100 things you can do with a screenshot API

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100 Things You Can Do with a Screenshot API

A screenshot API takes a URL or HTML and returns an image or PDF. That sounds simple. Here's what people actually build with it.

Invoices & Documents

Generate PDF invoices when Stripe payments succeed
Issue PDF receipts for one-time purchases
Create branded PDF proposals from CRM deal data
Generate purchase orders on procurement approval
Produce PDF contracts from HTML templates
Issue payslips to employees on payroll run
Create PDF statements of work for clients
Generate PDF shipping labels and packing slips
Produce PDF certificates of completion for courses
Create branded PDF quotes from pricing data

E-commerce

Generate per-product OG social cards at catalog scale
Screenshot product pages for comparison tools
Create visual product catalogs from inventory data
Capture checkout flow screenshots for QA
Generate PDF order confirmations
Screenshot competitor pricing pages on a schedule
Produce PDF gift receipts
Create PDF packaging inserts from templates
Screenshot abandoned cart emails before sending
Generate PDF return/refund confirmation documents

CI/CD & DevOps

Visual regression testing on every PR
Screenshot preview deployments and post to GitHub PR
Generate PDF test reports on workflow completion
Capture screenshots on every deploy for archiving
Post screenshot alerts to Slack when a page looks broken
Generate PDF release notes on every GitHub tag
Screenshot staging vs production for diff comparison
Capture screenshots of error pages for bug reports
Generate PDF deployment manifests for change management
Visual smoke test after every production deploy

Monitoring & Compliance

Build a daily website archiver for legal compliance
Monitor competitor pages for changes (pricing, features)
Archive third-party embeds you depend on
Screenshot advertising landing pages for ad compliance
Monitor your own pages for visual regressions
Archive terms of service versions with timestamps
Screenshot rate cards and fee disclosures for records
Capture website state before/after major releases
Monitor dark mode rendering across devices
Archive your site before a CMS migration

Reports & Analytics

Send customers monthly PDF usage reports
Email weekly PDF dashboards to stakeholders
Generate per-customer account summaries
Create PDF export of analytics dashboards
Generate PDF from Metabase/Grafana/Tableau views
Produce PDF board reports from live data
Create PDF investor updates from dashboard screenshots
Generate PDF performance reports for ad campaigns
Screenshot data visualizations for slide decks
Produce PDF financial summaries from spreadsheet views

Marketing & Content

Auto-generate OG images for every blog post on publish
Create social cards for product launches
Generate OG images for every e-commerce product
Screenshot email campaigns before sending
Create thumbnail previews for video content
Generate social proof screenshots (customer counts, reviews)
Screenshot app store listings for competitive analysis
Create preview images for link sharing in chat apps
Generate branded images for Twitter/LinkedIn posts
Screenshot newsletter archives for visual reference

Developer Tools & Automation

Build a URL unfurling / link preview service
Add "export as PDF" to any web app in 10 lines
Generate PDF from a React component or Next.js page
Screenshot HTML email templates across viewports
Create a screenshot API endpoint for your internal apps
Generate PDF from a server-side rendered template
Screenshot your Storybook component library
Build a website thumbnail service for a directory
Generate preview images for a bookmarking tool
Create a Puppeteer replacement with zero browser setup

AI Agents & MCP

Give Claude Desktop the ability to screenshot any URL
Let an AI agent visually verify a web action completed
Use inspect_page to give an AI accurate CSS selectors
Enable AI agents to capture authenticated pages
Let AI generate PDFs from its own HTML output
Give Cursor/Windsurf screenshot tools via MCP
Use PageBolt in LangChain as a browser tool
Enable AI to monitor a page and alert on visual changes
Let an AI agent generate OG images on demand
Build a "see what I see" tool for AI web debugging

SaaS Features

Add PDF export to your SaaS dashboard
Generate PDF invoices for subscription billing
Create printable reports for enterprise customers
Add "share as image" to any chart or metric
Screenshot user dashboards for weekly digest emails
Generate PDF account statements on request
Create PDF exports for GDPR data portability
Screenshot user-submitted content for moderation review
Generate PDF certificates for any achievement/milestone
Build a "download as PDF" feature for docs pages

Events & Travel

Generate PDF event tickets with QR codes
Create branded boarding pass PDFs
Produce PDF hotel/booking confirmations
Generate PDF agendas for conferences
Create PDF name badges from attendee data
Generate PDF itineraries for travel bookings
Produce PDF schedules for event programs
Screenshot event registration pages for sponsors
Generate PDF speaker briefs from speaker bios
Create PDF post-event summary reports with photos

The pattern behind all 100

Every item on this list follows the same shape:

const res = await fetch("https://pagebolt.dev/api/v1/screenshot", { // or /pdf, /og-image, /video
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.PAGEBOLT_API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://...", /* options */ }),
});
const result = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());