YouTube Thumbnail Downloader: HD, Bulk, Whole Channel

YouTube Thumbnail Downloader: HD, Bulk & Whole Channel

Download YouTube thumbnails in bulk: HD 1280x720 and every other size, for video links, Shorts, whole channels, playlists and searches. Get the image files in one ZIP, a download link per file, or just the links. Each row also shows when the thumbnail was set and whether it was changed after publishing, so you can spot the thumbnail A/B tests of any channel. Scheduled runs keep a thumbnail history with the old versions.

{ "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"] }

No YouTube API key, no login, no browser extension. Use it as a YouTube thumbnail API: one call returns clean JSON.

What you get

One row per video. Real example, MrBeast, September 2026:

thumbnail	video	size	thumbnail set	changed after publish	published
	Escape 100 Cops, Win $500,000	1280x720	2026-09-22	yes, 24 days later	1 month ago
	I Built A City To Save Kids From Illegal Labor	1280x720	2026-09-24	yes, 4 days later	8 days ago
	Can We Build an Entire Village?	1280x720	2026-09-18	no	9 days ago

Field	Description
thumbnailUrl, bestSize, width, height	The largest thumbnail the video has (maxres 1280x720; old videos: sd 640x480 or hq 480x360)
fileUrl, fileName, zipFile	Download link of the image file, its name in the ZIP and which ZIP part holds it
thumbnails	Every size you asked for: size, url, width, height, fileUrl, fileName, fileSizeKB
frames	With Include auto-generated frames: the 3 frames YouTube picked from the video (1280x720 when available)
thumbnailSetAt	When the current thumbnail was set (upload or change), to the second
changedAfterPublish, daysAfterPublish	The thumbnail was set more than 2 days after the video went public: the creator changed it (an A/B test winner or re-packaging)
title, channelName, channelUrl, url, videoId	The video
publishedDate, publishedText, views, duration, isShort	As YouTube shows them (exact date for video links)
change, previousTitle, previousThumbnailSetAt, previousThumbnailFileUrl, thumbnailHistoryFileUrl	Only changes: new, thumbnail changed, title changed; saved copies of the old and the new thumbnail
status	ok or not found (deleted, private or wrong ID; free)

Channel inputs add one row with the channel avatar (900x900) and banner (2560x1440): avatarUrl, avatarFileUrl, bannerUrl, bannerFileUrl.

Files go to the run's key-value store: thumbnails.zip (parts of 200 MB, a folder per channel, playlist or search, files named Video-title_videoID.jpg, plus metadata.csv) and every image separately.

How to download the images

The Actor saves the image files themselves, not only links to YouTube:

Way	How
All images at once	Open the Output tab and click ZIP archive: thumbnails.zip downloads with every image in folders. The run's status message has the same download link
One image	Click Download in the table row: the JPG (or WebP) file is saved to your computer
Every file separately	Storage tab → Key-value store: each image is a record you can download
From code	the fileUrl of each row is a direct download link; the ZIP is the record thumbnails.zip of the run's key-value store

Turn off Download files only if you want the image links alone (faster, no files).

Thumbnail sizes

Size	Pixels	Exists for
maxres (maxresdefault)	1280x720	HD uploads, most videos since ~2013
sd (sddefault)	640x480	most videos
hq (hqdefault)	480x360	every video
mq (mqdefault)	320x180	every video
default	120x90	every video
vertical (oardefault)	1080x1920	Shorts only (with Thumbnail size = All)
frame1-frame3	1280x720 or 480x360	auto-generated frames

Best available (default) takes the largest one the video has. A fixed size falls back to the next smaller one. All returns every size. WebP files are about half the size of JPG.

How it works

1. Add videos, Shorts, channels (@handle) or playlists, or search by keyword
2. Choose the size, JPG or WebP, and whether you want files or only links
3. Run, then click ZIP archive in the Output tab to download all the images, or export the table as CSV, Excel or JSON

Input	What it does
Videos, Shorts, channels or playlists	Any public video; a channel gives its latest videos (up to 5,000), a playlist all its videos
Search videos by keyword	Thumbnails of the top videos for "minecraft survival": a thumbnail dataset for design research or AI
Thumbnail size	Best available, all sizes or one fixed size
Include auto-generated frames	The 3 frames YouTube suggests as thumbnails
Channel avatar and banner	Profile picture and banner of each channel, full size
Download files / ZIP archive	Files + ZIP (default), or links only (faster)
Only changes	Thumbnail history: later runs return only new videos and changed thumbnails or titles

