http://img.youtube.com/vi//0.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//1.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//2.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//3.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//default.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//hqdefault.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//mqdefault.jpg http://img.youtube.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg $.getJSON("http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/gzDS-Kfd5XQ?v=2&alt=jsonc&callback=?", function(json){ $("").attr("src", json["data"]["thumbnail"]["sqDefault"]).appendTo("body"); }); data->thumbnail->sqDefault . '">'; http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/SomeVideoIDHere/0.jpg //grab the default thumb $attrs = $media->group->thumbnail[1]->attributes(); $thumbnail = $attrs['url']; $thumbnail = substr($thumbnail, 0,-5); $thumb1 = $thumbnail."default.jpg"; //grab the third $thumb2 = $thumbnail."2.jpg"; //grab the fourth. $thumb3 = $thumbnail."3.jpg"; //Using simple cURL to save it your server. You can extends the cURL below if you want it fancy just like the rest of the folks here. $ch = curl_init ("$thumb1"); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER,1); $rawdata=curl_exec ($ch); curl_close ($ch); //using fwrite to save the above $fp = fopen("SomeLocationInreferenceToYourScript/AnyNameYouWant.jpg",'w'); //write the file fwrite($fp, $rawdata); //and then close it. fclose($fp);