Thumbnail Downloader
Every cover image a YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion video actually has, at its real size.
Only the sizes that exist
Most thumbnail tools hand you a list of five YouTube addresses and let you find out for yourself which ones work. That is not helpful, because YouTube does not answer a missing size with an error — it answers with a small grey placeholder image, at status 200. Click through and you get a picture, just not the one you wanted.
So every candidate is checked before it is offered here, and only the sizes the video genuinely has are listed, each with the dimensions and file size read from the image itself. If maxresdefault is missing from the results, that video does not have one, and no tool can produce it.
What YouTube publishes
| Name | Size | Available |
|---|---|---|
| maxresdefault | 1280 × 720 | Only when the video was uploaded in HD |
| sddefault | 640 × 480 | Most videos |
| hqdefault | 480 × 360 | Every video |
| mqdefault | 320 × 180 | Every video |
| default | 120 × 90 | Every video |
The two largest are cropped to 4:3 rather than 16:9 in some cases, which is why a 640 × 480 result can look letterboxed against a widescreen video. That is how the file is stored, not something introduced here.
Why this tool has a server behind it
Nearly every tool on this site runs entirely in the browser. This one cannot, and the reason is a rule that catches out most people who try to build it themselves.
A web page is allowed to display an image from another site — that is how the whole web works. It is not allowed to read the pixels of one. Drawing a cross-origin image onto a canvas marks that canvas as tainted, and a tainted canvas refuses to export. So the browser can show you the thumbnail and cannot save it, which is a strange position to be in and exactly the one a page-only version of this tool ends up in.
Our server therefore fetches the image and passes it back for your browser to save. It also reads the public metadata for Vimeo and Dailymotion, which publish their thumbnail addresses through an endpoint rather than at a predictable URL. Nothing is stored, and the backend will only ever contact the thumbnail hosts of the three supported services, so it cannot be turned into a general fetcher for anything else.
Using what you download
Worth a moment's thought. A thumbnail is part of someone else's video and is normally their copyright, and a custom thumbnail frequently contains a photograph of a person. How you obtained it changes nothing about that.
Sensible uses: checking how your own uploads are rendering, previewing a video you are linking to, keeping a reference while researching, and looking at what performs well in your field. Republishing someone's thumbnail as your own artwork is not one, whatever a tool page tells you.
Questions
Which link formats work?
All the usual ones. For YouTube: a normal watch link, a youtu.be share link, an embed link, a Shorts link, or just the eleven character video id on its own. For Vimeo and Dailymotion, the page address or the id. Extra tracking parameters on the end are ignored.
Why do some sizes not appear?
Because that video does not have them. YouTube generates the larger sizes only when the source was uploaded at that resolution, so an old or low resolution video has no maxresdefault. Rather than offering a link that returns a grey placeholder, each size is checked first and only the ones that really exist are listed, with their true dimensions.
Why does this tool need a server when your other tools do not?
Because of a browser rule that catches people out: a page can display an image from another site but cannot save one. Drawing a cross-origin image into a canvas taints it, and a tainted canvas refuses to export. The image is therefore fetched through our server and handed back to your browser to save. Nothing is stored.
Can I use a downloaded thumbnail on my own site?
That depends on who owns it, not on how you obtained it. A thumbnail is part of someone else's video and is normally their copyright. Reasonable uses are checking your own uploads, previewing a video you are linking to, and reference. Publishing it as though it were yours is not, and a custom thumbnail often contains someone's photograph as well.
What sizes does YouTube publish?
Up to five. maxresdefault at 1280 × 720 when the source was high definition, sddefault at 640 × 480, hqdefault at 480 × 360, mqdefault at 320 × 180, and default at 120 × 90. Every video has the smaller ones; only some have the largest.
Can it download the video itself?
No. This retrieves the cover image only, which is a small public file each service publishes for previews. Downloading the video is a different matter and generally against those services' terms.
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