Discover the Top Free Tools for YouTube Image Downloads

Best Free Downloaders: Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free[Online/Win/Mac]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

What is a YouTube thumbnail?

A YouTube thumbnail is nothing but the cover image shown on a video file on YouTube. It shows what you are going to talk about in the youtube video. A cool thumbnail will make the viewers want to click your video which in turn will help you to improve the traffic and number of clicks per video. Sometimes you may want to download youtube thumbnail from others. But it is very difficult to download a thumbnail directly from YouTube and many of you might not know that a thumbnail can be downloaded from elsewhere and then added to your content.

Here in this article, we will introduce the best 6 online tools available in the market to download YouTube thumbnail.

• 6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free
• Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free

Knowing the importance of YouTube thumbnails, you might now be wondering where to download the thumbnails for free. Let us have a look at some of the tools that can help you download YouTube thumbnail for free.

1. YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool

The YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool is a simple and free tool that helps you to download a thumbnail in four dimensions for your video, i.e. MQ 320*180, HQ 480*360, SD 640*480, and HD 1920*1080. Whether you are using a Windows or Mac OS, the thumbnail can be easily be downloaded via any browser.

Steps to Download:

• Open any browser and open this youtube thumbnail image tool from Here
• Copy the link from your youtube video
• Paste the URL link of the video in the box and hit on Search
• You will be then displayed different qualities of the thumbnail. Choose one (HD is recommended) and hit the Download button

The selected quality of thumbnail will be downloaded to your storage which can later be used while uploading a video to YouTube.

2. Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

This online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader tool has a lot of features among which creating thumbnail for a YouTube video is one. This free online tool can easily be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS via any browser. This downloader can generate thumbnails for videos in HD, HQ 1080p, and 4K formats and the thumbnails will be available in SD, HD(720), and Full HD(1080).

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of the youtube video you wish to generate the thumbnail
• Click Here to open this free tool with your browser and paste the link in the box displayed at the top
• As soon as you paste the link, the available qualities of the thumbnail will be displayed just below the box
• Choose your desired quality of the image and hit on the Download button on the image you wish to download

The image will be downloaded and saved to your device instantly. You can now use it as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

3. Thumbnail Save Tool

The Thumbnail Save Tool is also a free online tool which you can access from the browser of your Windows or Mac. It is a very simple tool that can generate thumbnails for HQ, HD, 1080P, and 4K videos instantly. Let us see how the thumbnail can be generated

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL of the video you want to create thumbnail
• Open this Thumbnail Save Tool from Here via your browser
• Paste the copied link in the box above Submit and hit Submit. Then the thumbnail will be generated instantly
• Now, to save the generated image to your device, right-click on the thumbnail and select the Save image as… option

The image will be saved to your device for later use as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

4. YouTube Thumbnail Grabber

The YouTube thumbnail grabber is an online tool that can help you to download a thumbnail from a YouTube video for free. This tool can simply be accessed both by windows and Mac users through any browser. This tool helps you to download a thumbnail in any quality in some simple steps. Let us see how.

Steps to Download:

• Open this youtube thumbnail grabber from Here with any browser. Then Copy the link of the youtube video.
• Paste the link in the box displayed on the page and hit the Get Thumbnails Image tab
• Five different qualities of thumbnails will be generated among which you can choose your desired quality
• Hit the Download button below the image you chose

The thumbnail will be downloaded to your device for later use.

5. Thumbnail Download Tool

This thumbnail download tool allows generating thumbnails from video platforms like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, and YouTube. It is a free online tool that enables you to download the thumbnail of your video in the best quality. The tool can be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS without any issues. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded for YouTube.

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL link of the video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here to open this Thumbnail Download Tool with your browseron any browser of your Windows or iOS.
• Paste the copied link in the box and press the Download button
• Choose the picture size among the results displayed
• Save the picture to your PC

Your thumbnail image is now ready to be used.

6. YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

The YouTube Thumbnail Downloader is an online tool that can help you to create thumbnails for your YouTube videos and blogs. This tool will help you to download full HD 1080*720 images from YouTube for free, irrespective of the operative system you are using. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of any YouTube video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here in your browser and Paste the link in the box
• Hit the Find button. Then different qualities of the image will be displayed
• Select your desired quality and tap on the download icon on the respective image

The image will now be saved to your device

Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

Don’t know how to create a clickable youtube thumbnail? Here we will recommend 5 tips for you!

