Sometimes you do not need the whole video. You need one good picture from it: a cover for an upload, a still for a slide, a frame to show a client. Or you need a whole set of pictures, one every few seconds, to see how a video unfolds.
This video frame extractor works right in your browser. It makes a video thumbnail from the exact frame you choose, or saves a full set of stills at a steady interval. You pick PNG or JPG and press Save frames, and the video never leaves your computer.
The sections below explain the controls, how to choose between the formats and sizes, and how to grab exactly the frame you want.
How to extract frames from a video in four steps
- Drop a video onto the page, or choose it with the file picker. You can add more than one video if you want pictures from each.
- Under Grab, choose This frame for a single picture, or One every… for a series.
- Choose Save as (PNG or JPG) and a Width.
- Press Save frames. Save each picture on its own, or download them all as a ZIP.
This video to images tool is the quickest way to save a frame from a video as an image: no screenshot tool, no cropping, and no player controls in the picture.
There is no account, no watermark and no charge. Video tools are not part of the free daily limit, which only applies to document conversions.
Grab a single frame with This frame
This is the way to make a thumbnail or take a screenshot from a video. The tool uses the frame at the playhead, and the panel shows the exact time, for example 0:03.20. Move the playhead with the timeline, or step with the left and right arrow keys, one frame at a time. Hold Shift to jump a whole second.
Because it works on the real video frame, the result is clean: no player buttons, no cursor, no black bars from a screen recording of the player.
Grab a series with One every…
This mode saves a picture at a steady rhythm. The Every slider sets the gap, from 1 to 60 seconds; on a clip shorter than a minute it stops at about the length of the clip. The timeline marks where each picture will come from, and a small panel under the controls shows how many Pictures you will get and the approximate Size of them all. It is a quick way to extract frames from a video for a storyboard, a contact sheet or a review.
One run can save up to 600 pictures. At one picture a second, that covers 10 minutes of video; at one every 10 seconds, it covers 100 minutes. If the interval would give more, the tool warns you and asks you to raise the interval.
PNG or JPG: which format suits your video thumbnail
The Save as control offers two choices, and each is labelled with its main strength.
| Format | Label in the tool | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| PNG | Sharpest | Text on screen, logos, screen recordings, anything you will edit further |
| JPG | Smaller | Cover images, web pages, email, and large sets of pictures |
PNG keeps every pixel exactly as it was, so the files are larger. JPG squeezes the picture, so the files are much smaller and open almost anywhere, with a small loss of fine detail. If you are unsure, take JPG for photographs and live action, and PNG for anything with sharp text or flat colour.
You can also start from a page made for one format: video to PNG or video to JPG. They open this same tool with the format already chosen.
Choosing the width
Width offers 320, 640, 1280 and Original. Original keeps the picture at the video's own width. The 1280 option is switched off when the video is narrower than that, since making a small picture bigger does not add detail.
- 320: small previews, sprites and list thumbnails.
- 640: a sensible size for most web and chat uses.
- 1280: a sharp cover or slide image.
- Original: the full size of the video, for print, editing or archive.
What you get when you save frames
Video to images works the same whether you save one picture or a hundred. When the run is done, the tool lists your pictures with a small preview, a name and a Save button for each. Files are numbered in order, in a pattern like name_0001.png, so they sort the way the video plays.
The tool does not save every frame of a video. The closest it gets is one picture a second with One every…, while This frame grabs any single frame you choose.
If there are many pictures, press Save all as ZIP and you get one download instead of a long list of saves. With a single picture you get just that file.
- Several videos at once: each one gets its own set, based on its own length. The size of each picture follows the settings you chose.
- Large files: most videos have no size limit. Some formats, such as certain AVI or WMV files, take longer and can be up to 2 GB.
- Browsers: current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
The tool takes common video types, including MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI, WMV, M4V, TS, FLV and MPG.
Practical uses for a screenshot from a video
People use a video frame extractor for many jobs. A few of the most common are below.
- A cover image or poster for a video you are about to publish.
- A still for a presentation, a document or a blog post.
- A set of frames to check a video for quality, for example one every 10 seconds to scan a long recording.
- A quick way to extract frames from a video when a clip is too short or too heavy to share as it is.
- Reference pictures for a drawing, a design or a storyboard.
- Evidence of a moment, such as a bug in a screen recording.
If you want movement rather than stills, use Video to GIF instead, and if you want the sound, MP4 to MP3 or MP4 to WAV saves it as an audio file. To share the whole clip with no sound, you can remove audio from video instead, and to send it by email, compress video for email brings it under the attachment limit, and the Discord video compressor does the same for a channel or DM. If you first need to cut away the parts you do not want, trim the video before you grab frames, or crop the video to remove borders before you save pictures.
Finding the perfect frame
A good thumbnail is rarely the first frame. Look for a moment where the subject is clear, the eyes are open and nothing is blurred by motion. Pause, then use the arrow keys to nudge frame by frame until it looks right. Then press Save frames with This frame selected, and you have saved a frame as an image that is ready to use.
Not sure where the best moment is? Use One every… with a small gap, such as 2 seconds, scroll through the set and keep the one you like.
Save your frames now
Whether you want one clean video thumbnail or a full set of stills, the steps are the same: choose This frame or One every…, pick PNG or JPG, choose a Width, and press Save frames.
Drop your video into the video frame extractor above to begin. It runs on your own computer, it is free, and nothing is uploaded. When you are done, browse the other video tools for the next job.
