How to use it
- Copy the video's link: from the address bar, or with Share → Copy link in the app. Normal videos, Shorts, live streams and youtu.be links all work.
- Paste it into the box and press Get thumbnails.
- Every size YouTube stores appears with its pixel size. Sizes the video doesn't have are marked Not available.
- Press Download under the size you want. The SD and High sizes also offer Without black bars, which cuts away the bars YouTube adds to fit a 16:9 picture into a 4:3 image.
Which size should you pick?
HD (1280×720) is the sharpest public copy. It only exists when the video was uploaded in HD or the creator added a custom thumbnail, so older or low-resolution uploads often don't have it.
SD (640×480) and High (480×360) are 4:3 images with black bars above and below the 16:9 picture. High exists for every video, which makes it the fallback. Without black bars gives you the picture inside: 640×360 from SD, 480×270 from High.
Medium (320×180) is already 16:9 with no bars, and Small (120×90) is the tiny list version. Switch the format to WebP for smaller files with the same look; JPG opens everywhere.
Why there's no 4K thumbnail
YouTube now accepts custom thumbnails up to 3840×2160 when they're uploaded from a computer, but the image files it serves publicly stop at 1280×720. The full-size original stays in the creator's YouTube Studio. If you need it for a collaboration, ask the creator for the file.
Using what you download
A thumbnail is the creator's work. Saving your own thumbnails, keeping a reference for a design brief or quoting one in a review with credit is very different from re-uploading it as yours or using it in an ad. The thumbnail copyright guide explains where the lines usually are.
How it works
The page reads the 11-character video ID from your link and shows the images YouTube itself serves for that ID. The download button passes the chosen image through this site once, so your browser saves it as a file instead of opening it in a new tab. Links aren't stored.
Questions
- Does it work for Shorts?
- Yes. Paste the Shorts link and the same sizes appear. Because Shorts are vertical, the stored images can show the frame with bars at the sides, and the HD size is often missing.
- Why does HD say “Not available”?
- That video has no 1280×720 thumbnail on YouTube's servers, usually because it was uploaded in standard definition without a custom thumbnail. Use SD or High instead.
- Can I download the video or the audio?
- No. This site doesn't download videos or audio from any platform. YouTube's Terms of Service only allow downloading where YouTube offers a download button or link, for example offline saving in the YouTube app with Premium, or creators downloading their own uploads in YouTube Studio.
- Do you keep the links I paste?
- No. The site counts how many times each tool is used per day, anonymously, and nothing else.