How to Capture Website Screenshots with an API in 2026

2026-03-26

How to Capture Website Screenshots with an API in 2026

Taking screenshots of websites programmatically is one of the most common developer tasks. Whether you're building a link preview system, monitoring website changes, or generating thumbnails for a portfolio — you need a reliable screenshot API.

Why Use a Screenshot API?

Running your own headless browser (Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium) works, but it comes with headaches:

• Infrastructure costs — you need a server with enough RAM for Chrome
• Maintenance — browser updates, memory leaks, timeouts
• Scaling — one browser instance handles ~5 concurrent captures

A screenshot API handles all of this for you. You send a URL, you get back an image.

Quick Start with 16761.tech Screenshot API

cURL

`bash curl -X POST https://api.16761.tech/screenshot \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"url":"https://github.com"}' \ -o screenshot.png `

Python

`python import requests

response = requests.post( "https://api.16761.tech/screenshot", headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"}, json={"url": "https://github.com", "fullPage": True} )

with open("screenshot.png", "wb") as f: f.write(response.content) `

Node.js

`javascript const response = await fetch("https://api.16761.tech/screenshot", { method: "POST", headers: { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY", "Content-Type": "application/json" }, body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://github.com", format: "jpeg", quality: 85 }) });

const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer(); require("fs").writeFileSync("screenshot.jpg", Buffer.from(buffer)); `

Advanced Options

The API supports several options to customize your screenshots:

• Custom viewport — set width and height (up to 3840x2160)
• Full page capture — set fullPage: true to capture the entire scrollable page
• Element capture — use selector: "#main" to capture a specific element
• JPEG format — set format: "jpeg" with custom quality for smaller files
• Delay — set delay: 2000 to wait for animations or lazy-loaded content

Common Use Cases

• Link previews for social media or chat apps
• Website monitoring — detect visual changes over time
• Portfolio thumbnails — auto-generate previews of client websites
• SEO audits — capture how pages look in different viewports
• Archiving — save visual snapshots of web pages

Pricing

The 16761.tech Screenshot API offers a generous free tier:

• Free: 100 screenshots/day — no credit card required
• Pro ($9/mo): 5,000 screenshots/day
• Enterprise ($29/mo): 50,000 screenshots/day

Get your free API key →

Conclusion

A screenshot API saves you from running and maintaining headless browsers. With 16761.tech, you can capture any webpage as PNG, JPEG, or even PDF with a single API call. The free tier is generous enough for most side projects and prototypes.