1. Great thumbnail image quality and size

The thumbnail image quality should be good (HD/UHD). It should be bright. No matter what the device (a large TV) the viewers are using, care must be taken to avoid getting blurry thumbnails. The quality and the correct size of the thumbnail will create a positive image of the video in the user’s mind even before viewing the video. The video must be viewed from a variety of devices to test if the quality differs in different devices. Here are some specs for a perfect thumbnail

• The image formats should be in GIF, JPG PNG OR BMP
• The maximum size of the image must be 1280*720 px
• The minimum size 640*360 px
• The aspect ratio 16:9
• The maximum file size 2MB

2. Show a person in the Thumbnail image

A human face will get you closer to your audience. Our brain is wired in a way that a human face will draw its attention more than anything. So the users will naturally would an image with a human delivering the content rather than a robot or just a video of nonliving things. People tend to find a connection with the characters displayed on the thumbnail and hence prompting them to click on the video.

3. Use descriptive text in your thumbnail with branding elements

It is not completely possible to deliver a message through a picture and hence try to use descriptive texts. The texts should be clear enough and must be phrased in a manner that increases the curiosity or appeals to the emotions of the viewers. People tend to click a video just because of curiosity, wanting to know what the content is about. The type of font, color, and size also plays an important role in catching the attention of the audience.

4. Make Color Contrast between the text and background

Complementary colors will make your thumbnail stand out to some extent. Combining a yellow background with a purple foreground or green with red will make it easier to draw the attention of the browsers. Also, the use of analogous colors in the thumbnail makes it more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

Image resource: Pinterest

Analogous colors are the colors that appear next to each other on a color wheel

5. Consistency

Consistency is something most of the people prefer and makes a thing more attractive. A thumbnail video with consistent text font, color tuning, visual effect, etc. will catch the eye of the users as it will stand apart in the whole webpage. Consistency adds to the standards of a video and will make people feel that this video is productive or from an authentic source

Create Your Own YouTube Thumbnail with Filmora for Free

Now that we have learned about how to download YouTube thumbnail for free and the rules you should follows, you may want to create a thumbnail. There are many Youtube thumbnail makers on the market that can help you create a YouTube thumbnail like Canva, PixStudio and more. However, we would like to be different today and recommend Filmora to you.

The benefits of using Filmora to create your YouTube thumbnail is that you don’t need to look for other softwares. You can make a thumbnail while you are editing your video with Filmora easily.

Wondering how can you do it? Here is a video guide for you.

Conclusion

Getting the proper size and quality of a YouTube thumbnail is very important for activities like blogging, designing, etc. Here in this article, we have described how to download YouTube thumbnail from the best free downloaders available online in simple steps. These Thumbnail downloading tools can be accessed from any device with an internet connection and will help you to download the perfect thumbnail image of your choice within minutes. Please leave your feedback about our suggestions in the comment box below.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

What is a YouTube thumbnail?

A YouTube thumbnail is nothing but the cover image shown on a video file on YouTube. It shows what you are going to talk about in the youtube video. A cool thumbnail will make the viewers want to click your video which in turn will help you to improve the traffic and number of clicks per video. Sometimes you may want to download youtube thumbnail from others. But it is very difficult to download a thumbnail directly from YouTube and many of you might not know that a thumbnail can be downloaded from elsewhere and then added to your content.

Here in this article, we will introduce the best 6 online tools available in the market to download YouTube thumbnail.

• 6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free
• Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free

Knowing the importance of YouTube thumbnails, you might now be wondering where to download the thumbnails for free. Let us have a look at some of the tools that can help you download YouTube thumbnail for free.

1. YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool

The YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool is a simple and free tool that helps you to download a thumbnail in four dimensions for your video, i.e. MQ 320*180, HQ 480*360, SD 640*480, and HD 1920*1080. Whether you are using a Windows or Mac OS, the thumbnail can be easily be downloaded via any browser.

