Help Center/ Video On Demand/ Best Practices/ Setting a Video Thumbnail
Updated on 2026-03-09 GMT+08:00
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Setting a Video Thumbnail

Scenarios

Video thumbnails not only look nicer but also help you search for the desired file if you have lots of video files in VOD. A thumbnail address is generated for the uploaded video thumbnail. The thumbnail and video file can be directly referenced to the web page.

When a video is uploaded, VOD captures the first frame of the first second as the thumbnail by default. You can also upload a custom image or use a captured snapshot as the video thumbnail.
  • If you want an image that says what the video is about as the thumbnail, then upload a custom image. Before the upload, design a JPG or PNG thumbnail.
  • If you want one frame of the video as the thumbnail, then use a captured snapshot. You do not need to prepare anything. You can directly use snapshot capturing to create snapshots.

Set a video thumbnail in one of the following ways:

Setting a Video Thumbnail on the VOD Console

You can upload a thumbnail on the Audio and Video Management page of the VOD console.
  1. Log in to the VOD console.
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Audio and Video Management.
  3. Click Details in the row containing the target video file. On the Basic Information tab page, click Edit on the right.
  4. Click the plus sign on the right of Thumbnail to upload a local thumbnail image. Confirm your thumbnail selection and click OK. Then, click Save.
You can also configure a video snapshot as the thumbnail on the Video Processing > Snapshots page of the VOD console.
  1. Log in to the VOD console.
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Video Processing > Snapshots.
  3. Select the video for which you want to take a snapshot and click Create Snapshot Task. In the dialog box displayed, set snapshot parameters.
    • Taking snapshots by time interval: The system takes snapshots at regular intervals from the first frame to the last frame. The interval cannot exceed 12 seconds.
    • Taking snapshots at fixed time: The system takes snapshots at fixed time points. A maximum of 10 time points can be configured for a video.
    • Taking snapshots by total count: The system takes snapshots at equal intervals throughout video based on the specified count.
    Please note that:
    • You can take snapshots from an MP4, TS, MOV, MXF, FLV, MPG, WMV, AVI, M4V, F4V, MPEG, 3GP, ASF, MKV, WEBM, RMVB, VOB, RM, MTS, DV, DAT, QT, M2T, or SWF video.
    • Snapshots are saved as JPG files.
    Figure 1 Snapshot settings
  4. Click Confirm.
  5. Click Details and select a snapshot as the video thumbnail.

Setting a Video Thumbnail by Calling a VOD API

You can call media upload APIs, API for updating a media file, or API for processing a media file to set a video thumbnail.

  • Set the thumbnail when uploading a video.
    You can directly upload media files to VOD, replicate media files from OBS to VOD, or pull media files to VOD from URLs. If you use direct upload, you can set a custom image or snapshot as the thumbnail. If you use one of other two methods, you can only set a snapshot as the thumbnail. The details are as follows:
    • Directly upload media files to VOD.

      Call the API for Uploading Media Files to VOD. Send the request parameters including cover_type and obtain cover_upload_url from the response parameters. Then upload a custom thumbnail via cover_upload_url.

      Call the API for Uploading Media Files to VOD. Set thumbnail in the request parameters, including snapshot parameters and which snapshot serves as the thumbnail.

    • Replicate media files from OBS to VOD, or pull media files to VOD from URLs.

      Call the API for Dumping Media Assets to OBS or the API for Pulling Media Files from URLs. Configure thumbnail in the request parameters, set the snapshot type, and specify a snapshot as the thumbnail.

  • Set the thumbnail when updating a video.

    Call the API for Updating a Media File. Send the request parameters including cover_type and obtain cover_upload_url from the response parameters. Then upload a custom thumbnail via cover_upload_url.

  • Set the thumbnail when processing a video.

    Call the API for Processing a Media File to generate snapshots and specify which snapshot as the thumbnail. If you need to change the thumbnail, call the API for querying file details to obtain the thumbnail URL, and then call the API for Setting a Thumbnail.