How to Find Any Favicon from Any Website

Overview

I was working on a project and had to get favicons for hundreds of articles, and honestly, it was painful to find each one manually. Every website has its own favicon file, sometimes hidden deep in their HTML, and scraping them one by one just isn’t practical.

So, I wanted to find a simple and fast way to do this automatically and that’s how I ended up creating Favicon Finder.

The Problem

Most websites include a favicon in their HTML, something like this:

<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">

But not all sites follow the same convention.
Some use PNGs, some host icons on CDNs, and others have multiple versions for different devices.

If you’re building a news aggregator, a bookmarking app, or anything that lists URLs dynamically, you’ll quickly realize you need a reliable way to fetch favicons automatically.

The Solution

There are a few public (and some semi-hidden) APIs that make this process much easier.

Let’s go through them

1. Google S2 Favicon API (Official & Public)

This is Google’s official service for getting favicons from any domain.

https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=bbc.com&sz=64

Parameters:
- domain: The website domain (no https:// required)
- sz: Size (from 16 to 128)

Example:

<img src="https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=cnn.com&sz=64" />

Pros:

Stable and publicly accessible
Simple to use, no API key required
Supports custom sizes

Cons:

Limited to .ico-style icons (no high-res logos)
Returns only one icon per domain

2. DuckDuckGo Favicon API (Public)

DuckDuckGo also provides a free favicon service:

https://icons.duckduckgo.com/ip3/bbc.com.ico

Pros:

Works reliably for most domains
No authentication required
Easy fallback option

Cons:

Only serves .ico files
May not always have large sizes or transparent backgrounds

3. Google’s Hidden GStatic Favicon API (Unofficial)

This is the one many people notice when inspecting Google News or Search:

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/faviconV2?url=https://bbc.com&client=NEWS_360&size=96&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL

It’s fast and often returns high-quality icons, but it’s an internal Google API — not meant for public use.

Important:

It’s undocumented and may change or stop working anytime.
Using it in production may violate Google’s Terms of Service.

Best used only for experimentation or learning purposes.

About the Tool - Favicon Finder

Favicon Finder is a simple interactive web app built using HTML, JavaScript, and Tailwind CSS.

It lets you:

Enter any website URL
Automatically extracts the domain name
Choose the favicon size
Fetch favicons from both Google and DuckDuckGo
View and compare the icons
Copy the URL or download the image directly

Tech Stack

Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript + Tailwind CSS
APIs Used:
- Google S2 Favicon API
- DuckDuckGo Favicon API

Demo Screenshot

How It Works

You type a website URL like https://bbc.com
The script extracts the domain: bbc.com
It constructs URLs for both APIs:
- https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=bbc.com&sz=64
- https://icons.duckduckgo.com/ip3/bbc.com.ico
The app displays both icons and gives you options to:
- Copy URL
- Download Image

Simple, fast, and super useful for developers who work with multiple sources.

Limitations

API	Limitation
Google S2	Doesn’t always return transparent PNGs
DuckDuckGo	Lower resolution for some sites
GStatic (unofficial)	May break anytime / not for production

Conclusion

If you ever need to grab favicons for multiple websites — don’t waste time inspecting HTML manually.
APIs like Google S2 and DuckDuckGo make it incredibly easy, and tools like Favicon Finder wrap it into a simple UI that anyone can use.

You can check out the full project here: github.com/JamithNimantha/favicon-finder