Steps to Download:

• Open any browser and open this youtube thumbnail image tool from Here
• Copy the link from your youtube video
• Paste the URL link of the video in the box and hit on Search
• You will be then displayed different qualities of the thumbnail. Choose one (HD is recommended) and hit the Download button

The selected quality of thumbnail will be downloaded to your storage which can later be used while uploading a video to YouTube.

2. Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

This online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader tool has a lot of features among which creating thumbnail for a YouTube video is one. This free online tool can easily be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS via any browser. This downloader can generate thumbnails for videos in HD, HQ 1080p, and 4K formats and the thumbnails will be available in SD, HD(720), and Full HD(1080).

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of the youtube video you wish to generate the thumbnail
• Click Here to open this free tool with your browser and paste the link in the box displayed at the top
• As soon as you paste the link, the available qualities of the thumbnail will be displayed just below the box
• Choose your desired quality of the image and hit on the Download button on the image you wish to download

The image will be downloaded and saved to your device instantly. You can now use it as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

3. Thumbnail Save Tool

The Thumbnail Save Tool is also a free online tool which you can access from the browser of your Windows or Mac. It is a very simple tool that can generate thumbnails for HQ, HD, 1080P, and 4K videos instantly. Let us see how the thumbnail can be generated

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL of the video you want to create thumbnail
• Open this Thumbnail Save Tool from Here via your browser
• Paste the copied link in the box above Submit and hit Submit. Then the thumbnail will be generated instantly
• Now, to save the generated image to your device, right-click on the thumbnail and select the Save image as… option

The image will be saved to your device for later use as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

4. YouTube Thumbnail Grabber

The YouTube thumbnail grabber is an online tool that can help you to download a thumbnail from a YouTube video for free. This tool can simply be accessed both by windows and Mac users through any browser. This tool helps you to download a thumbnail in any quality in some simple steps. Let us see how.

Steps to Download:

• Open this youtube thumbnail grabber from Here with any browser. Then Copy the link of the youtube video.
• Paste the link in the box displayed on the page and hit the Get Thumbnails Image tab
• Five different qualities of thumbnails will be generated among which you can choose your desired quality
• Hit the Download button below the image you chose

The thumbnail will be downloaded to your device for later use.

5. Thumbnail Download Tool

This thumbnail download tool allows generating thumbnails from video platforms like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, and YouTube. It is a free online tool that enables you to download the thumbnail of your video in the best quality. The tool can be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS without any issues. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded for YouTube.

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL link of the video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here to open this Thumbnail Download Tool with your browseron any browser of your Windows or iOS.
• Paste the copied link in the box and press the Download button
• Choose the picture size among the results displayed
• Save the picture to your PC

Your thumbnail image is now ready to be used.

6. YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

The YouTube Thumbnail Downloader is an online tool that can help you to create thumbnails for your YouTube videos and blogs. This tool will help you to download full HD 1080*720 images from YouTube for free, irrespective of the operative system you are using. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of any YouTube video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here in your browser and Paste the link in the box
• Hit the Find button. Then different qualities of the image will be displayed
• Select your desired quality and tap on the download icon on the respective image

The image will now be saved to your device

Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

Don’t know how to create a clickable youtube thumbnail? Here we will recommend 5 tips for you!

1. Great thumbnail image quality and size

The thumbnail image quality should be good (HD/UHD). It should be bright. No matter what the device (a large TV) the viewers are using, care must be taken to avoid getting blurry thumbnails. The quality and the correct size of the thumbnail will create a positive image of the video in the user’s mind even before viewing the video. The video must be viewed from a variety of devices to test if the quality differs in different devices. Here are some specs for a perfect thumbnail

• The image formats should be in GIF, JPG PNG OR BMP
• The maximum size of the image must be 1280*720 px
• The minimum size 640*360 px
• The aspect ratio 16:9
• The maximum file size 2MB

2. Show a person in the Thumbnail image

A human face will get you closer to your audience. Our brain is wired in a way that a human face will draw its attention more than anything. So the users will naturally would an image with a human delivering the content rather than a robot or just a video of nonliving things. People tend to find a connection with the characters displayed on the thumbnail and hence prompting them to click on the video.

