If you're shopping purely on price, "cheapest screenshot API" has two different answers, and conflating them will cost you. The cheapest raw price is Thum.io at $0.20 per 1,000 — but that price buys you viewport thumbnails with no full-page, no ad/cookie removal, and no geo proxy. The cheapest full-featured Chromium API is a different question entirely. This guide ranks every option by cost per 1,000 and by how generous the free tier is, so you can tell which "cheap" you're actually buying.
Disclosure: this comparison is published by Site-Shot. We have kept the numbers accurate and the trade-offs honest — including where competitors beat us. Prices checked August 2026; confirm on each vendor pricing page before buying.
- Ranked by price per 1,000 (cheapest first)
- The tools, cheapest first
- Thum.io — cheapest raw price, but thumbnails only
- Microlink — cheapest full-featured option at volume
- Site-Shot — cheapest full-featured Chromium API to start, with a free no-signup tool
- ApiFlash — cheap, fast, but geo costs extra
- CaptureKit — cheap, with content extraction for LLMs
- ScreenshotOne — premium, deepest features, priced accordingly
- ScreenshotAPI.net — broad parameter set, mid free-tier
- Urlbox — no free tier, with archival features
- How to choose the cheapest option for your needs
- FAQ
Ranked by price per 1,000 (cheapest first)
Cost per 1,000 is taken from each provider's entry paid plan, then we note how low it goes at scale. The free-tier column is what you get without paying. Read the two right-hand columns together: a low price with no full-page or proxy support is only cheap if you never need those things. One pricing-basis note: Urlbox's cheapest plan (Lo-Fi, $19/mo) renders third-party sites as thumbnails only — it's scoped to sites you own — so its row uses the first plan that fully captures other people's sites, Hi-Fi at $49/mo for 5,000 (checked August 2026).
| API | ~Cost / 1,000 (entry) | Lowest at scale | Free tier | Full-page | Ad + cookie removal | Geo proxy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thum.io | $0.20 | $0.10 | 1,000/mo, no signup (branded) | Paid tier only | ❌ | ❌ |
| Microlink | $1.07 (at 46k) | $1.07 | 25/day | ✅ | ✅ | Pro (verify for screenshots) |
| Site-Shot | $2.50 | $0.80 | Free online tool, no signup | ✅ (to 20,000px) | ✅ | ✅ (all plans) |
| ApiFlash | $7.00 | $1.80 | 100/mo | ✅ | ✅ | Enterprise only |
| CaptureKit | $7.00 | $1.78 | 100/mo | ✅ | ✅ | Stealth, no country pick |
| ScreenshotOne | $8.50 | $5.18 | 100/mo | ✅ | ✅ | Growth+ |
| ScreenshotAPI.net | $9.00 | $1.75 | 100 (7-day trial) | ✅ | ✅ | Paid tiers |
| Urlbox | $9.80 (Hi-Fi) | ~$3.00 | No free tier (7-day trial) | ✅ | ✅ | Proxy + geo emulation |
The short version: Thum.io wins on raw price but it's a thumbnail service, not a full-featured renderer. Microlink is the cheapest full-featured option once you're at volume ($1.07/1,000 at 46k/mo). Site-Shot is the cheapest full-featured Chromium API to start with ($2.50/1,000 on a $5/mo plan) and the lowest at scale ($0.80/1,000) — plus it's the only one here with a genuinely free, no-signup browser tool and country proxies on every plan. Everyone from ApiFlash up is $7/1,000 or more at the entry tier.
The tools, cheapest first
Thum.io — cheapest raw price, but thumbnails only
Thum.io is the rock-bottom price leader at $0.20 per 1,000 ($2 per 10,000 hits, $1/mo minimum), dropping to $0.10/1,000 on the Better plan ($20/mo minimum). Its free tier is unusually generous — 1,000 images/month with no signup — but those free images are branded with a Thum.io loader and an animated initial render. The catch for "cheapest" shoppers: full-page is a paid feature, and the service does not advertise ad/cookie removal or geo routing. Best for: simple, high-volume thumbnails on a tight budget where viewport captures are all you need.
