Check What Appears Above the Fold on Any Website

An above the fold screenshot captures only the part of a web page a visitor sees before scrolling, so paste a URL below, pick desktop, tablet, or mobile, and click Capture Above the Fold to download that first screen as a PNG, JPG, or WebP. ScreenshotAPI.net renders the page in a real browser at 1680 x 867, 624 x 866, or 425 x 812 pixels with cookie banners and ads removed, free and with no signup.

Device and fold height

Laptop with the browser maximised. The fold sits at 867 px.

File type
Options

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https://www.wikipedia.org/

Your above the fold screenshot will appear here.

Only the first 867 pixels of the page are captured. Nothing below the fold is included.

Above the fold meaning

What Is Above the Fold on a Website?

Above the fold is the part of a web page that is visible as soon as it loads, before any scrolling. Everything that needs a scroll to reach is below the fold.

above the fold

also written above-the-fold/ opposite below the fold

Desktop
first 867 px
Tablet
first 866 px
Mobile
first 812 px

Viewport heights the tool captures at. Above the fold on mobile is the smallest of the three, and once the address bar shows it drops to about 730 px, so a phone shows one headline and one button where a laptop shows the whole hero.

  1. 1.

    What sits there

    The header, the headline, the hero image or product shot, and the main call to action. It is the only part of the page every visitor sees.

  2. 2.

    What decides it

    The viewport height. Screen size, browser tabs and the address bar all change it, so the same page has a different fold on a laptop and on a phone.

  3. 3.

    What it is not

    A fixed number of pixels. There is no single fold, which is why this tool captures at three real viewport sizes instead of one.

Above the fold and below the fold

Above the Fold vs Below the Fold

The two halves of a page have different audiences and different jobs. The fold line between them is the bottom edge of the viewport, which is exactly where this tool stops capturing.

Above the fold

Visible on load. Captured by this tool.

Who sees it

Every visitor, including the ones who leave after two seconds.

Below: Only visitors who decide the first screen was worth a scroll.

Job

Say what the page is and give one clear next step.

Below: Prove the claim: details, proof, pricing, objections, FAQ.

Loading

Loads first. Google measures the largest element here as LCP.

Below: Can load later. Lazy loading images here is the right default.

Typical height

About 650 to 900 px, set by the device.

Below: Unlimited. Long pages often run past 5,000 px.

Screenshot flag

full_page=false with a width and height.

Below: full_page=true, which includes the fold and everything under it.

Neither half is more important. A page with a strong first screen and nothing underneath converts badly, and a long page with a weak first screen never gets read. Use this tool to judge the first screen and the full page screenshot tool to review the rest.

Above the fold content

What Content Belongs Above the Fold

The first screen has to do three things: tell the visitor where they are, show them why they should care, and give them one thing to do. The checklist covers what earns a place in that space, and the short list underneath covers what usually should not.

Keep below the fold, or off the page

  • Auto playing video with sound
  • A cookie banner that covers the headline
  • Carousels that rotate the message
  • Pop ups that fire on page load
  • Hero images with no visible text
  1. 01

    A headline that names the outcome

    Every page

    Visitors decide in a few seconds whether this page is for them. The headline should say what the product does and for whom, in plain words, large enough to read on a phone.

  2. 02

    One primary call to action

    Landing pages

    A landing page gets one button above the fold, not three. Secondary links can sit beside it in a lighter style, but the eye should land on a single next step.

  3. 03

    Visual proof of the product

    Product and SaaS

    A product screenshot, a short demo loop or the hero image itself. This is usually the largest element on the first screen, so it is also the element Google times for LCP.

  4. 04

    A reason to trust you

    Landing pages

    Customer logos, a rating, a user count or a security badge. It does not need much space. A single row under the call to action is enough to answer who else uses this.

  5. 05

    Navigation that stays out of the way

    Every page

    Keep the header to one row. A tall announcement bar plus a two row menu can push the headline below the fold on a laptop before the visitor has read anything.

  6. 06

    The first lines of the content itself

    Articles and docs

    On an article or a documentation page, the first paragraph should start above the fold. A full screen hero image with the text under it costs you readers on mobile.

Above the fold SEO

Does Above the Fold Matter for SEO?

Yes, but not in the way most articles suggest. Above the fold is not a keyword placement trick. It affects ranking through three real mechanisms: the page layout algorithm, Largest Contentful Paint, and whether visitors stay. Here is each common claim with a straight verdict.

How to check your own pages

  1. Capture the page on mobile with the tool above. Over half of Google's crawling and most of its traffic is mobile first.
  2. Confirm the headline and the main content start inside the capture, not under a hero image or an ad slot.
  3. Note the largest element in the capture. That is your LCP element. Make sure it is not lazy loaded.
  4. Repeat for the desktop capture, then automate the check with the API request at the bottom of this page.
Yes

Google penalises pages with too many ads above the fold

The page layout algorithm, announced in January 2012 and still part of ranking, lowers pages whose first screen is mostly ads. Content heavy pages are not affected.

No

Putting keywords above the fold boosts ranking

Google reads the whole document. Where a word sits on the screen does not change its weight. Write the first screen for people, not for the crawler.

Yes

The fold affects Core Web Vitals

Largest Contentful Paint measures the biggest element in the viewport, which is almost always the hero image or headline above the fold. A slow hero means a slow LCP, and LCP is part of the page experience signal.

No

Lazy loading images above the fold is good for SEO

Lazy loading the hero image delays the LCP element. Google's guidance is to load above the fold images eagerly and lazy load the rest. Add fetchpriority=high to the hero image.

Indirectly

Above the fold matters for ranking through engagement

A first screen that answers the query keeps people on the page instead of bouncing back to the results. Google does not publish how it uses that signal, but a page nobody reads rarely stays on top.

Yes

Above the fold is still relevant

People scroll more than they did in 2010, but studies still show the first screen gets several times the attention of any screen below it. The fold moved. It did not disappear.

Do this via the API

Automate Above the Fold Checks With the ScreenshotAPI.net API

Checking every landing page after a deploy, or comparing the first screen across devices every week? Send the same request the tool uses. full_page=false limits the capture to the viewport, and width and height place the fold. Pair it with the bulk endpoint to check hundreds of URLs in one job.

full_page
false captures only the viewport. true scrolls the whole document instead. Leaving it out also gives a viewport capture.
width / height
Viewport size in pixels, up to 7680 x 4320. The height is where the fold sits. Use 425 x 812 for a phone, 624 x 866 for a tablet.
no_cookie_banners / block_ads
Remove the overlays that usually cover the first screen, so the capture shows the page and not the consent dialog.
retina
true renders at 2x pixel density for a sharper image at the same viewport size.
delay / wait_for_event
Give hero animations and client side rendering time to finish before the capture.
Get a free API keyRead the docs
POSThttps://shot.screenshotapi.net/v3/screenshot
curl -X POST "https://shot.screenshotapi.net/v3/screenshot" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "token": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "full_page": false,
    "width": 1680,
    "height": 867,
    "file_type": "png",
    "no_cookie_banners": true,
    "block_ads": true
  }' \
  --output above-the-fold.png

Above the Fold FAQ

Common questions about what above the fold means, where it sits on each device, whether it affects SEO, and how to automate the capture with the ScreenshotAPI.net API.

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