Webcam Time-Lapse: Automatic Daily Videos from Your IP Camera
Turn the camera you already own into a time-lapse camera — online, with nothing to install.
More than a static webcam image
A single webcam image shows one moment. A time-lapse shows how your place changes: clouds rolling over a valley, a harbour filling up at noon, a building growing week by week. Visitors watch a full day in one to two minutes — and come back to watch the next one.
Because the player always contains the latest images, it never goes stale. There is no video to re-upload, no file to replace: the time-lapse on your site updates itself.
How it works
Connect your camera
Point your camera's FTP upload at our server (push) or give us the URL of its snapshot image (pull). FTP upload works from behind any router, needs no port forwarding and no fixed IP, and takes about five minutes to set up.
We collect the images
webcam.io fetches or receives a JPEG at the interval you choose, from every 15 seconds to once an hour. A timer or the sunrise/sunset calculation for your location decides when capturing runs.
Player, videos, exports
The live time-lapse player shows the latest images immediately. At midnight we render the day as a Full HD video. Clips, text overlays and automatic exports to Dropbox or YouTube run on top — all without a computer at the camera site.
What people use it for
Time-lapse features
Embed the time-lapse into your website
Generate the widget code for your camera in the dashboard and paste it into any page — WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, plain HTML. There are three widget types:
- Time-lapse player — the full interactive player with time range and speed controls
- Last image — the current still image, refreshed automatically
- Video — the latest daily time-lapse video
Which cameras work?
Any IP camera or webcam that can either upload JPEG images via FTP or serve a snapshot URL — that covers nearly every network camera from Axis, Hikvision, Dahua, Reolink, Mobotix, Foscam and others, as well as a Raspberry Pi with a camera module. You don't need a dedicated time-lapse camera, an SD card to collect, or a PC running at the site.
Technical details
| Capture interval | every 15 or 30 seconds; every 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes |
|---|---|
| Video resolution | Full HD for rendered daily videos; 640 × 480 px in the live player |
| Video formats | H.264 in mp4, webm and ogg |
| Playback speed | 5, 10, 15 or 25 frames per second |
| Timer | fixed time range, or sunrise/sunset calculated from the camera's geo-location |
| Connection | FTP upload from the camera (push) or image URL (pull) |
| Embedding | JavaScript widgets: player, last image, video |
| Exports | daily videos and raw images to Dropbox or YouTube; downloads from the dashboard |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a special time-lapse camera?
No. webcam.io turns the IP camera you already have into a time-lapse camera. Dedicated time-lapse cameras store images on a card you have to collect; here the images go straight to the cloud and are online within seconds.
Do I have to open ports or set up dynamic DNS?
Not with FTP upload: the camera pushes images out, nothing has to reach the camera from the internet. Only the image URL (pull) method needs the camera to be reachable. Connection options →
Is there software to install?
No. Setup, player, videos and exports all run online. On the camera you only enter the FTP credentials or, for pull, we only need its snapshot URL.
Can I make a time-lapse over weeks or months?
Yes. Besides the daily video, the week, month and year views show the long-term change in the player, and you can cut clips from any range.
Can I show weather data in the video?
Yes. Text overlays put static text and dynamic values — for example temperature from your weather station, sent via the API — onto every image before it goes into the time-lapse.
How long are images and videos kept?
Retention depends on your plan. Daily videos and raw images can additionally be exported to Dropbox or YouTube automatically, so nothing is lost. Compare plans →
Is there a free plan?
Yes. After the 7-day trial with all features, your account moves to the free plan automatically — no credit card required.
Time-lapse or live stream?
Both start from the same camera. A time-lapse needs very little bandwidth — one image every few seconds or minutes works over 4G, satellite or a shared hotel connection — and gives you an archive and a video of every day.
A live stream shows the moment in real time and is the better choice when visitors want to see now. Many customers run both from one camera: the live stream for the moment, the time-lapse for the story.
Try it for your camera or contact us
Test all features during the 7-day LIVE+ plan trial. After that, you are moved to our free plan automatically. No credit card required.
