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How to Install Chrome Headless on Ubuntu for Website Screenshots

Install Chrome on Ubuntu and use its current Headless mode to save website screenshots from the terminal, with viewport, timeout, and troubleshooting guidance.

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Install Google Chrome’s Stable package for your Ubuntu system architecture, then run Chrome with --headless --screenshot to save a website image. For a basic capture, you do not need a desktop session or the separate legacy Headless Shell.

Install Chrome on Ubuntu

Google Chrome is proprietary software and is not included in Ubuntu’s standard repositories. Google distributes a Stable .deb package for 64-bit amd64 and arm64 systems. The commands below follow Linuxize’s Ubuntu 26.04 installation guide; check Google’s current package instructions if you are using another release or architecture.

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  1. Check the machine’s package architecture:

    dpkg --print-architecture

    The guide covers amd64 and arm64. If your system reports a different architecture, do not assume this download command will provide a compatible package.

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  2. Download the Stable package matching that architecture:

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    wget "https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_$(dpkg --print-architecture).deb"

  3. Install the downloaded package with apt:

    sudo apt install "./google-chrome-stable_current_$(dpkg --print-architecture).deb"

    The ./ tells apt to install the local package file. The package configures Google’s APT repository, allowing later Chrome updates through Ubuntu’s normal package workflow.

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  4. For later updates, run:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Installation instructions: Linuxize’s Chrome installation guide.

Take a website screenshot from the terminal

Run the command from the directory where you want the image saved. Replace the executable name if your installation exposes a different Chrome binary:

google-chrome --headless --screenshot --window-size=1365,900 https://example.com/

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Chrome writes screenshot.png to the current working directory. Check that location with pwd and confirm the file with ls -l screenshot.png. Chrome’s examples use both chrome and google-chrome; Stable package installations may expose google-chrome-stable. If a command is not found, try the executable name available on your system.

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Choose the viewport

--window-size=WIDTH,HEIGHT sets the viewport dimensions in pixels. In the example, Chrome uses a 1365-by-900 viewport. This sets the browser window size; it does not by itself request a full-page capture of content extending below the viewport.

Control the wait before capture

You can add --timeout=5000 to limit Chrome’s wait before producing output, with the value expressed in milliseconds:

google-chrome --headless --screenshot --timeout=5000 --window-size=1365,900 https://example.com/

The timeout is a maximum wait, not a guarantee that every image, script, or other page resource has finished loading. Pages that depend on delayed JavaScript may need a different capture strategy or more time.

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Related command-line outputs

  • --dump-dom serializes the DOM after scripts execute; it is useful for inspecting rendered markup, not for saving a screenshot.
  • --print-to-pdf writes a PDF to the current working directory; it is a separate output from --screenshot.
  • --virtual-time-budget can fast-forward browser virtual time for pages with time-dependent scripts.

See the Chrome Headless command-line reference for the available options and examples.

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Current Headless Chrome or the old Headless Shell?

For ordinary website screenshots, use the installed Chrome binary with --headless. Current Headless is a mode of Chrome that runs without a visible UI, rather than a separate browser implementation. Chrome documentation contributors Mathias Bynens and Peter Kvitek describe it as running “in an unattended environment, without any visible UI.”

Older tutorials may refer to the old Headless implementation. Since Chrome 132.0.6793.0, that implementation is available only as the standalone chrome-headless-shell binary; it is no longer part of the Chrome binary. Chromium says precompiled shell binaries have been available through Chrome for Testing since M118. Use the shell only if an older workflow specifically depends on its behavior. A basic current screenshot does not require it. See the Chrome Headless documentation and Chromium’s Headless README.

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Troubleshoot common installation and capture problems

Or skip the browser setup

ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers. One GET request returns a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. See the ScreenshotNeo site and API documentation.

For example, this cURL command saves a WebP screenshot of Stripe:

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

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The service can accept cookie or consent banners and remove more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture; each step can be turned off. Bot checks and CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and response headers report the page verdict and billing status. Its MCP server gives AI agents tools to take screenshots, retrieve page information, and capture PDFs. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000.

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