YouTube thumbnail sizes & resolutions
Every YouTube video has up to five thumbnail sizes stored on Google's servers. Here's what each one is, when to use it, and how to grab the exact resolution you need.
- maxres — 1280×720 (HD, the one you want)
- sddefault — 640×480 (standard 4:3)
- hqdefault — 480×360 (safe fallback)
- mqdefault — 320×180 (mobile/previews)
- default — 120×90 (list thumbnails)
The five YouTube thumbnail sizes
YouTube generates thumbnails at fixed resolutions and stores them at predictable URLs. If a creator uploaded a custom thumbnail, maxres is available. Otherwise maxres may fall back to hqdefault, so MetaClipper checks each size and returns the highest that actually exists.
| Name | Pixels | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| maxresdefault | 1280×720 | Design work, presentations, HD embeds |
| sddefault | 640×480 | Legacy 4:3 layouts, older video uploads |
| hqdefault | 480×360 | The universal fallback — always exists |
| mqdefault | 320×180 | Mobile grids, quick previews |
| default | 120×90 | Compact lists, sidebars |
Why maxres sometimes fails
maxresdefault.jpg only exists if the creator uploaded a custom cover or the video was encoded at 720p or higher. On old or very small uploads, maxresdefault returns a 404 and you'll want hqdefault instead. MetaClipper does this check for you and only surfaces the sizes that resolve.
Which size should I download?
- Design or print work: maxres. Anything else will look soft.
- Blog embeds: hq. Small file, always available.
- Mobile-first mockups: mq. Matches how the thumbnail appears in the app.
- Bulk research: Grab them all — the ZIP export gives you every size in one download.
Are YouTube Shorts thumbnails different?
Same URLs, same sizes. The image stored is 16:9 even though the Short plays 9:16 — YouTube crops it visually in the feed. If you want the cropped 9:16 version, take the maxres file and crop the middle 720×1280 yourself.