# Screenshot

Capture the whole rendered page as a full-page PNG — top to bottom, not just the fold — or size, crop and clean it up first: any viewport, retina, one element, JPEG or WebP, dark mode, and the ads and cookie banners out of the way. The image comes back Base64-encoded, ready to store or decode to a file, with a link to it in the response headers.

It uses no AI, and costs **1 credit** per call — whichever options you use. See [Credits](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/credits).

POST/screenshot

## Capture a screenshot

### Body parameters

- **Name**
  : `url`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Required**
  : Required
  **Description**
  : The absolute URL of the page to process. Rendered with headless Chrome, so JavaScript runs and redirects are followed. It must not include a username or password (`https://user:pass@example.com`).
- **Name**
  : `screenshot_options`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : How to take the screenshot: size, format, what to wait for and what to hide. Every key is optional and included in the credit — see [Options](#options). Leave it out for a full-page PNG.
- **Name**
  : `page_options`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : Wait for the page, and remove ads, cookie banners or your own elements from it before it is read — gone from this result, not merely hidden. See [Page options](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/page-options).
- **Name**
  : `residential`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Fetch the page from a [residential exit](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/residential) — an address on a home broadband line rather than one in a datacentre. Reach for it when a site serves you less than it serves a browser, or nothing at all. Defaults to `false`. Adds **25 credits** per page fetch on top of what the operation costs, and its results are kept separate from the ordinary ones.
- **Name**
  : `report_to`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : Webhook URL — an `http` or `https` address URLpipe POSTs the result to when it's ready. **Optional**: without it we deliver to your project's [default endpoint](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#where-results-go) if it has one, and otherwise send no webhook at all — the result still waits for you at [GET /result/:token](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/results). A value we cannot deliver to returns `422`. Ignored on a `sync=true` request. Deliveries can be [signed](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#signature) so your endpoint can verify they came from us.
- **Name**
  : `sync`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Process the request synchronously, returning the result inline in the response. Defaults to `false` (async: return a token now, and either receive the result at a [webhook](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#where-results-go) or fetch it with [GET /result/:token](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/results)). See [Async & sync modes](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async) for the full contract.
- **Name**
  : `max_age`
  **Type**
  : string | integer
  **Description**
  : How fresh a cached result must be to be accepted. Either an **integer** number of seconds (`3600`) or a **duration string** of the form `"<number> <unit>"` — units `s`/`min`/`h`/`d`/`w` (e.g. `"2 hours"`, `"3 days"`, `"30m"`). Defaults to `7 days`, clamped to a max of `30 days`; `0` always bypasses the cache. See [Caching](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/caching) for all accepted units.
- **Name**
  : `labels`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : Your own keys to find and account for this request by — a client, a project, a campaign: `{"client": "acme"}`. Returned with the result, in the webhook and in the `X-Labels` header, and your dashboard filters history and totals credits by them. Up to 16 keys; string values. See [Labels](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/labels).

### Response

Content type `text/plain` — the body is the image, Base64-encoded: a PNG unless you asked for another `format`. Decode it to bytes, or prefix it with `data:image/png;base64,` (or `image/jpeg`, `image/webp`) to use it directly in an `<img>` tag.

Screenshots are **full-page** unless you ask otherwise: the whole scrollable document, not just what fits above the fold. The page is scrolled through first so lazy-loaded images are actually in the picture.

The viewport is **1350 × 797** — a desktop browser window — unless you set one, so two captures of a page line up and can be compared. The height follows the page, up to a ceiling of **16,384 pixels**; a page taller than that is captured down to it.

The response also carries an `X-Result-Url` header: a link to the same image that needs no API key, so it goes straight into an `<img>` tag, an email or a social card. It stays valid for the 30 days the result is kept — see [Response headers](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/response-headers).

```
curl -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "screenshot_options": {"format":"webp"}, "page_options": {"block_cookie_banners":true}}'
```

Response

```
UklGRlq4AABXRUJQVlA4WAoAAAAgAAAARQUAhAUA…
(Base64-encoded WebP, truncated)
```

## Options

The keys of `screenshot_options`. Each one you leave out is its default, and a request that spells out a default is the same request as one that omits it — it is served the same [stored result](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/caching). A value out of range, or a key not listed here, is refused with `invalid_options` before anything is fetched or spent.

