Microlink Pricing in 2026: Plans, Limits and Cheaper Options

Direct answer: Microlink’s official screenshot pricing page lists a Free tier at $0 per month with 25 requests per day, and a Pro tier at $49 per month with 46,000 requests per month. A separate official calculator shows €39 per month for a 46,000-request example. These figures appear on different official pages, so confirm the live price, currency, taxes and API surface before subscribing.

Microlink is a hosted API for screenshots, PDFs, metadata, page-content extraction and related browser tasks. The right plan depends on more than the headline request count: cache behavior, the operation you need, proxy requirements, function limits, region and the cost of running a browser stack yourself all affect the real price.

Microlink pricing at a glance

Plan or surface	Published price	Published allowance or limit	What to verify
Free screenshot tier	$0/month	25 requests per day	Whether your endpoint and operation use the screenshot allowance
Pro screenshot tier	$49/month	46,000 requests/month	Current regional price, taxes and treatment of cache hits
Calculator example	€39/month	46,000 requests/month	Why the currency and amount differ from the screenshot page
Search API	€39/month shown on Search pages	46,000 requests/month on the reviewed page	Search terms may differ from screenshot terms; paid from the first request in the reviewed material
Business and Enterprise	Not captured	Not captured	Ask Microlink for a current quote and quota

The Free screenshot page lists screenshots, PDF, SDK, metadata, logo, insights, Markdown, HTML, text, function, media, file conversion, global edge cache, ad blocking and cookie banners. Pro adds features such as automatic proxy resolution, configurable TTL, custom HTTP headers, custom cache keys and priority email support. The published page also says you can cancel any time and has no setup fee.

How much does Microlink cost in 2026?

For a small screenshot workload, the published answer is $0 if 25 requests per day covers your use. That is a daily allowance rather than a monthly bucket: a team cannot automatically spend unused requests from one day on another day. At the stated maximum every day, the theoretical ceiling is about 750 requests in a 30-day month, but your actual usable amount depends on the calendar and the endpoint rules.

For the screenshot Pro example, the listed price is $49 per month for 46,000 requests. Dividing $49 by 46,000 gives approximately $1.07 per 1,000 requests, which is the figure shown by the pricing page. The calculator separately displays €39 for a 46,000-request example. Treat those as two presentations that need checking, not as a guaranteed dollar-to-euro conversion.

Do not carry the screenshot table into every Microlink product. Search, screenshot capture and the function method can have different availability and limits. The reviewed Search material says Search is paid from the first request, while the screenshot page advertises a Free tier. Select the exact product surface before estimating a bill.

What counts as a request?

Start your estimate with three numbers:

1. How many URLs or operations you submit in a normal month.
2. How often the same URL is requested before its cache expires.
3. How many retries your application performs after timeouts or transient errors.

Microlink’s high-volume link-preview guidance says cache hits do not count against quota and describes paid plans starting at 14,000 monthly requests. That guidance is useful for planning, but it is not a replacement for the current screenshot pricing page. Confirm whether your selected API surface counts cache hits, what cache key is used and how a configured TTL changes the result.

Build a conservative estimate with cache misses first. For example, if you process 10,000 URLs once each and refresh them weekly, your uncached workload could be roughly 40,000 operations per month. If most refreshes are cache hits, the quota-counted total may be lower. Keep both figures in your worksheet so a change in cache policy does not surprise you.

Microlink function limits

The SDK function documentation describes limits for the function method specifically. On Free, a function has a 15-second limit, 64 MB of heap, 1,024 bytes of code and one in-flight function per IP. The Pro description raises the time limit to 60 seconds, heap to 128 MB, removes the code-size limit and allows unlimited concurrency. These are not universal limits for every Microlink endpoint.

If you need only a screenshot or PDF, do not assume the function limits describe browser capture time. If you need custom code execution, check the function documentation and test your function with realistic pages, redirects and response sizes.

Features that can change the total cost

Proxy and regional access

Automatic proxy resolution is listed as a Pro feature. If your targets block data-center traffic or require a particular region, include proxy needs in your plan decision. A cheaper nominal request price may not help if the pages cannot be reached reliably.

Caching and TTL

Pro lists configurable TTL and custom cache keys. A longer TTL can reduce repeated origin work for stable pages; a shorter TTL is appropriate when freshness matters. Choose a key that includes every input that changes the output, such as URL, viewport, locale or custom headers.

Headers and cookies

Custom HTTP headers and cookies affect authentication, localization and cache variation. Document which values are safe to include in a cache key. Never let a response intended for one account be served to another account because credentials were omitted from the key.

Search and extraction

Metadata, Markdown, HTML, text, logo, insights and Search are separate use cases in Microlink’s materials. Price and free availability can differ. Ask for the exact endpoint terms if your application mixes screenshots with extraction or Search.

Cheaper options: how to compare them honestly

The reviewed evidence does not establish a reliable current price for a named Microlink competitor. Do not assume Browserless, ScreenshotOne, ScrapingBee, Zyte or another provider is cheaper without checking a like-for-like plan.

Use this comparison checklist:

• Monthly operations and peak daily volume.
• Whether the allowance is daily, monthly, concurrent or bandwidth based.
• Whether cache hits consume quota.
• Screenshot, PDF, metadata, Markdown, Search or custom-function requirements.
• Proxy routing, regions, custom headers, cookies and cache controls.
• Retry behavior and whether failed requests are charged.
• Currency, taxes, rollover rules and cancellation terms.
• Engineering time, hosting, browser upgrades, observability and proxy costs for a self-managed stack.

