Take Your First Screenshot

You will make one API request and save the screenshot it returns. It takes about five minutes, and it uses one of the free credits you get every month.

1Create an API key

Sign in and open API Keys in the dashboard sidebar. Click Create Key.

renderscreenshot.com/dashboard/api_keys

Give the key a name that says where you will use it, for example My first key or Production server. Keep API key selected. The other option, a signing key pair, is for public image URLs and has its own guide.

Click Create Key. The dashboard shows the full key one time only. Click Copy now.

2Save the key in your shell

Keep the key out of your source code. Put it in an environment variable, and every example on this site reads it from there:

export RS_API_KEY=rs_live_your_key_here

The variable lasts until you close the terminal. In an app, load it from your secret store or a .env file that is not committed.

3Send the request

This request asks for a screenshot of https://example.com with the og_card preset, and saves the image as screenshot.png:

curl -X POST https://api.renderscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "preset": "og_card"}' \
  --output screenshot.png

Open screenshot.png. It is a 1200×630 PNG of example.com:

The same request in your language. Each example starts with its install command:

Node.js

// npm install renderscreenshot
import { Client, TakeOptions } from 'renderscreenshot';
import { writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const client = new Client(process.env.RS_API_KEY);

const image = await client.take(
  TakeOptions.url('https://example.com').preset('og_card')
);
await writeFile('screenshot.png', image);

Python

# pip install git+https://github.com/Render-Screenshot/rs-python.git
import os

from renderscreenshot import Client, TakeOptions

client = Client(os.environ['RS_API_KEY'])

image = client.take(TakeOptions.url('https://example.com').preset('og_card'))

with open('screenshot.png', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(image)

Ruby

# gem install renderscreenshot
require 'renderscreenshot'

client = RenderScreenshot.client(ENV.fetch('RS_API_KEY'))

image = client.take(
  RenderScreenshot::TakeOptions.url('https://example.com').preset('og_card')
)

File.binwrite('screenshot.png', image)

PHP

<?php
// composer require renderscreenshot/renderscreenshot
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use RenderScreenshot\Client;
use RenderScreenshot\TakeOptions;

$client = new Client(getenv('RS_API_KEY'));

$image = $client->take(
    TakeOptions::url('https://example.com')->preset('og_card')
);

file_put_contents('screenshot.png', $image);

Go

// go get github.com/Render-Screenshot/rs-go
package main

import (
    "context"
    "log"
    "os"

    rs "github.com/Render-Screenshot/rs-go"
)

func main() {
    client, err := rs.New(os.Getenv("RS_API_KEY"))
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    image, err := client.Take(context.Background(),
        rs.URL("https://example.com").Preset("og_card"),
    )
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if err := os.WriteFile("screenshot.png", image, 0o644); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

CLI

# brew install render-screenshot/tap/rs   (reads RS_API_KEY)
rs take https://example.com --preset og_card -o screenshot.png

If the file does not open

When a request fails, curl still writes the response body to screenshot.png. The file is then a short JSON error, not an image. Open it in a text editor:

4Try one of your own pages

Change the url value to a page you own and run the request again. Here is the same request for the RenderScreenshot home page:

curl -X POST https://api.renderscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://renderscreenshot.com", "preset": "og_card"}' \
  --output home.png

The result is the image at the top of this guide: the top 1200×630 pixels of the page, as a visitor with a desktop browser sees it.

If the page looks wrong (blank, half loaded, or covered by a cookie banner), the guides fix blank or incomplete screenshots and remove cookie banners and ads show the fix.

5Find the request in your logs

Open Logs in the dashboard. Each request shows its status, URL, key, format and render time. A failed request shows the error message, and it uses no credits.

renderscreenshot.com/dashboard/logs

Try it without code

The Playground in the dashboard sends the same request from a form. Enter a URL, pick a preset and click Generate Screenshot. It uses your credits like an API request.

renderscreenshot.com/dashboard/playground

Next steps

• Choose the right preset for social cards, previews, full pages and phones.
• Use an SDK or the CLI in your app.
• Reuse screenshots for 0 credits before you put the API in a loop.