Request body

```
{
  "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
  "screenshot_options": {
    "viewport_width": 390,
    "device_scale_factor": 2,
    "format": "webp",
    "hide_selectors": ["#chat-widget"]
  },
  "page_options": {
    "block_cookie_banners": true
  }
}
```

What the page is made to wait for or leave out — ads, cookie banners, an element that loads late — is set with [page\_options](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/page-options), which every endpoint that loads the page takes.

### Size and shape

- **Name**
  : `full_page`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Capture the whole page top to bottom (the default), or set `false` for the viewport only. A viewport capture of a URL with a `#fragment` is scrolled to that anchor, the way a browser opens it.
- **Name**
  : `full_page_max_height`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : The tallest the image may be, in CSS pixels, for a full page or an element: `100`–`16384` (the default). A page taller than this is captured down to it.
- **Name**
  : `viewport_width`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : The browser window's viewport width, `320`–`1920`. Default `1350`. Use `390` to see a site's phone layout.
- **Name**
  : `viewport_height`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : `240`–`1080`. Default `797`. Decides what the fold is, and the size of anything a page sizes to the screen.
- **Name**
  : `device_scale_factor`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : Pixel density, `1`–`3`. `2` renders a retina image at twice the width and height, with the high-resolution images a retina display is sent.
- **Name**
  : `selector`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : A CSS selector: capture that one element instead of the page — a pricing table, a chart, a hero. The first match is used; a selector that matches nothing is a failed analysis and costs nothing.

### Format

- **Name**
  : `format`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : `png` (default), `jpeg` or `webp`. WebP is usually the smallest by far for a long page.
- **Name**
  : `quality`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : JPEG and WebP only, `1`–`100`. Default `80`. A PNG is always lossless, so this has no effect on one.
- **Name**
  : `omit_background`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Leave the background transparent where the page itself sets none. PNG and WebP only — a JPEG has no transparency.

### Look

- **Name**
  : `dark_mode`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Render with `prefers-color-scheme: dark`, so a site that has a dark theme shows it.
- **Name**
  : `hide_selectors`
  **Type**
  : array
  **Description**
  : CSS selectors of elements to hide in the image — a chat widget, a promo bar. Up to 50. They are hidden, not removed: to take them out of the page itself, use `page_options.remove_selectors`.
- **Name**
  : `styles`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : CSS to add to the page before capturing, up to 20,000 characters.

## Using the image URL

If what you want is a link rather than bytes — a preview in a page you're rendering, an image in a digest email — read it off the response instead of decoding anything. The URL carries its own signed, expiring credentials, so it works anywhere, with no key attached and nothing to proxy.

```
curl -sD - -o /dev/null -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "sync": true}' \
| grep -i '^x-result-url'
```

An async request has no response headers to read, so the same link arrives in the webhook payload as `result_url`, beside the `result` itself — see [Async mode](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async).

## Decoding the image

```
curl -s -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}' \
| base64 --decode > screenshot.png
```

Screenshots can take a few seconds for heavy pages. For batches or slow sites, consider [async mode](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async) so you're not holding a connection open.

## Responses

Whatever the status, the response carries [metadata headers](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/response-headers): the result token, whether it was served from cache and how old that result is, how long we took, what it cost in credits, and the allowance you have left.

Status

When

Body

`200 OK`

The request succeeded.

Sync: the result, in this endpoint's format (see Response above). Async: a job token and the request's labels — { "token": "…", "status": "accepted", "labels": {} }.

`422 Unprocessable Entity`

The analysis failed, or a parameter was invalid (a bad max\_age, a screenshot\_options value out of range, labels that break the rules, or a report\_to we will not deliver to).

{ "error": "<message>" }

`429 Too Many Requests`

Three causes, told apart by the error field: concurrency\_limit (too many of your requests already running), rate\_limited (sending too fast), or quota\_exceeded (Free plan only — out of credits with no card on file to bill the extra to, and checked only on a cache miss; a paid plan keeps serving at the overage rate and is never refused for credits).

All three carry "error" and "message". Extra fields: concurrency\_limit → "limit", "running" · rate\_limited → "retry\_after" · quota\_exceeded → "limit", "used", "needed", "resets\_at".

`504 Gateway Timeout`

Sync only: the analysis didn't finish within 60s. It keeps running — fetch it via GET /result/:token.

{ "error": "processing\_timeout", "token": "…" }

`401 Unauthorized`

Missing or invalid API key.

{ "error": "invalid\_api\_key", "message": "…" }

Try it live — no API key needed

Run this endpoint against any URL right in your browser.

[Open tool](https://urlpipe.dev/tools/website-screenshot)

Source: https://urlpipe.dev/docs/screenshot