Pexels vs Screenshotlayer

Pexels' JSON API serves its library of free stock photos and videos for keyword search, curated collections, and per-item lookups, with photo results carrying several pre-generated JPEG sizes ready to use without further processing. A personal key sent via the Authorization header is the only credential required — no OAuth flow — and a live probe of the search endpoint showed a 25,000-request rate-limit window tracked per key rather than per IP. There is no paid tier: under the Pexels License, images and videos are free for personal and commercial use, with attribution appreciated but not required.

Screenshotlayer (an APILayer product) is a REST API that renders any public URL into a PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP screenshot, with parameters for viewport size, full-page capture, and retina/2x scaling. A live GET against api.screenshotlayer.com/api/capture with a bogus access_key returns a 101 invalid_access_key JSON error rather than serving anonymously, proving every call requires a real key passed as the access_key query parameter — auth is corrected from "None" to "API Key". That same probe carried Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * even on the error response, resolving the stored "unknown" cors to "yes". screenshotlayer.com/pricing lists a Free plan alongside paid Basic/Professional/Business tiers billed annually — freemium.