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YouTube video thumbnails sizes and formats

Note: YouTube is serving thumbnails from 2 servers:

  • //img.youtube.com
  • //i.ytimg.com

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

  • Player Background Thumbnail (480x360):

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.jpg
    
  • Video frames thumbnails (120x90)

    WebP:
    Start: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/1.webp
    Middle: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/2.webp
    End: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/3.webp
    
    JPG:
    Start: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/1.jpg
    Middle: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/2.jpg
    End: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/3.jpg
    
  • Lowest quality thumbnail (120x90)

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.jpg
    
  • Medium quality thumbnail (320x180)

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.jpg
    
  • High quality thumbnail (480x360)

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.jpg
    
  • Standard quality thumbnail (640x480)

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.jpg
    
  • Unscaled thumbnail resolution

    WebP
    //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.webp
    
    JPG
    //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.jpg
    
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