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Live use cases · real thumbnails shipped through the API

See what ThumbAPI actually ships

No mockups, no cherry-picked hero shots. Below is a real cross-section of thumbnails the API produced — from faceless YouTube automation to creator brands to custom per-client datasets.

Faceless YouTubeWith photoCustom datasetsTry it live ↓

Faceless channels

No face on camera. Just the title.

Send only the title (auto-detects the niche) or hint one of 13 built-in categories — tech, business, education, fitness, medical, lifestyle, food, travel, gaming, entertainment, news, creative, or auto. Every thumbnail fits the genre. Perfect for automation channels running dozens of uploads per week.

Generated thumbnail — Why The Roman Empire Never Really Ended
History
Generated thumbnail — What NASA Isn't Telling You About Mars
Space
Generated thumbnail — How Volcanoes Actually Work
Science

Creator brands

One reference photo. Every niche, on-brand.

Every thumbnail below is the same person, generated by the API from a single stored reference photo — product launch, AI workflow, world-record stunt, whatever the title says. No manual masking, no Photoshop, no re-shooting a face into every scene.

Generated thumbnail — Thumbnail Automation Is Here
Product launch
Generated thumbnail — Automate Your Content Calendar With Claude
AI workflow
Generated thumbnail — He Really Did It — Largest Pizza World Record
Challenge / entertainment

Custom datasets

One dataset per client. Consistent style at scale.

Upload up to 6 of a client's best-performing thumbnails once. Every new video the API generates matches that exact visual identity — fonts, framing, colors, overlays. On Pro you can save multiple dataset styles and route each API call to the right one, so an agency running 20 channels doesn't ship 20 different-looking outputs.

Dataset input · client references4 references
Client reference thumbnail 1 — same visual identity as the rest of the set
Client reference thumbnail 2 — same visual identity as the rest of the set
Client reference thumbnail 3 — same visual identity as the rest of the set
Client reference thumbnail 4 — same visual identity as the rest of the set
Upload up to 6 thumbnails per dataset once — locks in typography, framing, colors, the whole visual identity. On the Pro plan you can save multiple dataset styles and switch between them per API call, so one account runs several client brands in parallel.
Auto-generated · new videoOn brand
Newly generated thumbnail — Samsung A32 for streaming PUBG — matches the reference dataset end-to-end
Same font style, same color scheme, same layout pattern — only the imagery shifts to match the new title's theme. One API call, no manual design step.
How custom datasets work

Try it live

Send a title, get a thumbnail.

Everything you saw above came from the same endpoint. Type a title, pick a format, hit RUN — no signup, no card, no rate-limit games. Uses the public thumbapi_test key.

try-it.sh
Live demo
curl -X POST https://api.thumbapi.dev/v1/generate \
-H "x-api-key: thumbapi_test" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"title": "|",
"format": "youtube",
"usePhoto": false,
"outputFormat": "webp"
}'

Under the hood

One HTTP call. ~25 seconds. Done.

No queues, no async polling, no webhooks to plumb. A single synchronous POST returns a hosted thumbnail — so the endpoint slots in as one HTTP node inside n8n, Make, Zapier, GitHub Actions, cron jobs, or anything that speaks HTTP.

1

Send request

Send it to /v1/generate with your API key. Two required fields, four optional.

Body fields

  • titlereqthe video / post title (max 200 chars)
  • formatreqyoutube · x · blogpost · linkedin · instagram
  • category1 of 13 niches — auto if omitted
  • usePhotocomposite a stored photo asset
  • useLogocomposite a stored logo asset
  • datasetIdroute through a saved brand dataset
2

Get thumbnail

Response in ~25s, synchronous — no polling, no webhooks. You get both inline base64 and a hosted CDN URL.

Response fields

  • imageinline base64 data URI — plug into <img src>
  • imageUrlCDN link on cdn.thumbapi.dev
  • formatechoed request format
  • outputFormatwebp or png
  • generationIdstable ID for logs and feedback

No-Code & Plugins

Connect in minutes — no coding required

Want to see it run in your pipeline?

Free tier: 50 credits/month, no card required. Or reply to my email and I'll wire up a per-client dataset with your top thumbnails so you can see the branded output before signing up.

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