For very low volume, Microlink’s published Free screenshot allowance may be sufficient. For higher volume, calculate cache misses and compare the current offers at checkout. A self-hosted Playwright or Chromium service can remove a per-request subscription, but its total cost includes servers, browser maintenance, queueing, anti-bot handling, monitoring and on-call work. The available research does not quantify those costs, so measure them for your workload.

ScreenshotNeo: an alternative to try first

ScreenshotNeo is the first alternative to try for screenshot API work because it removes consent banners, newsletter popups and chat widgets before capture, bills only clean shots, and has a $5 paid plan.

Its Free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card. Paid plans are Starter $5 for 3,000, Growth $15 for 15,000, Pro $39 for 60,000, Scale $99 for 250,000 and Business $249 for 1,000,000. Yearly billing gives two months free, and every feature is on every plan.

Only clean shots are billed. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits cost nothing, and the response identifies the result with X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. ScreenshotNeo also provides an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients with take_screenshot, get_page_info and capture_pdf tools.

Or skip the browser setup

Instead of operating Chromium yourself, call the ScreenshotNeo API. The API documentation describes the available options, including full-page capture, CSS-element capture, device presets, custom viewports, retina scale, PDFs, custom CSS and JavaScript, clicks, waits, request blocking, headers, cookies, user agents, authorization, timezone, geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, caching, signed links, asynchronous jobs, bulk capture and usage reporting.

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)
r.raise_for_status()
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}`);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Screenshot failed: ${res.status}`);
const bytes = new Uint8Array(await res.arrayBuffer());
await import('node:fs/promises').then(fs => fs.writeFile('shot.webp', bytes));

Cookie banners, popups and chat widgets are removed before the shot. Bot checks, blank pages and failed loads are never billed. An MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots. You get 1,000 screenshots a month free with no card, and paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Create a free ScreenshotNeo account.

DIY browser capture versus a hosted API

A self-managed implementation normally needs a browser runtime, a queue, storage and a worker. A minimal flow is:

1. Accept a URL and validate its scheme and host policy.
2. Put the job on a queue so bursts do not exhaust browser processes.
3. Launch or reuse an isolated browser context with the required viewport and locale.
4. Wait for navigation, fonts, images and application data according to a bounded policy.
5. Hide consent elements or inject CSS only when your legal and product requirements allow it.
6. Capture the page or selected element, then upload the result.
7. Record duration, HTTP status, final URL, failure reason and output size.

Hosted APIs shift browser patching, concurrency controls and much of the failure handling out of your application. DIY can be sensible when you need custom browser behavior, private network access or predictable infrastructure ownership. Compare the full operating cost rather than only API request prices.

Troubleshooting Microlink plan and quota questions

The pricing page and calculator show different currencies

Cause: They are separate official price presentations. Fix: check the live checkout for your country and selected API surface, then record the currency, taxes and request allowance.

A workload exceeds the Free tier unexpectedly

Cause: The Free screenshot allowance is 25 requests per day, and another operation such as Search may have different terms. Fix: count calls by endpoint and calendar day, and verify whether retries or cache misses are included.

Cache behavior does not match your estimate

Cause: Cache keys, TTL and operation type affect whether a request is a hit. Fix: log the URL, key inputs, TTL and cache result; confirm the rule for your endpoint with Microlink.

A custom function times out

Cause: The Free function limit is 15 seconds. Fix: reduce work, avoid unnecessary network calls, or evaluate the Pro function limits of 60 seconds and 128 MB heap.

Search pricing seems inconsistent with screenshots

Cause: Search is a distinct API surface and the reviewed material says it is paid from the first request. Fix: use Search-specific terms instead of applying the screenshot Free tier.

Performance, reliability and cost controls

• Bound concurrency: use a queue and a per-host limit to avoid creating a retry storm.
• Retry selectively: retry network resets and temporary server errors with exponential backoff; do not retry deterministic validation failures.
• Cache deliberately: set TTL from content freshness requirements and include viewport, locale and authentication state in the key when they change output.
• Measure cache misses: report submitted calls, successful outputs, failures, retries and cache hits separately.
• Control output size: choose the smallest image format and dimensions that satisfy the consumer.
• Protect secrets: keep API keys server-side, rotate them and avoid logging cookies or authorization headers.
• Set budgets: alert before daily or monthly limits, and implement a degraded path when a quota is exhausted.

FAQ

Is Microlink Free really unlimited?

No. The screenshot pricing page lists 25 requests per day. Other Microlink surfaces can have different terms.

Is Microlink Pro $49 or €39?

Both figures appear in official materials for a 46,000-request example on separate pages. Verify the current regional price at checkout.

Do cache hits count against quota?

Microlink’s high-volume guidance says cache hits do not count, but confirm the rule for your exact endpoint and cache configuration.

What is the lowest-cost ScreenshotNeo plan?

ScreenshotNeo has 1,000 screenshots per month free with no card. Its Starter plan is $5 for 3,000 screenshots.

Can I use ScreenshotNeo with AI agents?

Yes. Its MCP server exposes screenshot, page-info and PDF-capture tools to MCP clients such as Claude and Cursor.