🐍 Python SDK — Quick Start

Install the SnapAPI Python SDK and start capturing screenshots, generating PDFs, and extracting web content. Supports sync and async.

Installation

Install the official SnapAPI package from PyPI:

pip install snapapi

Requires Python 3.7+. For async support, install with extras:

pip install snapapi[async]

Authentication

Get your API key from the SnapAPI dashboard and initialize the client:

import snapapi
import os

# Initialize with your API key
client = snapapi.Client("YOUR_API_KEY")

# Or use environment variable (recommended)
client = snapapi.Client(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

💡 Tip: Use python-dotenv to load API keys from a .env file in development.

Take Screenshots

Basic Screenshot

import snapapi
import os

client = snapapi.Client(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

# Capture a screenshot
screenshot = client.screenshot(
    url="https://example.com",
    format="png",
    width=1280,
    height=800
)

# Save to file
with open("screenshot.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(screenshot)

print("Screenshot saved!")

Full Page Screenshot

screenshot = client.screenshot(
    url="https://example.com",
    format="png",
    full_page=True,
    width=1280
)

Screenshot with All Options

screenshot = client.screenshot(
    url="https://example.com",
    format="avif",           # png, jpeg, webp, avif
    width=1440,
    height=900,
    full_page=False,
    block_ads=True,           # Block advertisements
    block_cookies=True,       # Block cookie banners
    delay=2000,               # Wait 2s before capture
    device_preset="iPhone15", # Mobile emulation
    css="body { background: white; }",  # Inject CSS
    response_type="url"       # Get hosted URL
)

Get Hosted URL

result = client.screenshot(
    url="https://example.com",
    format="png",
    response_type="url"
)

print(result["url"])
# → https://cdn.snapapi.pics/screenshots/abc123.png

Generate PDFs

pdf = client.pdf(
    url="https://example.com",
    format="A4",
    print_background=True,
    margin={
        "top": "20mm",
        "bottom": "20mm",
        "left": "15mm",
        "right": "15mm"
    }
)

with open("page.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(pdf)

PDF from HTML String

pdf = client.pdf(
    html="<h1>Invoice #1234</h1><p>Total: $99.00</p>",
    format="A4",
    print_background=True
)

Extract Content

Extract clean markdown or structured data from any webpage — perfect for LLM pipelines and data scraping.

content = client.extract(
    url="https://example.com/blog-post",
    format="markdown"
)

print(content["markdown"])
# → # Blog Post Title\n\nArticle content here...

Extract Structured Data

data = client.extract(
    url="https://example.com/product",
    format="structured",
    schema={
        "title": "string",
        "price": "number",
        "description": "string"
    }
)

print(f"Product: {data['title']} - ${data['price']}")

Async Support

Use the async client for high-throughput applications:

import asyncio
import snapapi

async def capture_multiple():
    client = snapapi.AsyncClient(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

    urls = [
        "https://example.com",
        "https://github.com",
        "https://news.ycombinator.com"
    ]

    # Capture all screenshots concurrently
    tasks = [
        client.screenshot(url=url, format="png")
        for url in urls
    ]
    results = await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

    for i, screenshot in enumerate(results):
        with open(f"screenshot_{i}.png", "wb") as f:
            f.write(screenshot)

    await client.close()

asyncio.run(capture_multiple())

Error Handling

import snapapi

client = snapapi.Client(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

try:
    screenshot = client.screenshot(url="https://example.com")
    with open("screenshot.png", "wb") as f:
        f.write(screenshot)

except snapapi.AuthenticationError:
    print("Invalid API key")

except snapapi.RateLimitError as e:
    print(f"Rate limit exceeded. Retry after {e.retry_after}s")

except snapapi.BadRequestError as e:
    print(f"Bad request: {e.message}")

except snapapi.SnapAPIError as e:
    print(f"API error ({e.status}): {e.message}")

⚠️ Rate Limits: Free tier: 200 requests/month. The SDK automatically includes retry info in rate limit exceptions. Upgrade for higher limits.

Framework Integration

Django View

from django.http import HttpResponse
import snapapi

client = snapapi.Client(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

def screenshot_view(request):
    url = request.GET.get("url", "https://example.com")
    image = client.screenshot(url=url, format="png")

    response = HttpResponse(image, content_type="image/png")
    response["Content-Disposition"] = 'attachment; filename="screenshot.png"'
    return response

Flask Route

from flask import Flask, request, send_file
import snapapi
import io

app = Flask(__name__)
client = snapapi.Client(os.environ["SNAPAPI_KEY"])

@app.route("/screenshot")
def screenshot():
    url = request.args.get("url", "https://example.com")
    image = client.screenshot(url=url, format="png")

    return send_file(
        io.BytesIO(image),
        mimetype="image/png",
        download_name="screenshot.png"
    )

Next Steps

ReferenceFull API Documentation → Also availableNode.js SDK Guide → Scale upView Pricing Plans → Try it liveAPI Playground →