What about age-restricted videos?

Thumbnails are public — no age gate on i.ytimg.com URLs.

Why does maxres sometimes 404?

Uploaders can skip the 720p version. Fall back to sddefault or hqdefault.

No — thumbnails live at predictable URLs on i.ytimg.com. No YouTube Data API quota used.

Paste any YouTube URL or video ID to get every thumbnail resolution.

Paste, drop a file, or .

1
Paste a YouTube URL
Full URL, Shorts link, or just the video ID — all work.
2
Copy the link you need
Right-click → Save image, or drop the URL into a downloader.

What about age-restricted videos?: Thumbnails are public — no age gate on i.ytimg.com URLs.
Why does maxres sometimes 404?: Uploaders can skip the 720p version. Fall back to sddefault or hqdefault.
Does this need an API key?: No — thumbnails live at predictable URLs on i.ytimg.com. No YouTube Data API quota used.