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Browshot offers 100 free screenshots per month, then sells credits rather than listing a standard monthly subscription. Its published premium rate is one credit per desktop screenshot and two per mobile screenshot; public credit bundles run from $1 for 10 credits to $1,000 for 300,000. Whether Browshot is cheaper than a monthly-plan service depends on your device mix, capture volume, storage and throughput needs, and what happens when a request fails or comes from cache. Prices and limits below are vendor-posted terms checked in 2026, not an independent performance comparison.

How Browshot pricing works

Browshot’s public pricing has two parts: a free allowance and prepaid credit bundles. The free browser is listed for up to 100 screenshots per month. Paid premium screenshots draw from purchased credits, with different credit costs for desktop and mobile captures. Browshot’s pricing and feature page lists these terms, and its API documentation identifies the free instance as instance 12, used by the simple API by default when no instance is specified. A premium instance is required for paid capture.

The practical implication is that a “screenshot price” depends on the bundle you buy and the kind of capture you request. The following pack values are the public bundles displayed on Browshot’s pricing page in 2026:

Bundle price Credits Average price per credit if the full bundle is used
$1 10 $0.10
$2 60 About $0.033
$5 300 About $0.0167
$10 1,000 $0.01
$25 3,000 About $0.0083
$50 8,000 $0.00625
$100 20,000 $0.005
$200 45,000 About $0.0044
$500 125,000 $0.004
$1,000 300,000 About $0.0033

The per-credit column is arithmetic from the listed pack prices and assumes every credit in a bundle is used; it is not a separate Browshot rate. At the listed premium rates, one desktop screenshot uses one credit and one mobile screenshot uses two. For a rough budget, multiply expected desktop captures by one credit, mobile captures by two, then compare the total with the bundle sizes. That estimate does not account for private arrangements or capture-specific requirements.

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What the free allowance and credit rates include

Free use

Browshot lists 100 free screenshots a month. This is an allowance for the free browser instance, not a general promise that all premium-instance activity is free. The API documentation describes the free instance and the default behavior of the simple API; check which instance a request uses before estimating whether it consumes paid credits.

Desktop and mobile captures

The published pricing page charges one credit for a desktop premium screenshot and two for a mobile premium screenshot. Therefore, a bundle that appears to cover a certain number of desktop captures will cover fewer mobile captures. Do not treat credits as one-for-one screenshots unless all your captures use the desktop rate.

Private infrastructure

Private instances and private servers are quote-based rather than part of the public credit-pack schedule. Browshot’s page describes more than 100 simultaneous premium screenshots per user depending on arrangement, guarantees of 10–100 concurrent screenshots per browser for private instances, and up to 10,000 screenshot requests per hour per private server. These figures describe different products and capacity measures; they are not interchangeable service guarantees. If throughput or latency is a requirement, ask Browshot to specify the exact configuration, concurrency, and service commitment in the quote.

API limits, options and performance considerations

Browshot’s current API documentation labels the API version 1.31. It documents REST-based screenshot creation and status retrieval, caching, full-page capture, browser instances, hooks, hosting, and batch or crawl endpoints. A multiple request can include up to 10 URLs and 10 instances, for up to 100 URL-instance combinations.

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The API’s simple and complete approaches make different trade-offs. Browshot says the simple API is easier to use but slower than the complete API. The documentation describes options including screen or full-page sizing, cache controls, delays, HTML capture, custom headers, CSS target selection, hooks, and hosting. It states HTML capture costs one credit per screenshot. Exact parameter bounds can vary across documentation views, so check the live v1.31 documentation for current accepted values before building validation or request limits around a maximum.

  • Concurrency: distinguish shared premium usage, private-instance concurrency, and private-server hourly capacity when estimating throughput.
  • Cache: decide whether a cached image is acceptable or whether each request must force a fresh render. Browshot documentation describes cache controls and a default cache period of 24 hours; a zero value is described as forcing a new capture.
  • Capture type: include mobile captures and HTML capture in your credit estimate rather than counting every output as one desktop credit.
  • Batching: group related URLs and instances within the documented per-request limits, while accounting for the fact that batching does not make the resulting screenshot workload disappear.
  • Delivery and hosting: check whether Browshot-hosted images or another delivery path meet your retention and integration needs before comparing prices with a service that counts stored images separately.

Is Browshot cheaper than other screenshot APIs?

Not necessarily. Browshot sells prepaid credits, while the alternatives below list recurring monthly allowances. Sticker prices are therefore not directly comparable: a monthly quota, a credit balance, and an overage rate each behave differently. The prices are vendor-listed terms in 2026; they do not establish rendering quality, reliability, or the lowest total cost for your workload.

Service and listed tier Vendor-listed price and volume Relevant terms to compare
ScreenshotNeo Free: 1,000 shots/month; Starter: $5 for 3,000 Clean-shot processing; only clean shots billed, with response headers indicating verdict and billing; all features on every plan.
Browshot 100 free screenshots/month; credit packs from $1 for 10 to $1,000 for 300,000 One credit per desktop premium screenshot and two per mobile; private infrastructure is quote-based.
Site-Shot X-Lite $5/month for 2,000 screenshots Pricing page lists 10 dedicated workers, geotargeting in 49 countries, and $0.0025 per additional screenshot; saved-image storage is described separately from the capture allowance.
Site-Shot Lite $15/month for 10,000 screenshots Pricing page lists 10 workers, geotargeting in 49 countries, and $0.0015 per additional screenshot; check storage terms separately.
ScreenshotOne Basic $17/month for 2,000 screenshots Page lists 40 requests per minute and $0.009 per extra; failed and cached renders do not count in the stated circumstances.
Urlbox Lo-Fi $19/month for up to 2,000 renders Lo-Fi positioning, basic support, and a listed equivalent of $9.50 per 1,000 renders.
Urlbox Hi-Fi $49/month for up to 5,000 renders Hi-Fi positioning, standard support, and a listed equivalent of $9.80 per 1,000 renders.

