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Go · Code recipe

Take a screenshot of a website in Go

Save a full-page PNG of any website, in Go 1.21+ with net/http from the standard library. Every program on this page runs as it stands — each one was run against a stub of the API before it was published.

By · Last updated: September 2026

TL;DR

To take a screenshot of a website in Go, POST its URL to https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot with sync set to true, decode the Base64 body with base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString and write the bytes to a .png file. It is a full-page capture from real Chrome for 1 credit; leave sync out and the result goes to your webhook instead.

Free plan, no credit card. 1,000 credits a month.

One POST to /screenshot loads the page in real Chrome, scrolls it top to bottom so lazy images load, and captures the whole document — not just the fold. The image comes back Base64-encoded in a text/plain body, so the Go work is two lines: decode it with base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString and write the bytes.

The request below also sets page_options.block_cookie_banners, because a consent dialog over the page is the most common reason a screenshot is useless. Every other knob — viewport, device scale, JPEG or WebP, one element by selector, dark mode — goes in screenshot_options.

Setup

Before you start

Nothing to fetch: every import is standard library, so each program runs with go run as a single file. Put your API key in the environment.

Terminal
go version   # go1.21 or later
export URLPIPE_API_KEY="your_api_key"

The request

Save a screenshot as a PNG file

"sync": true keeps the request open until the result is ready. http.Client has no timeout unless you set one, and res.Body is a stream: io.ReadAll turns it into bytes, and defer res.Body.Close() hands the connection back. The body is Base64 text; base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString gives the bytes back.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/base64"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	payload, err := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
		"url":          "https://example.com",
		"page_options": map[string]any{"block_cookie_banners": true},
		"sync":         true,
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot", bytes.NewReader(payload))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	// A sync call can take up to 60 s; the zero-value client would wait forever.
	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 90 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	// The body is the result or the error, so read all of it first.
	body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", res.StatusCode, body)
	}

	png, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(string(body))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if err := os.WriteFile("screenshot.png", png, 0o644); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Saved screenshot.png (%d bytes)\n", len(png))
}

Run it: go run main.go

Async

The async variant: a token, a webhook and a poll

Leave out sync and the answer is a token, straight away. Decode only the field you need into an anonymous struct; switch on the status covers the four answers GET /result/:token can give.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/base64"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"time"
)

const api = "https://urlpipe.dev"

var client = &http.Client{Timeout: 30 * time.Second}

// send makes one request to the API and returns the status and the body.
func send(method, path string, payload any) (int, []byte) {
	var reader io.Reader
	if payload != nil {
		data, err := json.Marshal(payload)
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}
		reader = bytes.NewReader(data)
	}
	req, err := http.NewRequest(method, api+path, reader)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	return res.StatusCode, body
}

// poll collects a result by token. The result is POSTed to report_to when it is
// ready; polling is the other way to collect it, and a backup for the webhook.
func poll(token string) []byte {
	for attempt := 0; attempt < 60; attempt++ {
		status, body := send(http.MethodGet, "/result/"+token, nil)
		switch status {
		case http.StatusOK:
			return body
		case http.StatusAccepted: // still processing
			time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
		case http.StatusUnprocessableEntity:
			log.Fatalf("The analysis failed: %s", body)
		case http.StatusGone:
			log.Fatal("The result is past the 30-day window; send the request again.")
		default:
			log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", status, body)
		}
	}
	log.Fatal("Still processing after two minutes; try the token again later.")
	return nil
}

func main() {
	// No "sync": the request is accepted at once and the work carries on without you.
	status, body := send(http.MethodPost, "/screenshot", map[string]any{
		"url":          "https://example.com",
		"page_options": map[string]any{"block_cookie_banners": true},
		"report_to":    "https://your-app.com/webhooks/urlpipe",
		"labels":       map[string]any{"customer": "acme"},
	})
	if status != http.StatusOK {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe answered %d: %s", status, body)
	}
	var accepted struct {
		Token string `json:"token"`
	}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &accepted); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println("Accepted", accepted.Token)

	body = poll(accepted.Token)
	png, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(string(body))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if err := os.WriteFile("screenshot.png", png, 0o644); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Saved screenshot.png (%d bytes)\n", len(png))
}

Run it: go run main.go

Errors

Handle errors and retries

Errors are values: urlpipe() returns one for every refusal it will not retry, and main decides what to do with it. A 401 answers in plain text, so it is handled before the JSON decode; max is a builtin from Go 1.21.

