{ "data": { "category": { "area": "web-data", "capabilities": [ "web.scrape", "web.extract", "web.crawl", "scraping.proxies", "scraping.js-render", "scraping.anti-bot", "scraping.actors" ], "description": "Hosted APIs that fetch a page for you, render JavaScript and get past anti-bot checks through rotating proxies, then hand back HTML, Markdown or structured JSON. Also page-to-Markdown readers, crawlers and scraper marketplaces. Compared on price per successful request, success rate on protected sites and what the terms let you do with the output.", "indexed": [ { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alterlab-mcp-server.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "alterlab.io MCP server", "slug": "alterlab-mcp-server", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alterlab-mcp-server" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/anakin-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Anakin", "slug": "anakin-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/anakin-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apolloai-intelligence.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Apollo Intelligence", "slug": "apolloai-intelligence", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apolloai-intelligence" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crawlconsole.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "CrawlConsole", "slug": "crawlconsole", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crawlconsole" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crawlie.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Crawlie", "slug": "crawlie", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crawlie" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crawlio-browser.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "crawlio-browser", "slug": "crawlio-browser", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crawlio-browser" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/geekflare-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "geekflare.com MCP server", "slug": "geekflare-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/geekflare-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/glim.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "glim.sh", "slug": "glim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/glim" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/earnidle-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "IDLE Protocol", "slug": "earnidle-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/earnidle-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/litescrape-mcp-server.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Litescrape", "slug": "litescrape-mcp-server", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/litescrape-mcp-server" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mcp-gera-jobs.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "mcp-gera-jobs", "slug": "mcp-gera-jobs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mcp-gera-jobs" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openaeo-audit.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "OpenAEO", "slug": "openaeo-audit", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openaeo-audit" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pagerender.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "pagerender", "slug": "pagerender", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pagerender" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rampify-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Rampify", "slug": "rampify-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rampify-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/replynodes-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "ReplyNodes", "slug": "replynodes-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/replynodes-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapeer-mcp-server.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Scrapeer", "slug": "scrapeer-mcp-server", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeer-mcp-server" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapeunblocker-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "scrapeunblocker-mcp", "slug": "scrapeunblocker-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeunblocker-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/see-geo-seegeo.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "seegeo", "slug": "see-geo-seegeo", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/see-geo-seegeo" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/seocontentmachine-scm.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "SEO Content Machine", "slug": "seocontentmachine-scm", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/seocontentmachine-scm" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ilien-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Svipall", "slug": "ilien-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ilien-mcp" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tooltrace-mcp-server.