Website Screenshot API

The screenshot API you'd stake your reputation on

Haunted by headless browser hacks? Urlbox improves your security posture and helps on-call engineers sleep soundly.

URL to PNG with hydrated HTML, markdown and metadata
100+ browser rendering options that put accuracy first
HTML, SVG, CSS & JS to flawless image, PDF or video

7-day free trial
No credit card required

import Urlbox from 'urlbox'
const urlbox = Urlbox(
  URLBOX_API_KEY,
  URLBOX_API_SECRET
)
const renderLink = urlbox.generateRenderLink({
  url: 'stripe.com',
  width: 1440,
  height: 840
})
return <img src={renderLink} />

800M+ screenshots rendered for over 1,700 customers.

5 out of 5 stars
"API is so straightforward"
5 out of 5 stars
"accurately capture HTML5"
5 out of 5 stars
"scaled our volume 5x"

How hard could it be?

Your team already built a screenshot API microservice.

Headless Chrome with Selenium, Puppeteer or Playwright on AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Run or Cloudflare Workers. You hoped they'd just work after a few hours of setup. Three weeks absolute max.

Then you discover unmaintained dependencies are the least of your worries.

A mature rendering engine

Imagine spending a decade perfecting a screenshot API

Urlbox's trusted Web Vision Engine™ has evolved through over 50 major releases since 2012. It can set you free from all those distractions so you can focus on your core product.

Try for free See all features

Security risks

Running headless browsers in production on your own network is not for the faint hearted. Server side request forgery (SSRF) is the tip of the iceberg of vulnerabilities.

Improved security posture

Headless browsers completely isolated from your network. No data stored on infrastructure you don't control. Penetration tests and certifications pass with flying colours.

Constant maintenance

Headless browsers are extremely resource intensive. Requests freeze, processes crash and constantly need rebooting. Browsers were not built for server environments — they need constant care and attention.

Truly low maintenance

Globally distributed, self-healing Kubernetes clusters with autoscaling and monitoring. A stable dependency tree you're comfortable with from top to bottom.

Endless edge cases

You will be amazed by all the weird and wonderful ways HTML & CSS renders in server-side scenarios. These issues provide a never ending list of distractions from your core product.

Edge cases solved

A decade of expertise in the nuances of font rendering, emoji glyphs, and every new browser version. Your team can focus on what actually matters.

Unpredictable costs

Many rendering issues can be resolved with more memory, more CPU, longer timeouts and GPU. In production, and especially when using serverless, the bills can grow faster than LLM token usage costs.

Costs optimised

You've found the perfect balance of cost and performance. You can predict your server bill to the penny for every batch of 1,000 screenshots rendered.

Full control

Screenshots without the stress

With over 100 options Urlbox has more image rendering control than you'll ever need. Focus on the things that really matter.

Full control over your captures

100+ rendering options including responsive, full-page, element-level and clean captures.

Every format you need

Turn any URL or HTML into images, video, PDFs, and structured data.

By developers, for developers

SDKs for Node.js, Ruby, PHP, Python, Java and C# with sync, async and webhook support.

Edge cases solved

Webfonts, emoji, video, captchas, cookie banners, retina and canvas — all handled.

Screenshots without getting blocked

Pick a point of view and capture pages as they appear to users anywhere around the world — bypassing bot detection, IP blocks, and geographic restrictions.

The best of speed and accuracy

Every capture prioritises correctness by default, but you can tune performance to match your needs.

SOC 2 Type II

GDPR compliant

Zero data retention

On premise hosting

BYO storage

See all customer stories

Rendering

Full control over your captures

Responsive screenshots

Screenshot your website at different widths and heights to simulate different devices and situations.

Full-page screenshots

Go beyond the limits of a browser's viewport and capture everything in an HTML document.

Element screenshots

Only need one part of a page? Capture just the element you need with a CSS selector.

Hide what you don't need

Remove unsightly elements, overlays, popups or banners automatically or on demand.

Formats

Every screenshot format you need

Turn any URL or HTML into images, video, PDFs, and structured data — so captures drop straight into reports, websites, and workflows.

See detailed guides

URL

Input a URL to render.

HTML

Input HTML code.

Render Link

Embed renders directly.

Read the docs

REST API

Server-side, large payloads.

Read the docs

Full Page

Block Ads

Hide Popups

Scroll

Element

Dark Mode

Delay

Proxy

Custom CSS

Custom JS

Headers

GPU Rendering

Webfonts

Emoji

Click

Wait

Clip

Localize

Timezone

Stealth Mode

Block Scripts

Image

PNG, JPEG, SVG, AVIF

Video

MP4, WEBM

Document

PDF, SVG

Data

MD, JSON, HTML

Image

When you want to capture a snapshot of a full or partial page at a specific point in time.

PNG: Even with a transparent background.
JPEG: For photos and general use.
WEBP: For modern browsers and mobile devices.
AVIF: For high-quality images on modern browsers.

Video

When you want to capture an animated website or a video scrolling down a page.

MP4: For general video use.
WEBM: For modern browsers and mobile devices.

Document

When you want to capture a page as if it were printed or you need a vector graphic for a design pipeline.