3. Use descriptive text in your thumbnail with branding elements

It is not completely possible to deliver a message through a picture and hence try to use descriptive texts. The texts should be clear enough and must be phrased in a manner that increases the curiosity or appeals to the emotions of the viewers. People tend to click a video just because of curiosity, wanting to know what the content is about. The type of font, color, and size also plays an important role in catching the attention of the audience.

4. Make Color Contrast between the text and background

Complementary colors will make your thumbnail stand out to some extent. Combining a yellow background with a purple foreground or green with red will make it easier to draw the attention of the browsers. Also, the use of analogous colors in the thumbnail makes it more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

Image resource: Pinterest

Analogous colors are the colors that appear next to each other on a color wheel

5. Consistency

Consistency is something most of the people prefer and makes a thing more attractive. A thumbnail video with consistent text font, color tuning, visual effect, etc. will catch the eye of the users as it will stand apart in the whole webpage. Consistency adds to the standards of a video and will make people feel that this video is productive or from an authentic source

Create Your Own YouTube Thumbnail with Filmora for Free

Now that we have learned about how to download YouTube thumbnail for free and the rules you should follows, you may want to create a thumbnail. There are many Youtube thumbnail makers on the market that can help you create a YouTube thumbnail like Canva, PixStudio and more. However, we would like to be different today and recommend Filmora to you.

The benefits of using Filmora to create your YouTube thumbnail is that you don’t need to look for other softwares. You can make a thumbnail while you are editing your video with Filmora easily.

Wondering how can you do it? Here is a video guide for you.

Conclusion

Getting the proper size and quality of a YouTube thumbnail is very important for activities like blogging, designing, etc. Here in this article, we have described how to download YouTube thumbnail from the best free downloaders available online in simple steps. These Thumbnail downloading tools can be accessed from any device with an internet connection and will help you to download the perfect thumbnail image of your choice within minutes. Please leave your feedback about our suggestions in the comment box below.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

What is a YouTube thumbnail?

A YouTube thumbnail is nothing but the cover image shown on a video file on YouTube. It shows what you are going to talk about in the youtube video. A cool thumbnail will make the viewers want to click your video which in turn will help you to improve the traffic and number of clicks per video. Sometimes you may want to download youtube thumbnail from others. But it is very difficult to download a thumbnail directly from YouTube and many of you might not know that a thumbnail can be downloaded from elsewhere and then added to your content.

Here in this article, we will introduce the best 6 online tools available in the market to download YouTube thumbnail.

• 6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free
• Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free

Knowing the importance of YouTube thumbnails, you might now be wondering where to download the thumbnails for free. Let us have a look at some of the tools that can help you download YouTube thumbnail for free.

1. YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool

The YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool is a simple and free tool that helps you to download a thumbnail in four dimensions for your video, i.e. MQ 320*180, HQ 480*360, SD 640*480, and HD 1920*1080. Whether you are using a Windows or Mac OS, the thumbnail can be easily be downloaded via any browser.

Steps to Download:

• Open any browser and open this youtube thumbnail image tool from Here
• Copy the link from your youtube video
• Paste the URL link of the video in the box and hit on Search
• You will be then displayed different qualities of the thumbnail. Choose one (HD is recommended) and hit the Download button

The selected quality of thumbnail will be downloaded to your storage which can later be used while uploading a video to YouTube.

2. Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

This online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader tool has a lot of features among which creating thumbnail for a YouTube video is one. This free online tool can easily be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS via any browser. This downloader can generate thumbnails for videos in HD, HQ 1080p, and 4K formats and the thumbnails will be available in SD, HD(720), and Full HD(1080).