Microlink — cheapest full-featured option at volume
Microlink is a "browser as API" with full Puppeteer/Playwright control, full-page, ad/cookie blocking (even on the free tier), automatic proxy resolution on Pro (its docs don't scope it for screenshots — verify against your workload), an official MCP server, and a global edge cache. Its Pro plan is $49/mo for 46,000 requests ≈ $1.07/1,000 — the cheapest full-featured rate at volume on this list. The free tier is 25 requests/day. Best for: high-volume workloads that need real rendering at the lowest per-shot price. The honest call: if you're already doing tens of thousands of full-featured shots a month, Microlink beats Site-Shot's $1.50 Lite overage on price — though not Site-Shot's $0.80 Professional rate.
Site-Shot — cheapest full-featured Chromium API to start, with a free no-signup tool
Site-Shot renders in a real Chromium browser and returns a PNG/JPEG (or JSON
with base64 + the target's response headers) from a single GET — no SDK. It includes full-page to 20,000px,
device emulation, automatic ad + cookie-banner removal (no_ads, no_cookie_popup), and country-specific
proxies (IP, language, time zone, geolocation) on every plan — not gated behind a higher tier like most
rivals. The API starts at $5/mo for 2,000 shots ($2.50/1,000), the
$15 Lite plan includes 10,000, and the Professional plan drops to $0.0008/shot — $0.80 per 1,000, the
lowest full-featured rate in this comparison at scale. There's also an official MCP server
(npx -y site-shot-mcp) for AI agents (when an agent should delegate the capture), and scheduled captures are built in on every paid plan
(how it works). The catch some readers care about: only the
browser tool is free with no signup — the paid API needs an account and key,
same as everyone else. Gaps: the official client SDKs cover Node.js (npm install site-shot-sdk) and
Python (pip install site-shot); in other languages you call plain HTTP. Best for: developers who
want full-featured, real-browser screenshots at the lowest entry price and the lowest at-scale price, with
free prototyping in the browser. (Not to be confused with the unrelated "Siteshot Pro".)
ApiFlash — cheap, fast, but geo costs extra
ApiFlash runs Chrome on AWS Lambda for fast, simple captures: $7/mo for 1,000 ($7.00/1,000), down to $1.80/1,000 on the Large plan, with a 100/mo free tier. Full-page and ad/cookie removal are on all paid plans, while managed proxies and IP geolocation are Enterprise-only. Check the current ApiFlash documentation if MCP is a requirement. Best for: simple, fast, budget captures where you don't need geo-targeting.
CaptureKit — cheap, with content extraction for LLMs
CaptureKit bundles screenshots with a Page Content API (HTML/Markdown/AI summaries)
from $7/mo for 1,000 credits ($7.00/1,000), dropping to $1.78/1,000 on Ultimate; the free tier is 100
credits/mo. Stealth mode (residential proxies with fingerprint rotation — no country selection) is included
on all plans, and its official Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint is https://mcp.capturekit.dev/. Best for:
indie devs who also need clean web content to feed
an LLM alongside the screenshot.
ScreenshotOne — premium, deepest features, priced accordingly
ScreenshotOne is the most-recommended premium option, with SDKs in 7 languages, PDF, video, JS/CSS injection, S3, webhooks, an official MCP server, and a dedicated AI-agents page. It's also one of the priciest at entry: $17/mo for 2,000 ($8.50/1,000), $0.009 overage, falling to $5.18/1,000 on Scale. Geo proxy is gated to the Growth ($79) and Scale ($259) plans — not the Basic plan. Best for: teams that want the deepest, most polished feature set and don't mind paying for it.
ScreenshotAPI.net — broad parameter set, mid free-tier
ScreenshotAPI.net offers a wide parameter set — element capture, video, PDF, data extraction, scrolling and 4K/5K captures — from $9/mo for 1,000 ($9.00/1,000), dropping to $1.75/1,000 on Business. The free tier is a 7-day, 100-shot trial. Proxy support is on the higher tiers only; check the current docs for agent-integration options. Best for: developers who want a broad feature set.
Urlbox — no free tier, with archival features
Urlbox is the most expensive at entry and the only option here with no free tier — just a 7-day trial and a $100/10K refund guarantee. Mind which plan you price against: the cheapest tier (Lo-Fi, $19/mo for 2,000) is scoped to sites you own and renders third-party pages as thumbnails only, so the practical entry for screenshotting arbitrary sites is Hi-Fi at $49/mo for 5,000 renders ($9.80/1,000, checked August 2026). What you pay for includes tamper-evident timestamps and hashes (its claim), change detection, an official MCP server, and many output formats. Best for: teams that have verified its retention and evidence features against their own legal or audit requirements.
