Center

Max Width 400px

Play Video

Wide

Max Width 800px

Play Video

Full

Max Width 100%

Play Video

YouTube Image Sizes

Note: YouTube is serving thumbnails from 2 servers:

• //img.youtube.com
• //i.ytimg.com

Examples are with //i.ytimg.com server just because it’s shorter, no other particular reason. You can use both.

Player Background Thumbnail (480×360):

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/0.jpg

Video frames thumbnails (120×90)

WebP:
Start: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/1.webp
Middle: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/2.webp
End: //i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/3.webp

JPG:
Start: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/1.jpg
Middle: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/2.jpg
End: //i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/3.jpg

Lowest quality thumbnail (120×90)

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/default.jpg

Medium quality thumbnail (320×180)

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/mqdefault.jpg

High quality thumbnail (480×360)

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/hqdefault.jpg

Standard quality thumbnail (640×480)

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/sddefault.jpg

Unscaled thumbnail resolution

WebP
//i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.webp

JPG
//i.ytimg.com/vi/<YouTube_Video_ID_HERE>/maxresdefault.jpg

Source taken from here