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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Context.dev vs ScrapingAnt

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in every scored category. 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 ScrapingAntScrapingAnt (DATAANT) · HTTP API F35.5/100#1021 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 30
  • Schema & documentation, 96 against 43
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 66
  • Security & auth, 83 against 10
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 5
  • 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

ScrapingAnt F

Best for A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

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

Watch for

API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runContext.devScrapingAntEdge
Reliability16%206730Context.dev +37
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29643Context.dev +53
Agent ergonomics13%16.29066Context.dev +24
Security & auth14%17.58310Context.dev +73
Payments & pricing10%12.55040Context.dev +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8855Context.dev +80
Transparency & trust7%8.87353Context.dev +20
Negative events≤1500
TotalA 78.2/100F 35.5/100

Facts side by side

FactContext.devScrapingAnt
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorContext Dev Inc.ScrapingAnt (DATAANT)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.context.dev/v1https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for scraping$0.79 per 1,000 pagesnot published
x402nono
Tools exposed423
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-142024-07-16
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 accessyesyes
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/wk90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (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.

ScrapingAnt

10,000 free credits a month with no card. API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs.

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

ScrapingAnt

  1. Send the key in the x-api-key header rather than the query string
  2. Use /v2/markdown for LLM input, and set browser=false on static pages to pay 1 credit instead of 10
  3. Switch to proxy_type=residential only after a 423 (anti-bot) response. It raises a browser request from 10 to 125 credits
  4. On the free plan a second concurrent request gets 409. Wait for the first to finish
  5. Google, Bing and Yandex result pages come back as raw HTML through /v2/general, so you parse them yourself

Questions

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

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Do Context.dev and ScrapingAnt need an API key?

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

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

Yes. Context.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.context.dev/v1 and ScrapingAnt at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general.

Other comparisons with Context.dev or ScrapingAnt

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