localscreenshot

Take a screenshot of any public web page from your terminal or from Python. This is the client of the localscreenshot API.

pipx run localscreenshot https://example.com

It saves the image in the current folder and tells you what it cost.

Install

pip install localscreenshot

Python 3.9 or later. No dependencies.

Your API key

Create a free account at localscreenshot.com/signup. A new account gets free credits, no card needed.

Then either set the key in your environment:

export LOCALSCREENSHOT_API_KEY=your_key

or save it once on this machine:

localscreenshot login

login asks for the key without showing it, checks it, and writes it to a file only you can read. localscreenshot logout removes it. The key is never accepted as a command line argument, so it does not end up in your shell history.

Examples

# The whole page, as a JPEG
localscreenshot https://example.com --full-page --format jpeg

# As seen from Brazil
localscreenshot https://www.netflix.com --country BR

# On a phone, in dark mode, without the cookie banner
localscreenshot https://example.com --device iphone_15 --dark --no-cookie-banners

# Click a menu first, then capture
localscreenshot https://www.notion.com --click-text "Product"

# Choose the file name
localscreenshot https://example.com -o home.png

Options

Other commands:

localscreenshot countries   # the countries a page can be loaded from
localscreenshot credits     # the credits left on your account

From Python

from localscreenshot import screenshot

shot = screenshot("https://example.com", country="BR", full_page=True)
with open(f"example.{shot.extension}", "wb") as file:
    file.write(shot.image)

print(shot.width, shot.height, shot.credits_charged, shot.credits_remaining)

screenshot() takes the same options as the command: country, full_page, device, format, click_text, block_cookie_banners, block_ads, dark. It reads the key from LOCALSCREENSHOT_API_KEY or from the file written by localscreenshot login, or takes api_key=. It raises localscreenshot.ApiError, with the error code of the API, when a screenshot fails.

A screenshot uses credits from your account. A failed screenshot is not charged. The tool exits with a non-zero code when something fails, and prints the error code of the API.

For AI tools

localscreenshot also runs an MCP server, so that Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other tools can take screenshots on their own. Setup: localscreenshot.com/mcp.

Links

• Documentation
• API
• Pricing

MIT license.