your thumbnail will be like:

Low quality thumbnail:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.jpg

Medium quality thumbnail:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.jpg

High quality thumbnail:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.jpg

Maximum quality thumbnail:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.jpg

Convergent

sddefault.jpg is actually higher quality than hqdefault.jpg. The order of increasing quality goes default, mqdefault, hqdefault, sddefault, maxresdefault. – Shainashaine

Answer 9

You can get the Video Entry which contains the URL to the video's thumbnail. There's example code in the link. Or, if you want to parse XML, there's information here. The XML returned has a media:thumbnail element, which contains the thumbnail's URL.

Diophantus

Answer 10

In YouTube Data API v3, you can get video's thumbnails with the videos->list function. From snippet.thumbnails.(key), you can pick the default, medium or high resolution thumbnail, and get its width, height and URL.

You can also update thumbnails with the thumbnails->set functionality.

For examples, you can check out the YouTube API Samples project. (PHP ones.)

Carrolcarroll

I guess this is the right way to do it since it's coming from a Google Dev relations member for the youtube api – Plunge

Answer 11

// Get image form video URL
$url = $video['video_url'];

$urls = parse_url($url);

//Expect the URL to be http://youtu.be/abcd, where abcd is the video ID
if ($urls['host'] == 'youtu.be') :

    $imgPath = ltrim($urls['path'],'/');

//Expect the URL to be http://www.youtube.com/embed/abcd
elseif (strpos($urls['path'],'embed') == 1) :

    $imgPath = end(explode('/',$urls['path']));

//Expect the URL to be abcd only
elseif (strpos($url,'/') === false):

    $imgPath = $url;

//Expect the URL to be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcd
else :

    parse_str($urls['query']);

    $imgPath = $v;

endif;

Parlando

this is a bad solution ! why not use Youtube api v3 ? – Somersault

Answer 12

YouTube is serving thumbnails from 2 servers. You just need to replace <YouTube_Video_ID_HERE> 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/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.jpg

Video frames thumbnails (120x90)

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

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

Lowest quality thumbnail (120x90)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.jpg

Medium quality thumbnail (320x180)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.jpg

High quality thumbnail (480x360)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.jpg

Standard quality thumbnail (640x480)

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.jpg

Unscaled thumbnail resolution

WebP
https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.webp

JPG
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.jpg

Km

Answer 13

YouTube API version 3 up and running in 2 minutes

If all you want to do is search YouTube and get associated properties:

1. Get a public API -- This link gives a good direction

2. Use below query string. The search query (denoted by q=) in the URL string is stackoverflow for example purposes. YouTube will then send you back a JSON reply where you can then parse for Thumbnail, Snippet, Author, etc.

   https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=id%2Csnippet&maxResults=50&q=stackoverflow&key=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

Larrigan

Answer 14

Another good alternative would be to use the oEmbed API which is supported by YouTube.

You simply add your YouTube URL to the oEmbed URL and you'll receive a JSON including a thumbnail and the HTML code for embedding.

Example:

http://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url=http%3A//youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DxUeJdWYdMmQ

Would give you:

{
  "height":270,
  "width":480,
  "title":"example video for 2020",
  "thumbnail_width":480,
  "html":"...",
  "thumbnail_height":360,
  "version":"1.0",
  "provider_name":"YouTube",
  "author_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCza6VSQUzCON- AzlsrOLwaA",
  "thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/xUeJdWYdMmQ\/hqdefault.jpg",
  "author_name":"Pokics",
  "provider_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/",
  "type":"video"
}

Read the documentation for more information.

Skippet

Answer 15

Use:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videoCategories?part=snippet,id&maxResults=100&regionCode=us&key=**Your YouTube ID**

Above is the link. Using that, you can find the YouTube characteristics of videos. After finding characteristics, you can get videos of the selected category. After then you can find selected video images using Asaph's answer.

Try the above approach and you can parse everything from the YouTube API.

Selectee

Answer 16

I have used YouTube thumbnails in this way:

$url = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/' . $youtubeId . '/0.jpg';
$img = dirname(__FILE__) . '/youtubeThumbnail_'  . $youtubeId . '.jpg';
file_put_contents($img, file_get_contents($url));

Remember YouTube prevents to include images directly from their server.

