Use this tool to download the thumbnail image of any YouTube video. Enter the URL of the YouTube video to get started.
Download Any YouTube Thumbnail Image
About The YouTube Thumbnail Image Download Tool
The YouTube thumbnail image download tool is used to download the thumbnail image from any YouTube video for manual use. This tool grabs the maximum resolution thumbnail image from YouTube. This tool can also be useful to inspect what thumbnail was generated by YouTube automatically.
How do I grab a YouTube thumbnail image manually?
The easiest way to download a YouTube thumbnail image is to use a tool like the one on this page, but it can be done manually too. More information about grabbing the image manually can be found in my blog post – How to Download a YouTube Thumbnail Image.
Why would I need to download a YouTube thumbnail?
There are a number of situations where a website CMS may require a thumbnail or poster image to be uploaded in addition to the YouTube video URL. This is often done so that the video can link or open in a lightbox once the image is clicked on. Manually adding a thumbnail image in these cases gives some design freedom so that a custom image can be used, but sometimes it is easier to just use the thumbnail that YouTube has already created.
There are also cases where it could be useful to use the YouTube thumbnail within a design (such as an email) to promote your video.