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "tooltrace.io MCP server", "slug": "tooltrace-mcp-server", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tooltrace-mcp-server" }, { "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xquik-mcp.json", "kind": "mcp", "name": "Xquik MCP Server", "slug": "xquik-mcp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xquik-mcp" } ], "indexedCount": 22, "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/web-scrapers.json", "name": "Web scraping \u0026 crawling", "slug": "web-scrapers", "test": "", "title": "Web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents", "toolCount": 18, "tools": [ "apify-mcp", "firecrawl-mcp", "zenrows", "spider-cloud", "zyte", "scrapfly", "scrapegraphai", "olostep", "oxylabs-web-scraper", "bright-data", "scrapingbee", "diffbot", "scrapeless", "scraperapi", "jina-reader", "scrape-do", "scrapingdog", "scrapingant" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/web-scrapers" }, "faq": [ { "answer": "Apify MCP Server has the highest benchmark score of the 18 ranked web scraping and crawling APIs, 76.5 (BB). Firecrawl MCP is second with 75.3 (BB).", "question": "What are the highest-rated web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents?" }, { "answer": "4 of the 18 ranked here grade BB or better, the bar for agent-ready on the Anchor benchmark.", "question": "How many web scraping and crawling APIs are agent-ready?" }, { "answer": "Apify MCP Server and Spider. An agent can pay these per call in USDC with no account.", "question": "Which web scraping and crawling APIs accept x402 payments?" }, { "answer": "By published paid prices, Zyte API, at $0.06 per 1,000 requests, the lowest of the 14 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside). Plans, volume tiers and free allowances change the sum, so check the listing's price table.", "question": "Which of these web scraping and crawling APIs is cheapest?" }, { "answer": "By the Anchor benchmark score out of 100, a weighted mean of the scored categories minus deductions for negative events, from public evidence re-checked as vendors change. Listings cannot pay for a place. The latest assessment behind this page is from 9 October 2026.", "question": "How is this list ranked?" } ], "howToChoose": [ { "label": "Cost per successful request", "detail": "Check whether failed and blocked requests are billed, because the list price per request can understate what each usable page costs an agent." }, { "label": "Success rate on protected sites", "detail": "Ask for success rates on sites behind anti-bot checks, since a service that only handles open pages will fail on the targets an agent most often needs." }, { "label": "Output format and size cap", "detail": "Confirm the output formats and the response size cap, because a page cut short at the cap can drop text an agent needs without any error." }, { "label": "Terms for reusing scraped output", "detail": "Read the terms on storing, reusing and redistributing scraped output, since some services limit how long the agent may keep what it collects." } ], "picks": [ { "also": { "name": "Firecrawl MCP", "slug": "firecrawl-mcp", "why": "BB, 75.3/100" }, "name": "Apify MCP Server", "need": "Highest score overall", "slug": "apify-mcp", "why": "BB, 76.5/100 on the benchmark" }, { "name": "ZenRows", "need": "Reliability", "slug": "zenrows", "why": "87/100 on reliability, against 65 for the overall leader" }, { "name": "Scrapfly", "need": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "slug": "scrapfly", "why": "95/100 on schema \u0026 documentation, against 92 for the overall leader" }, { "name": "Scrapfly", "need": "Security \u0026 auth", "slug": "scrapfly", "why": "70/100 on security \u0026 auth, against 62 for the overall leader" }, { "also": { "name": "Scrape.do", "slug": "scrape-do", "why": "$0.116 per 1,000 requests" }, "name": "Zyte API", "need": "Lowest paid price per 1,000 requests", "slug": "zyte", "why": "$0.06 per 1,000 requests, the lowest of the 14 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside)" }, { "also": { "name": "Spider", "slug": "spider-cloud", "why": "accepts x402, $0.0005 a call" }, "name": "Apify MCP Server", "need": "Paying per call with no account (x402)", "slug": "apify-mcp", "why": "accepts x402, $1 a call" }, { "name": "ZenRows", "need": "The review panel's favourite", "slug": "zenrows", "why": "3.8/5 from 8 panel reviews" } ], "ranked": 18, "shortlist": [ { "bestFor": "Best when the job matches an existing Actor (Google Maps, social profiles, e-commerce, SERP) and the agent can wait seconds to minutes for a run.", "grade": "BB", "name": "Apify MCP Server", "position": 1, "price": "$1 / call", "score": 76.5, "slug": "apify-mcp", "strengths": [ "x402 on Apify's own domains, a prepaid token from agi.apify.com for any Actor and per-run payment on mcp.apify.com for Pay Per Event Actors", "12 tools by default out of 35, `?tools=` to pick categories, and readOnly, destructive and idempotent hints on every tool", "Scoped API tokens with expiry and a 24-hour rotation overlap, plus OAuth on the hosted server" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp", "verdict": "x402 on Apify's own domains, a prepaid token from