Nonsmoker

Answer 17

You can get the video ID from the YouTube video url using parse_url ,parse_str and then insert in to the predictive urls for images. Thanks to YouTube for the predictive URLs

$videoUrl = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zy7wGbQgfw";
parse_str( parse_url( $videoUrl, PHP_URL_QUERY ), $my_array_of_vars );
$ytID = $my_array_of_vars['v']; //gets video ID

print "https://img.youtube.com/vi/$ytID/maxresdefault.jpg";
print "https://img.youtube.com/vi/$ytID/mqdefault.jpg";
print "https://img.youtube.com/vi/$ytID/hqdefault.jpg";
print "https://img.youtube.com/vi/$ytID/sddefault.jpg";
print "https://img.youtube.com/vi/$ytID/default.jpg";

You can use this tool to generate YouTube thumbnails

https://youtube-thumbnail-tool.com

Jayjaycee

Is there a way to get the YouTube Data API key of the user (after auth) – Shaughnessy

Answer 18

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<--Video ID-->/default.jpg

Image Size Weight 120px Height 90px

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<--Video ID-->/mqdefault.jpg

Image Size Weight 320px Height 180px

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<--Video ID-->/hqdefault.jpg

Image Size Weight 480px Height 360px

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<--Video ID-->/sddefault.jpg

Image Size Weight 640px Height 480px

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<--Video ID-->/maxresdefault.jpg

Image Size Weight 1280px Height 720px

Verticillate

Works well but, could you provide sources ? – Trembles

Answer 19

Just to add/expand on the solutions given, I feel it is necessary to note that, as I had this problem myself, one can actually grab multiple YouTube videos content, in this case, thumbnails, with one HTTP request:

Using a Rest Client, in this case, HTTPFUL, you can do something like this:

<?php
header("Content-type", "application/json");

//download the httpfull.phar file from http://phphttpclient.com
include("httpful.phar");

$youtubeVidIds= array("nL-rk4bgJWU", "__kupr7KQos", "UCSynl4WbLQ", "joPjqEGJGqU", "PBwEBjX3D3Q");


$response = \Httpful\Request::get("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key=YourAPIKey4&part=snippet&id=".implode (",",$youtubeVidIds)."")

->send();

print ($response);

?>

Cask

Answer 20

YouTube Data API

YouTube provides us the four generated images for every video through the Data API (v3), for example,

1. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_zwalcR8DU/maxresdefault.jpg

2. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_zwalcR8DU/sddefault.jpg

3. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_zwalcR8DU/hqdefault.jpg

4. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_zwalcR8DU/mqdefault.jpg

Getting access to the images via the API

1. First get your public API key at Google API Console.
2. As per YouTube's thumbnail reference in the API documentation, you need to access the resources on snippet.thumbnails.

3. As per this, you need to phrase your URL like this -

   www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet&id=`yourVideoId`&key=`yourApiKey`
   

Now change your video ID and your API key to the your respective video-id and api-key and its response will be a JSON output providing you the four links in the thumbnails of snippet variable (if all are available).

Chisolm

Answer 21

A simple PHP function I created for the YouTube thumbnail and the types are

• default
• hqdefault
• mqdefault
• sddefault
• maxresdefault

 

function get_youtube_thumb($link,$type){

    $video_id = explode("?v=", $link);

    if (empty($video_id[1])){
        $video_id = explode("/v/", $link);
        $video_id = explode("&", $video_id[1]);
        $video_id = $video_id[0];
    }
    $thumb_link = "";

    if($type == 'default'   || $type == 'hqdefault' ||
       $type == 'mqdefault' || $type == 'sddefault' ||
       $type == 'maxresdefault'){

        $thumb_link = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/'.$video_id.'/'.$type.'.jpg';

    }elseif($type == "id"){
        $thumb_link = $video_id;
    }
    return $thumb_link;}

Parachronism

Answer 22

If you're using the public API, the best way to do it is using if statements.

If the video is public or unlisted, you set the thumbnail using the URL method. If the video is private you use the API to get the thumbnail.

