# Website Screenshot API – Bulk Full-Page, Mobile & PDF (`ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api`) Actor

Website screenshot API. Input: URLs, domains or a sitemap. Returns one row per URL with a full-page screenshot (desktop, mobile, tablet; PNG/JPEG/WebP) and optional URL to PDF. Accepts cookie banners, removes popups, ads and chat. $0.003 per screenshot; failed or bot-blocked URLs free. MCP-ready.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api.md
- **Developed by:** [AusBizStack Intelligence](https://apify.com/ausbizstack) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.10 / 1,000 screenshot takens

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Website Screenshot API – Bulk Full-Page, Mobile & PDF

**Paste a list of URLs or domains → get clean, full-page screenshots (desktop, mobile, tablet) and optional PDFs, with cookie banners, popups, chat bubbles and ads removed. You pay only for screenshots that actually rendered.**

#### ▶️ Try it now

The input is prefilled with `stripe.com`, `apple.com` and `bbc.com`. Click **Start** – you get 3 full-page desktop screenshots in under a minute for less than $0.01.

Real rows from our test run (desktop, full page, JPEG q80):

| url | status | httpStatus | title | width × height | file size | charged |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stripe.com | ok | 200 | Stripe | Financial Infrastructure to Grow Your Revenue | 1440 × 14,844 | 1.7 MB | $0.003 |
| apple.com | ok | 200 | Apple | 1440 × 5,885 | 0.7 MB | $0.003 |
| bbc.com | ok | 200 | BBC Home | Breaking News, World News… | 1440 × 14,081 | 2.5 MB | $0.003 |
| etsy.com | error | 403 | – (“Blocked by bot protection / CAPTCHA”) | – | – | **$0** |

Every input URL gets exactly **one row** – successes and failures – so you can join results back to your list.

#### 💰 What it costs

Pay-per-event. **Errors, timeouts, bot-protection pages and HTTP 4xx/5xx are never charged.**

| Volume | Screenshots only ($0.003 each) | Screenshot + PDF ($0.005 per URL) | Screenshots on GOLD plan ($0.0021) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 URLs | **$0.30** | $0.50 | $0.21 |
| 1,000 URLs | **$3.00** | $5.00 | $2.10 |
| 10,000 URLs | **$30.00** | $50.00 | $21.00 |

Paid Apify plans get automatic discounts: BRONZE $0.0027 · SILVER $0.0024 · GOLD/PLATINUM/DIAMOND $0.0021 per screenshot (PDF $0.0018 / $0.0016 / $0.0014). `viewport: both` = 2 screenshots per URL. A tiny start fee ($0.00005 per GB of memory) applies per run. Set **Max cost per run** in the run options and the Actor stops cleanly at your budget.

***

### 💳 What counts as a billed result

Two events, both charged only on success:

| Event | Price | Charged when |
|---|---|---|
| `screenshot-taken` | $0.003 | Once per screenshot actually saved, **per device**. `viewport: "both"` = 2 charges per URL; each extra device preset = 1 more |
| `pdf-generated` | $0.002 | Once per PDF actually saved (only when `pdf: true`) |

Apify also adds its standard tiny start fee per run (`apify-actor-start`).

| Row in your dataset | Charged? |
|---|---|
| `status: "ok"` | Yes, only for the screenshots / PDF in that row (`chargedScreenshots`, `chargedPdf`) |
| Bot-protection / CAPTCHA page, HTTP 4xx/5xx, error, timeout (`status: "error"`) | No, $0 |
| `invalid_input` (not a URL, domain or email) | No, $0 |
| `duplicate_input` (same page as an earlier line) | No, $0 |

### 🧾 Accepted input formats

Each line in `urls` can be a bare domain (`stripe.com`), a full URL (`https://www.stripe.com/pricing`), a domain with mixed case, spaces or a trailing slash, or an email address (`sales@stripe.com` or `mailto:` link, which captures that domain's homepage). Objects like `{"url": "...", "userData": {...}}` keep working.

Inputs are cleaned and de-duplicated **before** any page is opened or charged. Two lines count as the same page when the host (ignoring `www.` and case), path (ignoring a trailing slash) and query string match. The extra line comes back as a free `duplicate_input` row with `duplicateOf`. A `www.` you type is kept when the page is loaded.

