Website Screenshot API — Full-Page, Element & Device Capture

Turn any URL into a pixel-perfect screenshot (PNG, JPEG, or WebP) — full page, a single element, or an exact region. Most screenshot tools stop at "PNG of the viewport." This one adds 13 realistic device profiles, retina capture, dark mode, automatic cookie-consent + ad blocking, stealth, authenticated-page support, geolocation and bring-your-own-proxy — all self-scaling and hardened against SSRF. Use it as an always-on Standby HTTP API, in batch runs, or as a tool for AI agents (Apify MCP). You only pay for successful screenshots.

Why this actor (the edge)

• 🖼️ All four formats — PNG, JPEG, WebP (smaller files), and PDF. Many actors do PNG/PDF only.
• 📱 13 device profiles — desktop / laptop / QHD / Mac-retina / iPhone / Pixel / Galaxy / iPad / social aspect ratios — each a consistent viewport + pixel density + matching user-agent + touch. Pick iphone_15 and you get a real iPhone capture, not a squished desktop. All profiles cost the same.
• 📜 True full-page with a safe 16384 px cap — not a fragile "scroll to bottom" hack.
• 🎯 Element & region capture — CSS selector or an exact clip rectangle.
• 🌙 Dark mode, retina (deviceScaleFactor up to 3), custom viewport, transparent background.
• 🍪 Cookie consent handled properly — it clicks "Accept" (unlocking consent-gated content), then hides leftovers. Plus ad/tracker blocking.
• 🥷 Stealth on by default — masks the obvious headless tells so pages don't flag a bot (no CAPTCHA solving).
• 🔐 Authenticated & paywalled pages — pass cookies and headers (e.g. Authorization); secrets are sent first-party only.
• 🌍 Geo capture — geolocation spoofing and bring-your-own proxy to capture a page as seen from any country.
• ⚡ Self-scaling & reliable — reads the run's memory/CPU and tunes concurrency; a bounded queue returns 429 instead of crashing under load.
• 🛡️ SSRF-safe by design — every request (and redirect/subresource) is routed through a forced proxy that resolves, classifies and pins the IP; private/metadata ranges are blocked and DNS-rebinding is defeated. Downloads are refused (no disk abuse).
• 💸 Billed only on success at $0.0009 / screenshot ($0.90 / 1,000) — failures and rejections are free.

How it compares

Capability	This actor	Typical screenshot actors	Standalone SaaS APIs
PNG / JPEG / WebP / PDF	✅ all 4	⚠️ often PNG/PDF only	✅
True full-page (capped)	✅	⚠️ scroll-to-bottom hack	✅
Element + region (clip)	✅	❌ rare	⚠️ some
Retina / deviceScaleFactor	✅ 1–3	❌ usually none	✅
13 real device profiles	✅	❌ width-only	⚠️ some
Dark mode	✅	❌	⚠️ some
Auto-accept cookie consent	✅ (clicks Accept)	❌ hide-only at best	⚠️ hide-only
Ad/tracker blocking	✅	❌ manual selectors	✅
Stealth (anti-bot tells)	✅ default	❌	💲 premium tier
Authenticated pages (cookies/headers)	✅ first-party-scoped	⚠️ rare	💲 premium
Geolocation + own proxy	✅	❌	💲 premium
Self-scaling + backpressure	✅	❌	n/a (managed)
SSRF-safe, no downloads	✅	❓ usually unstated	✅
Price	$0.0009 / shot ($0.90/1K), success-only	~$0.008 + or free+compute	$2–$10 / 1,000

Legend: ✅ yes · ⚠️ partial/varies · ❌ no · 💲 paid add-on. "Typical screenshot actors" reflects the common feature set across popular Store alternatives at the time of writing.