<?php
    if($video_status == 'unlisted'){
        $video_thumbnail = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/'.$video_url.'/mqdefault.jpg';
        $video_status = '<i class="fa fa-lock"></i>&nbsp;Unlisted';
    }
    elseif($video_status == 'public'){
        $video_thumbnail = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/'.$video_url.'/mqdefault.jpg';
        $video_status = '<i class="fa fa-eye"></i>&nbsp;Public';
    }
    elseif($video_status == 'private'){
        $video_thumbnail = $playlistItem['snippet']['thumbnails']['maxres']['url'];
        $video_status = '<i class="fa fa-lock"></i>&nbsp;Private';
    }

Macrobiotic

Answer 23

Although there are already many answers, but for new visitors I will leave mine with two options for obtaining a thumbnail.

Getting Thumbnail via YouTube Data API

1. Register your app with Google Cloud Platform and activate YouTube Data API v3 library
2. Create an API Key in the Credentials section. This way you will get a key to access the API
3. And send a request for information about the video, including getting a thumbnail.

---

$api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
$youtube_video_id = 'jNQXAC9IVRw';
$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key='.$api_key.'&part=snippet&id='.$youtube_video_id,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 0,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET',
)); 

$response = curl_exec($curl); 
curl_close($curl);

$response = json_decode($response,true); 

print_r($response); // result with video information and thumbnails

Getting a thumbnail from a direct link without an API

In addition to the API, thumbnails can be obtained via a direct link, like this:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jNQXAC9IVRw/hqdefault.jpg

Let's consider this option in detail:

 https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID>/<SIZE_VALUE>.jpg 

Where:

• YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID : Your video ID
• SIZE_VALUE : Thumbnail size. The variable can contain such values: default, mqdefault, hqdefault, sddefault, maxresdefault

---

$youtube_video_id = 'jNQXAC9IVRw';
$size = 'hqdefault';

$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
    CURLOPT_URL => "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/{$youtube_video_id}/{$size}.jpg",
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 0,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET',
));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);

// Write the file
$handle = fopen("image/filename.jpg", 'w'); // set your directory and filename
fwrite($handle, $response);
fclose($handle);

Sulphonamide

Answer 24

I think there is a lot of answers for thumbnail, but I want to add some other URLs to get YouTube thumbnail very easily. I am just taking some text from Asaph's answer. Here are some URLs to get YouTube thumbnails:

https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg

For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/hqdefault.jpg

There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a URL similar to the high quality:

https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg

For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a URL similar to this:

https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg

For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/maxresdefault.jpg

Skyla

Answer 25

Method 1:

You can find all information for a YouTube video with a JSON page which has even "thumbnail_url", http://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url={your video URL goes here}

Like final URL look + PHP test code

$data = file_get_contents("https://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7s-6V_0nwA");
$json = json_decode($data);
var_dump($json);

Output

object(stdClass)[1]
  public 'width' => int 480
  public 'version' => string '1.0' (length=3)
  public 'thumbnail_width' => int 480
  public 'title' => string 'how to reminder in window as display message' (length=44)
  public 'provider_url' => string 'https://www.youtube.com/' (length=24)
  public 'thumbnail_url' => string 'https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_7s-6V_0nwA/hqdefault.jpg' (length=48)
  public 'author_name' => string 'H2 ZONE' (length=7)
  public 'type' => string 'video' (length=5)
  public 'author_url' => string 'https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9M35YwDs8_PCWXd3qkiNzg' (length=56)
  public 'provider_name' => string 'YouTube' (length=7)
  public 'height' => int 270
  public 'html' => string '<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7s-6V_0nwA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>' (length=171)
  public 'thumbnail_height' => int 360

For details, you can also see How to get a YouTube video thumbnail using id or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXde7q59BI8 video tutorial 1

Method 2:

Using YouTube image link, https://img.youtube.com/vi/"insert-youtube-video-id-here"/default.jpg

Method 3:

Using browser source code for getting thumbnail using video URL link -go to video source code and search for thumbnailurl. Now you can use this URL into your source code:

{img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/"insert-youtube-video-id-here"/default.jpg"}

