Free Website Screenshot API — Capture Any URL as PNG with One HTTP Request

#api #javascript #webdev #automation

Taking website screenshots programmatically is surprisingly annoying. You need Puppeteer (or Playwright), a headless browser, enough RAM to run Chrome, and a way to deploy it all. For a single screenshot.

I built a Screenshot API on Cloudflare Workers that does one thing: you send a URL, you get back a PNG. No browser to manage, no dependencies, no cold starts.

Quick Start

curl "https://screenshot-api.p.rapidapi.com/capture?url=https://github.com&width=1280&height=800" --output screenshot.png

That's it. One request, one PNG.

JavaScript — Dynamic OG Images

A common use case: generate social preview images for pages that don't have them.

async function getScreenshot(url, width = 1280, height = 800) {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({ url, width, height });
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://screenshot-api.p.rapidapi.com/capture?${params}`
  );

  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`Screenshot failed: ${response.status}`);
  }

  return await response.blob();
}

// Use as a fallback OG image
async function getOgImage(pageUrl) {
  // First try to get the page's own OG image
  const meta = await fetch(`https://link-preview-api.p.rapidapi.com/preview?url=${pageUrl}`);
  const data = await meta.json();

  if (data.image) return data.image;

  // Fallback: take a screenshot
  const blob = await getScreenshot(pageUrl);
  return URL.createObjectURL(blob);
}

Python — Batch Screenshots for Monitoring

import requests
from pathlib import Path

def capture_screenshot(url: str, filename: str, width: int = 1280, height: int = 800):
    response = requests.get(
        "https://screenshot-api.p.rapidapi.com/capture",
        params={"url": url, "width": width, "height": height},
        timeout=30
    )
    response.raise_for_status()

    Path(filename).write_bytes(response.content)
    print(f"Saved: {filename} ({len(response.content)} bytes)")

# Monitor competitor landing pages
sites = [
    ("https://stripe.com", "stripe.png"),
    ("https://vercel.com", "vercel.png"),
    ("https://supabase.com", "supabase.png"),
]

for url, name in sites:
    capture_screenshot(url, name)

Use Cases

Visual regression testing

Capture screenshots before and after deploys, diff them programmatically.

Link previews in chat apps

Show a thumbnail of URLs shared in your app — no browser needed on the server.

Portfolio / showcase tools

Let users paste a URL and instantly see a preview card.

SEO auditing

Capture screenshots alongside SEO analysis to show clients both the data and the visual state of their site.

Archival

Take periodic snapshots of pages for compliance or record-keeping.

Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
`url`	(required)	URL to capture
`width`	1280	Viewport width in pixels
`height`	800	Viewport height in pixels
`format`	png	Output format

Why Not Run Puppeteer?

	Screenshot API	Self-hosted Puppeteer
Setup	One HTTP call	Install Chrome + Puppeteer + deploy
Memory	0 MB (API handles it)	200–500 MB per instance
Cold start	None (Cloudflare Workers)	2–5 seconds (container spin-up)
Scaling	Automatic	Manual (more containers)
Cost	Free (500/mo)	$5–20/mo minimum for hosting