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

User · Answer

I think their are a lots of answer 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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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 amp url  your video URL goes here   Like final URL look   PHP test code   data   file get contents  https   www youtube com oembed format json amp url https   www youtube com watch v  7s-6V 0nwA     json   json decode  data   var dump  json     Output  object stdClass  1    public  width    gt  int 480   public  version    gt  string  1 0   length 3    public  thumbnail width    gt  int 480   public  title    gt  string  how to reminder in window as display message   length 44    public  provider url    gt  string  https   www youtube com    length 24    public  thumbnail url    gt  string  https   i ytimg com vi  7s-6V 0nwA hqdefault jpg   length 48    public  author name    gt  string  H2 ZONE   length 7    public  type    gt  string  video   length 5    public  author url    gt  string  https   www youtube com channel UC9M35YwDs8 PCWXd3qkiNzg   length 56    public  provider name    gt  string  YouTube   length 7    public  height    gt  int 270   public  html    gt  string   lt iframe width  480  height  270  src  https   www youtube com embed  7s-6V 0nwA feature oembed  frameborder  0  allow  autoplay  encrypted-media  allowfullscreen gt  lt  iframe gt    length 171    public  thumbnail height    gt  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

User · Answer

Save this code in empty  php file and test it    lt img src   lt  php echo youtube img src  9bZkp7q19f0    high     gt     gt   lt  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       Thanks

User · Answer

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  lt video id gt  mqdefault webp   And if you can t use the  webp file extension you can do it like this   https   i ytimg com vi  lt video id gt  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

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Save file as  js   x000D   x000D    var maxVideos   5  x000D      document  ready function    x000D      get  x000D       https   www googleapis com youtube v3 videos    x000D        part   snippet contentDetails   x000D        id  your video id   x000D        kind   youtube videoListResponse   x000D        maxResults  maxVideos  x000D        regionCode   IN   x000D        key   Your API KEY    x000D        function data   x000D          var output  x000D            each data items  function i  item   x000D            console log item   x000D                  thumb   item snippet thumbnails high url  x000D            output     lt div id  img  gt  lt img src      thumb      gt  lt  div gt    x000D                thumbnail   append output   x000D             x000D           x000D          x000D         x000D       x000D   main  x000D   width 1000px  x000D   margin auto  x000D    x000D   img  x000D  float left  x000D  display inline-block  x000D  margin 5px  x000D    x000D   lt  DOCTYPE html gt  x000D   lt html gt  x000D   lt head gt  x000D     lt title gt Thumbnails lt  title gt  x000D     lt script src    ajax googleapis com ajax libs jquery 1 10 2 jquery min js  type  text javascript  gt  lt  script gt  x000D   lt  head gt  x000D   lt body gt  x000D   lt div class  main  gt  x000D    lt ul id  thumbnail  gt   lt  ul gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   lt  body gt  x000D   lt  html gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

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

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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   tools tutsplanet com index php get-youtube-video-thumbnails

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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

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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

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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  lt  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

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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  lt VIDEO ID gt  1 jpg 120     90       https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  2 jpg 120     90       https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  3 jpg 120     90       https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  default jpg 320     180      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  mq1 jpg 320     180      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  mq2 jpg 320     180      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  mq3 jpg 320     180      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  mqdefault jpg 480     360      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  0 jpg 480     360      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  hq1 jpg 480     360      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  hq2 jpg 480     360      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  hq3 jpg 480     360      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  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  lt VIDEO ID gt  sd1 jpg 640     480      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  sd2 jpg 640     480      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  sd3 jpg 640     480      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  sddefault jpg 1280    720      https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  hq720 jpg 1920    1080     https   i ytimg com vi  lt VIDEO ID gt  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  amp  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

User · Answer

Use   https   www googleapis com youtube v3 videoCategories part snippet id amp maxResults 100 amp regionCode us amp 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

User · Answer

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    lt  php     if  video status     unlisted             video thumbnail    http   img youtube com vi    video url   mqdefault jpg            video status     lt i class  fa fa-lock  gt  lt  i gt  amp nbsp Unlisted             elseif  video status     public             video thumbnail    http   img youtube com vi    video url   mqdefault jpg            video status     lt i class  fa fa-eye  gt  lt  i gt  amp nbsp Public             elseif  video status     private             video thumbnail    playlistItem  snippet    thumbnails    maxres    url             video status     lt i class  fa fa-lock  gt  lt  i gt  amp nbsp Private

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

package com app download video demo   import java net MalformedURLException  import java net URL   import android app Activity  import android os Bundle  import android util Log  import android widget ImageView   import com squareup picasso Picasso       get Picasso jar file and put that jar file in libs folder  public class Youtube Video thumnail extends Activity       ImageView iv youtube thumnail iv play      String videoId        Override     protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState               TODO Auto-generated method stub         super onCreate savedInstanceState           super setContentView R layout youtube video activity            init             try                        videoId extractYoutubeId  http   www youtube com watch v t7UxjpUaL3Y                 Log e  VideoId is- gt        videoId                String img url  http   img youtube com vi   videoId   0 jpg      this is link which will give u thumnail image of that video                 picasso jar file download image for u and set image in imagview              Picasso with Youtube Video thumnail this               load img url                placeholder R drawable ic launcher                into iv youtube thumnail                       catch  MalformedURLException e                         e printStackTrace                         public void init                 iv youtube thumnail  ImageView findViewById R id img thumnail           iv play  ImageView findViewById R id iv play pause                 extract youtube video id and return that id        ex-- gt   http   www youtube com watch v t7UxjpUaL3Y         videoid is-- gt t7UxjpUaL3Y       public String extractYoutubeId String url  throws MalformedURLException           String query   new URL url  getQuery            String   param   query split   amp             String id   null          for  String row   param                String   param1   row split                   if  param1 0  equals  v                      id   param1 1                                   return id

