Live Streams Store Covers Like Any Other Video
There is nothing special about a broadcast from the extractor's point of view. A live stream, a premiere and an ordinary upload all sit at the same kind of watch link, all carry the same 11-character video ID, and all keep their cover images on the same Google image servers. Paste the link and the extraction is identical.
That holds whether the stream is scheduled, running or finished. The cover is created when the broadcast is set up, not when it goes live, which is why a premiere can be promoted with its artwork during the countdown.
The One Real Difference: Covers Get Replaced
Streams are the category where artwork changes most often. A creator sets a “LIVE NOW” cover for the broadcast, then swaps it for a normal one once the recording becomes a regular video on the channel. Some change it again when the video is added to a playlist or a series.
YouTube serves only the current version publicly. Once a cover is replaced, the previous one is not reachable through any public address — which is worth knowing before you rely on being able to fetch it later. If a particular stream cover matters to you, save it while it is up.
Which Link Formats Work
All of them. A standard watch?v= address, a youtu.be share link, a /live/ address and a /shorts/ link all contain the same video ID, and the extractor reads it from any of them. There is no need to convert the URL or wait for the broadcast to end.
Why People Download Stream Covers
Three reasons come up repeatedly: keeping a record of how a channel presented a series over time, studying what thumbnail style gets clicks in a live category where the artwork does more work than the title, and reusing your own past covers as templates for the next broadcast.
All three are ordinary uses of publicly published images. Re-uploading someone else's cover as your own remains a copyright matter between you and them — our Terms of Service sets out the line.