How PageBolt achieves 2-5 second screenshot latency (architecture deep dive)

How PageBolt achieves 2-5 second screenshot latency (architecture deep dive) Latency kills. When your screenshot takes 30 seconds, your API times out. When your Vercel edge function runs Puppeteer, you hit the 10-second function timeout. Users bounce. Revenue dies. PageBolt's screenshot endpoint responds in 2-5 seconds. Here's how. The Problem: Why Local Chromium Is Slow Running Chromium locally seems simple: const browser = await puppeteer . launch (); But this hides massive latency: Cold start: 3-8 seconds (launch Chromium, initialize V8, load browser context) Page load: 2-5 seconds (network, JavaScript execution, rendering) Screenshot capture: 0.5-1 second (DOM traversal, pixel rendering) Total: 5.5-14 seconds, and that's best case On AWS Lambda or Vercel edge functions (10-second timeout), you fail silently. On a busy server, Chromium processes pile up and memory explodes. The Solution: Distributed Browser Pool PageBolt doesn't launch Chromium per request. Instead: Pre-warmed pools