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Asked: 2026-05-13T10:34:27+00:00

If I have a YouTube video URL, is there any way to use PHP

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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?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Each YouTube video has four generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:

    https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/0.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/1.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/2.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/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/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/default.jpg

    For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

    https://img.youtube.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 HQ:

    https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/mqdefault.jpg

    For the standard definition version of the thumbnail, use a URL similar to this:

    https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/sddefault.jpg

    For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a URL similar to this:

    https://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id-here>/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.

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