agi.apify.com for any Actor and per-run payment on mcp.apify.com for Pay Per Event Actors. API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026.", "weaknesses": [ "API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026", "No prompt-injection guidance for scraped content or third-party Actor READMEs", "Telemetry and Sentry on by default" ], "where": "both", "x402": "yes" }, { "bestFor": "Agents that need the whole pipeline (find URLs, scrape to markdown, crawl, monitor) from one server, and for trying without an account.", "grade": "BB", "name": "Firecrawl MCP", "position": 2, "price": "$19 / mo", "score": 75.3, "slug": "firecrawl-mcp", "strengths": [ "Keyless hosted endpoint with scrape, search and parse, plus OAuth and a search-only endpoint", "Four incidents since July 2026, the longest 56 minutes", "Rate limits published per plan and per endpoint" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firecrawl-mcp", "verdict": "Keyless hosted endpoint with scrape, search and parse, plus OAuth and a search-only endpoint. No x402 or other machine payment.", "weaknesses": [ "No x402 or other machine payment", "No prompt-injection guidance for scraped pages outside retained Alexandria results", "403 and 404 responses cost a credit" ], "where": "both", "x402": "no" }, { "bestFor": "An agent hitting protected sites that wants the service to choose the setup and bill only success, and for agents that must onboard without a human.", "grade": "BB", "name": "ZenRows", "position": 3, "price": "$19 / mo", "score": 74.8, "slug": "zenrows", "strengths": [ "No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page", "5,000 free credits a month with no card, and a stdio MCP that can provision a free account by itself", "Every MCP tool carries readOnlyHint and destructiveHint, and the scrape tool says when to use extract instead" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows", "verdict": "No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page. The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string.", "weaknesses": [ "The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string", "A protected request costs 25 credits, so real costs sit well above the headline rate", "44 MCP tools load at once, 36 of them for the browser" ], "where": "both", "x402": "partial" }, { "bestFor": "An agent that has to start without a human, pay per call, or crawl many small pages cheaply.", "grade": "BB", "name": "Spider", "position": 4, "price": "$0.0005 / call", "score": 74.1, "slug": "spider-cloud", "strengths": [ "Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account", "Metered by bytes and CPU, so small pages cost a fraction of a cent", "Published rate limits with RateLimit and Retry-After headers" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud", "verdict": "Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account. Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy.", "weaknesses": [ "Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy", "No security.txt, disclosure policy, certification or prompt-injection guidance found", "Invalid parameter values fall back silently instead of returning 400" ], "where": "both", "x402": "yes" }, { "bestFor": "An agent or pipeline that fetches protected pages and wants the service to choose proxy and browser per site and to bill only success, and teams already on Scrapy.", "grade": "B", "name": "Zyte API", "position": 5, "price": "$0.13 / 1k req", "score": 69.7, "slug": "zyte", "strengths": [ "OpenAPI 3.0.3 contract for `/v1/extract` printed in the reference, with 51 enums and request examples, plus llms.txt and Markdown twins of the docs pages", "Only successful responses are billed. Rate-limited, banned and failed requests are free, per the pricing page and the terms", "429, 503 and 520 responses carry `Retry-After`, and the docs publish a backoff table for each retry" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte", "verdict": "One POST endpoint with an OpenAPI 3 contract picks proxies, browser rendering and extraction per site, bills only successful responses, and sends problem+json errors with Retry-After. Prices vary by target site across five tiers, so cost per request isn't known before the site is assigned one, and no dated API changelog was found.", "weaknesses": [ "Request price depends on the target site's tier, from $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP requests and $1.01 to $16.08 with a browser on pay-as-you-go", "No dated changelog or deprecation policy for the API was found in the 150-page docs sitemap, and the terms allow changes with or without notice", "The terms let Zyte use Service Data, data feeds and code from the services for product development and product training" ], "where": "hosted", "x402": "no" }, { "bestFor": "An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on.", "grade": "B", "name": "Scrapfly", "position": 6, "price": "$30 / mo", "score": 69.6, "slug": "scrapfly", "strengths": [ "Error catalogue of 100+ ERR:: codes, each with HTTP status, retryable and billed flags and a doc link", "Hosted MCP with OAuth open to all plans, and API keys restrictable to products since 