Features in detail

Feature	How
Formats	format = png · jpeg · webp · pdf (WebP re-encoded with sharp; PDF rendered by Chromium).
Full page	fullPage=true; height capped at 16384 px and reported via truncatedHeight.
Element / region	selector for one element, or clip {x,y,width,height}.
Device profiles	device (see list above); explicit width/height/deviceScaleFactor override it.
Dark mode	colorScheme=dark.
Cookie consent	acceptCookies clicks Accept (CMP vendors + text heuristic, iframes); blockCookieBanners hides leftovers.
Blocking	blockAds, blockImages.
Stealth	stealth (default on) masks navigator.webdriver, HeadlessChrome UA, plugins.
Auth	cookies[], headers{} (first-party only; hop-by-hop/spoofable headers rejected).
Emulation	locale, timezoneId, userAgent, geolocation, isMobile.
Proxy	proxy — your own http/socks proxy (validated public).
Waits	waitUntil, waitForSelector, delayMs, timeoutMs.

Pricing

Pay-per-event, charged only on a successful capture. Failed captures, validation errors and queue rejections are free.

Event	When	Price
screenshot	One successful screenshot delivered	$0.0009 ($0.90 / 1,000)
apify-actor-start	Run / Standby boot	platform default

At $0.0009 / screenshot ($0.90 / 1,000) this sits an order of magnitude below standalone APIs ($2–$10 / 1,000) while doing more per shot. Set the exact price in Console → Monetization before publishing.

Usage

Standby — always-on HTTP API

Enable Standby in the Console, then call the Actor hostname with your Apify token:

curl "https://<username>--website-screenshot-api.apify.actor/screenshot?url=https://apify.com&fullPage=true&format=webp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>"

POST JSON for advanced options:

curl -X POST "https://<username>--website-screenshot-api.apify.actor/screenshot" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://apify.com","device":"iphone_15","colorScheme":"dark"}'

Response is JSON: capture metadata + the key-value store key and public url of the image.

Batch run

{ "url": "https://apify.com", "urls": ["https://example.com"], "format": "png", "fullPage": true, "device": "desktop" }

Each URL → one image in the key-value store + one metadata row in the dataset.

AI agents (MCP)

Discoverable and runnable through Apify's MCP server (mcp.apify.com) — the input schema is exposed as a tool automatically; no extra setup.

Input parameter reference

Parameter	Type	Default	Notes
url	string	— (required)	http(s); must resolve to a public address.
urls	string[]	—	Batch mode.
format	string	png	png, jpeg, webp, pdf.
quality	integer	80	JPEG/WebP 1–100.
fullPage	boolean	false	Whole scrollable page.
device	string	desktop	Device profile.
width / height	integer	(device)	1–3840 / 1–4320.
deviceScaleFactor	number	(device)	1–3.
waitUntil	string	load	load,domcontentloaded,commit,networkidle.
waitForSelector	string	—	Wait for an element.
delayMs / timeoutMs	integer	0 / 30000	0–10000 / 1000–60000.
colorScheme	string	no-preference	light,dark.
selector / clip	string / object	—	Element or region.
omitBackground	boolean	false	Transparent (PNG/WebP).
blockAds / blockCookieBanners / acceptCookies	boolean	true	Cleaner captures.
blockImages / stealth / isMobile	boolean	false/true/(device)	—
locale / timezoneId / userAgent	string	—	Emulation.
geolocation	object	—	{latitude,longitude}.
cookies / headers	array / object	—	Auth (first-party only).
proxy	string	—	Your own http/socks proxy (public).

Output

• Image/PDF binary in the key-value store (<prefix>.<ext>, correct Content-Type).
• A dataset row with metadata + KV key and public URL:

{ "url": "https://apify.com", "finalUrl": "https://apify.com/", "format": "png",
  "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "fullPage": true, "bytes": 184213, "tookMs": 1842,
  "key": "screenshot-....png", "url_": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/<storeId>/records/<key>" }

Security & limits

• SSRF protection always on: forced in-process proxy resolves DNS, classifies every resolved IP, blocks private/reserved/loopback/link-local (incl. 169.254.169.254), pins the validated IP (defeats DNS-rebinding) — for the page and its subresources/redirects.
• No downloads / no execution: acceptDownloads:false; pages are only rendered, never run on the host.
• Bounds: full-page ≤ 16384 px, per-capture timeout ≤ 60 s, response size cap, viewport ≤ 3840×4320, DSF ≤ 3. Fresh isolated browser context per capture.

License

Apache-2.0