---
title: "Get Started | ScreenshotAPI Docs"
slug: "/docs/getStarted"
description: "Learn how to capture website screenshots programmatically with ScreenshotAPI. Follow simple steps to integrate, configure, and use the API effectively."
---

# Getting Started

ScreenshotAPI is an advanced and dynamic solution that allows users to take screenshots of a website programmatically without breaking a sweat. Users can select from several available formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, or PDF, and this gives them the advantage of suiting their images to their needs. The API is simple and extremely configurable with features such as a full-page image of the screen or a certain file type, adding a custom CSS, or even a geolocation.

To begin, go ahead and register or sign in to the`DASHBOARD`to obtain your unique`API KEY`. Use this key by replacing`TOKEN`with this in the API URL's requests. You can set which url to be captured using the url parameter. The API allows integration through`GET`and`POST`methods, which makes it easy to incorporate the API into your existing workflows. If you request a screenshot that has been returned before, and you want to return a current screenshot, please include the fresh=true parameter to shed off the cache.

Other advanced capabilities are the ability to inject JS or CSS into the page, hide some parts of the page, or take scrolling screenshots in WebM, MP4, or GIF videos. The API additionally offers capabilities for taking screenshots in multiple scrolling dimensions and on how to extract HTML or text from webpages. When dealing with PDF outputs, it is possible to set the output to certain pages only.

Handling errors is very simple as it has status codes that are fully informative for handling problems. There is also a Query Builder which lets users play around with the parameters of the API, making it easy to build requests. Code examples can also be found for use by developers in language libraries like Node.js and Python for fast development.

In addition, please feel free to reach out to our dedicated team for any support or assistance you may need through email or the`Help Desk`. Any user, be it developers, marketers, and businesses ScreenshotAPI is designed with a soothing design yet great functionality.

## Code Examples

Below is sample code for the following languages: Node.JS, PHP, Go, Java, Python, and Ruby.

