---
title: Generate Video File Thumbnail API
slug: generate-video-file-thumbnail
url: https://apyhub.com/freedailypro/service/generate-video-file-thumbnail
provider: FreeDailyPro
tags: [video, thumbnail, frame extraction, screenshot, image, media, video processing]
auth: api_key
version: 1.0.0
service_type: sync
endpoints: 1
atoms: 10
mcp: true
---

# Generate Video File Thumbnail API

Generate a thumbnail from any video with one API call. Pick the exact second, upload videos up to 100 MB and get a ready-to-use still image back.

## Endpoints

| Method | URL | Description | Atoms |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| POST | `https://api.eu.apyhub.com/freedailypro/generate-video-file-thumbnail/video-thumbnail` | What it does Extracts a single still frame from an uploaded video at the time you choose and return… | 10 |

## Endpoint reference

### Grab a still frame from a video

`POST https://api.eu.apyhub.com/freedailypro/generate-video-file-thumbnail/video-thumbnail` · 10 atoms · accepts `multipart/form-data` · returns `application/json`

| Parameter | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `file` | body | string (binary) | yes | The video. Up to 100 MB. |
| `atSeconds` | body | number | no | Time of the frame in seconds, default 0 |

#### Quickstart

Upload a video to generate a thumbnail frame from the default time in the video.

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.eu.apyhub.com/freedailypro/generate-video-file-thumbnail/video-thumbnail" \
  -H "apy-token: $APY_TOKEN" \
  -F "file=@/path/to/video.mp4"
```

#### What you'll get back

Returns a binary file (`string` with `format: binary`) as the thumbnail image.

## About

## What it does
Video Thumbnail Generator gives you a still image from an uploaded video file. Send a video in the `file` field, optionally set `atSeconds` to choose the frame time, and get the thumbnail back as binary image data.

Use it when you need a preview image for a media library, a video upload flow, search results, or a content management system. The request accepts a video up to 100 MB, so it fits common ingestion and processing pipelines without extra preprocessing.

The response is a binary file, which makes it easy to store, resize, or pass into the next step of your media workflow. If you omit `atSeconds`, the service uses the start of the video by default.

Video Thumbnail Generator is a focused file transformation utility: one input video, one extracted frame, returned as an image asset you can use immediately.

## Usage

Base URL: `https://api.eu.apyhub.com` (default region — see
`GET https://apyhub.com/api/public/regions` for the rest).

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