15 April 2026", "MCP tools carry readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint, and mutating vault and alert tools need confirm=true" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly", "verdict": "The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.", "weaknesses": [ "The open-source MCP server registers 61 tools at once, a heavy tools/list", "The canonical API auth form and one MCP option put the key in the URL query string", "Status page shows an overall state only, with no components or incident history, and status.scrapfly.io doesn't resolve" ], "where": "both", "x402": "no" }, { "bestFor": "LLM pipelines that want prompt-to-JSON extraction and for agents that must pay with a wallet.", "grade": "B", "name": "ScrapeGraphAI", "position": 7, "price": "$20 / mo", "score": 68.3, "slug": "scrapegraphai", "strengths": [ "An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup", "Per-call x402 on all five product endpoints through Orthogonal's gateway", "OpenAPI 3.1 with enums and documented 401, 402 and 429 responses" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapegraphai", "verdict": "An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup. Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages.", "weaknesses": [ "Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages", "Privacy policy from March 2024 with no retention periods, DPA or LLM provider list", "One account key with no scopes, and delete tools beside read tools on the MCP server" ], "where": "hosted", "x402": "partial" }, { "bestFor": "Bulk scraping on a budget and for batch jobs of thousands of URLs.", "grade": "B", "name": "Olostep", "position": 8, "price": "$9 / mo", "score": 63, "slug": "olostep", "strengths": [ "OpenAPI 3.0.3 for every endpoint and a structured error body", "500 free successful requests with no card, $9 a month after that", "x402 documented on scrapes, maps, answers and crawls at $0.01 to $0.05" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/olostep", "verdict": "OpenAPI 3.0.3 for every endpoint and a structured error body. The x402 challenge came back with no payment requirements in our probe.", "weaknesses": [ "The x402 challenge came back with no payment requirements in our probe", "One dashboard key with no documented scopes, rotation or revocation", "No 429 or per-minute rate limits documented" ], "where": "both", "x402": "partial" }, { "bestFor": "Agents that need parsed Google, Amazon and other large-site results or bulk asynchronous jobs through one API.", "grade": "B", "name": "Oxylabs Web Scraper API", "position": 9, "price": "$30 / mo", "score": 63, "slug": "oxylabs-web-scraper", "strengths": [ "Realtime, Push-Pull (batches of up to 5,000) and Proxy Endpoint integration, with Markdown output and parsed JSON for dedicated sources", "Official MCP server, hosted at `mcp.oxylabs.io` or run locally, whose four scraping tools carry `readOnlyHint` and enumerated inputs", "Results with 5xx or 6xx codes and 429 responses are not billed, and faulted jobs can be retried at no cost" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper", "verdict": "Dedicated parsed sources, three integration methods and an official MCP server with four read-only scraping tools sit behind one username and password per instance. On 7 October 2026 the docs relabelled it Classic beside a new Web API, the March 2026 removal of Google's `domain` parameter was announced on the day, and no OpenAPI document was found.", "weaknesses": [ "Google's `domain` parameter was announced as gone on 18 March 2026 with no earlier changelog notice, and MCP v0.9.3 still exposes it", "No OpenAPI document found. The contract is prose parameter tables and a Postman collection", "The docs relabelled the product Classic on 7 October 2026 and state no end date or migration plan" ], "where": "both", "x402": "no" }, { "bestFor": "Hard targets and site-specific structured data (Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Maps) at volume.", "grade": "C", "name": "Bright Data", "position": 10, "price": "$1.50 / 1k req", "score": 59.8, "slug": "bright-data", "strengths": [ "Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP", "5,000 free requests a month with no card", "Five tools by default out of 69, with groups for e-commerce, social, browser and more" ], "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bright-data", "verdict": "Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP. No public status page or incident history.", "weaknesses": [ "No public status page or incident history", "The default hosted MCP URL carries the key as `?token=`", "No prompt-injection guidance for scraped content" ], "where": "hosted", "x402": "no" } ], "updated": "2026-10-09" }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.min.md" }, "markdown": "The 10 highest-scoring of 18 web scraping and crawling APIs on the Anchor benchmark, with a pick for each need and where each one falls short. Scores come from public evidence, re-checked as vendors change.