PyThumb

Simple command line utility and API for downloading YouTube thumbnails.

Supports JPEG and WebP formats in all sizes. Previews (animated thumbnails) are not supported due to the lack of direct URL or API access.

Requires Python 3.6+

Table of contents

• Installation
  • From source
• Usage
  • CLI
  • API
  • Thumbnail sizes
• License

Installation

Install via pip:

$ pip install pythumb

Or get binaries from the latest release.

From source

Use python instead of python3 on Windows

Download source code from the latest release, extract and cd into it.

(Optional) Create a virtual environment to manage packages easier.

Update pip and setuptools:

$ python3 -m pip install -U pip setuptools

Install this package:

$ python3 -m pip install .

---

Optionally you can build a standalone executable.

Prerequisites:

• Git Bash (Windows)

On Linux install python3-dev:

$ sudo apt install python3-dev

Install PyInstaller:

$ python3 -m pip install pyinstaller

Run the build script for your OS:

$ chmod +x ./scripts/build.sh
$ ./scripts/build.sh <win / linux>

You can find the executable in ./pyi-dist/.

Usage

CLI

$ pythumb [options] <input>

To save a thumbnail to the current directory, simply pass the video URL or 11-character ID (recommended quoted):

$ pythumb "https://youtu.be/aqz-KE-bpKQ"
# or
$ pythumb "aqz-KE-bpKQ"

Use --help for more details.

API

Example

from pythumb import Thumbnail
t = Thumbnail('https://youtu.be/aqz-KE-bpKQ')
t.fetch()
t.save('.')
# ./aqz-KE-bpKQ.jpg

Thumbnail sizes

Name	Size
maxresdefault	1280x720
sddefault	640x480
hqdefault	480x360
mqdefault	320x180
default	120x90

Auto-generated previews (start, middle and end of the video)

Name	Size
maxres1	1280x720
maxres2	1280x720
maxres3	1280x720
sd1	640x480
sd2	640x480
sd3	640x480
hq1	480x360
hq2	480x360
hq3	480x360
mq1	320x180
mq2	320x180
mq3	320x180
1	120x90
2	120x90
3	120x90

License

MIT license. See LICENSE for more information.