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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Context.dev vs Scrapeless

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Scrapeless leads on reliability. Both do scraping.

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

Context.devContext Dev Inc. · HTTP API A78.2/100#15 of 1084 ScrapelessScrapeless (NST Labs Tech) · HTTP API C54.1/100#740 of 1084

Which one, for what

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

  • Schema & documentation, 96 against 66
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 50
  • Security & auth, 83 against 35
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 35
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 53

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

Scrapeless C

Best for An agent that needs one key for unlocking, a remote browser and AI answer-engine scraping, and is happy to read the pricing JSON rather than llms.txt.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 67

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runContext.devScrapelessEdge
Reliability16%206775Scrapeless +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29666Context.dev +30
Agent ergonomics13%16.29050Context.dev +40
Security & auth14%17.58335Context.dev +48
Payments & pricing10%12.55035Context.dev +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88581Context.dev +4
Transparency & trust7%8.87353Context.dev +20
Negative events≤150-2
TotalA 78.2/100C 54.1/100

Facts side by side

FactContext.devScrapeless
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorContext Dev Inc.Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.context.dev/v1https://api.scrapeless.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for scraping$0.79 per 1,000 pagesnot published
x402nono
LicencenoneMIT
Tools exposed4225
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server
Last release2026-10-142026-09-16
Terms last updated2026-10-01no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-01no date given
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity5 stars, 62k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Scrapeless

Hosted streamable HTTP MCP at api.scrapeless.com/mcp with header auth, plus a stdio package, both in the official MCP registry. llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search.

Before you call either

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

Scrapeless

  1. Use scrape_markdown for reading pages and save the browser_* tools for clicks and logins, since browser time bills by the hour
  2. Call browser_close when done so the session and its billing stop
  3. Set limit on crawl_start. Unset, it defaults to 10,000 pages
  4. Crawls are asynchronous. Call crawl_start, then poll crawl_result with the returned id
  5. Set SCRAPELESS_API_KEY for the stdio server. Older guides use SCRAPELESS_KEY, which still works as a fallback

Questions

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

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Scrapeless leads on reliability.

Do Context.dev and Scrapeless need an API key?

Context.dev takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Scrapeless needs an API key.

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

Yes. Context.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.context.dev/v1 and Scrapeless at https://api.scrapeless.com.

Other comparisons with Context.dev or Scrapeless

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