I made this quick video to show how to download the thumbnail image from any YouTube video — even if you didn’t create it. Here’s the tutorial:
YouTube thumbnails can be useful for social media, templates, analysis, or design mockups. And getting them is easy — you just need the video ID.
In the video, I show how to grab the video ID (the part after v= in the URL), then paste it into this format:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/[VIDEO_ID]/maxresdefault.jpg
Replace [VIDEO_ID] with the correct ID, hit Enter, and you’ll see the full-resolution thumbnail. You can right-click and download it from there.
I also share a quick tool that automates this if you don’t want to edit URLs manually.
It’s a fast trick I’ve used when analyzing thumbnails for my own videos or building swipe files of top-performing visuals.
Do you track your favorite creators’ thumbnails for design ideas?