The best link preview APIs

The shortlist

5 options, and what each is best for

1. 1. URLpipeThat's us

   Docs

   Per-URL web data API

   One API for everything about a URL: Markdown, rendered HTML, a full-page screenshot, metadata, a summary, keywords, a Lighthouse audit and console errors — over HTTP or a hosted MCP server.

   Best for

   A clean, reconciled metadata record, with a screenshot fallback and a summary from the same visit.

   Watch out for

   Single URLs only: no crawling, URL discovery, schema extraction, PDFs or SDKs, and no self-hosting. Credits are weighted — Markdown is 1, metadata 5, a summary 17. The residential exit is one exit, not a rotating pool.

   To start

   $0 — 1,000 credits/mo, no card · Starter $19/mo — 20,000 credits

2. 2. Microlink

   microlink.io

   Metadata and browser API

   A browser API built around link previews: metadata, screenshots, PDF, Markdown and a Lighthouse report, as flags on one GET request, served from a CDN cache.

   Best for

   Link previews and screenshots at volume, with Markdown from the same request.

   Watch out for

   Free is 25 requests a day, and paid plans pause at the quota until the next cycle. No AI summary, keyword extraction or webhook delivery; its MCP server runs locally, and the repository was archived in July 2026.

   To start

   $0 — 25 requests/day, no card · Pro $49/mo — 46,000 requests

   URLpipe vs Microlink

3. 3. OpenGraph.io

   opengraph.io

   Link-preview API

   A link-preview API that merges Open Graph, Twitter and inferred tags into one record, with scrape, screenshot, Markdown and AI query endpoints and a hosted MCP server.

   Best for

   Cheap, high-volume Open Graph lookups, with cached repeats at 1 credit.

   Watch out for

   Options stack: JavaScript rendering +10 credits, residential +20, a screenshot 20, an AI query 100 or more. The free plan is 100 requests with one concurrent.

   To start

   $0 — 100 requests, 1 concurrent · Developer $25/mo — 50,000 credits

   OpenGraph.io alternatives

4. 4. Iframely

   iframely.com

   Embeds and link previews

   An embeds API: rich media players and link cards from 1,900+ providers, with oEmbed, CDN-hosted responsive embed codes and page metadata.

   Best for

   Editorial and social products that turn pasted links into embeds and preview cards.

   Watch out for

   Built for embeds, not page content: no Markdown, screenshots or rendered HTML. Billed in hits — an hour of activity per URL — with overage on every plan.

   To start

   Starter — 2,000 hits/mo · Business $49/mo — 25,000 hits

   Iframely alternatives

5. 5. Urlbox

   urlbox.com

   Rendering API

   A rendering API for screenshots, PDFs and video, where one render can also save its HTML, Markdown and metadata, sync or async with signed webhooks.

   Best for

   Previews built from a real screenshot, with metadata saved from the same render (Hi-Fi and up).

   Watch out for

   No free plan (a 7-day trial). Markdown and metadata start at Hi-Fi, LLM extraction at Ultra, and going over the quota moves you up a tier. No proxies of its own.

   To start

   No free plan — 7-day trial, no card · Lo-Fi $19/mo — 2,000 renders

   Urlbox alternatives

Criteria

What a link preview API has to get right

1. 1
   The fallbacks. Many pages have no og:image, a stale title or a description in JSON-LD only. The API has to decide what to return.
2. 2
   JavaScript. Single-page apps set their tags after load; without a real browser you get the shell's.
3. 3
   Absolute URLs. A relative image path is useless in a card.
4. 4
   Price per lookup at your volume, and whether cached repeats are free.
5. 5
   Where it runs — server-side POST, or a GET you can call from the browser.

Missing og:image

The fallback image

curl -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/meta \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $URLPIPE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/post", "sync": true}'

Compared

Every option, side by side

Microlink: checked against microlink.io/pricing, microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/meta, microlink.io/docs/api/parameters/insights, microlink.io/docs/guides/content-conversion/url-to-markdown, microlink.io/integrations/mcp on September 24, 2026. OpenGraph.io: checked against opengraph.io/pricing, opengraph.io/docs/concepts/credits, opengraph.io/docs/api, opengraph.io/docs/mcp on September 24, 2026. Iframely: checked against iframely.com/plans, iframely.com/features, iframely.com/docs/iframely-api, github.com/itteco/iframely on September 24, 2026. Urlbox: checked against urlbox.com/pricing, urlbox.com/docs/options, urlbox.com/docs/guides/proxies, github.com/urlbox/urlbox-mcp-server on September 24, 2026. Products change — confirm on each vendor's site before you decide.