Explained: YouTube Thumbnail: “maxresdefault”

You’ve probably just:

• Opened a YouTube thumbnail
• And you’ve noticed that the file’s name is “maxresdefault”…
• So you’re wondering what that means.

It’s very simple! Let us explain.

What does ‘maxresdefault’ mean in YouTube Thumbnails?

Maxresdefault stands for “Maximum Resolution Default“. It is a auto-generated filename for thumbnails to tell you that the image is at its highest quality.

YouTube does this for all images — regardless of the filename creators give their thumbnails.

How to get YouTube Thumbnail ‘maxresdefault’

1. Open a YouTube video
2. Copy the video’s ID from the URL — the part after “watch?v=”
3. Paste it in this link: https://img.youtube.com/vi/Video-ID/maxresdefault.jpg
4. Hit Enter to access the link

Copy that and paste it in the link — then hit enter, and the maxresdefault thumbnail will open in a new tab.

It should look like this:

That’s it! You’ve got the maxresdefault thumbnail.

Related: How to see thumbnail in Full Size.

Thank you for reading this,
Thumbnail Test