Thumbnail URL API

Pass any YouTube video ID or URL and get back a JSON response with all available thumbnail resolutions. Free, no API key needed - works with fetch, curl, or any HTTP client.

Try it

{ "ok": true, "videoId": "<your-video-id>", "thumbnails": [ { "quality": "maxresdefault", "url": "…" } … ] }

Endpoint

GET https://youtube-thumb-nail-download.com/api/?v={videoId}

Query Parameters

Param	Type	Description
v	string	YouTube video ID (11 characters) or full video URL
url alias	string	Alternative to `v` - accepts any YouTube URL format
id alias	string	Alternative to `v`

Response Schema

boolean

true on success, false if the video ID could not be parsed

videoId

string

The extracted 11-character YouTube video ID

thumbnails

array<Thumbnail>

All 5 resolutions, ordered from largest to smallest

Thumbnail Object

quality

string

YouTube filename key, e.g. maxresdefault

label

string

Human-readable label, e.g. Maximum Resolution

width / height

number

Expected pixel dimensions (actual image may differ for older videos)

url

string

Direct img.youtube.com URL - publicly accessible, no auth needed

Usage Examples

JavaScript - Fetch

const videoId = 'dQw4w9WgXcQ';

const res = await fetch(
  `https://youtube-thumb-nail-download.com/api/?v=${videoId}`,
  { headers: { Accept: 'application/json' } }
);

const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.thumbnails);
// → [{ quality: 'maxresdefault', url: '…', width: 1280, height: 720 }, …]

cURL

curl "https://youtube-thumb-nail-download.com/api/?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Python - Requests

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://youtube-thumb-nail-download.com/api/",
    params={"v": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"},
    headers={"Accept": "application/json"},
)

data = res.json()
for thumb in data["thumbnails"]:
    print(f"{thumb['label']}: {thumb['url']}")

Tip: Programmatic clients (curl, fetch, etc.) automatically receive JSON. Browsers visiting this URL see this documentation page instead. You can also force JSON in a browser by adding &format=json to the URL. The maxresdefault resolution may not exist for older videos; fall back to hqdefault in that case.