---
title: Generate Video Thumbnail API
slug: generate-video-thumbnail
url: https://apyhub.com/apyhub/service/generate-video-thumbnail
provider: ApyHub
categories: [File Conversion, File Manipulation]
auth: api_key
---

# Generate Video Thumbnail API

Trim a short clip from an uploaded video or a remote video URL. Get binary output or a signed link for previews, samples, and media workflows.

## Endpoints

| Method | Path | Description | Atoms |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| POST | `/generate/video-thumbnail/file` | What it does Trims a segment from an uploaded video file and streams the resulting download back as… | 550 |
| POST | `/generate/video-thumbnail/file/url` | What it does Trims a short clip from an uploaded video and returns a signed URL to the generated fi… | 550 |
| POST | `/generate/video-thumbnail/url/file` | What it does Trims a video clip from a remote URL and streams the resulting file as a binary downlo… | 550 |
| POST | `/generate/video-thumbnail/url` | What it does Creates a trimmed video clip from a remote video URL and returns a signed URI for the… | 550 |

## About

## What it does
Video Thumbnail Generator trims a short clip from a video file or a remote video URL and returns the clip as either a streamed download or a signed link. Send a source video, choose a start time and duration, and optionally set the output size to control the clip dimensions.

Use the file-based endpoints when you already have the video in hand, or the URL-based endpoints when the source lives elsewhere. For uploaded videos, the service accepts a binary video file in .mp4, .mkv, .avi, .mov, .flv, .3gp, or .webm format up to 500 MiB. For remote sources, provide a video_url. In both cases, you can set start_time, duration, and size.

The response depends on the endpoint you choose: stream the clip back as binary data, or receive a JSON object with a data field containing a signed URI. That makes it useful for generating previews in content workflows, embedding short samples in product pages, or extracting a specific segment from longer footage without handling video processing yourself.

If you need a compact video snippet from an upload or a hosted asset, Video Thumbnail Generator keeps the interface simple and the output predictable.

## Usage

Authenticate with an ApyHub API key in the `apy-token` header.
Full docs and a live playground: https://apyhub.com/apyhub/service/generate-video-thumbnail