### 📊 Measured quality (not marketing numbers)

We ran **132 URL tests on real public websites** in 6 batches (SaaS, news, retail, government, education, EU sites) on Apify's default 4 GB setup, with no proxy:

| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Success rate, desktop full-page (112 URLs) | **93 / 112 = 83%** |
| Success rate excluding sites with hard bot protection | **93 / 97 = 96%** |
| Hard bot-blocked (HTTP 401/403) | 15 – e.g. Etsy, eBay, Reuters, Forbes, ASOS, Sephora, Reddit, NYTimes – returned as `error`, **not charged** |
| Timeouts | 4 (very slow or endless-loading pages) – **not charged** |
| Typical time per page | 4–10 s when rendered alone; ~45 s median per page when 8 render in parallel (25 URLs finish in about 3 minutes) |
| Our platform cost per screenshot | $0.001–$0.003 (so the price is sustainable, not a loss-leader that will disappear) |
| Desktop + mobile + PDF (20 URLs, heaviest mode) | 11 fully rendered, 5 marked “partial” after 105 s and **not charged**, 4 blocked/timeout. For this mode use fewer parallel pages (`concurrency: 4`) or 8 GB memory. |

Some heavily bot-protected sites (Etsy, eBay, Reuters and similar) block data-center browsers. They come back as a clear `error` row with HTTP 403 and you pay nothing for them. If you need those sites, add your own residential proxy.

### ✨ Features

| | This Actor | Typical screenshot Actor |
|---|---|---|
| Input | URLs, bare domains, `startUrls`, **sitemap.xml / sitemap index / .gz** | URLs only |
| Devices | desktop, laptop, desktop-HD, iPhone 13, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Pixel 7, Galaxy S9, iPad, iPad Pro – or **both/all** in one run | one viewport |
| Cookie banners | **Clicks “Accept”** on 40+ CMPs (OneTrust, Cookiebot, Didomi, Quantcast, Usercentrics, TrustArc, Sourcepoint, Funding Choices, CookieYes, iubenda…) in 20+ languages, incl. iframes & shadow DOM, then hides leftovers | CSS hide list, or nothing |
| Popups | Removes newsletter / sign-in / ad-block-wall modals and dark backdrops, unlocks scrolling | – |
| Ads & chat | Blocks ad/tracker requests (faster + cleaner), hides Intercom, Drift, HubSpot, Zendesk, Tawk… | – |
| Lazy-loading | Scrolls the page, forces `loading=lazy` images, waits for fonts & images | fixed delay |
| Animations | Frozen, caret hidden → no half-faded heroes | – |
| Element shot | `selector` – capture just one element | – |
| Dark mode, locale, timezone | ✅ | rarely |
| Custom headers, cookies, user agent | ✅ (screenshot pages behind a login cookie) | rarely |
| Formats | JPEG, PNG, WebP (+ quality), **PDF** (A4/Letter, landscape) | PNG/JPEG |
| Very tall pages | Capped at `maxFullPageHeight` (default 15,000 px) so you never get a 200 MB image | crash / timeout |
| Reliability | Retries, www-fallback for bare domains, crash recovery, per-URL hard timeout; one bad URL never fails the run | run fails |
| Honest billing | Cloudflare / DataDome / PerimeterX challenge pages detected and **not charged** | charged |

### 📥 Input

Only `urls` is required. Everything else has sensible defaults.

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://stripe.com", "apple.com", "https://www.bbc.com/news"],
  "viewport": "both",
  "fullPage": true,
  "format": "jpeg",
  "quality": 80,
  "pdf": false,
  "darkMode": false,
  "concurrency": 8
}
```

Useful options: `sitemapUrl` + `maxSitemapUrls` (screenshot a whole site), `devicePresets` (e.g. `["iphone-15-pro-max","pixel-7"]`), `selector`, `waitForSelector`, `delayMs`, `hideSelectors`, `customCss`, `headers`, `cookies`, `locale`, `timezoneId`, `userAgent`, `maxFullPageHeight`, `pdfOnly`, `timeoutSecs`, `retries`, `proxyConfiguration`.

### 📤 Output

One dataset row per input URL:

```json
{
  "url": "https://stripe.com",
  "finalUrl": "https://stripe.com/",
  "status": "ok",
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "title": "Stripe | Financial Infrastructure to Grow Your Revenue",
  "screenshotUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/…/records/0001-stripe-com-desktop.jpg",
  "mobileScreenshotUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/…/records/0001-stripe-com-mobile.jpg",
  "screenshots": [{ "device": "desktop", "url": "…", "width": 1440, "height": 9870, "bytes": 1650000, "format": "jpeg" }],
  "pdfUrl": null,
  "width": 1440, "height": 9870, "bytes": 1650000,
  "format": "jpeg", "device": "desktop",
  "takenAt": "2026-11-02T03:12:45.120Z",
  "durationMs": 11240, "attempts": 1,
  "chargedScreenshots": 1, "chargedPdf": false,
  "error": null
}
```

`status` is `ok`, `error` or `timeout`. Images and PDFs are stored in the run's key-value store; the URLs are directly downloadable. A run summary (totals, success rate) is saved as `OUTPUT` in the key-value store. Rows are **webhook-friendly**: flat fields, stable keys, `userData` from your input echoed back.

### 🤖 Use from an AI agent (Apify MCP)

Add the Apify MCP server to Claude, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client:

