Hosting clips on your own CDN
Link clips you already host and keep your hosted-video meter at zero, and your bill at $9.99.
7 minIntermediate
Clips on your own host are never counted toward hosted video. If you already serve media from a CDN or object storage, link to it.
Export small MP4s
Export each clip as H.264 MP4, no audio, at most 1280 px wide. With ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i step.mov -an -vf "scale='min(1280,iw)':-2" -c:v libx264 -crf 28 -movflags +faststart step-1.mp4
+faststart lets the clip start playing before it has fully downloaded.
Upload them
Any HTTPS host works: S3 or R2 behind a CDN, Bunny, Cloudflare, or your own server. It needs to:
- serve
Content-Type: video/mp4, - support range requests (Safari needs them),
- allow cross-origin requests if your app is on another domain.
Add the links
In Clips › Add a link, paste the URL. PlayStep checks it answers, is a playable type, and is under 2 MB. Then pick it in a step's clip picker.
Keeping links healthy
Links are checked daily. If a file moves or turns private, you get an alert, and steps show their poster and text until you fix it. Use stable, versioned file names (invoices/step-1-v2.mp4) instead of overwriting files.
The bill
With only external clips, your hosted-video meter stays at 0 GB, and Pro stays at $9.99 a month (billed annually) until you pass 2,750 guided users.