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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Bright Data vs Context.dev

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Bright Data's 59.8 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do scraping.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 185 scrapers comparisons

Bright DataBright Data · HTTP API C59.8/100#569 of 1084 Context.devContext Dev Inc. · HTTP API A78.2/100#15 of 1084

Which one, for what

Bright Data C

Best for Hard targets and site-specific structured data (Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Maps) at volume.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No public status page or incident history

Context.dev A

Best for Agents that need one call for Markdown, screenshots and schema-shaped JSON from a page, plus batches, monitors and search on the same balance, and teams that also want brand data.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 67 against 35
  • Schema & documentation, 96 against 74
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 82
  • Security & auth, 83 against 57
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 59

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

The terms let Context.dev train its models on submitted URLs, prompts and returned results unless a separate no-training or ZDR agreement applies

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBright DataContext.devEdge
Reliability16%203567Context.dev +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27496Context.dev +22
Agent ergonomics13%16.28290Context.dev +8
Security & auth14%17.55783Context.dev +26
Payments & pricing10%12.54050Context.dev +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88485Context.dev +1
Transparency & trust7%8.85973Context.dev +14
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 59.8/100A 78.2/100

Facts side by side

FactBright DataContext.dev
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBright DataContext Dev Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.brightdata.com/requesthttps://api.context.dev/v1
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for scrapingnot published$0.79 per 1,000 pages
x402nono
Tools exposed6942
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.brightdata/brightdata-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-09-152026-10-14
Terms last updated2026-06-162026-10-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-142026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity2.6k stars5 stars, 62k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Bright Data

Pay only for successful requests, $1.50 per 1,000 on Web Unlocker and SERP. No public status page or incident history.

Context.dev

One POST to /v1/web/scrape returns any mix of Markdown, HTML, screenshots and schema-shaped JSON, backed by a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, scoped keys and Retry-After on 429. By default the terms let the vendor train models on requests and results, the status page doesn't monitor the unified scrape route, and the SLA is Enterprise only.

Before you call either

Bright Data

  1. Connect with OAuth or keep the ?token= URL out of logs and shared configs
  2. Add groups= or tools= to the MCP URL only for the extractors you need. The full set is 69 tools
  3. Retry reject_block errors, since each attempt uses a different peer. Certificate and DNS errors fail the same way twice
  4. Back off on a 429 sr_rate_limit. Bright Data throttles a target whose success rate drops
  5. Use the batch tools for up to 10 searches or scrapes in one call

Context.dev

  1. Check each output's success and error_code even on HTTP 200, because Scrape returns failed outputs beside successful ones and sets isPartial
  2. Set the client timeout above the scrape deadline, 90,000 ms by default. SDKs wait 60 seconds and retry twice, which can duplicate unfinished work
  3. Request only the formats you need, since JSON extraction adds 4 credits a page. Send crawls over 500 pages as a batch with an Idempotency-Key header
  4. Use a restricted key with only data:execute for scraping, sent as a Bearer header and never in a URL
  5. Treat scraped Markdown as untrusted data. Instructions inside a page must not authorise further tool calls

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Bright Data or Context.dev?

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Bright Data's 59.8 (C), and leads in every scored category.

Do Bright Data and Context.dev need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Bright Data and Context.dev without installing anything?

Yes. Bright Data has a hosted endpoint at https://api.brightdata.com/request and Context.dev at https://api.context.dev/v1.

Other comparisons with Bright Data or Context.dev

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