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of the youtube video you wish to generate the thumbnail
• Click Here to open this free tool with your browser and paste the link in the box displayed at the top
• As soon as you paste the link, the available qualities of the thumbnail will be displayed just below the box
• Choose your desired quality of the image and hit on the Download button on the image you wish to download

The image will be downloaded and saved to your device instantly. You can now use it as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

3. Thumbnail Save Tool

The Thumbnail Save Tool is also a free online tool which you can access from the browser of your Windows or Mac. It is a very simple tool that can generate thumbnails for HQ, HD, 1080P, and 4K videos instantly. Let us see how the thumbnail can be generated

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL of the video you want to create thumbnail
• Open this Thumbnail Save Tool from Here via your browser
• Paste the copied link in the box above Submit and hit Submit. Then the thumbnail will be generated instantly
• Now, to save the generated image to your device, right-click on the thumbnail and select the Save image as… option

The image will be saved to your device for later use as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

4. YouTube Thumbnail Grabber

The YouTube thumbnail grabber is an online tool that can help you to download a thumbnail from a YouTube video for free. This tool can simply be accessed both by windows and Mac users through any browser. This tool helps you to download a thumbnail in any quality in some simple steps. Let us see how.

Steps to Download:

• Open this youtube thumbnail grabber from Here with any browser. Then Copy the link of the youtube video.
• Paste the link in the box displayed on the page and hit the Get Thumbnails Image tab
• Five different qualities of thumbnails will be generated among which you can choose your desired quality
• Hit the Download button below the image you chose

The thumbnail will be downloaded to your device for later use.

5. Thumbnail Download Tool

This thumbnail download tool allows generating thumbnails from video platforms like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, and YouTube. It is a free online tool that enables you to download the thumbnail of your video in the best quality. The tool can be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS without any issues. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded for YouTube.

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL link of the video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here to open this Thumbnail Download Tool with your browseron any browser of your Windows or iOS.
• Paste the copied link in the box and press the Download button
• Choose the picture size among the results displayed
• Save the picture to your PC

Your thumbnail image is now ready to be used.

6. YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

The YouTube Thumbnail Downloader is an online tool that can help you to create thumbnails for your YouTube videos and blogs. This tool will help you to download full HD 1080*720 images from YouTube for free, irrespective of the operative system you are using. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of any YouTube video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here in your browser and Paste the link in the box
• Hit the Find button. Then different qualities of the image will be displayed
• Select your desired quality and tap on the download icon on the respective image

The image will now be saved to your device

Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

Don’t know how to create a clickable youtube thumbnail? Here we will recommend 5 tips for you!

1. Great thumbnail image quality and size

The thumbnail image quality should be good (HD/UHD). It should be bright. No matter what the device (a large TV) the viewers are using, care must be taken to avoid getting blurry thumbnails. The quality and the correct size of the thumbnail will create a positive image of the video in the user’s mind even before viewing the video. The video must be viewed from a variety of devices to test if the quality differs in different devices. Here are some specs for a perfect thumbnail

• The image formats should be in GIF, JPG PNG OR BMP
• The maximum size of the image must be 1280*720 px
• The minimum size 640*360 px
• The aspect ratio 16:9
• The maximum file size 2MB

2. Show a person in the Thumbnail image

A human face will get you closer to your audience. Our brain is wired in a way that a human face will draw its attention more than anything. So the users will naturally would an image with a human delivering the content rather than a robot or just a video of nonliving things. People tend to find a connection with the characters displayed on the thumbnail and hence prompting them to click on the video.

3. Use descriptive text in your thumbnail with branding elements

It is not completely possible to deliver a message through a picture and hence try to use descriptive texts. The texts should be clear enough and must be phrased in a manner that increases the curiosity or appeals to the emotions of the viewers. People tend to click a video just because of curiosity, wanting to know what the content is about. The type of font, color, and size also plays an important role in catching the attention of the audience.

4. Make Color Contrast between the text and background

Complementary colors will make your thumbnail stand out to some extent. Combining a yellow background with a purple foreground or green with red will make it easier to draw the attention of the browsers. Also, the use of analogous colors in the thumbnail makes it more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

Image resource: Pinterest

Analogous colors are the colors that appear next to each other on a color wheel

5. Consistency

Consistency is something most of the people prefer and makes a thing more attractive. A thumbnail video with consistent text font, color tuning, visual effect, etc. will catch the eye of the users as it will stand apart in the whole webpage. Consistency adds to the standards of a video and will make people feel that this video is productive or from an authentic source

Create Your Own YouTube Thumbnail with Filmora for Free

Now that we have learned about how to download YouTube thumbnail for free and the rules you should follows, you may want to create a thumbnail. There are many Youtube thumbnail makers on the market that can help you create a YouTube thumbnail like Canva, PixStudio and more. However, we would like to be different today and recommend Filmora to you.

