How do I overlay a logo or watermark on a video over an API?

Add a watermark to a video with an API

Send the video and the logo as two inputs and combine them with the overlay filter. W/H are the video's dimensions and w/h the logo's, so overlay=W-w-24:H-h-24 pins it 24px from the bottom-right corner.

The ffmpeg command

What you would run locally, for reference.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png \
  -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v]overlay=W-w-24:H-h-24" \
  -c:a copy \
  output.mp4

The API request

The same flags, sent as JSON. Authenticate with Authorization: Token <your-api-token>.

POST /api/ffmpeg/job/

{
  "global_options": [
    "-y"
  ],
  "inputs": [
    {
      "input_source": "https://example.com/input.mp4"
    },
    {
      "input_source": "https://example.com/logo.png"
    }
  ],
  "outputs": [
    {
      "filename": "output.mp4",
      "options": [
        "-filter_complex",
        "[0:v][1:v]overlay=W-w-24:H-h-24",
        "-c:a",
        "copy"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Worth knowing

A PNG with an alpha channel keeps its transparency through overlay. A JPEG logo will show its rectangle.
Swap the coordinates for another corner: 24:24 is top-left, (W-w)/2:(H-h)/2 centres it.

What it costs

Jobs bill in processing seconds — the CPU time this one actually uses — with a floor of 25 seconds per GB pulled out of storage to run it, so a stream-copy still counts. Uploading the output and downloading it afterwards are free. See the plans.

Related guides

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