For details you can also see How to get a YouTube video thumbnail using id or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f6E8MeM6PI video tutorial 2

Yonita

Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXde7q59BI8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f6E8MeM6PI are (effectively) broken. – Unweighed

youtube banned this video because of its policies i hope this article will help you www.hzonesp.com/php/get-youtube-video-thumbnail-using-id/ – Yonita

Method 1 is simple to implement – Knead

Answer 26

    function get_video_thumbnail( $src ) {
            $url_pieces = explode('/', $src);
            if( $url_pieces[2] == 'dai.ly'){
                $id = $url_pieces[3];
                $hash = json_decode(file_get_contents('https://api.dailymotion.com/video/'.$id.'?fields=thumbnail_large_url'), TRUE);
                $thumbnail = $hash['thumbnail_large_url'];
            }else if($url_pieces[2] == 'www.dailymotion.com'){
                $id = $url_pieces[4];
                $hash = json_decode(file_get_contents('https://api.dailymotion.com/video/'.$id.'?fields=thumbnail_large_url'), TRUE);
                $thumbnail = $hash['thumbnail_large_url'];
            }else if ( $url_pieces[2] == 'vimeo.com' ) { // If Vimeo
                $id = $url_pieces[3];
                $hash = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://vimeo.com/api/v2/video/' . $id . '.php'));
                $thumbnail = $hash[0]['thumbnail_large'];
            } elseif ( $url_pieces[2] == 'youtu.be' ) { // If Youtube
                $extract_id = explode('?', $url_pieces[3]);
                $id = $extract_id[0];
                $thumbnail = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/' . $id . '/mqdefault.jpg';
            }else if ( $url_pieces[2] == 'player.vimeo.com' ) { // If Vimeo
                $id = $url_pieces[4];
                $hash = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://vimeo.com/api/v2/video/' . $id . '.php'));
                $thumbnail = $hash[0]['thumbnail_large'];
            } elseif ( $url_pieces[2] == 'www.youtube.com' ) { // If Youtube
                $extract_id = explode('=', $url_pieces[3]);
                $id = $extract_id[1];
                $thumbnail = 'http://img.youtube.com/vi/' . $id . '/mqdefault.jpg';
            } else{
                $thumbnail = tim_thumb_default_image('video-icon.png', null, 147, 252);
            }
            return $thumbnail;
        }

get_video_thumbnail('https://vimeo.com/154618727');
get_video_thumbnail('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwU0I7_5Cmc');
get_video_thumbnail('https://youtu.be/pbzIfnekjtM');
get_video_thumbnail('http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5thjyz');

Matrimonial

Answer 27

Here's the top answer optimized for manual use. The video ID token without separators enables selecting with a double click.

Each YouTube video has four generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/0.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/1.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/2.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/3.jpg

The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. The default thumbnail image (ie. one of 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) is:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/default.jpg

For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/hqdefault.jpg

There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a URL similar to the HQ:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/mqdefault.jpg

For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/sddefault.jpg

For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

https://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBEVIDEOID/maxresdefault.jpg

All of the above URLs are available over HTTP too. Additionally, the slightly shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com works in place of img.youtube.com in the example URLs above.

Alternatively, you can use the YouTube Data API (v3) to get thumbnail images.

Paterson

Answer 28

Save this code in empty.php file and test it.

<img src="<?php echo youtube_img_src('9bZkp7q19f0', 'high');?>" />
<?php
// Get a YOUTUBE video thumb image's source url for IMG tag "src" attribute:
// $ID = YouYube video ID (string)
// $size = string (default, medium, high or standard)
function youtube_img_src ($ID = null, $size = 'default') {
    switch ($size) {
        case 'medium':
            $size = 'mqdefault';
            break;
        case 'high':
            $size = 'hqdefault';
            break;
        case 'standard':
            $size = 'sddefault';
            break;
        default:
            $size = 'default';
            break;
    }
    if ($ID) {
        return sprintf('https://img.youtube.com/vi/%s/%s.jpg', $ID, $size);
    }
    return 'https://img.youtube.com/vi/ERROR/1.jpg';
}

