Screenshot API - Take Website Screenshots from a URL (Free)

What You Get

Each API call returns a high-quality screenshot hosted on our CDN.

Full-page or viewport

Capture entire page or visible area

PNG or JPEG

Choose format and quality level

Mobile emulation

Capture responsive layouts at any viewport

CDN-hosted

Ready-to-use image URLs delivered globally

How It Works

We use headless Chrome to render websites pixel-perfectly.

— step 01 —

Send a URL

With your preferred format, quality, and viewport size

— step 02 —

Headless Chrome renders

Full JavaScript support, animations, and dynamic content

— step 03 —

Image processed

Optimized and uploaded to our global CDN

— step 04 —

URL returned

Clean, high-quality image ready for immediate use

API Response

Extracted screenshot for context.dev

GET /v1/screenshot?domain=context.dev

Try in API Playground

{
  "status": "ok",
  "domain": "context.dev",
  "screenshot": "https://media.context.dev/5b4c4859-3777-41b0-9597-5d55a7e02f31.jpg",
  "screenshotType": "viewport",
  "code": 200
}

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about the Context.dev Screenshot API.

Am I billed for failed requests?

No. You are not billed for failed requests or requests where we are blocked (rarely happens). Credits are only consumed on successful responses.

Can the screenshot API capture full-page screenshots?

Yes. By default the API captures the viewport, but full-page mode captures the entire scrollable height as a single image — useful for previewing landing pages, blog posts, or long-form content. Set the screenshotType to "fullPage".

What image formats are supported?

PNG (lossless, larger files, best for UIs and screenshots with text) and JPEG (smaller, lossy, best for photo-heavy pages). Quality is configurable for JPEG. All screenshots are served from a global CDN with stable URLs you can hotlink.

Can I use the screenshot API for OG images and link previews?

Yes — that's a common use case. Generate OG images for blog posts, link previews for chat apps, thumbnail cards for marketplaces, and dashboard tiles for monitoring. The CDN URLs are stable, so cache aggressively at the edge.

How do I take a screenshot of a website with the API?

Send a GET request to /v1/screenshot?domain=<target>. The API spins up a headless Chrome instance, renders the page (JavaScript, animations, web fonts, all loaded), captures the image, uploads it to a global CDN, and returns the image URL in JSON. No browser to install, no Puppeteer to maintain.

Does the API support mobile emulation?

Yes. Specify a custom viewport (width × height) and the API renders the page at that size with the matching device-pixel-ratio. Standard mobile sizes (iPhone, iPad, Pixel) are supported, plus arbitrary breakpoints for QA and responsive testing.

How is this a Urlbox / ApiFlash / ScreenshotOne alternative?

Same single-call ergonomics — pass URL, get image. But Context.dev bundles the Screenshot API with the rest of the brand-data stack (logos, colors, web scraping, NAICS/SIC) on a single API key. Pricing is per-call with a real free tier; OG-image-style flows often need only the free tier.

Is the screenshot API free?

Yes — the free tier covers thousands of monthly screenshots. A single API key also unlocks Logo, Colors, Fonts, web scraping, sitemaps, NAICS/SIC, and the rest of the Context.dev stack.