Eight inspect stills on a 45 s Snap ad: one lands in the first 6 s

On a 45-second clip, video inspect's default eight stills are spaced 45 / 8 = 5.625 seconds apart. Read as mid-bin samples, they sit at 2.81, 8.44, 14.06, 19.69, 25.31, 30.94, 36.56 and 42.19 seconds. Only the first, 2.81 s, falls in the first six seconds. Snapchat's ad-formats page (read 2026-10-09) says commercials run 3 to 180 seconds and the first 6 seconds are non-skippable, so the default review shows you one frame of the part that every viewer sees.

For that opening, ask for your own times. Send frames with at [1, 3, 5.9] to video inspect or video frames and you see the first, the middle and the last frame of the unskippable window.

The default grid against the 6-second window

The inspect doc says that with no frames field you get 8 mid-bin stills (1 fps if the clip is shorter than 8 seconds). The bins are equal slices of the clip, and each still is the midpoint of its slice, which is the same rule video frames states for fps. We give the numbers below as arithmetic on that rule.

Ask for the frames you need

Both tools take at[] with 1 to 24 values, each at least 0 and less than the clip duration. Inspect adds a probe and optional transcript; frames adds source-size stills and a lossless png option. For a hook review, send seven times in the first six seconds, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 5.9. The frame at 0 shows the first thing a viewer gets, and the one at 5.9 is the last before the skip button can appear.

Inspect stills default to a 768 px long edge. If you need to read small text on screen at 720x1280, send max_edge up to 2160 or switch to video frames, which keeps the source size.

A cheap routine

Make the opening review a habit for every cut. Trim, then run frames with at [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.9] on the artifact. The frames come back as durable media.sume.com images with their times, so you can attach them to a review thread without downloading the clip. If the frame at 5.9 shows a logo or a call to action that appears too late, move the cut and check again.

The reason to do this at all is that the first six seconds are the only part guaranteed to be seen on commercials, according to Snapchat's page. Everything after that depends on the viewer.

If the hook is weak

Re-cut with video trim, which keeps a [start, end) range of one clip for $0.02: for example start 7.5 and duration 30 to move a stronger beat to the opening. Then check the new first six seconds with the same at[] list. A cut and a review cost $0.02 plus the review job's compute, which is billed by container seconds and is not a fixed catalog price in the docs.

Also note that Snapchat's page lists 3 to 180 seconds for single image or video, story and collection ads and says sponsored snaps max out at 180 seconds with under 10 seconds recommended. The six-second line applies to commercials only, so do not apply this review to a story ad unless you want a strong opening anyway.