main.go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/base64"
	"encoding/json"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"strconv"
	"time"
)

var client = &http.Client{Timeout: 90 * time.Second}

// urlpipe POSTs a sync request and returns the result body. It retries the two
// 429s that clear by themselves and returns an error for everything else.
func urlpipe(path string, payload map[string]any) ([]byte, error) {
	payload["sync"] = true
	data, err := json.Marshal(payload)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	const attempts = 5
	for attempt := 0; attempt < attempts; attempt++ {
		req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "https://urlpipe.dev"+path, bytes.NewReader(data))
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("URLPIPE_API_KEY"))
		req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

		res, err := client.Do(req)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
		res.Body.Close()
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

		switch res.StatusCode {
		case http.StatusOK:
			return body, nil
		case http.StatusUnauthorized:
			return nil, errors.New("401: the API key is missing or wrong, check URLPIPE_API_KEY")
		}

		var e struct {
			Code    string `json:"error"`
			Message string `json:"message"`
			Token   string `json:"token"`
		}
		_ = json.Unmarshal(body, &e) // a body that is not JSON leaves e empty
		detail := e.Code
		if e.Message != "" {
			detail = e.Code + ": " + e.Message
		}

		switch {
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusTooManyRequests && e.Code == "rate_limited":
			// Sending too fast: Retry-After says how long the window has left.
			seconds, _ := strconv.Atoi(res.Header.Get("Retry-After"))
			time.Sleep(time.Duration(max(seconds, 1)) * time.Second)
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusTooManyRequests && e.Code == "concurrency_limit":
			// Every parallel slot on your plan is busy with your own requests.
			time.Sleep(time.Duration(1<<attempt) * time.Second)
		case res.StatusCode == http.StatusGatewayTimeout:
			// Still running on our side; the token collects it from GET /result/:token.
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("504 processing_timeout: collect it later with token %s", e.Token)
		default:
			// 403 email_unverified, 422 (a bad parameter, or a page that would not load),
			// 429 quota_exceeded: sending the same request again gets the same answer.
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("%d: %s", res.StatusCode, detail)
		}
	}
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("429: still refused after %d attempts", attempts)
}

func main() {
	body, err := urlpipe("/screenshot", map[string]any{
		"url":          "https://example.com",
		"page_options": map[string]any{"block_cookie_banners": true},
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("URLpipe: %v", err)
	}

	png, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(string(body))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if err := os.WriteFile("screenshot.png", png, 0o644); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Saved screenshot.png (%d bytes)\n", len(png))
}

Run it: go run main.go

Details

What to know about /screenshot

  • The default viewport is 1350 × 797 and the capture follows the page down to 16,384 px; a taller page is cut there.
  • Every response carries an X-Result-Url header: a link to the same image that needs no API key and stays valid for 30 days. Often you can store that link instead of the file.
  • PNG is the default; "format": "jpeg" or "webp" in screenshot_options makes a long page far smaller.
  • It captures images, not PDFs, and it does not record video.
  • A screenshot of the same URL with the same options is served from the cache for 7 days by default, free. Set max_age to refresh sooner.

Client library

Or use the official Go client

The same call in one line, with retries that never bill twice, typed errors, long analyses waited out for you and webhook verification. Go 1.21+, standard library only.

github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go
// go get github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go

client, err := urlpipe.NewClient() // reads URLPIPE_API_KEY
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal(err)
}

page, err := client.Markdown(context.Background(), "https://example.com", nil)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(page.Data)

Other languages

Take a screenshot of a website in another language

More Go: every Go recipe

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Why is the screenshot response Base64 and not an image?
So the same body works in JSON, in a webhook payload and in an <img> data URI. Decode it with base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString, or skip decoding and use the X-Result-Url header, a direct link to the image.
How do I take a mobile screenshot?
Set screenshot_options.viewport_width to a phone width such as 390 and device_scale_factor to 2 or 3. The viewport can be anything from 320 to 1920 pixels wide.
Can I screenshot one element instead of the whole page?
Yes: screenshot_options takes a CSS selector and captures just that element. A selector that matches nothing is a 422, and costs nothing.
Do I need an SDK to call URLpipe from Go?
No module is needed: net/http and encoding/json are in the standard library, and the API is one POST per job. If you'd rather use one, the official client installs with go get github.com/URLpipe/urlpipe-go and adds retries that never bill twice, typed errors and webhook verification.

Get a key and run it.

Free plan, no card. Paste your key into URLPIPE_API_KEY and every program on this page runs as it is.