\n\n- Ranked: 18 · agent-ready (BB or better): 4 · accept x402: 2 · hosted endpoints: 18\n- Full ranked table: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/web-scrapers.md\n- Head-to-head comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md (167)\n- Methodology: https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/index.md\n\n## The shortlist\n\n| # | Tool | Grade | Score | Best for | Price | Where |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| 1 | [Apify MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md) | BB | 76.5 | Best when the job matches an existing Actor (Google Maps, social profiles, e-commerce, SERP) and the agent can wait seconds to minutes for a run. | $1 / call | hosted and local |\n| 2 | [Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firecrawl-mcp.md) | BB | 75.3 | Agents that need the whole pipeline (find URLs, scrape to markdown, crawl, monitor) from one server, and for trying without an account. | $19 / mo | hosted and local |\n| 3 | [ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md) | BB | 74.8 | An agent hitting protected sites that wants the service to choose the setup and bill only success, and for agents that must onboard without a human. | $19 / mo | hosted and local |\n| 4 | [Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.md) | BB | 74.1 | An agent that has to start without a human, pay per call, or crawl many small pages cheaply. | $0.0005 / call | hosted and local |\n| 5 | [Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md) | B | 69.7 | An agent or pipeline that fetches protected pages and wants the service to choose proxy and browser per site and to bill only success, and teams already on Scrapy. | $0.13 / 1k req | hosted |\n| 6 | [Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md) | B | 69.6 | An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on. | $30 / mo | hosted and local |\n| 7 | [ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapegraphai.md) | B | 68.3 | LLM pipelines that want prompt-to-JSON extraction and for agents that must pay with a wallet. | $20 / mo | hosted |\n| 8 | [Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/olostep.md) | B | 63 | Bulk scraping on a budget and for batch jobs of thousands of URLs. | $9 / mo | hosted and local |\n| 9 | [Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper.md) | B | 63 | Agents that need parsed Google, Amazon and other large-site results or bulk asynchronous jobs through one API. | $30 / mo | hosted and local |\n| 10 | [Bright Data](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bright-data.md) | C | 59.8 | Hard targets and site-specific structured data (Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Maps) at volume. | $1.50 / 1k req | hosted |\n\n## Picks by need\n\n- Highest score overall: [Apify MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md), BB, 76.5/100 on the benchmark. Also [Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firecrawl-mcp.md), BB, 75.3/100.\n- Reliability: [ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md), 87/100 on reliability, against 65 for the overall leader.\n- Schema \u0026 documentation: [Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md), 95/100 on schema \u0026 documentation, against 92 for the overall leader.\n- Security \u0026 auth: [Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md), 70/100 on security \u0026 auth, against 62 for the overall leader.\n- Lowest paid price per 1,000 requests: [Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md), $0.06 per 1,000 requests, the lowest of the 14 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside). Also [Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrape-do.md), $0.116 per 1,000 requests.\n- Paying per call with no account (x402): [Apify MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md), accepts x402, $1 a call. Also [Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.md), accepts x402, $0.0005 a call.\n- The review panel's favourite: [ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md), 3.8/5 from 8 panel reviews.\n\n## How to choose\n\n- Cost per successful request: Check whether failed and blocked requests are billed, because the list price per request can understate what each usable page costs an agent.\n- Success rate on protected sites: Ask for success rates on sites behind anti-bot checks, since a service that only handles open pages will fail on the targets an agent most often needs.\n- Output format and size cap: Confirm the output formats and the response size cap, because a page cut short at the cap can drop text an agent needs without any error.\n- Terms for reusing scraped output: Read the terms on storing, reusing and redistributing scraped output, since some services limit how long the agent may keep what it collects.\n\n## Each one in detail\n\n### 1. Apify MCP Server, BB 76.5/100\n\nExposes thousands of Apify Store Actors (scrapers, crawlers, automations) as dynamically discovered MCP tools, hosted at mcp.apify.com or run locally; supports OAuth, API tokens and agentic payments (x402 prepaid tokens, Skyfire).\n\n- Verdict: x402 on Apify's own domains, a prepaid token from agi.apify.com for any Actor and per-run payment on mcp.apify.com for Pay Per Event Actors. API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026.