How Can I Get YouTube Video Thumbnails Using PHP and cURL?

Extracting YouTube Video Thumbnails Using PHP and cURL

If you possess a YouTube video URL, you may wish to retrieve its associated thumbnail image using PHP and cURL. This can be achieved following these steps:

Using Static URLs:

Each YouTube video possesses four specified image URLs:

• Full size image: https://img.youtube.com/vi//0.jpg
• Thumbnail images: https://img.youtube.com/vi//1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg

The default thumbnail image is https://img.youtube.com/vi//default.jpg.

Using Dynamic Resolutions:

For improved thumbnail quality, consider using the following dynamic resolution URLs:

• High quality: https://img.youtube.com/vi//hqdefault.jpg
• Medium quality: https://img.youtube.com/vi//mqdefault.jpg
• Standard definition: https://img.youtube.com/vi//sddefault.jpg
• Maximum resolution: https://img.youtube.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg

Note that all URLs are accessible via HTTP and can be utilized with the shorter hostname i3.ytimg.com.

Using the YouTube Data API:

Alternatively, consider employing the YouTube Data API (v3) to retrieve thumbnail images.

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