Take a screenshot of a video, frame-perfect
Pausing a video and pressing the screenshot keys usually gets you the player controls, a blurry motion frame and whatever resolution your screen happens to be. This video screenshot tool reads the frame straight from the file instead, at the video's own resolution, with nothing on top.
Use it for thumbnails, stills from your own footage, frames for a presentation, a clear shot of a moment in a sports clip, or an image of a single step in a screen recording.
Because you can step in single frames or tenths of a second, you can pick the sharpest moment rather than the one you happened to pause on.
How to screenshot a video
PNG keeps every detail and suits thumbnails or anything you will edit further. JPG is smaller and fine for sharing in chat or email.
- Open a video file from your device, or switch to “Video link” and paste a YouTube, Vimeo or direct video link.
- Play, pause and scrub to roughly the right moment.
- For a file, step frame by frame or by a second until the picture is exactly right.
- For a YouTube or Vimeo link, press “Capture from the player” and allow your browser to share this tab.
- Grab the frame as PNG or JPG. Grab as many as you like, then download them one by one or as a ZIP.
Screenshots from YouTube and Vimeo links
YouTube and Vimeo only let their videos play inside their own player, and browsers never let one website read the pictures inside another website’s player. So the tool shows the video in the official player and, when you press “Capture from the player”, asks your browser for permission to share this tab.
Each time you grab, it saves exactly what the player is showing, cropped to the video: the same as a screenshot, without the rest of the page. Frames come out at the size the player is on your screen, so make the window larger for bigger frames. For YouTube, the video’s thumbnail image is offered as a download too.
Nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded. The tool never downloads videos from YouTube or Vimeo; it only captures the frames you choose while you watch.
- Works in desktop Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. Phone browsers don’t allow tab capture, so on a phone use your screenshot buttons or open a downloaded file.
- Direct links to a video file (ending in .mp4 or .webm, for example) open at full resolution when the website allows it; otherwise the tool falls back to capturing the player.
What it does and does not do
It is built for one job: pulling clean still images out of video files you already have. That keeps it simple, and it means your footage never leaves your device.
- Works with video files on your device, YouTube and Vimeo links, and direct links to video files.
- Saves frames at the video's full resolution, not your screen's.
- PNG for the sharpest still, JPG for a smaller file.
- The video is opened in your browser and never sent to our servers.
- DRM-protected streams, such as most paid film and TV services, cannot be captured.
- It never downloads videos from YouTube or other streaming sites; links are captured from the official player, with your permission.
Video screenshots on Android and Samsung phones
On an Android phone, the quick route is to pause the video and press Power and Volume down together. On a Samsung Galaxy the same buttons work. That captures the screen, so you get the screen's resolution and sometimes the player controls.
For a clean, full-resolution still from a clip saved on your phone, open this page in your phone's browser and load the video here instead. Step to the exact frame and save it as PNG or JPG.
Video screenshot extensions and screen recorders
Extensions such as Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder, Scrnli and Awesome Screenshot record your screen as video, which is a different job. If you want a still from a YouTube video you are watching in Chrome, pause it and use a screenshot extension's area capture around the player. The NeoReader Full Page Screenshot extension does this in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, saved at your screen's resolution.
When you have the video file itself, this tool gives the cleaner result.
