Get YouTube video thumbnail – YouTube API

Each YouTube video has 4 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 (ie. 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 shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com works instead of img.youtube.com in the example urls above.

Below is the PHP code snippet for getting URL dynamically from different websites:

    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/LpGACuMgtNA');
get_video_thumbnail('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGACuMgtNA');
get_video_thumbnail('https://youtu.be/LpGACuMgtNA');
get_video_thumbnail('http://www.dailymotion.com/video/LpGACuMgtNA');