YouTube Thumbnails · Views, Titles & Maxres

What does YouTube Thumbnail Scraper do?

This Actor builds a YouTube thumbnail brief from YouTube: the image, the title, views, which ones outperform the rest, and the look of the creative (vivid / dark / bright, text-heavy or not).

One row per video. Search a niche, paste competitor channels, or both. No Google key.

It is not a zip of random JPGs. It is not a video downloader. Generic YouTube scrapers give you a thumbnail URL. This one opens the file, drops blank maxres placeholders, and tags the look — so you can group a board the way a designer actually briefs.

Why scrape YouTube thumbnails?

You already know the job: a client wants a thumb that gets the click. Guessing from memory is slow. A folder of files with no views is worse.

This is for thumbnail agencies, creative studios, MCNs, and YouTubers who A/B creatives.

• Moodboard a niche (personal finance, day in the life, MrBeast-style faces)
• Audit a competitor’s last uploads before a pitch
• Sort by what actually got views, not by upload date
• Group by look (vivid vs dark vs bright) and text on the thumb
• Open Thumbnails — Brief in Console and see the image next to the numbers
• Export CSV / Excel / JSON and refresh on a schedule

On Apify you can schedule a weekly board and call it from the API.

What data can this YouTube thumbnail scraper extract?

You get	Why it matters on a brief
Thumbnail image	The real file. If maxres is a blank placeholder, you get HQ instead.
Title	The copy sitting on the thumb
Views	How hard that creative worked
Performance	1 = typical for this board, 3 = three times the rest
Look	vivid / dark / bright / muted — from the pixels
Text on thumb	Big title-card energy, or a clean face / object
Channel + video link	Who to credit, what to click

YouTube does not publish CTR. We do not invent it. No comments, no transcripts, no video files, no private videos.

How to scrape YouTube thumbnails

1. Open this Actor in Apify Console.
2. Leave the keyword on personal finance, or type the niche you design for.
3. Optional: paste competitor channel links or @handles.
4. Leave Long-form, Performance, 50 videos.
5. Run. Open Thumbnails — Brief — image, title, views, in one table.

Need a whole channel, not a 50-thumb board? Raise Max videos. A large creator catalog fits in one run.

See the Input tab for every option.

How much does it cost?

You pay per thumbnail in the dataset, not per channel you scan. Actor start is $0.00005.

Free plan: 50 thumbs (one moodboard). Paid plans up to 10,000 (a full competitor audit).

Apify plan	Per thumbnail	Per 1,000
Free	$0.003	$3.00
Bronze	$0.0027	$2.70
Silver	$0.0024	$2.40
Gold	$0.0021	$2.10
Platinum	$0.0018	$1.80
Diamond	$0.0015	$1.50

Run	Approx. cost
One moodboard (50 thumbs)	$0.15
200 thumbs	$0.60
1,000 thumbs	$3.00

Set a max total charge in Apify if you want a hard budget.

Input

See the Input tab.

Field	For the brief
Keyword	What’s working in the niche you pitch
Channels	What a competitor is shipping
Video links	You already have a list
Video type	Long-form by default (the landscape thumbs you sell). Shorts if that’s the brief.
Sort	Performance first. Views or newest if you prefer.
Min views / published	Drop noise and dead creatives
Max videos	50 = one board. Higher = whole-channel audit

Output

Download JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

{
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xxxxxxxxxxx/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "hasMaxres": true,
  "thumbMood": "vivid",
  "likelyHasText": true,
  "title": "I Tried Every Budget App",
  "viewsCount": 480000,
  "performanceIndex": 3.1,
  "channelTitle": "Example Finance",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxxxx"
}

Tips

• Keyword = the market. Channel = one competitor. Use both in the same run when you pitch.
• Performance is vs this board, not vs all of YouTube. Fifty finance thumbs compared to each other.
• View counts are what YouTube shows on the listing (often rounded). Good enough to rank a board, not for a finance report.

FAQ

Is this a YouTube thumbnail downloader?

A downloader gives you files. This gives you a brief: image + title + views, sorted by what worked. If you only need a zip, a downloader is enough.

Do I need a YouTube API key?

No.

Can I pull a whole competitor channel?

Yes. Paste the channel, raise Max videos. Free plan stops at 50. Paid plans go up to 10,000.

Why isn’t there a CTR column?

YouTube does not make CTR public. Views and performance vs the board are what you can actually export.

How is this different from a YouTube video scraper?

Video scrapers dump catalogs and a thumbnail URL. This one is a brief: the image is in the table, maxres placeholders are skipped, Shorts stay off unless you want them, and each row has a look (vivid / dark / bright, text-heavy or not). You cannot get that from a URL alone.

Will Shorts pollute a landscape board?

No. Default is long-form. A 30-second clip is treated as a Short even if the link looks like a normal video.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube thumbnails?

We only read public listings and images YouTube already shows. Use the export for legitimate creative research. Respect YouTube’s terms. Titles and faces can be personal data — you need a legitimate reason under GDPR.

Related Actors

Need every upload with descriptions, not a thumbnail board? YouTube Channel Videos.

Support

Issues tab on this Actor, or corentin@outreacher.fr. Automations: API tab.