Free screenshot APIs: what each free plan really includes
Seven services, their free plans and trials as listed on 13 October 2026, what a free allowance covers in practice, and the point where paying costs less than working around it.
Free plans and trials, side by side
A free plan renews every month; a trial ends. Two of the services are not one-request screenshot APIs, and are marked so.
Urlbox[1]
TrialNo lasting free plan. A 7-day trial on the Hi-Fi and Ultra plans.
After the trial, from $49 a month for 5,000.
ScreenshotOne[2]
Free plan100 screenshots a month, no card needed. HTML and PDF renders included.
Then from $17 a month for 2,000.
ScreenshotAPI.net[4]
TrialA 7-day trial with 100 screenshots. No lasting free plan.
After the trial, from $9 a month for 1,000.
Microlink[6]
Free plan, different service25 requests a day, no card needed.
A broader link API (metadata, screenshots, PDF); the screenshot is one of its outputs. Paid from $49 a month.
Browserless[7]
Free plan, different service1,000 units a month; a unit is up to 30 seconds of browser time.
A hosted browser you drive with your own Puppeteer or Playwright code, not a one-request screenshot API.
CurlShot
Free plan100 screenshots a month, no card needed.
10 requests a minute, 1 at a time. Failed renders and cache hits are not counted. Plans and prices
How far do 100 free screenshots a month go?
One render is one screenshot, whatever its size, so 100 a month is about three a day. Here is what that covers.
- Watch 3 pages for changes, once a day
- 3 × 30 = 90
- Yes, just
- One social image for each new blog post, 8 posts a month
- 8
- Yes, many times over
- A preview for each link people add to your app, 20 a day
- 20 × 30 = 600
- No: about 6 times the allowance
- Watch 10 pages for changes, every hour
- 10 × 24 × 30 = 7,200
- No: a paid plan
- A PDF of each invoice, 40 a month
- 40
- Yes
How to make a free allowance last
- Cache repeat requests. The same page with the same options is the same picture. Where cache hits are not counted, a cached repeat costs nothing.
- Do not pay for failures. Prefer an API that does not count a failed render, so a page that times out does not eat the allowance.
- Capture only what changes. For monitoring, capture less often and only the part of the page you watch, with an element selector.
- Make the image once, serve it many times. Save the file to your own storage or CDN and show that, instead of asking the API again for every visitor.
On CurlShot
When does paying make sense?
- Your volume passes the allowance in a normal month, not just a busy one.
- You need more than one render at the same moment, or more requests a minute than the free plan allows.
- Screenshots are part of a product your customers rely on, so you need room to grow without hitting a wall.
- You need an option the free plan does not include, such as taller full-page captures or longer videos.
To compare paid plans across vendors, read the screenshot API comparison. To weigh running your own browser instead, read what a headless browser really costs. For a single capture, the free full-page screenshot tool needs no account.
Questions people ask
Is there a completely free screenshot API?
Yes, within a monthly allowance. ScreenshotOne, ApiFlash and ScreenshotMachine give 100 screenshots a month free, and CurlShot has a free plan too. Past the allowance you pay, or wait for next month.
Do free screenshot APIs need a credit card?
Not the ones in this guide that state it: ScreenshotOne, Microlink and the Urlbox trial say no card is needed, and so does CurlShot. Check the sign-up page of any other service before you rely on it.
How many screenshots do I get on a free plan?
Usually 100 a month. Microlink counts per day instead (25 a day), and Browserless counts units of browser time (1,000 a month, up to 30 seconds each). Trials from Urlbox and ScreenshotAPI.net last 7 days.
Can I take screenshots for free without an API?
Yes. For a one-off capture, paste the address into a free online tool such as the CurlShot full-page screenshot page. For many captures, you can run Playwright or Puppeteer yourself for free, and pay in servers and upkeep instead.
When should I move from a free plan to a paid one?
When a normal month goes past the allowance, when you need several renders at once, or when screenshots are part of a product your customers depend on. Size the plan for your busiest month.
Sources
Read next
- ComparisonScreenshot API comparison: prices and free plansUrlbox, ScreenshotOne, ApiFlash, ScreenshotAPI.net and ScreenshotMachine side by side: free plans, price at 10,000 a month, formats, MCP and storage.
- CalculatorScreenshot API vs headless browser: the real costA cost calculator with every assumption editable, the hidden work behind headless Chrome, and an honest checklist for build or buy.
- PlaybookWebsite change monitoring with screenshotsHow to get told when a web page changes: the capture and compare loop, three ways to detect a change, a noise checklist, a cron and Node.js setup, and tools.