There are some thumbnails guaranteed to exist:

Width | Height | URL
------|--------|----
120   | 90     | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/1.jpg
120   | 90     | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/2.jpg
120   | 90     | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/3.jpg
120   | 90     | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/default.jpg
320   | 180    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/mq1.jpg
320   | 180    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/mq2.jpg
320   | 180    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/mq3.jpg
320   | 180    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/mqdefault.jpg
480   | 360    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/0.jpg
480   | 360    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/hq1.jpg
480   | 360    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/hq2.jpg
480   | 360    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/hq3.jpg
480   | 360    | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<VIDEO ID>/hqdefault.jpg

Thanks.

Suburban

Answer 29

This is my client-side-only no-API-key-required solution.

YouTube.parse('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3DGwyl0mJQ').then(_ => console.log(_))

The code:

import { parseURL, parseQueryString } from './url'
import { getImageSize } from './image'

const PICTURE_SIZE_NAMES = [
    // 1280 x 720.
    // HD aspect ratio.
    'maxresdefault',
    // 629 x 472.
    // non-HD aspect ratio.
    'sddefault',
    // For really old videos not having `maxresdefault`/`sddefault`.
    'hqdefault'
]

// - Supported YouTube URL formats:
//   - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8
//   - http://youtu.be/My2FRPA3Gf8
export default
{
    parse: async function(url)
    {
        // Get video ID.
        let id
        const location = parseURL(url)
        if (location.hostname === 'www.youtube.com') {
            if (location.search) {
                const query = parseQueryString(location.search.slice('/'.length))
                id = query.v
            }
        } else if (location.hostname === 'youtu.be') {
            id = location.pathname.slice('/'.length)
        }

        if (id) {
            return {
                source: {
                    provider: 'YouTube',
                    id
                },
                picture: await this.getPicture(id)
            }
        }
    },

    getPicture: async (id) => {
        for (const sizeName of PICTURE_SIZE_NAMES) {
            try {
                const url = getPictureSizeURL(id, sizeName)
                return {
                    type: 'image/jpeg',
                    sizes: [{
                        url,
                        ...(await getImageSize(url))
                    }]
                }
            } catch (error) {
                console.error(error)
            }
        }
        throw new Error(`No picture found for YouTube video ${id}`)
    },

    getEmbeddedVideoURL(id, options = {}) {
        return `https://www.youtube.com/embed/${id}`
    }
}

const getPictureSizeURL = (id, sizeName) => `https://img.youtube.com/vi/${id}/${sizeName}.jpg`

Utility image.js:

// Gets image size.
// Returns a `Promise`.
function getImageSize(url)
{
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) =>
    {
        const image = new Image()
        image.onload = () => resolve({ width: image.width, height: image.height })
        image.onerror = reject
        image.src = url
    })
}

Utility url.js:

// Only on client side.
export function parseURL(url)
{
    const link = document.createElement('a')
    link.href = url
    return link
}

export function parseQueryString(queryString)
{
    return queryString.split('&').reduce((query, part) =>
    {
        const [key, value] = part.split('=')
        query[decodeURIComponent(key)] = decodeURIComponent(value)
        return query
    },
    {})
}

Sarcous

Answer 30

Here is a simple function I created for getting the thumbnails. It is easy to understand and use.

$link is the YouTube link copied exactly as it is in the browser, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ0mxQXmLsk

function get_youtube_thumb($link){
    $new = str_replace('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=', '', $link);
    $thumbnail = 'https://img.youtube.com/vi/' . $new . '/0.jpg';
    return $thumbnail;
}

Semiweekly

This only works when the url has no other query parameters. – Elgin

yes, all youtube videos follows the format while watching, you can copy the link from the browser – Semiweekly

What if you have another parameter like &t=227s? – Elgin

i understand your point, but the standard youtube videos come without other parameters but when the need arise, you can filter the link before the first line of the function. Do you need help in filtering the link to make sure it ignores every other thing except the needed? – Semiweekly

Answer 31

Use img.youtube.com/vi/YouTubeID/ImageFormat.jpg

Here image formats are different like default, hqdefault, maxresdefault.

Ritenuto