Can you embed a video in an email? What works instead

Mostly no: most email clients can't play a video embedded in an email and strip the embed code. The standard workaround is a still image of the video with a play icon, linked to a page where the video plays; the recipient clicks it and the video opens in a browser.

The email-client facts below come from Mailchimp's help page on adding video to an email, read on 2026-09-28. The steps for pulling a thumbnail out of a finished video come from Sume's Video frames docs.

Why doesn't video play inside an email?

Because the reader's email program decides what runs, and most of them won't run a video. Mailchimp puts it plainly: "Most email clients can't display embedded video content, and will strip the code from your email." Its own tools therefore never embed a player. Each one shows an image and links it to the video:

How do I make a video look playable in an email?

Build the same pattern yourself in any email tool:

• Pick one frame that shows what the video is about, such as the speaker's face or the product.
• Export it as a still image and add a play icon on top, so it reads as a video.
• Insert the image in the email and link it to the page or file where the video plays.
• For videos not hosted on long-form YouTube or Vimeo, including YouTube Shorts, Mailchimp's page says to upload an image to display in your email.

How do I get the thumbnail from a Sume video?

If the video was made on Sume, POST /v1/video-frames pulls a still at the second you name in at. Send the clip's media.sume.com URL (a video in this workspace, such as the output of an earlier Sume job) and set max_edge (16–2160) to the width your email template needs. The frame comes back as a durable JPEG on media.sume.com by default, which works as the email's image, and the extract is unbilled.

YouTube thumbnail from a video frame covers the rest of the route: polling the job, PNG output and picking the frame.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-frames \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: email-thumb-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/talk.mp4",
    "at": [2.5],
    "max_edge": 600
  }'

Where should the thumbnail link to?

To a page that plays the video in a browser: your landing page, or the video file itself. Completed Sume jobs can include public artifacts under https://media.sume.com, and Sume's docs call those Sume-owned URLs the public contract, so a finished MP4's media.sume.com URL can be the link target. A landing page lets you add a call to action next to the player.

Can I send a personalized video in every email?

Yes, as one thumbnail and one link per recipient. Make one video per person, for example with a Format bulk run (1–100 items per request, 1–16 in flight; Bulk runs), then pull a frame from each result. Put each recipient's image URL and video URL in your email tool's per-contact fields. Personalized video at scale covers making the videos.