YouTube Thumbnail Scraper & Downloader

Overview

This Apify actor scrapes and downloads YouTube thumbnails. It extracts multiple resolution options and comprehensive metadata for any provided YouTube video URL. It supports bulk processing of multiple videos in a single run.

Key Features

• Thumbnail extraction: Fetches thumbnails from 360p up to 8K resolution, including the maximum available quality.
• Metadata collection: Retrieves video title, channel name, upload date, duration, and thumbnail dimensions.
• Bulk processing: Handles an array of YouTube video URLs simultaneously.
• Direct CDN links: Provides the original YouTube image URLs for download.
• Proxy support: Includes capability for residential IP rotation.
• URL validation: Automatically verifies input URLs are valid YouTube links.

How to Use

1. Prepare your input as a JSON object containing an array of video URLs.
2. Run the actor with this input.
3. The output will be a dataset containing the thumbnail URLs and metadata for each processed video.

Input

Configure the actor by providing a JSON object with a video_urls array. Each item requires a url and method.

Input Schema:

{
  "video_urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAMPLE_ID",
      "method": "GET"
    }
  ]
}

Output

The actor returns an array of objects, one for each processed video. Each object contains the original URL, core video metadata, a primary thumbnail link, detailed thumbnail metadata, and an array of available quality options.

Example Output:

[
  {
    "original_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmGo8hM_nhs",
    "title": "Example Video Title",
    "channel": "Example Channel",
    "duration": "10m 17s",
    "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cmGo8hM_nhs/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "thumbnail_metadata": {
      "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cmGo8hM_nhs/maxresdefault.jpg",
      "thumbnail_width": 7680,
      "thumbnail_height": 4320,
      "thumbnail_resolution": "7680x4320",
      "thumbnail_channel": "Example Channel",
      "thumbnail_upload_date": "2025-04-09"
    },
    "qualities": [
      {
        "resolution": 4320,
        "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cmGo8hM_nhs/maxresdefault.jpg",
        "explanation": "Thumbnail for resolution 4320"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Key Output Fields:
* original_url: The input YouTube URL.
* title / channel / duration: Basic video info.
* thumbnail: URL for the highest-quality thumbnail.
* thumbnail_metadata: Object containing precise dimensions, upload date, and source channel.
* qualities: Array listing all available thumbnail resolutions and their direct URLs.