Frameskim Apify Store

YouTube screenshot API

Screenshot a YouTube video at an exact timestamp

Send a public YouTube URL and a start time. Frameskim returns the frame at that second as an image file, with its timestamp, taken from the video itself and not from a page with the player around it.

Run it on Apify View API example

$0.615 for this run: $0.60 per video in HD plus $0.015 per frame ($0.135 with the standard quality, $0.12 per video). A run that fails is not charged.

Real output: the frame at 0:35
The heat shield, a dark disc, falling away above the surface of Mars, at 0:00:35.

NASA’s Perseverance descent video, the frame at 0:35 of recorded run f8TXd8IVEg1CiiKqZ (the picture is the same second from another recorded run of that video). Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Input and output

Input: one frame at 0:35
{
  "mode": "frames",
  "url": "https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg",
  "start": "0:35",
  "maxFrames": 1,
  "quality": "hd"
}

start takes seconds, M:SS or H:MM:SS. maxFrames: 1 returns the frame at start and nothing else. The recorded run used quality: hd, which pays for a full-resolution attempt.

Output: the item for that frame
{
  "videoId": "4czjS9h4Fpg", "t": 35.0, "ts": "0:00:35",
  "imageUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/frame-000-35000.jpg",
  "width": 854, "height": 480, "source": "media"
}

Values shortened. imageUrl is a signed link that opens without a token. A last item summarizes the run.

More than one timestamp

Give a range and an interval to get a frame every N seconds, for example one every 10 seconds from 0:35 to 2:25. The segment mode adds the words spoken between each frame and the next, and the moments mode finds the second that answers a question in plain language. For the words of the whole video, see the YouTube transcript API.

Input: a frame every 10 seconds
{
  "mode": "frames",
  "url": "https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg",
  "start": "0:35", "end": "2:25", "every": 10
}

Pricing

$0.12 per video + $0.015 per frame

With quality: hd, as in the example above, the video costs $0.60 instead of $0.12.

Pay per event on Apify, no subscription, and never more than the spending limit you set for the run. A frame taken from YouTube’s storyboard instead of the video costs $0.002.

Limits

  • One public video per run. Channels, playlists and searches are not accepted.
  • Frames come from the video itself, up to 480p. If YouTube blocks the download, Frameskim falls back to low-resolution storyboard frames and says so in the run summary.
  • A run that ends with an error says “Nothing was charged.”

Call it from your code

API
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/emttn~frameskim/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg", "start": "0:35", "maxFrames": 1, "quality": "hd"}'

It needs an Apify API token. The same actor is available to agents over MCP.