\n- Choose it for: Best when the job matches an existing Actor (Google Maps, social profiles, e-commerce, SERP) and the agent can wait seconds to minutes for a run.\n- Strength: x402 on Apify's own domains, a prepaid token from agi.apify.com for any Actor and per-run payment on mcp.apify.com for Pay Per Event Actors\n- Strength: 12 tools by default out of 35, `?tools=` to pick categories, and readOnly, destructive and idempotent hints on every tool\n- Strength: Scoped API tokens with expiry and a 24-hour rotation overlap, plus OAuth on the hosted server\n- Weakness: API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026\n- Weakness: No prompt-injection guidance for scraped content or third-party Actor READMEs\n- Weakness: Telemetry and Sentry on by default\n- Price: $1 / call · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: yes · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md\n\n### 2. Firecrawl MCP, BB 75.3/100\n\nOfficial Firecrawl server for scraping pages to markdown/JSON, mapping and crawling sites, web search, browser interaction, monitoring and an autonomous research agent.\n\n- Verdict: Keyless hosted endpoint with scrape, search and parse, plus OAuth and a search-only endpoint. No x402 or other machine payment.\n- Choose it for: Agents that need the whole pipeline (find URLs, scrape to markdown, crawl, monitor) from one server, and for trying without an account.\n- Strength: Keyless hosted endpoint with scrape, search and parse, plus OAuth and a search-only endpoint\n- Strength: Four incidents since July 2026, the longest 56 minutes\n- Strength: Rate limits published per plan and per endpoint\n- Weakness: No x402 or other machine payment\n- Weakness: No prompt-injection guidance for scraped pages outside retained Alexandria results\n- Weakness: 403 and 404 responses cost a credit\n- Price: $19 / mo · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: no · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/firecrawl-mcp.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md\n\n### 3. ZenRows, BB 74.8/100\n\nScraping API (Fetch, formerly Universal Scraper API) with JavaScript rendering, residential proxies and anti-bot bypass, plus Extract for structured JSON, Batch for bulk URL jobs and hosted Browser Sessions.\n\n- Verdict: No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page. The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string.\n- Choose it for: An agent hitting protected sites that wants the service to choose the setup and bill only success, and for agents that must onboard without a human.\n- Strength: No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page\n- Strength: 5,000 free credits a month with no card, and a stdio MCP that can provision a free account by itself\n- Strength: Every MCP tool carries readOnlyHint and destructiveHint, and the scrape tool says when to use extract instead\n- Weakness: The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string\n- Weakness: A protected request costs 25 credits, so real costs sit well above the headline rate\n- Weakness: 44 MCP tools load at once, 36 of them for the browser\n- Price: $19 / mo · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: partial · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows.md\n\n### 4. Spider, BB 74.1/100\n\nHosted crawl, scrape, search, links and screenshot API built on the open-source Rust spider crate, plus a cloud browser and proxy pool.\n\n- Verdict: Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account. Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy.\n- Choose it for: An agent that has to start without a human, pay per call, or crawl many small pages cheaply.\n- Strength: Keyless /scrape and working x402 v2 on every core route, so an agent needs no account\n- Strength: Metered by bytes and CPU, so small pages cost a fraction of a cent\n- Strength: Published rate limits with RateLimit and Retry-After headers\n- Weakness: Operated by BAGELMEN LLC with no address, retention periods or DPA in the privacy policy\n- Weakness: No security.txt, disclosure policy, certification or prompt-injection guidance found\n- Weakness: Invalid parameter values fall back silently instead of returning 400\n- Price: $0.0005 / call · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: yes · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-spider-cloud.md\n\n### 5. Zyte API, B 69.7/100\n\nZyte API is a hosted web scraping API from Zyte Group Limited of Cork, Ireland. One endpoint returns a page's HTTP body, browser-rendered HTML, a screenshot or extracted structured data, with ban avoidance handled by the service.\n\n- Verdict: One POST endpoint with an OpenAPI 3 contract picks proxies, browser rendering and extraction per site, bills only successful responses, and sends problem+json errors with Retry-After. Prices vary by target site across five tiers, so cost per request isn't known before the site is assigned one, and no dated API changelog was found.\n- Choose it for: An agent or pipeline that fetches protected pages and wants the service to choose proxy and browser per site and to bill only success, and teams already on Scrapy.