Screenshot API

thumbs.php

Returns an image of a page. If there is no capture yet, it starts a render and returns a placeholder right away.

GEThttps://api.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?size=size&url=url&code=code

Parameters

Parameter	Description
urlrequired	The page to capture, URL encoded. PDF URLs work too and give an image of the first page. IP addresses are refused.
sizerequired	`t` 90 x 68, `s` 120 x 90, `m` 200 x 150, `l` 400 x 300 or `x` 480 x 360. Premium accounts can have other sizes.
coderequired	Your API key. Keep it on your server: anyone who sees it can spend your API calls. How accounts are identified covers the one case that goes without it.
viewportoptional	The browser window to render in, as `1280x800`. Needs a `code`. Captures are cached by URL and size, so it applies the next time that capture renders.
agentoptional	The `User-Agent` to send to the page, up to 512 characters. Needs a `code`. Like `viewport`, it applies the next time that capture renders.
refreshoptionalpremium	Set to `1` to render a new capture. See Getting a fresh capture.
waitoptionalpremium	The longest to hold the request open for a render, in seconds, from `2` to `60`. Any other number waits 20 seconds. If the render takes longer, you get the placeholder.

What you get back

A status of 200 doesn't always mean the capture you asked for. Use thumbs_ready.php or the headers below when your code needs to know which one it received.

State	Response	When
ready	The capture, as an image	A capture exists and is still inside your cache time.
queued	A placeholder, or your loading image	This is the first request for this URL and size, and the render is running.
stale	The older capture	The capture has expired. A new render is running and will replace it.
error	A "Thumbnail not available" image, with `X-PP-Error: True`	The code is unknown, the account is inactive, or the request could not be matched to an account. `X-PP-Error-Message` says which.
error	A transparent image, with `X-PP-Error: True`	The page could not be captured.

Response headers

Header	Meaning
X-PP-Error	`True` if there was an error, otherwise `False`.
X-PP-Error-Message	Why the request was refused. Only on refused requests.
X-PP-Timestamp	When the file served was made, as a Unix timestamp.
X-PP-Capture-Time	How long the capture took, in seconds.
X-PP-Final-URL	Where the URL ended up after redirects.
X-PP-Capture-Method	The engine label, for support.
X-PP-Hash	A hash of the URL, for support.

Response headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: image/jpeg
X-PP-Error: False
X-PP-Timestamp: 1793534000
X-PP-Capture-Time: 3.21
X-PP-Final-URL: https://example.org/

Example

import requests

res = requests.get("https://api.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php", params={
    "size": "x",
    "code": "YOUR_CODE",
    "refresh": 1,
    "wait": 30,
    "url": "https://example.org/pricing",
})
print(res.headers["X-PP-Timestamp"])
with open("capture.jpg", "wb") as f:
    f.write(res.content)

$query = http_build_query([
    "size" => "x",
    "code" => "YOUR_CODE",
    "refresh" => 1,
    "wait" => 30,
    "url" => "https://example.org/pricing",
]);
file_put_contents("capture.jpg", file_get_contents("https://api.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?" . $query));

import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";

const query = new URLSearchParams({
  size: "x",
  code: "YOUR_CODE",
  refresh: "1",
  wait: "30",
  url: "https://example.org/pricing",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?${query}`);
console.log(res.headers.get("X-PP-Timestamp"));
await writeFile("capture.jpg", Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer()));

# Ask for a new capture, wait up to 30 seconds for it, and print the headers
curl -D - -o capture.jpg \
  "https://api.pagepeeker.com/v2/thumbs.php?size=x&code=YOUR_CODE&refresh=1&wait=30&url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.org%2Fpricing"

NoteEvery request counts as one API call, including those that return a placeholder.

How accounts are identified thumbs_ready.php