The benefits of using Filmora to create your YouTube thumbnail is that you don’t need to look for other softwares. You can make a thumbnail while you are editing your video with Filmora easily.

Wondering how can you do it? Here is a video guide for you.

Conclusion

Getting the proper size and quality of a YouTube thumbnail is very important for activities like blogging, designing, etc. Here in this article, we have described how to download YouTube thumbnail from the best free downloaders available online in simple steps. These Thumbnail downloading tools can be accessed from any device with an internet connection and will help you to download the perfect thumbnail image of your choice within minutes. Please leave your feedback about our suggestions in the comment box below.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

What is a YouTube thumbnail?

A YouTube thumbnail is nothing but the cover image shown on a video file on YouTube. It shows what you are going to talk about in the youtube video. A cool thumbnail will make the viewers want to click your video which in turn will help you to improve the traffic and number of clicks per video. Sometimes you may want to download youtube thumbnail from others. But it is very difficult to download a thumbnail directly from YouTube and many of you might not know that a thumbnail can be downloaded from elsewhere and then added to your content.

Here in this article, we will introduce the best 6 online tools available in the market to download YouTube thumbnail.

• 6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free
• Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

6 Online Tools to Download YouTube Thumbnail for Free

Knowing the importance of YouTube thumbnails, you might now be wondering where to download the thumbnails for free. Let us have a look at some of the tools that can help you download YouTube thumbnail for free.

1. YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool

The YouTube Thumbnail Image Tool is a simple and free tool that helps you to download a thumbnail in four dimensions for your video, i.e. MQ 320*180, HQ 480*360, SD 640*480, and HD 1920*1080. Whether you are using a Windows or Mac OS, the thumbnail can be easily be downloaded via any browser.

Steps to Download:

• Open any browser and open this youtube thumbnail image tool from Here
• Copy the link from your youtube video
• Paste the URL link of the video in the box and hit on Search
• You will be then displayed different qualities of the thumbnail. Choose one (HD is recommended) and hit the Download button

The selected quality of thumbnail will be downloaded to your storage which can later be used while uploading a video to YouTube.

2. Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

This online YouTube Thumbnail Downloader tool has a lot of features among which creating thumbnail for a YouTube video is one. This free online tool can easily be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS via any browser. This downloader can generate thumbnails for videos in HD, HQ 1080p, and 4K formats and the thumbnails will be available in SD, HD(720), and Full HD(1080).

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of the youtube video you wish to generate the thumbnail
• Click Here to open this free tool with your browser and paste the link in the box displayed at the top
• As soon as you paste the link, the available qualities of the thumbnail will be displayed just below the box
• Choose your desired quality of the image and hit on the Download button on the image you wish to download

The image will be downloaded and saved to your device instantly. You can now use it as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

3. Thumbnail Save Tool

The Thumbnail Save Tool is also a free online tool which you can access from the browser of your Windows or Mac. It is a very simple tool that can generate thumbnails for HQ, HD, 1080P, and 4K videos instantly. Let us see how the thumbnail can be generated

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL of the video you want to create thumbnail
• Open this Thumbnail Save Tool from Here via your browser
• Paste the copied link in the box above Submit and hit Submit. Then the thumbnail will be generated instantly
• Now, to save the generated image to your device, right-click on the thumbnail and select the Save image as… option

The image will be saved to your device for later use as a thumbnail for your YouTube video.

4. YouTube Thumbnail Grabber

The YouTube thumbnail grabber is an online tool that can help you to download a thumbnail from a YouTube video for free. This tool can simply be accessed both by windows and Mac users through any browser. This tool helps you to download a thumbnail in any quality in some simple steps. Let us see how.

Steps to Download:

• Open this youtube thumbnail grabber from Here with any browser. Then Copy the link of the youtube video.
• Paste the link in the box displayed on the page and hit the Get Thumbnails Image tab
• Five different qualities of thumbnails will be generated among which you can choose your desired quality
• Hit the Download button below the image you chose

The thumbnail will be downloaded to your device for later use.

