Remove Cookie Banners and Ads

Most screenshots of European sites show a cookie banner, and many news sites show ads above the content. You will switch on the blocking options first. They fix most pages. Then you will fix the pages they do not fix.

All images on this page are real renders from October 2026. Sites change their banners often, so your results can differ.

1Switch on the blocking options

Four switches cover most pages:

curl -X POST https://api.renderscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/",
    "block": { "cookie_banners": true, "ads": true, "trackers": true, "chat_widgets": true }
  }' --output clean.png

No options

block.cookie_banners

In the SDKs:

Node.js

const image = await client.take(
  TakeOptions.url('https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/')
    .blockCookieBanners()
    .blockAds()
    .blockTrackers()
    .blockChatWidgets()
);

Python

image = client.take(
    TakeOptions.url('https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/')
    .block_cookie_banners()
    .block_ads()
    .block_trackers()
    .block_chat_widgets()
)

Ruby

image = client.take(
  RenderScreenshot::TakeOptions
    .url('https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/')
    .block_cookie_banners
    .block_ads
    .block_trackers
    .block_chat_widgets
)

GET request

# GET supports the two most common switches
curl "https://api.renderscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ikea.com%2Fgb%2Fen%2F&block_cookies=true&block_ads=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RS_API_KEY" --output clean.png

2Remove a banner that is still there

Some sites build their own consent screen, or load it in a frame. Spiegel is one of them: with cookie_banners on, the consent screen is still there.

To remove it, find its container:

1. Open the page in Chrome or Firefox and right-click the banner. Choose Inspect.
2. In the elements panel, move up to the element that holds the whole banner and the dark backdrop.
3. Copy its ID or a stable class. On Spiegel it is <div id="sp_message_container_1519494">. The number changes, so match the start of the ID.

Add the selector to page.remove:

{
  "url": "https://www.spiegel.de",
  "block": { "cookie_banners": true },
  "page": { "remove": ["[id^='sp_message_container']"] }
}

cookie_banners only

+ page.remove

If removing the banner does not work, try these in order:

The blocking guide lists the selectors and script hosts of OneTrust, Cookiebot, Didomi, TrustArc and Usercentrics.

3Collapse empty ad slots

block.ads stops the ads, but many sites keep the space for them, so your screenshot can start with an empty box. Remove the site's ad wrapper too. On BBC, in October 2026, it is [data-testid="ad-unit"]:

{
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com",
  "block": { "ads": true, "cookie_banners": true },
  "page": { "remove": ["[data-testid='ad-unit']"] }
}

Use page.hide instead of page.remove when you want to keep the space, for example to keep the layout the same between screenshots.

4Test on your own URLs

Render each URL twice, without and with your options, and look at the pairs. This script saves before-N.png and after-N.png for every line in urls.txt:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
n=0
while read -r url; do
  n=$((n + 1))
  for mode in before after; do
    block='{}'
    [ "$mode" = after ] && block='{"cookie_banners": true, "ads": true, "trackers": true, "chat_widgets": true}'
    curl -sS -X POST https://api.renderscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer $RS_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d "{\"url\": \"$url\", \"block\": $block}" -o "$mode-$n.png"
  done
  echo "$n $url"
done < urls.txt

Each URL uses two credits. When the pairs look right, keep the options in your production requests.

A site that shows "access denied" or a challenge page instead of content is blocking the renderer, not showing a banner. See capture sites with bot protection.

Next steps

• Fix blank or incomplete screenshots.
• Capture pages behind a login.
• See every option in blocking and page modifications.