Download Miniature YouTube
Incolla qualsiasi URL YouTube o ID video e ottieni tutte le dimensioni di miniatura disponibili — link diretti, nessuna registrazione.
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What is this for?
Every YouTube video has a small set of pre-generated thumbnail images at predictable URLs — YouTube uses them itself in search results, embeds, and previews. This tool extracts the 11-character video ID from any YouTube URL form (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, embed, /v/) and lays out every available size with direct download links and copy-URL buttons. Useful when you need an offline preview, a hero image for a blog post, a Discord/Slack rich link, or a fallback poster for a custom video player.
When to use it
- Embedding a YouTube video in a blog post and wanting the same thumbnail YouTube shows, hosted locally.
- Making a clickable "watch this video" tile in a Notion / Slack / email where you need a still image.
- Building a custom video player and needing a poster image before the iframe loads.
- Saving a thumbnail for offline use as reference, content, or moodboard material.
- Getting the highest-resolution thumbnail without faffing about with the YouTube Data API.
The variants explained
- maxresdefault (1280×720) — the original full-HD thumbnail. Only exists for videos uploaded in HD; otherwise the URL returns 404 and the preview goes blank.
- sddefault (640×480) — generated for most videos in the modern era.
- hqdefault (480×360) — always exists, going back to the earliest YouTube videos. Use this as your fallback.
- mqdefault (320×180) and default (120×90) — small previews; useful for in-list rendering.
Common gotchas
- maxresdefault often 404s. Older or lower-resolution uploads don't have it. Build your fallback chain:
maxresdefault → sddefault → hqdefault. - Black bars on hqdefault. The 480×360 thumbnail is letterboxed for non-4:3 sources — there are bars top and bottom.
mqdefault(320×180) has the correct 16:9 aspect for modern uploads. - Frames 1/2/3. YouTube also exposes
1.jpg,2.jpg,3.jpgat the same path — three auto-extracted frames from the video. Sometimes one of those is what you actually want for a custom poster, and they're not in the default variant list. - It's still YouTube's image. Hot-linking is fine; rehosting on your own CDN is fine technically but check the licensing if you're using it commercially. The video creator may have copyright on the visual content of the frame.
- WebP not supported here. YouTube also serves
.webpversions (smaller files), but they're served from a different CDN path and not exposed by this tool. - Live streams and Shorts work fine — the URL parser handles all the modern forms — but live-stream thumbnails change while the stream is on air.