catalogue / tools / Audio & video / Video Thumbnail API

Video Thumbnail API

Grabs a single frame from a video at a chosen timestamp as a PNG or JPEG, optionally scaled to a width.

Endpoint
POST /v1/video-thumbnail
Price
$0.003 per call
Family
Audio & video

01When to use it

  • Seeking and decoding one frame needs ffmpeg AND a hardened fetch: an agent that pulls the URL itself walks past every SSRF control, and carrying an ffmpeg per call is not something an agent does inline.
  • Your source is AVI, MKV, MP4 or Ogg and you need JPEG or PNG.

When not to use it

  • The input is over 200 MB (209,715,200 bytes): video-thumbnail answers too_large (413).
  • The destination needs more than 60 s to answer: the call ends with upstream_timeout (424).
  • The destination is on a private or local network: the network guard refuses it with blocked_target (403).

02Parameters

FieldTypeRequiredDescription
urlstringyesAbsolute http(s) URL of the video, at most 2048 characters; the container (MP4/MOV, MKV/WebM, AVI or Ogg) is detected from the bytes.
time_secondsnumbernoTimestamp of the frame to grab, in seconds from the start (0 to 86400, default 0); a time past the end fails with no_frame. Default: 0.
formatstringnoEncoding of the returned frame: png (default) or jpeg. One of: "png", "jpeg". Default: "png".
widthintegernoOutput width in pixels (16 to 4096); the height keeps the aspect ratio, rounded to an even number. Native size when omitted.

03Limits

LimitValue
Largest source file200 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Timeout60 s
Source formatsAVI, MKV, MP4, Ogg
Output formatsJPEG, PNG

04Example

The published example of video-thumbnail, verbatim: the request body and the response it returns.

Request
POST /v1/video-thumbnail
content-type: application/json
payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>

{
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4",
  "time_seconds": 1,
  "format": "png"
}
Response
200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>

{
  "source_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4",
  "bytes": 2587,
  "container": "mp4",
  "time_seconds": 1,
  "format": "png",
  "width": 128,
  "height": 72,
  "image_bytes": 292,
  "image_base64": "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAIAAAABICAIAAACx52pFAAAACXBIWXMAAAABAAAA..."
}

Sample file: av/thumbnail-clip.mp4. Three-second 128x72 MP4 at 2 fps with PNG-coded frames: a flat blue field with a 32x32 yellow square that slides 16 px right per frame, built with ffmpeg in bit-exact mode.

In the sample itself, the ftyp box names major brand isom, minor version 512 and compatible brands isom, iso2 and mp41; the top-level boxes run ftyp, free, mdat and moov, so the moov index comes after the media data; mvhd counts 3,000 ticks at 1,000 per second, 3 s; the 1 track is vide with sample entry mp4v. In the returned file: its IHDR chunk declares 128 by 72 pixels, 8-bit truecolour RGB and no interlacing. The next chunk is pHYs.

Response fieldTypeIn the example
source_urlstring"https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4"
bytesnumber2587
containerstring"mp4"
time_secondsnumber1
formatstring"png"
widthnumber128
heightnumber72
image_bytesnumber292
image_base64stringa string of 67 characters

05Call it from code

JavaScript
// video-thumbnail: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
// Install: npm install @x402/fetch@2 @x402/evm@2 viem@2
// Save as client.mjs (ES module, Node 18+), export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY with the paying wallet's key in your shell, then run: node client.mjs
// The wrapper reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY)
const client = new x402Client().register('eip155:8453', new ExactEvmScheme(account))
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client)

const body = {
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4",
  "time_seconds": 1,
  "format": "png"
}

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://grist.tools/v1/video-thumbnail', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify(body),
})
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
const settle = res.headers.get('payment-response')
if (settle) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(settle).transaction)
Python
# video-thumbnail: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# Install: pip install "x402[requests,evm]>=2.24,<3"
# The session reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http import decode_payment_response_header
from x402.http.clients.requests import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import register_exact_evm_client
from x402.mechanisms.evm.signers import EthAccountSigner

account = Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
client = x402ClientSync()
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(account), networks="eip155:8453")
session = x402_requests(client)

payload = {
    "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4",
    "time_seconds": 1,
    "format": "png"
}

res = session.post("https://grist.tools/v1/video-thumbnail", json=payload)
print(res.status_code, res.json())
settle = res.headers.get("payment-response")
if settle:
    print(decode_payment_response_header(settle).transaction)
curl
# video-thumbnail: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# 1. Unpaid call: HTTP 402, the requirements in the payment-required header (base64 JSON) and in the body.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/video-thumbnail' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4","time_seconds":1,"format":"png"}'

# 2. Same call with the signed payment (an EIP-3009 authorization, EIP-712 signed: it cannot be
#    typed by hand). x-payment is accepted as the v1 alternative. HTTP 200 carries payment-response.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/video-thumbnail' -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/av/thumbnail-clip.mp4","time_seconds":1,"format":"png"}'

06Errors

CodeHTTPFor this service
invalid_input400The body does not match the schema; its fields are url, time_seconds, format and width.
blocked_target403
unreachable_target424
upstream_timeout424
unsupported_content_type415The source is not a type video-thumbnail reads; it reads AVI, MKV, MP4 and Ogg.
too_large413
unprocessable422
internal500

Input that is rejected before the tool runs (malformed JSON, schema mismatch, body over the size limit) is never charged.

When each code is raised, and what it means for payment: /docs/video-thumbnail.

07Conversions

ConversionRecorded sampleSource sizeOutput size
AVI to JPEGav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB389 bytes
AVI to PNGav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB186 bytes
MKV to JPEGav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB389 bytes
MKV to PNGav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB186 bytes
MP4 to JPEGav/pair-clip.mp411 KB389 bytes
MP4 to PNGav/pair-clip.mp411 KB186 bytes
Ogg to JPEGav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB383 bytes
Ogg to PNGav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB705 bytes

08Questions

How much does a video-thumbnail call cost?
$0.003 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.
What does video-thumbnail return?
A JSON object with 9 top-level fields: source_url, bytes, container, time_seconds, format, width, height, image_bytes and image_base64. The example on this page is a real call over av/thumbnail-clip.mp4.
What happens when a video-thumbnail call fails?
The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.

09Related