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Unfurl pasted links into rich cards

link preview API

When a user pastes a link, POST the URL to the screenshot API and get a card-sized thumbnail back; pair it with the page title and description to render the unfurl. Private, loopback and metadata addresses are blocked before navigation, so capturing arbitrary user-pasted URLs stays safe — no browser to host behind your message box.

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curl https://api.apiscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "format": "jpeg",
    "quality": 75,
    "viewport": { "width": 1200, "height": 628 }
  }' \
  -o preview.jpg

BUY VS BUILD

Building this yourself means…

Doing it in-house is owning a browser fleet and every edge case around it. Here is the work you skip.

  • Running a headless browser inside your app just to picture a pasted link.
  • Showing a bare URL when a rich card would tell the reader what is behind it.
  • Capturing arbitrary user-pasted URLs safely, without hitting internal addresses.
  • Keeping preview latency low enough to render the card while the message sends.

HOW IT WORKS

One request, the asset back

Same shape every time: send the request, it renders on a managed browser engine, you get the image back to store or serve.

  1. 01

    Send the request

    POST your payload to /v1/screenshot with your API key — a URL or your own HTML, plus the options this job needs.

  2. 02

    It renders

    A managed browser engine loads the page, waits for it to settle, and captures it — no headless browser of your own to run or scale.

  3. 03

    Get the asset

    The response body is the image bytes, synchronously — write them to a file, push them to your bucket, or hand them to a diff. No queue to poll.

THE CALL

The exact request for link previews

The parameters this job needs, ready to paste. Full reference in the docs.

  • Capture any pasted URL. POST the URL the user dropped in and get a thumbnail back — pair it with the page title and description to render a full unfurl card.
  • Safe on user input. Arbitrary user URLs are user input. APIScreenshot blocks private, loopback, link-local and metadata addresses before it navigates, so a pasted internal URL returns a clean 400 instead of reaching your network.
  • Light, card-sized JPEGs. Set format: "jpeg" with a quality value and a card-shaped viewport so the preview is small and quick to fetch as the message renders.
curl https://api.apiscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "format": "jpeg",
    "quality": 75,
    "viewport": { "width": 1200, "height": 628 }
  }' \
  -o preview.jpg

WHY IT HOLDS UP

What actually makes this work

The concrete parts: the formats, the edge cases it handles, the way it scales. Nothing here is a number we can't show you.

Safe on user-pasted input

A pasted URL is user input — private, loopback, link-local and cloud-metadata addresses are blocked before navigation, so an internal URL returns a clean 400 instead of an SSRF.

Light, card-sized images

JPEG with a quality value and a card-shaped viewport keep the preview small and quick to fetch, so the card can appear while the message is still sending.

Cache what you like

Nothing is stored on our side — cache the returned image keyed by URL in your own store so a popular link is captured once and served from cache after.

All features →Documentation →Pricing →

RELATED

Same API, more jobs

The one call behind link previews powers these too.

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Keep proof of how a page looked

Snapshot a page exactly as it appeared, for compliance and records.

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Browse all use cases →

FAQ

Link previews — common questions

How do I generate a link preview with an API?
POST { "url": "..." } to https://api.apiscreenshot.com/v1/screenshot with your API key and a card-shaped viewport. You get a thumbnail image back in one synchronous call; pair it with the page title and description to render the unfurl card in your chat, docs or social tool.
Is it safe to capture URLs that users paste in?
Yes. APIScreenshot validates the target and blocks private, loopback, link-local and cloud-metadata addresses before it navigates, so a user pasting an internal URL gets a clean 400 instead of turning the preview feature into an SSRF vector.
How do I keep the preview image small?
Set format: "jpeg" with a quality between 1 and 100 and a card-shaped viewport (for example 1200×628). The preview comes back already compressed and card-sized, so it is quick to fetch as the message renders.
What should I do when a URL can't be captured?
Treat any non-2xx response as "no preview". A blocked or malformed URL returns a 400 before navigation, so fall back to rendering the plain link rather than failing the user's message.
Can I cache previews so a popular link isn't captured every time?
Yes. Nothing is stored on our side, so you cache the returned image keyed by URL in your own store. A frequently shared link is then captured once and served from your cache thereafter.
Are the captured pages stored on your servers?
No. Each page is rendered to produce the preview, the bytes are streamed back in the response, and nothing of the page or image is persisted on our side.

Add link previews to my app

One endpoint, the asset back in one call. 100 free screenshots to start, no credit card to begin.

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