5. Thumbnail Download Tool

This thumbnail download tool allows generating thumbnails from video platforms like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, and YouTube. It is a free online tool that enables you to download the thumbnail of your video in the best quality. The tool can be accessed both on Windows and Mac OS without any issues. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded for YouTube.

Steps to Download:

• Copy the URL link of the video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here to open this Thumbnail Download Tool with your browseron any browser of your Windows or iOS.
• Paste the copied link in the box and press the Download button
• Choose the picture size among the results displayed
• Save the picture to your PC

Your thumbnail image is now ready to be used.

6. YouTube Thumbnail Downloader

The YouTube Thumbnail Downloader is an online tool that can help you to create thumbnails for your YouTube videos and blogs. This tool will help you to download full HD 1080*720 images from YouTube for free, irrespective of the operative system you are using. Let us see how the thumbnail can be downloaded

Steps to Download:

• Copy the link of any YouTube video you wish to generate a thumbnail
• Click Here in your browser and Paste the link in the box
• Hit the Find button. Then different qualities of the image will be displayed
• Select your desired quality and tap on the download icon on the respective image

The image will now be saved to your device

Bonus Tips to Create a Clickable YouTube Thumbnail

Don’t know how to create a clickable youtube thumbnail? Here we will recommend 5 tips for you!

1. Great thumbnail image quality and size

The thumbnail image quality should be good (HD/UHD). It should be bright. No matter what the device (a large TV) the viewers are using, care must be taken to avoid getting blurry thumbnails. The quality and the correct size of the thumbnail will create a positive image of the video in the user’s mind even before viewing the video. The video must be viewed from a variety of devices to test if the quality differs in different devices. Here are some specs for a perfect thumbnail

• The image formats should be in GIF, JPG PNG OR BMP
• The maximum size of the image must be 1280*720 px
• The minimum size 640*360 px
• The aspect ratio 16:9
• The maximum file size 2MB

2. Show a person in the Thumbnail image

A human face will get you closer to your audience. Our brain is wired in a way that a human face will draw its attention more than anything. So the users will naturally would an image with a human delivering the content rather than a robot or just a video of nonliving things. People tend to find a connection with the characters displayed on the thumbnail and hence prompting them to click on the video.

3. Use descriptive text in your thumbnail with branding elements

It is not completely possible to deliver a message through a picture and hence try to use descriptive texts. The texts should be clear enough and must be phrased in a manner that increases the curiosity or appeals to the emotions of the viewers. People tend to click a video just because of curiosity, wanting to know what the content is about. The type of font, color, and size also plays an important role in catching the attention of the audience.

4. Make Color Contrast between the text and background

Complementary colors will make your thumbnail stand out to some extent. Combining a yellow background with a purple foreground or green with red will make it easier to draw the attention of the browsers. Also, the use of analogous colors in the thumbnail makes it more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

Image resource: Pinterest

Analogous colors are the colors that appear next to each other on a color wheel

5. Consistency

Consistency is something most of the people prefer and makes a thing more attractive. A thumbnail video with consistent text font, color tuning, visual effect, etc. will catch the eye of the users as it will stand apart in the whole webpage. Consistency adds to the standards of a video and will make people feel that this video is productive or from an authentic source

Create Your Own YouTube Thumbnail with Filmora for Free

Now that we have learned about how to download YouTube thumbnail for free and the rules you should follows, you may want to create a thumbnail. There are many Youtube thumbnail makers on the market that can help you create a YouTube thumbnail like Canva, PixStudio and more. However, we would like to be different today and recommend Filmora to you.

The benefits of using Filmora to create your YouTube thumbnail is that you don’t need to look for other softwares. You can make a thumbnail while you are editing your video with Filmora easily.

Wondering how can you do it? Here is a video guide for you.

Conclusion

Getting the proper size and quality of a YouTube thumbnail is very important for activities like blogging, designing, etc. Here in this article, we have described how to download YouTube thumbnail from the best free downloaders available online in simple steps. These Thumbnail downloading tools can be accessed from any device with an internet connection and will help you to download the perfect thumbnail image of your choice within minutes. Please leave your feedback about our suggestions in the comment box below.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

YouTube Video Organization: The Art of Chapter Addition

How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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