User · Answer

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 amp 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

User · Answer

Use img youtube com vi YouTubeID ImageFormat jpg  Here image formats are different like default  hqdefault   maxresdefault

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A simple PHP function I created for the YouTube thumbnail and the types are   default hqdefault mqdefault sddefault maxresdefault    nbsp   function get youtube thumb  link  type         video id   explode   v     link        if  empty  video id 1              video id   explode   v     link            video id   explode   amp     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

User · Answer

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    lt  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 amp part snippet amp id   implode       youtubeVidIds       - gt send     print   response      gt

User · Answer

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  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  default jpg -   default https   i1 ytimg com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  mqdefault jpg - medium  https   i1 ytimg com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  hqdefault jpg - high https   i1 ytimg com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  sddefault jpg - standard   And for the maximum resolution    https   i1 ytimg com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  maxresdefault jpg   One advantage of these URLs over the URLs in the first answer is that these URLs don t get blocked by firewalls

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YouTube Data API  YouTube provides us the four generated images for every video through the Data API  v3   for example    https   i ytimg com vi V zwalcR8DU maxresdefault jpg https   i ytimg com vi V zwalcR8DU sddefault jpg https   i ytimg com vi V zwalcR8DU hqdefault jpg https   i ytimg com vi V zwalcR8DU mqdefault jpg   Getting access to the images via the API   First get your public API key at Google API Console  As per YouTube s thumbnail reference in the API documentation  you need to access the resources on snippet thumbnails  As per this  you need to phrase your URL like this -   www googleapis com youtube v3 videos part snippet amp id  yourVideoId  amp 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

User · Answer

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 amp part snippet amp id VIDEO ID   Example PHP Code   data   file get contents  https   www googleapis com youtube v3 videos key YOUR API KEY amp part snippet amp id T0Jqdjbed40     json   json decode  data   var dump  json- gt items 0 - gt snippet- gt thumbnails     Output  object stdClass  5  5        default    gt    object stdClass  6  3          url    gt      string 46   https   i ytimg com vi T0Jqdjbed40 default jpg        width    gt      int 120        height    gt      int 90          medium    gt    object stdClass  7  3          url    gt      string 48   https   i ytimg com vi T0Jqdjbed40 mqdefault jpg        width    gt      int 320        height    gt      int 180          high    gt    object stdClass  8  3          url    gt      string 48   https   i ytimg com vi T0Jqdjbed40 hqdefault jpg        width    gt      int 480        height    gt      int 360          standard    gt    object stdClass  9  3          url    gt      string 48   https   i ytimg com vi T0Jqdjbed40 sddefault jpg        width    gt      int 640        height    gt      int 480          maxres    gt    object stdClass  10  3          url    gt      string 52   https   i ytimg com vi T0Jqdjbed40 maxresdefault jpg        width    gt      int 1280        height    gt      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

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YouTube is serving thumbnails from 2 servers  You just need to replace  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  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  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  0 webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  0 jpg  Video frames thumbnails  120x90  WebP  Start  https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  1 webp Middle  https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  2 webp End  https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  3 webp  JPG  Start  https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  1 jpg Middle  https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  2 jpg End  https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  3 jpg  Lowest quality thumbnail  120x90  WebP https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  default webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  default jpg  Medium quality thumbnail  320x180  WebP https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  mqdefault webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  mqdefault jpg  High quality thumbnail  480x360  WebP https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  hqdefault webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  hqdefault jpg  Standard quality thumbnail  640x480  WebP https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  sddefault webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  sddefault jpg  Unscaled thumbnail resolution WebP https   i ytimg com vi webp  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  maxresdefault webp  JPG https   i ytimg com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  maxresdefault jpg

User · Answer

This is my client-side-only no-API-key-required solution   YouTube parse  https   www youtube com watch v P3DGwyl0mJQ   then     gt  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    gt            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    gt   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    gt                const image   new Image           image onload        gt  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   amp    reduce  query  part    gt                const  key  value    part split              query decodeURIComponent key     decodeURIComponent value          return query

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public const string tubeThumb    http   i ytimg com vi  id  hqdefault jpg   vid Thumbnail   tubeThumb Replace   id    vid VideoID

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YouTube API version 3 up and running in 2 minutes If all you want to do is search YouTube and get associated properties   Get a public API -- This link gives a good direction  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 amp maxResults 50 amp q stackoverflow amp key YOUR API KEY HERE

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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

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Each YouTube video has four generated images  They are predictably formatted as follows   https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  0 jpg https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  1 jpg https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  2 jpg https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  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  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  default jpg   For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this   https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  hqdefault jpg   There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail  using a URL similar to the HQ   https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  mqdefault jpg   For the standard definition version of the thumbnail  use a URL similar to this   https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  sddefault jpg   For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this   https   img youtube com vi  lt insert-youtube-video-id-here gt  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

User · Answer

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  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  sddefault jpg   Medium quality thumbnail   http   img youtube com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  mqdefault jpg   High quality thumbnail   http   img youtube com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  hqdefault jpg   Maximum quality thumbnail   http   img youtube com vi  lt YouTube Video ID HERE gt  maxresdefault jpg

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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 default thumbnail image  Simple code should be something like this     Grab the default thumbnail image  attrs    media- gt group- gt thumbnail 1 - gt 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

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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

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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

[php] How do I get a YouTube video thumbnail from the YouTube API?

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