```
https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api
```

Then ask: *“Take full-page desktop and mobile screenshots of stripe.com and linear.app and give me the image links.”* The agent calls this Actor and gets back the structured rows above.

API (any language):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ausbizstack~website-screenshot-api/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls":["https://stripe.com"],"viewport":"mobile"}'
```

### ❓ FAQ

**Am I charged for failed URLs?** No. Only successfully saved screenshots/PDFs are charged. Errors, timeouts, HTTP 4xx/5xx and bot-challenge pages cost nothing (you still get a row explaining why).

**Some sites return 403 / "blocked".** Large news, retail and travel sites block data-center IPs. Add your own residential proxy URLs in `proxyConfiguration` for those (Apify Proxy is not supported). Without a proxy those URLs simply come back as `error`, not charged.

**How do I screenshot a whole website?** Put the sitemap in `sitemapUrl` (sitemap indexes and `.xml.gz` work) and set `maxSitemapUrls`.

**Can I screenshot pages behind a login?** Yes – pass session `cookies` or an `Authorization` header in `headers`. Only use accounts you own.

**Why is my screenshot cut at 15,000 px?** Endless feeds would otherwise create huge files. Raise `maxFullPageHeight` (up to 30,000) if you need more.

**Mobile looks like desktop?** Some sites decide by user agent – the mobile presets send real iPhone/Android user agents, touch and device-scale-factor.

**PNG, JPEG or WebP?** JPEG (q80) is the best size/quality default; PNG for pixel-perfect UI; WebP for the smallest files.

**Is it fast enough for bulk?** Yes. At the default 4 GB the Actor renders 8 pages at once (set `concurrency` up to 10, or raise memory to go wider). See the measured numbers above.

**Is this legal?** Screenshotting public pages is generally fine; respect each site's terms and copyright when you reuse images.

Questions or a site that renders badly? Open an issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab – include the URL and we'll tune it.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Websites to capture, one per line. Domains without https:// are fine (stripe.com). One output row per line, duplicates included. You can also pass objects like {"url": "https://...", "userData": {...}} through the API; userData is copied to the output row.

## `sitemapUrl` (type: `string`):

Capture every page listed in an XML sitemap (sitemap index and .xml.gz supported), e.g. https://example.com/sitemap.xml. Added to the URLs above.

## `maxSitemapUrls` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit of pages taken from the sitemap.

## `viewport` (type: `string`):

Desktop (1440×900 by default), mobile (iPhone 13, 390×844), tablet (iPad), desktop + mobile, or all three. Each device image is one charged screenshot.

## `devicePresets` (type: `array`):

Pick exact devices instead of the Device option above. Each preset is one screenshot.

## `fullPage` (type: `boolean`):

Capture the whole scrollable page (lazy-loaded images are loaded first). Turn off to capture only the visible viewport (above the fold).

## `width` (type: `integer`):

Viewport width for the desktop device.

## `height` (type: `integer`):

Viewport height for the desktop device (the image height when Full-page is off).

## `deviceScaleFactor` (type: `integer`):

1 = normal, 2 = retina (2× sharper, ~3× bigger files), 3 = max. Leave empty for 1 on desktop and 2 on mobile/tablet.

## `maxFullPageHeight` (type: `integer`):

Very tall pages (infinite scroll, long articles) are cut at this height so images stay usable.

## `selector` (type: `string`):

CSS selector of one element to capture instead of the page, e.g. header, #pricing, .hero. Rows where the element is missing are marked error and not charged.

## `format` (type: `string`):

JPEG is smallest for photos, PNG is lossless, WebP is small and sharp.

## `quality` (type: `integer`):

10-100. Ignored for PNG.

## `pdf` (type: `boolean`):

Save a PDF of each page as well (charged as an extra pdf-generated event).

## `pdfOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Save only the PDF, no screenshot. Charged as a single pdf-generated event per URL.

## `pdfFormat` (type: `string`):

Paper size for PDFs.

## `pdfLandscape` (type: `boolean`):

Landscape orientation for PDFs.

