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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Context.dev vs ScrapingBee

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against ScrapingBee's 59.2 (C), and leads in 5 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 ScrapingBeeScrapingBee (Oxylabs group) · HTTP API C59.2/100#590 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 60
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 68
  • Security & auth, 83 against 37
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 63

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

ScrapingBee C

Best for Agents that mix general scraping with ready-made Google, Amazon and YouTube endpoints and want spend capped per call.

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

Watch for

remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runContext.devScrapingBeeEdge
Reliability16%206770ScrapingBee +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29660Context.dev +36
Agent ergonomics13%16.29068Context.dev +22
Security & auth14%17.58337Context.dev +46
Payments & pricing10%12.55040Context.dev +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88585even
Transparency & trust7%8.87363Context.dev +10
Negative events≤1500
TotalA 78.2/100C 59.2/100

Facts side by side

FactContext.devScrapingBee
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorContext Dev Inc.ScrapingBee (Oxylabs group)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.context.dev/v1https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPaid
Price for scraping$0.79 per 1,000 pagesnot published
x402nono
Tools exposed4218
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-142026-09-11
Terms last updated2026-10-012024-07-15
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012024-07-15
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 noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity5 stars, 62k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk132 stars, 49k npm/wk, 72k PyPI/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.

ScrapingBee

Dedicated Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini endpoints next to the general HTML API. remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL.

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

ScrapingBee

  1. Send render_js=false for static pages and files. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1
  2. Use mode=auto with max_cost=25 to stop it escalating to 75-credit stealth requests
  3. Keep the MCP URL with ?api_key= out of logs and shared configs
  4. Back off exponentially on 429 from the MCP, since its concurrency is shared across customers
  5. Expect 404 and 410 from the target to be billed. Other failures aren't

Questions

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

Context.dev scores 78.2 (A) on agent readiness against ScrapingBee's 59.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Context.dev and ScrapingBee need an API key?

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

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

Yes. Context.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.context.dev/v1 and ScrapingBee at https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/.

Other comparisons with Context.dev or ScrapingBee

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