# Apify MCP Server vs Zyte API

> Apify scores 76.5 (BB) to Zyte's 69.7 (B) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Zyte API's 69.7 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zyte API leads on reliability. Both do scraping. Apify MCP Server accepts x402. Zyte API doesn't.

- Apify MCP Server: grade BB, 76.5/100, rank #28 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apify-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apify-mcp.json
- Zyte API: grade B, 69.7/100, rank #175 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zyte.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Apify MCP Server (BB)

Good 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.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 85
- Agent ergonomics, 92 against 72
- Security & auth, 62 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 95 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 95 against 77
- Transparency & trust, 86 against 66

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: API and Actor runs timed out for about 12 hours on 21 and 22 July 2026

### Zyte API (B)

Good 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.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 65

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Apify MCP Server loses 5 points for them

Watch for: 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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Apify MCP Server | Zyte API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 85 | Zyte API +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 85 | Apify MCP Server +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 72 | Apify MCP Server +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 55 | Apify MCP Server +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 95 | 40 | Apify MCP Server +55 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 95 | 77 | Apify MCP Server +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 66 | Apify MCP Server +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **76.5 · BB** | **69.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Apify MCP Server | Zyte API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Apify | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.apify.com` | `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | yes, from $1/call | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Zyte's terms of service. The Python client is BSD 3-Clause, and the Agentic Web Data plugin is under Zyte's own end-user licence |
| Tools exposed | 35 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.apify/apify-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-09 | 2024-08-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 8.6k stars, 15k npm/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**Apify MCP Server.** 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.

**Zyte API.** 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.

## Before you call either

### Apify MCP Server

1. Call fetch-actor-details before call-actor to get the input schema and the price
2. Use apify--web-fetch for one known URL and apify--rag-web-browser for search and read
3. Read results with get-dataset-items and set `fields` and `limit`. The default is 20 rows
4. Buy an AGI token for anything that isn't a Pay Per Event Actor, since direct `?payment=x402` refuses the rest. Tokens last 14 days and unused balance isn't refunded
5. Ask for `get-actor-run-log`, not `get-actor-log`. The old name is ignored without an error

### Zyte API

1. Send the API key as the Basic auth username with an empty password to `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract`. Set only one of `httpResponseBody` or `browserHtml`, or one extraction field
2. Ask for `httpResponseBody` before `browserHtml`. Browser requests cost about eight to thirteen times more per tier
3. Retry 429, 503 and 520 after the `Retry-After` seconds, with backoff. They aren't billed. Don't retry 400, 401, 422 or 451
4. Read `statusCode` in a 200 response. A target site's 404 comes back as a successful, billed Zyte API response
5. Have the owner set a blocking spending limit on the key you use. A 403 `/auth/account-suspended` means the limit or the trial month ended

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Apify MCP Server or Zyte API?

Apify MCP Server scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Zyte API's 69.7 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zyte API leads on reliability.

### Do Apify MCP Server and Zyte API need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Apify MCP Server per call over x402, with no account.

### Can an agent call Apify MCP Server and Zyte API without installing anything?

Yes. Apify MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.apify.com and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.

### Are Apify MCP Server and Zyte API open source?

Apify MCP Server is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Zyte API.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-zyte.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "apify-mcp", "b": "zyte"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare apify-mcp zyte`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apify-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zyte.json

## Other comparisons with Apify MCP Server or Zyte API

- [Apify MCP Server vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
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