Why this Actor

📦 Whole channel in one ZIP	Every thumbnail of a channel, playlist or search, named by title, in folders, with metadata.csv
🕒 When each thumbnail was set	thumbnailSetAt for every video and changedAfterPublish: see which videos a channel re-packaged and when, without waiting for a monitor
🔔 Thumbnail history	Scheduled runs catch thumbnail and title changes of competitors and keep the old thumbnail files
🖼️ Every size and frame	HD, all 5 sizes, WebP, the 1080x1920 vertical image of Shorts, the 3 auto-generated frames, avatars and banners
✅ Only real files	Sizes a video does not have are skipped (YouTube's gray placeholder is never saved)
💰 $0.001 per video	All sizes and files included; a 50-video channel costs about $0.05

Pricing

Pay per result, no subscription needed. Apify Scale and Business plans pay less:

Event	Free and Starter plans	Scale plan	Business plan
Run start	$0.001	$0.001	$0.001
Video (all chosen sizes, frames, files and links)	$0.001	$0.0009	$0.0008
Channel avatar and banner	$0.001	$0.0009	$0.0008

Task	Cost
Latest 50 thumbnails of a channel, HD, ZIP	~$0.052
1,000 video links, every size	~$1.00
Daily thumbnail change check of 5 channels (50 videos each) for a month	~$0.28 + new and changed videos

Videos that are not found and unchanged videos in Only changes are free.

Ready-made tasks

Task	What you get
Download All Thumbnails From a YouTube Channel	Every thumbnail of a channel in one ZIP

Track competitor thumbnails

1. Add the channels you follow, set Max videos per channel (e.g. 30), turn on Only changes and give the monitor a name
2. Save as a task and schedule it daily
3. The first run saves a copy of every thumbnail and remembers the titles; later runs return only new videos and thumbnail changed / title changed rows
4. Open the Changes (old vs new) view: the old and the new thumbnail side by side, the old and the new title, and when each thumbnail was set. The copies stay in the key-value store youtube-thumbnail-history in your account, so the history grows with every change

YouTube keeps only the current thumbnail, so old versions exist from the first monitoring run on.

Even without monitoring, changedAfterPublish on the first run shows which videos already had their thumbnail changed.

FAQ

How do you know when a thumbnail was set? YouTube's image servers report the time each thumbnail file was created. When that time is later than the video's publish date, the thumbnail was replaced. For very old videos the date can also be a re-generation by YouTube itself (for example "Me at the zoo", 2005, shows 2023).

Why is there no 1280x720 image for some videos? YouTube makes HD thumbnails only for HD uploads. Best available then gives 640x480 or 480x360. The Actor never returns YouTube's gray "no thumbnail" placeholder.

Can I download a Short's thumbnail? Yes: the horizontal cover as for any video, and with Thumbnail size = All the vertical 1080x1920 image.

Can I download the video? No, only images. For titles, views, likes and tags of each video use YouTube Video Details Scraper.

Private or deleted videos? They have no thumbnail: the row says not found and is free.

Use with the API and AI agents

Run it via the Apify API from Python, Node.js or any HTTP client, or connect it to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI agents through the Apify MCP server: "Download the thumbnails of the last 20 MrBeast videos and tell me which ones he changed after publishing."

Other YouTube tools

Tool	What it does
YouTube Trending & Charts Scraper	Trending music videos and trailers, top songs, artists, Shorts songs, podcasts by country, chart history
YouTube Playlist Scraper	Every video of playlists to CSV, length at any speed, deleted video finder
YouTube Search Scraper	Search results with every filter, newest first, without Shorts
YouTube Channel Scraper	Channel stats, growth history, videos, Shorts and streams
YouTube Channel Email Scraper	Public emails, websites and socials of channels, influencer lists by niche
YouTube Video Details Scraper	Full details and exact stats of any videos, views tracker over time
YouTube Shorts Scraper	Shorts of channels, searches, hashtags and sounds: exact stats, viral score
YouTube Transcript Scraper	Transcripts and subtitles of videos, channels and playlists: text, SRT, search
YouTube Comments Scraper	Comments and replies of videos, Shorts and channels, only-new monitoring
YouTube SEO & Rank Tracker	Searches a video ranks for, keyword rankings, tags, suggestions
Google Sheets Import & Export	Send the results to a Google Sheet

Is it legal?

The Actor reads only public images and data that YouTube shows to any visitor, without logging in. Thumbnails are the work of their creators: use them for research, analysis, archiving your own channel and reference, and ask the owner before republishing them.