\n- Strength: OpenAPI 3.0.3 contract for `/v1/extract` printed in the reference, with 51 enums and request examples, plus llms.txt and Markdown twins of the docs pages\n- Strength: Only successful responses are billed. Rate-limited, banned and failed requests are free, per the pricing page and the terms\n- Strength: 429, 503 and 520 responses carry `Retry-After`, and the docs publish a backoff table for each retry\n- Weakness: Request price depends on the target site's tier, from $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP requests and $1.01 to $16.08 with a browser on pay-as-you-go\n- Weakness: No dated changelog or deprecation policy for the API was found in the 150-page docs sitemap, and the terms allow changes with or without notice\n- Weakness: The terms let Zyte use Service Data, data feeds and code from the services for product development and product training\n- Price: $0.13 / 1k req · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: no · Where: hosted\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.md\n\n### 6. Scrapfly, B 69.6/100\n\nScrape API with datacenter or residential proxies, JS rendering and an anti-bot Unblocker, plus screenshot, LLM extraction, crawler and hosted Cloud Browser APIs on one credit balance.\n\n- Verdict: The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.\n- Choose it for: An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on.\n- Strength: Error catalogue of 100+ ERR:: codes, each with HTTP status, retryable and billed flags and a doc link\n- Strength: Hosted MCP with OAuth open to all plans, and API keys restrictable to products since 15 April 2026\n- Strength: MCP tools carry readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint, and mutating vault and alert tools need confirm=true\n- Weakness: The open-source MCP server registers 61 tools at once, a heavy tools/list\n- Weakness: The canonical API auth form and one MCP option put the key in the URL query string\n- Weakness: Status page shows an overall state only, with no components or incident history, and status.scrapfly.io doesn't resolve\n- Price: $30 / mo · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: no · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapfly.md\n\n### 7. ScrapeGraphAI, B 68.3/100\n\nLLM-oriented scraping API with page-to-markdown scrape, prompt-based JSON extraction, search, async crawl and change monitors.\n\n- Verdict: An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup. Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages.\n- Choose it for: LLM pipelines that want prompt-to-JSON extraction and for agents that must pay with a wallet.\n- Strength: An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup\n- Strength: Per-call x402 on all five product endpoints through Orthogonal's gateway\n- Strength: OpenAPI 3.1 with enums and documented 401, 402 and 429 responses\n- Weakness: Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages\n- Weakness: Privacy policy from March 2024 with no retention periods, DPA or LLM provider list\n- Weakness: One account key with no scopes, and delete tools beside read tools on the MCP server\n- Price: $20 / mo · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: partial · Where: hosted\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapegraphai.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapegraphai.md\n\n### 8. Olostep, B 63/100\n\nScrape, crawl, map, batch and search API that returns markdown, HTML, JSON or screenshots, with JS rendering and residential IPs on every request.\n\n- Verdict: OpenAPI 3.0.3 for every endpoint and a structured error body. The x402 challenge came back with no payment requirements in our probe.\n- Choose it for: Bulk scraping on a budget and for batch jobs of thousands of URLs.\n- Strength: OpenAPI 3.0.3 for every endpoint and a structured error body\n- Strength: 500 free successful requests with no card, $9 a month after that\n- Strength: x402 documented on scrapes, maps, answers and crawls at $0.01 to $0.05\n- Weakness: The x402 challenge came back with no payment requirements in our probe\n- Weakness: One dashboard key with no documented scopes, rotation or revocation\n- Weakness: No 429 or per-minute rate limits documented\n- Price: $9 / mo · Auth: API key · x402: partial · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/olostep.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-olostep.md\n\n### 9. Oxylabs Web Scraper API, B 63/100\n\nHosted scraping API from Oxylabs that fetches public pages through its proxy pool with optional JavaScript rendering and returns HTML, Markdown or parsed JSON, with dedicated sources for Google, Amazon and other large sites.\n\n- Verdict: Dedicated parsed sources, three integration methods and an official MCP server with four read-only scraping tools sit behind one username and password per instance. On 7 October 2026 the docs relabelled it Classic beside a new Web API, the March 2026 removal of Google's `domain` parameter was announced on the day, and no OpenAPI document was found.\n- Choose it for: Agents that need parsed Google, Amazon and other large-site results or bulk asynchronous jobs through one API.