ScreenshotNeo is the first alternative to consider if you want clean captures, no charge for bot checks or failed loads, an MCP server for AI agents, and a $5 plan with 3,000 shots; its free tier includes 1,000 monthly shots without a card. Its price and feature details are on ScreenshotNeo. Site-Shot’s listed $5 entry plan costs less than the cited ScreenshotOne Basic and Urlbox Lo-Fi plans, but those plans have different quotas and features. No headline price alone answers which service is cheaper for a specific implementation.

How to compare the total cost for your workload

Before switching or buying, estimate a representative month rather than comparing just the plan names. Record the volume, capture types, retry behavior, and outputs your application actually needs. Then apply each vendor’s counting rules and overage terms.

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  1. Count expected captures. Separate desktop and mobile for Browshot, and include expected retries, scheduled jobs, and batch requests. A request containing several URLs can result in several outputs.
  2. Identify billable outcomes. Ask whether a timeout, bot check, blank page, failed render, cached result, or retry consumes a credit or monthly quota. ScreenshotOne says failed and cached renders do not count in the stated circumstances; Urlbox says failed requests are not charged. ScreenshotNeo’s response identifies page verdict and billing, and only clean shots are billed.
  3. Check what the allowance measures. Some services distinguish captures from stored-image capacity. Site-Shot’s page separates its monthly capture allowance from saved-image storage, so estimate retention and storage independently.
  4. Map required rendering features. Check desktop and mobile support, geography, full-page output, JavaScript timing, headers, selectors, PDF, and any anti-blocking or cleanup behavior. A cheaper plan that lacks a required feature may not be a viable substitute.
  5. Validate capacity and overages. Compare requests per minute, concurrency, queue behavior, overage rates, and any quote-based commitments. Do not interpret Browshot’s distinct public capacity figures as one guarantee.
  6. Confirm commercial terms. Verify quota reset, unused-credit treatment, taxes, plan caps, retention, and cancellation terms on the vendor’s current page before purchase. The listed prices here do not establish those terms where they are not specified.

Or skip the browser setup

If you are comparing Browshot because you need screenshots in an application, ScreenshotNeo can return an image or PDF through a single GET request. Cookie banners and consent notices are accepted like a visitor before capture, and 60+ known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets can be removed; each step can be turned off. Bot checks/CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits cost nothing, and the response includes X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Its MCP server exposes take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client. One thousand screenshots a month are free with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000, and every feature is on every plan. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation.

cURL

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webp

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot",
    params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"},
    timeout=90,
)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

Node.js

const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key and change the target URL as needed. Sign up for 1,000 free screenshots a month with no card.

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Common pricing and capacity pitfalls

Counting credits as captures

Symptom: your estimated number of images exceeds the credit balance. Cause: the estimate treated mobile captures as one credit each. Fix: budget two credits per mobile premium screenshot and one per desktop premium screenshot using Browshot’s published schedule.

Assuming the free tier applies to premium instances

Symptom: a request does not behave as expected under the free allowance. Cause: the free instance and a paid premium instance are different; the simple API defaults to the free instance only when no instance is specified. Fix: inspect the instance your request selects and confirm the applicable allowance before running production traffic.

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Confusing capacity measures

Symptom: a planned workload does not fit the throughput arrangement you expected. Cause: the public figures refer to shared premium use, private-instance guarantees, and private-server hourly handling, respectively. Fix: have Browshot confirm the actual concurrency and hourly capacity for the quoted setup.

Interpreting an unexpected delay as a price issue

Symptom: captures take longer than expected despite adequate credits. Cause: Browshot characterizes its simple API as easier but slower than the complete API; throughput arrangements also differ. Fix: check whether the simple API is appropriate for the workload, then verify the capacity of the selected arrangement rather than inferring speed from bundle size.

Comparing monthly quotas without failure rules

Symptom: actual billed or quota-counted usage differs from a rough comparison. Cause: vendors treat failed renders, cached results, and retries differently. Fix: confirm each provider’s current counting policy for the outcomes your application encounters and factor in its stated overages.

What Browshot’s 2026 product announcement does—and does not—establish

A Browshot blog post dated March 4, 2026 says the company acquired Thumbalizr in 2017 and Blitapp in 2023, both of which it says use Browshot as their API. The post also describes PDF and video as planned future output types and says users can choose ScreenshotCenter’s subscription model or Browshot’s pay-as-you-go model. These are statements in that dated vendor announcement, not confirmation that PDF or video capture had launched. Browshot’s API documentation version 1.31 lists its documented capture and API capabilities; verify the live API documentation for currently available outputs before designing around a roadmap item.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Browshot currently document PDF and video capture in API version 1.31?

The March 4, 2026 Browshot announcement describes PDF and video as planned future output types. That announcement does not establish that either output is available; check the current API documentation or ask Browshot before depending on it.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.