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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Context.dev vs Scrapfly

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Scrapfly's 69.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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 ScrapflyScrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC) · HTTP API B69.6/100#183 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

  • Reliability, 67 against 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 80
  • Security & auth, 83 against 70
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40

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

Scrapfly B

Best for An agent that needs scrape, screenshot, extraction, crawl and a hosted browser from one key, with errors it can branch on.

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

The open-source MCP server registers 61 tools at once, a heavy tools/list

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runContext.devScrapflyEdge
Reliability16%206750Context.dev +17
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29695Context.dev +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.29080Context.dev +10
Security & auth14%17.58370Context.dev +13
Payments & pricing10%12.55040Context.dev +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88584Context.dev +1
Transparency & trust7%8.87375Scrapfly +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalA 78.2/100B 69.6/100

Facts side by side

FactContext.devScrapfly
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorContext Dev Inc.Scrapfly (Joam Intelligence, LLC)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.context.dev/v1https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for scraping$0.79 per 1,000 pagesnot published
x402nono
Tools exposed4261
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.scrapfly.mcp/mcp
Last release2026-10-142026-09-08
Terms last updated2026-10-012026-09-30
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012026-05-14
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity5 stars, 62k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk14 stars, 21k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone4/5 (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.

Scrapfly

The error catalogue documents HTTP status, retry behaviour and billing for over 100 codes. The MCP server loads 61 tools at once.

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

Scrapfly

  1. Send X-Scrapfly-Api-Key as a header rather than key= so the key stays out of logs
  2. Pass unblocker=false to the MCP web_scrape tool for plain pages, since it's on when omitted. asp is the deprecated alias
  3. Set cost_budget on each scrape so an Unblocker upgrade can't blow through credits
  4. Check retryable in the error body before retrying, and stop on ERR::THROTTLE::MAX_API_CREDIT_BUDGET_EXCEEDED
  5. Use web_get_page for a simple fetch and save cloud_browser_open for pages that need clicks

Questions

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

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against Scrapfly's 69.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Context.dev and Scrapfly need an API key?

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

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

Yes. Context.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.context.dev/v1 and Scrapfly at https://api.scrapfly.io/scrape.

Other comparisons with Context.dev or Scrapfly

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