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If you'd like to view a YouTube video'due south thumbnail in a big size, or yous'd similar to design a thumbnail that'southward similar to another video's thumbnail, YouTube makes it piece of cake to download video thumbnails. We'll testify you how.

Is Downloading Thumbnail Images Legal?

Equally of this writing in August 2021, there's no option on the YouTube site or in the YouTube mobile app to download video thumbnails. You lot can, however, use a custom YouTube URL in a browser to save thumbnail images to your devices. as we'll explain below.

Before you lot download a thumbnail, make sure y'all aren't crossing any legal lines, similar using copyrighted piece of work for commercial purposes.

RELATED: How to Download Your Own YouTube Videos

How to Save a YouTube Video'south Thumbnail

This procedure works on both desktop and mobile devices. In this example, we'll use a desktop to demonstrate the steps.

Showtime, y'all will notice the unique ID of the video that you desire to download the thumbnail of.

To go that ID, open a web browser on your Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chromebook reckoner and access the YouTube site. On the site, find your video and click it.

Find and select a video on the YouTube site.

When the video page opens, look towards your web browser's address bar. This has the current video'due south link, which looks something similar this:

https://www.youtube.com/scout?five=E5DlpONIW5M

In that link, the text after the "v=" office is the unique ID of that video. For the above video, the unique ID is:

E5DlpONIW5M

To access that video'southward thumbnail, you lot will use the video'due south unique ID in a custom link, which is given below.

In the link below, replace ID with the unique ID of your video.

https://img.youtube.com/vi/ID/maxresdefault.jpg

For the to a higher place video, your link will look like the following. Open up this link in a new tab in your web browser.

https://img.youtube.com/vi/E5DlpONIW5M/maxresdefault.jpg

In your new tab, you lot volition see a big-sized version of your video'due south thumbnail. To salve this thumbnail to your device, right-click it and select "Salve Paradigm As."

Right-click the YouTube video thumbnail and select "Save Image As" in a web browser.

Select a folder to save the thumbnail in, and you're all prepare.

Did you know YouTube also makes it possible to download full videos to your iPhone, iPad, and Android devices?

RELATED: How to Download YouTube Videos on Your iPhone, iPad, or Android Device

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