If you need assistance integrating into our API with a given language please [contact us](mailto:info@screenshotapi.net).

```javascript

var fs = require("fs");
var request = require("request");
 
// @param {String} token - String containing your API Key
// @param {String} url - Encoded URI string container the URI you're targeting
// @param {String} output - String specifying the output format, 'image' or 'json'
// @param {String} file_type - String specifying the output type
var token = "Your API Key";
var url = encodeURIComponent("https://google.com");
var output = "image";
var file_type = "png";
 
// Construct the query params and URL
var query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot";
query += `?token=${token}&url=${url}&output=${output}&file_type=${file_type}`;
 
// Call the API and save the screenshot
request.get({ url: query, encoding: "binary" }, (err, response, body) => {
 	fs.writeFile("screenshot.png", body, "binary", (err) => {
		 if (err) {
			 console.log(err);
 		 } else {
			 console.log("The file was saved!");
 		 } 
 	}); 
});
```

```php

// @param {String} $token - String containing your API Key 
// @param {String} $url - Encoded URI string container the URI you're targeting 
// @param {String} output - String specifying the output format, "image" or "json"
// @param {String} file_type - String specifying the output type
$token = 'Your API Key';
$url = urlencode('https://google.com');
$output = 'image';
$file_type = 'png';
 
// Construct the query params and URL
$query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot";
$query .= "?token=$token&url=$url&output=$output&file_type=$file_type";
 
// Call the API
$image = file_get_contents($query);
 
// Save the screenshot
file_put_contents('./screenshot.png', $image);
```

```go

package main
 
import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
	 url2 "net/url"
 	"os"
)
 
func main() {
 	// @param {String} token - String containing your API Key 
 	// @param {String} url - Encoded URI string container the URI you're targeting
 	// @param {String} output - String specifying the output format, 'image' or 'json'
 	// @param {String} file_type - String specifying the output type   
	 token := "Your API Key"
	 url := url2.QueryEscape("https://google.com")
	 output := "image"
	 file_type := "png"
 
 	// Construct the query params and URL
	 query := "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot"
	 query += fmt.Sprintf("?token=%s&url=%s&output=%s&file_type=%s",
		 token, url, output, file_type)
 
 	// Call the API
	 resp, err := http.Get(query)
	 if err != nil{ 
		 panic(err)
 	} 
	 defer resp.Body.Close()
 
 	// Raise error if call was unsucessfull
 	if resp.StatusCode != 200 {
		 errorBody, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
		 panic(fmt.Errorf("error while calling api %s", errorBody))
 	} 
 
 	// Save the screenshot
	 file, err := os.Create("./screenshot.png")
	 if err != nil {
		 panic(err)
 	} 
	 defer file.Close()
 
	 _, err = io.Copy(file, resp.Body)
 	if err != nil {
		 panic(err)
 	} 
}
```

```java

package main;
 
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLEncoder;
 
public class Main{
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			// @param {String} $token - String containing your API Key 
			// @param {String} $url - Encoded URI string container the URI you're targeting 
			// @param {String} $output - String specifying the output format, 'image' or 'json'
			// @param {String} file_type - String specifying the output type
			String token = "Your API Key";
			String url = URLEncoder.encode("https://google.com");
			String output = "image";
			String file_type = "png";
 
			// Construct the query params and URL
			String query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot";
 			query += String.format("?token=%s&url=%s&output=%s&file_type=%s",
				token, url, output, file_type);
			URL apiUrl = new URL(query);
 
			// Call the API and save the screenshot
			InputStream inputStream = apiUrl.openStream();
			OutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("./screenshot.png");
			inputStream.transferTo(outputStream);
 
			inputStream.close();
			outputStream.close();
 		} catch(Exception ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
 		}
 	} 
}
```

```python

import urllib.parse
import urllib.request
import ssl

ssl._create_default_https_context = ssl._create_unverified_context

# @param {String} $token - String containing your API Key
# @param {String} $url - Encoded URI string container the URI you're targeting 
# @param {String} $output - String specifying the output format, 'image' or 'json'
# @param {String} file_type - String specifying the output type
token = "Your API Key"
url = urllib.parse.quote_plus("https://google.com")
output = "image"
file_type = "png"

# Construct the query params and URL
query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot"
query += "?token=%s&url=%s&output=%s&file_type=%s" % (token, url, output, file_type)

# Call the API
urllib.request.urlretrieve(query, "./screenshot.png")
```

```ruby

require "net/http"
require "uri"

# Define your API Key, URL, output type, and file type
token = "Your API key"
url = URI.encode("https://google.com")
output = "image"
file_type = "png"

# Construct the query URL
query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot"
query += "?token=#{token}&url=#{url}&output=#{output}&file_type=#{file_type}"

# Send a GET request to the API
uri = URI.parse(query)
response = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)

# Check if the response was successful
if response.code == "200"
	# Save the screenshot as a binary file
	File.open("screenshot.png", "wb") do |file|
		file.write(response.body)
	end
	puts "The file was saved!"
else
	puts "Error: #{response.code} - #{response.message}"
end
```

```javascript

const requestOptions = { 
method : "GET", 
redirect : "follow"
}; 

fetch (
	"https://shot.screenshotapi.net/v3/screenshot?token={token}&url={url}&output={output}&file_type={file_type}";
	requestOptions
)
.then((response) => response.text())
.then((result) => console.log(result))
.catch((error) => console.error(error));
```

```javascript

/**
	* Takes a website URL as input and returns a screenshot of the website using the ScreenshotAPI service.
	* @param {string} websiteUrl - The URL of the website to take a screenshot of.
	* @return {string} screenshotUrl - The URL of the screenshot image.
	* @customfunction
	*/ 
   
async function SCREENSHOT(websiteUrl) {
	const YOUR_API_KEY = "XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX"; // Your ScreenshotAPI API key
	const query = "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/v3/screenshot?token={YOUR_API_KEY}&url={websiteUrl} &output=image&file_type=png"; // Construct the query params and URL
	const options = {
	"method" : "get",
	"contentType": "application/json",
	"followRedirects":false
	}; // The options for the fetch request
   
	const response = await UrlFetchApp.fetch(query,options); // Make the fetch request to ScreenshotAPI
	const screenshotUrl = response.getHeaders()["Location"]; // Get the URL of the screenshot from the response headers
	return screenshotUrl; // Return the URL of the screenshot
}
```