PDF: For reports, invoices and more.
SVG: For vector graphics.

Data

When you need to capture more context at the same moment as taking a screenshot, recording a video or generating a document.

MD: Extract text content as markdown for LLM inputs.
JSON: Extract structured metadata and more data from pages.
HTML: Get the fully hydrated HTML with dynamically loaded content.

SDKs

A screenshot API for every platform

A single API call to screenshot any URL or chunk of HTML. Generate PNGs along with fully hydrated HTML, markdown and metadata. Over 100 rendering options including custom JS.

Give Urlbox a try

JavaScript

Get accurate website screenshots with fewer dependencies.

Discover the JS SDK

PHP

Get more website screenshots faster, without security risks.

Discover the PHP SDK

Python

Get reliable website screenshots with less code.

Discover the Python API

Ruby

Get flawless screenshots as a service with specialist support.

Discover the Ruby API

Example Code

By Developers, for Developers

Ruby, Python and PHP developers depend on Urlbox to deliver fast, accurate screenshots, every time.

More recently they've been joined by developers using Clojure, Elixir, .NET, Classic ASP and all the flavours of JavaScript you can imagine.

See documentation

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// npm install urlbox --save

import Urlbox from 'urlbox';

// Plug in your API key and secret
const urlbox = Urlbox(YOUR_API_KEY, YOUR_API_SECRET);

// Set your options
const options = {
  url: 'github.com',
  thumb_width: 600,
  format: 'jpg',
  quality: 80
};

const imgUrl = urlbox.generateRenderLink(options);
// https://api.urlbox.com/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/TOKEN/jpg?url=github.com&thumb_width=600&quality=80

// Now set it as the src in an img tag to render the screenshot
<img src={imgUrl} />

Multiple Request Methods

Use it your way

Read the docs

GET or POST Request

GET requests (aka Render Links) work synchronously and allow you to configure your screenshot directly inside its URL. You can also use a POST request to call the API synchronously or asynchronously along with a large HTML payload.

Sync or Async

POST requests can receive responses asynchronously by polling or using a webhook. This allows you to render multiple screenshots in parallel. Using a POST request, you can also receive the response synchronously, which makes integration with no-code services seamless.

JSON or Binary Data

Calling the API synchronously via GET request, you will always receive the binary image data, so you can directly include the request URL inside your img tags. Using POST requests, you will receive a JSON blob containing the screenshot's URL and (optionally) URLs to metadata, markdown text and fully-hydrated HTML.

Edge Cases Solved

What you see is what you get

Urlbox ensures your screenshots will be accurately and consistently rendered at all times — even for cutting-edge web technologies.

Discover all features

Webfonts & Emoji

Render emoji exactly as they appear on your Apple device.

Video

Capture animations as designers intended.

Block Popups

Don't let ads and popups ruin your screenshots.

Bypass Captchas

Get around captchas and other anti-bot measures.

Auto-Accept

No more cookie banners in your screenshots.

Custom Proxy

Use your own proxy to access websites behind a firewall.

Retina Images

Render images at 2x resolution.

SVG

Output SVG images.

Canvas

Render canvas elements.

Multi-Platform

Use with your favorite language.

200+countries

Bot detection blocked

Stealth mode

Coverage

Screenshots without getting blocked

Set the geographic origin of each request and hide automation signals so you avoid blocks, bot detection, and unwanted regional redirects.

200+ countries

Stealth

Hidden

Performance

Fast screenshots when it matters, accurate captures when it counts

Every capture prioritises correctness by default, but when speed drives growth, we help you tune performance and accuracy to match your product's needs.

You only pay for successful renders — so accuracy is in our interest too.

~3savg render

99.9%success

Request Waterfall

0s — 2.6s

Request

Queue

Render

Upload

Deliver

Total: 2.6s

Tunable speed

Pay per success

Accuracy first

Team

A real team behind every screenshot

Four UK-based screenshot engineers, decades of experience, and a shared inbox — when you email support, or book a call, you talk directly to the people who built the platform.

Arnold Cubici-Jones

Worcestershire

Chris Roebuck

Yorkshire

Gus Meneses

Oxfordshire

Jon Markwell

Sussex

Compliance

Built to meet your security and compliance standards

Every capture is protected by the same product security, network controls, and data-privacy policies you expect from modern SaaS — with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and US or EU infrastructure.

SOC 2 Type II certified

GDPR compliant

Regulation

Made for regulated environments

If your organisation needs formal review, documentation, or security sign-off, we’ll guide you through it — quickly and without surprises.

Extended trials for technical and security evaluation
US, EU, or on-premise deployment options
Information security and compliance documentation
Enhanced SLAs and custom MSAs when required

99.99% SLAZero data retention

Solutions

Start capturing screenshots today

Screenshot API

Build screenshots directly into your software

Use our Screenshot API to generate captures on demand via synchronous or asynchronous requests, webhooks, and secure render links — so screenshots become part of your product, not a manual task.

Learn more

CaptureDeck

Turn lists of URLs into ready-to-use reports

Upload a CSV or paste a list to instantly produce clean screenshots, ZIP archives, and audit-ready PDF reports — no developers required.

Learn more