## `hideCookieBanners` (type: `boolean`):

Clicks “Accept” on 40+ consent platforms (OneTrust, Cookiebot, Didomi, Quantcast, Usercentrics, TrustArc, Sourcepoint, Google Funding Choices, CookieYes, Osano, iubenda, Complianz…) in many languages, then hides any leftover banner and unlocks scrolling.

## `hideChatWidgets` (type: `boolean`):

Hides Intercom, Drift, HubSpot, Zendesk, Tawk.to, Crisp, LiveChat, Tidio, Freshchat, Zoho SalesIQ and other chat bubbles.

## `blockAds` (type: `boolean`):

Blocks common ad, tracking and push-notification networks (faster pages, cleaner images).

## `hidePopups` (type: `boolean`):

Removes newsletter, sign-in, paywall-teaser and “disable your ad blocker” modals plus their dark backdrops, and unlocks scrolling. Sticky navigation bars are kept.

## `blockVideos` (type: `boolean`):

Skip loading videos/audio (posters still show). Faster, cheaper, and stills never show video frames reliably anyway.

## `disableWebGL` (type: `boolean`):

Turn off WebGL/3D canvases. Much faster on sites with animated 3D backgrounds; the site shows its static fallback instead.

## `disableAnimations` (type: `boolean`):

Stops CSS animations and transitions and hides the text cursor so screenshots are stable.

## `hideSelectors` (type: `array`):

CSS selectors to hide before capture, e.g. .promo-bar, #newsletter-popup.

## `customCss` (type: `string`):

CSS injected before capture.

## `darkMode` (type: `boolean`):

Emulate prefers-color-scheme: dark (sites that support dark mode render dark).

## `waitUntil` (type: `string`):

When the page counts as loaded. “Load” works for most sites; “Network idle” waits longer for heavy single-page apps.

## `delayMs` (type: `integer`):

Wait this long after the page is ready.

## `waitForSelector` (type: `string`):

CSS selector that must be visible before the screenshot, e.g. .chart-loaded.

## `scrollToLoadLazy` (type: `boolean`):

For full-page shots and PDFs, scroll through the page first so lazy-loaded images and sections appear.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Maximum time for a page to respond. Slow pages are marked timeout and not charged.

## `retries` (type: `integer`):

Retries per URL after a timeout or network error.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Pages rendered at the same time. Leave empty for auto (2 pages per GB of memory, so 8 at the default 4 GB, automatically lowered when each URL needs several devices or a PDF). Most time is spent waiting on the network, so this is the fastest and cheapest setting for most batches.

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Safety limit on the number of URLs processed.

## `locale` (type: `string`):

Browser locale and Accept-Language, e.g. en-US, en-AU, de-DE.

## `timezoneId` (type: `string`):

IANA time zone, e.g. Australia/Sydney, Europe/London.

## `userAgent` (type: `string`):

Override the browser user agent.

## `headers` (type: `object`):

Extra request headers, e.g. {"Authorization": "Basic ..."} for a staging site.

## `cookies` (type: `array`):

Cookies to set before loading, e.g. \[{"name": "session", "value": "...", "domain": ".example.com"}]. Use only for sites you own or are allowed to access.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Not needed for most sites. Add your own proxy URLs (e.g. http://user:pass@host:port) for geo-specific or bot-protected pages. Apify Proxy is not supported in this Actor.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://stripe.com",
    "https://www.apple.com",
    "https://www.bbc.com"
  ],
  "maxSitemapUrls": 50,
  "viewport": "desktop",
  "fullPage": true,
  "width": 1440,
  "height": 900,
  "maxFullPageHeight": 15000,
  "format": "jpeg",
  "quality": 80,
  "pdf": false,
  "pdfOnly": false,
  "pdfFormat": "A4",
  "pdfLandscape": false,
  "hideCookieBanners": true,
  "hideChatWidgets": true,
  "blockAds": true,
  "hidePopups": true,
  "blockVideos": true,
  "disableWebGL": false,
  "disableAnimations": true,
  "darkMode": false,
  "waitUntil": "load",
  "delayMs": 500,
  "scrollToLoadLazy": true,
  "timeoutSecs": 45,
  "retries": 1,
  "maxUrls": 10000,
  "locale": "en-US",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `screenshots` (type: `string`):

No description

## `allData` (type: `string`):

No description

## `files` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://stripe.com",
        "https://www.apple.com",
        "https://www.bbc.com"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://stripe.com",
        "https://www.apple.com",
        "https://www.bbc.com",
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://stripe.com",
    "https://www.apple.com",
    "https://www.bbc.com"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ausbizstack/website-screenshot-api"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/KLbFfxJrkMtekfNnQ/builds/mkzYzyXaYMHAXCBn4/openapi.json