If you have ever pasted a YouTube video ID into an img.youtube.com link and got two very different images back, you have already met this problem. maxresdefault.jpg looks sharp and wide. hqdefault.jpg looks smaller, and sometimes it comes with ugly black bars. So which one should you actually download?
Short answer: maxresdefault is the largest thumbnail YouTube serves, 1280×720 in true 16:9, but it does not exist for every video. hqdefault is 480×360 and is available for nearly every public video, but it is 4:3, so widescreen thumbnails get black bars. Use maxresdefault when it loads. If it doesn't, fall back to sddefault or hqdefault.
Where These File Names Come From
 |
| maxresdefault |
https://img.youtube.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/FILE_NAME.jpgTake the video ID from the link (the part after v=), swap in a file name, and you get that version of the image. For example:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg
https://img.youtube.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpgAll Five Thumbnail Versions at a Glance
| File name | Size (px) | Shape | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| default.jpg | 120 × 90 | 4:3, black bars | Nearly every public video |
| mqdefault.jpg | 320 × 180 | 16:9 | Nearly every public video |
| hqdefault.jpg | 480 × 360 | 4:3, black bars | Nearly every public video |
| sddefault.jpg | 640 × 480 | 4:3, black bars | Many videos |
| maxresdefault.jpg | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 | Only some videos |
maxresdefault: The Big, Clean One
This is the version most people want. It is 1280×720; it is true widescreen, and it matches what viewers see on the video page. There are no black bars to crop out, so it drops straight into a blog post, a presentation or a design mock-up.
The catch is availability. YouTube does not generate it for every video, so the link can come back as an error instead of an image.
hqdefault: The Reliable One
hqdefault is the one you can usually count on. If a video is public, this file is almost always there. It is a decent size for small previews, link cards or quick reference.
The trade-off is the shape. It is 480×360, which is 4:3, while most YouTube videos are 16:9. To fit a widescreen picture into a 4:3 frame, YouTube pads it with black bars at the top and bottom.
Why hqdefault Has Black Bars
The actual picture inside hqdefault is only about 480×270. The rest is padding. If you crop the bars away, you are left with a smaller image than the file size suggests. That is the main reason hqdefault often looks "off" when you place it next to the original thumbnail.
The same thing happens with default.jpg and sddefault.jpg, since they are also 4:3.