Cloudflare Video — Stream vs Media Transformations

🎬

Stream Clip API

Programmatically cut time ranges from a video already hosted on Cloudflare Stream into a new, permanent, independently deliverable video object.

Developer docs →

⚡

Media Transformations

Resize, reformat, and optimise any video or image hosted on R2 or any public URL on-the-fly at the edge — no Stream subscription required.

Developer docs →

Feature comparison

Which tool do you need?

Pick the right product before you build.

Feature	Stream Clip API	Media Transformations
Video already on Stream	Yes — use this	No
Video on R2 / S3 / any URL	No	Yes
Creates a permanent new video	Yes	No — on-the-fly
Works without Stream upload	No	Yes
Needs Stream enabled	Yes	Zone only
Watermark support	Yes — profiles	No
File size upper limit	30 GB per video	100 MB per request

Live demos

Four videos, two products

Cards 1–3 use Stream Clip API. Card 4 uses Media Transformations on an R2-hosted file.

Original

Full Webinar — 65 minutes

The unedited source — uploaded once, delivered globally via Stream.

Full Q3 2024 APAC/Japan webinar covering DDoS, WAF, Rate Limiting, and Bot Management. Uploaded directly to Cloudflare Stream; no clipping or watermark applied.

Duration 65 min Product Stream UID e736e08b

Enable Cloudflare Stream on your account at dash.cloudflare.com → Stream. Billing is per-minute stored + per-minute delivered.

Upload via API using a direct TUS upload or a URL-pull request:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/stream/copy" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://your-origin.com/video.mp4","meta":{"name":"My Video"}}'

Embed using the iframe URL returned in the upload response:

<iframe
  src="https://customer-xxx.cloudflarestream.com/{UID}/iframe"
  allow="accelerometer; gyroscope; autoplay; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture"
  allowfullscreen>
</iframe>

Clip — No Watermark

First 3 Minutes — Clean

Clip API slices any time range into a new, permanent Stream video.

Seconds 0–180 cut from the original using the Stream Clip API. A brand-new independent video object with its own UID — not a pointer.

Duration 3 min Product Stream Clip API UID de92efdc

Prerequisites: source video must already exist on Stream (you need its UID).

Create a clip by posting start/end times in seconds:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/stream/clip" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "clippedFromVideoUID": "{SOURCE_UID}",
    "startTimeSeconds": 0,
    "endTimeSeconds": 180,
    "meta": {"name": "First 3 minutes"}
  }'

Poll for readiness — the new UID in the response starts as pendingupload. Poll GET /stream/{NEW_UID} until status.state === "ready".

Embed the new UID exactly like any other Stream video.

Clip — With Watermark

First 3 Minutes — Cloudflare Logo

Watermark profiles burn a logo overlay at clip creation time — no re-encode quality loss.

Same 3-minute clip with the Cloudflare logo watermark (upper right, 80% opacity). The watermark is a transparent overlay applied server-side, not a re-encode.

Duration 3 min Watermark upper right, 80% UID 725b20ab

Upload your watermark image (PNG with transparency recommended) to create a reusable profile:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/stream/watermarks" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}" \
  -F file=@logo.png \
  -F name="My Logo" \
  -F opacity=0.8 \
  -F position=upperRight \
  -F scale=0.1

Save the watermark profile UID from the response — you'll pass it at clip creation time.

Create a clip with the watermark by including watermark.uid:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/stream/clip" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "clippedFromVideoUID": "{SOURCE_UID}",
    "startTimeSeconds": 0,
    "endTimeSeconds": 180,
    "watermark": {"uid": "{WATERMARK_PROFILE_UID}"}
  }'

R2 + Media Transformations

R2 Video — Resized on the Edge

No Stream needed — resize any R2-hosted video on-the-fly via a URL parameter.

14.7 MB MP4 served from Cloudflare R2, resized to 640×360 in real time via /cdn-cgi/media/. No Stream subscription required — works on any public R2 object. Note: watermark overlay is not supported by Media Transformations.

Source R2 (14.7 MB) Transform 640×360 Limit 100 MB

Enable Media Transformations for your zone: Cloudflare Dashboard → Speed → Optimization → Media Transformations → toggle on. No extra subscription required on most plans.

Upload your video to R2 (or any publicly accessible URL — S3, GCS, your origin). Make sure the object is publicly readable.

Construct the transformation URL using your Cloudflare zone as the host:

https://<YOUR_ZONE>/cdn-cgi/media/width=640,height=360/<SOURCE_VIDEO_URL>

Example with R2 public URL:

https://limerolling.space/cdn-cgi/media/width=640,height=360/
https://pub-xxx.r2.dev/default.mp4

Use in a <video> tag — the transformation is applied on first request and cached at the edge. File size limit is 100 MB. Watermark overlays are not supported — use Stream for that.