How do I get a YouTube video thumbnail from the Yo

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

Top answer optimized for manual use. Video ID token without separators enables selecting with a double click.

Each YouTube video has 4 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.

Answer 2

I found this nifty tool that allows you to create the image with the YouTube play button placed over the image:

• Installed on the server for scripting: https://github.com/halgatewood/youtube-thumbnail-enhancer

Answer 3

Use this - img.youtube.com/vi/YouTubeID/ImageFormat.jpg here image formats are different like default, hqdefault, maxresdefault.

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.

Answer 5

public const string tubeThumb = "http://i.ytimg.com/vi/[id]/hqdefault.jpg";
vid.Thumbnail = tubeThumb.Replace("[id]", vid.VideoID);

Answer 6

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 million requests per day are free.

Source article.