\n- Strength: Realtime, Push-Pull (batches of up to 5,000) and Proxy Endpoint integration, with Markdown output and parsed JSON for dedicated sources\n- Strength: Official MCP server, hosted at `mcp.oxylabs.io` or run locally, whose four scraping tools carry `readOnlyHint` and enumerated inputs\n- Strength: Results with 5xx or 6xx codes and 429 responses are not billed, and faulted jobs can be retried at no cost\n- Weakness: Google's `domain` parameter was announced as gone on 18 March 2026 with no earlier changelog notice, and MCP v0.9.3 still exposes it\n- Weakness: No OpenAPI document found. The contract is prose parameter tables and a Postman collection\n- Weakness: The docs relabelled the product Classic on 7 October 2026 and state no end date or migration plan\n- Price: $30 / mo · Auth: API key · x402: no · Where: hosted and local\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md\n\n### 10. Bright Data, C 59.8/100\n\nWeb Unlocker, SERP API, a hosted Browser API and residential proxies, with an official MCP server wrapping them.\n\n- Verdict: Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP. No public status page or incident history.\n- Choose it for: Hard targets and site-specific structured data (Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Maps) at volume.\n- Strength: Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP\n- Strength: 5,000 free requests a month with no card\n- Strength: Five tools by default out of 69, with groups for e-commerce, social, browser and more\n- Weakness: No public status page or incident history\n- Weakness: The default hosted MCP URL carries the key as `?token=`\n- Weakness: No prompt-injection guidance for scraped content\n- Price: $1.50 / 1k req · Auth: OAuth or key · x402: no · Where: hosted\n- Full assessment: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bright-data.md\n- Against #1: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-bright-data.md\n\n8 more are ranked in the full table: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/web-scrapers.md\n\n## Head to head\n\n- [Apify MCP Server vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)\n- [Apify MCP Server vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zenrows.md)\n- [Apify MCP Server vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-spider-cloud.md)\n- [Apify MCP Server vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.md)\n- [Firecrawl MCP vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-zenrows.md)\n- [Firecrawl MCP vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-spider-cloud.md)\n- [Spider vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zenrows.md)\n- [ZenRows vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zenrows-vs-zyte.md)\n- [Spider vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/spider-cloud-vs-zyte.md)\n\n## Questions\n\n### What are the highest-rated web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents?\n\nApify MCP Server has the highest benchmark score of the 18 ranked web scraping and crawling APIs, 76.5 (BB). Firecrawl MCP is second with 75.3 (BB).\n\n### How many web scraping and crawling APIs are agent-ready?\n\n4 of the 18 ranked here grade BB or better, the bar for agent-ready on the Anchor benchmark.\n\n### Which web scraping and crawling APIs accept x402 payments?\n\nApify MCP Server and Spider. An agent can pay these per call in USDC with no account.\n\n### Which of these web scraping and crawling APIs is cheapest?\n\nBy published paid prices, Zyte API, at $0.06 per 1,000 requests, the lowest of the 14 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside). Plans, volume tiers and free allowances change the sum, so check the listing's price table.\n\n### How is this list ranked?\n\nBy the Anchor benchmark score out of 100, a weighted mean of the scored categories minus deductions for negative events, from public evidence re-checked as vendors change. Listings cannot pay for a place. The latest assessment behind this page is from 9 October 2026.\n\n## How this list is made\n\nThe order is the Anchor benchmark score, the same number as on each listing. Each listing is graded from public evidence against the benchmark checklist, and the picks are worked out from those grades, prices and facts. No listing pays for its place, and paid audits or listing help never change a score.\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-10", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Best of", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/" }, { "name": "Web scraping \u0026 crawling", "url": "" } ], "description": "Apify MCP Server (BB), Firecrawl MCP (BB) and ZenRows (BB) lead the 18 ranked web scraping and crawling APIs. Picks by need, strengths, weaknesses and prices from the Anchor benchmark.", "facts": [ "Apify MCP Server BB", "Firecrawl MCP BB", "ZenRows BB" ], "h1": "Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/best-web-scrapers.png", "path": "/best/web-scrapers/", "published": "", "section": "tools", "title": "Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents in 2026, ranked", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 5400, "slim": 1380 }, "version": 1 }