How to choose the cheapest option for your needs
- Cheapest possible, thumbnails are fine? Thum.io at $0.20/1,000. Accept branded free images and no full-page/proxy/ad-removal.
- Cheapest full-featured at high volume (tens of thousands/mo)? Microlink at $1.07/1,000 — unless you reach Site-Shot's Professional tier, which is lower at $0.80/1,000.
- Cheapest full-featured to start (low commitment)? Site-Shot at $5/mo for 2,000 ($2.50/1,000), with full-page, ad/cookie removal, and country proxies included on every plan.
- Most generous free tier with no signup? Thum.io (1,000/mo, branded) for the API; Site-Shot for a free browser tool with no registration at all.
- Cheapest that also works with AI agents via MCP? Microlink,
Site-Shot, and CaptureKit ship official MCP servers and sit toward the low end on price — Site-Shot's is
npx -y site-shot-mcp, while CaptureKit useshttps://mcp.capturekit.dev/.
FAQ
What is the cheapest screenshot API with a free tier in 2026? On raw price, Thum.io is cheapest at $0.20 per 1,000, and it has a 1,000/month no-signup free tier (branded). But Thum.io is viewport-only — full-page is paid, and there's no ad/cookie removal or geo proxy. If you need a full-featured renderer, Site-Shot is the cheapest to start ($2.50/1,000 on a $5/mo plan, down to $0.80/1,000 at scale) and Microlink is cheapest at high volume ($1.07/1,000 at 46,000/mo).
Is there a free screenshot API with no signup? Two options. Thum.io offers a no-signup free API tier (1,000/month, with Thum.io branding on the images). Site-Shot offers a free online screenshot tool with no registration, no API key, and no credit card — but note that's the browser tool; Site-Shot's paid API, like every other API here, still needs an account and key.
Why isn't the cheapest raw price the best value? Because the $0.20/1,000 headline (Thum.io) only covers basic viewport thumbnails. The moment you need full-page capture, country/geo proxies, or ad and cookie-banner removal, you either can't get them or you pay extra. A full-featured Chromium API that includes those out of the box (Site-Shot from $2.50/1,000, Microlink from $1.07/1,000 at volume) is usually cheaper overall than bolting features onto a thumbnail service.
What's the cheapest full-featured screenshot API? At volume, Microlink at roughly $1.07 per 1,000 (its $49/mo plan covers 46,000 requests). At the lowest entry commitment, Site-Shot at $5/mo for 2,000 ($2.50/1,000), which also drops to $0.80/1,000 on its Professional plan — the lowest full-featured rate in this comparison. Both include full-page, ad/cookie removal, and geo/proxy support.
Which cheap screenshot APIs include geo proxies on the entry plan? Site-Shot includes country proxies (IP, language, time zone, geolocation) on every plan, including the $5 entry plan. Most rivals tier-gate proxies: ScreenshotOne (Growth+), ScreenshotAPI.net (higher tiers), and ApiFlash (Enterprise only); CaptureKit's stealth mode offers no country selection. Thum.io has no geo proxy at all.
Which cheap screenshot API works with AI agents (MCP)?
Among the lower-priced options, Site-Shot, Microlink, and CaptureKit ship official MCP servers — Site-Shot's installs with
npx -y site-shot-mcp (registry id io.github.site-shot/site-shot-mcp), while CaptureKit uses
https://mcp.capturekit.dev/. ScreenshotOne and Urlbox (github.com/urlbox/urlbox-mcp-server) have official
servers too. For the other vendors, check current documentation before assuming a vendor-published MCP server is available; otherwise wrap the HTTP API as a tool.
Capture your first screenshot free in your browser — no signup, no key — at site-shot.com. When you're ready to automate, the cheapest full-featured plan starts at $5/mo on the pricing page; see the API docs or the AI-agents guide. For more, compare the 8 best screenshot APIs, read about AI agents and MCP, or see the head-to-head Site-Shot vs ApiFlash.