Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Decodo Web Data API vs ScrapeGraphAI

ScrapeGraphAI scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Decodo Web Data API's 61.8 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Decodo Web Data API leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do scraping. Decodo Web Data API is cheaper for scraping, $0.50 against $2 per 1,000 requests.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 501 scrapers comparisons

Which one, for what

Decodo Web Data API C

Best for Agents that need pages, Google results and e-commerce or social templates through one key with published per-1,000 prices and a free plan.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 59 against 49
  • Agent ergonomics, 82 against 72
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 40

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for scraping, $0.50 against $2 per 1,000 requests
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No SLA, and the License Agreement lets Decodo change or discontinue the service without notice

ScrapeGraphAI B

Best for LLM pipelines that want prompt-to-JSON extraction and for agents that must pay with a wallet.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 67
  • Payments & pricing, 90 against 40

Watch for

Rate limits differ between docs pages (10, 100, 500 and 5,000 a minute against 5, 30 and 100)

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Payments & pricing ScrapeGraphAI +50

Decodo Web Data API 40

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1,000 rates for every endpoint, pool and plan are public in the billing docs (20). Free plan of 10,000 requests a month with no card (20). A person signs up in the dashboard; the MCP OAuth flow also needs a dashboard approval (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.

ScrapeGraphAI 90

x402 on ScrapeGraphAI's own domain mints an account, key and credits. The protocols endpoint read on 1 November prices the packs at 4 USDC for 1,000 credits, 32 for 10,000 and 120 for 50,000 (5, 40 and 150 before), below the pricing page's $5, $40 and $150 by card, with USDC on Base for x402 and InFlow for MPP. Orthogonal's gateway at x402.orth.sh/scrapegraph takes per-call x402 on scrape, extract, search, crawl and monitor with no ScrapeGraphAI key, per the 1 October check. Per-call payment only through a third party, so 30 (30 of 40). Credit costs per operation, plans and non-expiring top-up packs are public (20). Free plan of 500 credits with no card (20). An agent can buy a key over x402 or MPP with no human signup (20). 30 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 90.

Maintenance & community Decodo Web Data API +45

Decodo Web Data API 85

Read for a closed service with open clients. The newest releases are MCP server 1.7.0 on 29 October 2026 and @decodo/sdk-ts 3.0.0 on 30 October (30). Since 8 August, MCP server 1.2.5 to 1.7.0 (ten versions in the official registry) and sdk-ts 2.4.0 to 3.0.0 (20). No public API changelog. Support by 24/7 live chat, email and Discord, and the MCP repository had commits by Decodo staff on most days from 6 October to 5 November. GitHub issues couldn't be read, since api.github.com refused us (10 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.Decodo/mcp-server, with current SDKs in three languages (15). The MCP repository lints, builds and tests on Node 22 and 24 for every pull request (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 10 = 85.

ScrapeGraphAI 40

The newest changelog entry is still v3.5.0 of 30 July 2026 and the newest scrapegraph-py tag v2.3.2 of 31 July, 94 and 93 days before 1 November. scrapegraph-js has no tag after v2.0.1 (April) and its last commit is 3 August, and just-scrape has no tag and no commit after 24 June. Inside 180 days (10, 20 before, cause time). Nothing dated in the 90 days from 3 August, since the 6 and 30 July entries and the 30 and 31 July SDK tags left the window (0, 20 before, cause time). Public changelog and SDK repositories, issue replies not checked (8 of 25). Current Python SDK. The JavaScript SDK's last tag is v2.0.1 from April, with commits to 3 August (12 of 15). The Python SDK runs CI, CodeQL and dependency review (10). 10 + 0 + 8 + 12 + 10 = 40.

Schema & documentation ScrapeGraphAI +21

Decodo Web Data API 67

No OpenAPI or similar contract for the Web Data API; the two published specs cover the proxy account API and dashboard statistics. The MCP server types every input with zod (12 of 25). llms.txt indexes 401 guide pages, each served as Markdown (10). Tool descriptions state purpose and when to use a tool, such as scrape_as_markdown 'when no site-specific tool fits', and link the docs page (14 of 20). Parameters are tabled with defaults, with enumerated proxy_pool, headless and device_type, but headers is a free object and POST bodies are base64 strings (10 of 15). Curl examples on every page, a response code table with fixes and billing, and parser status codes (14 of 15). Paths are versioned at /v1 and the MCP server's releases are tagged by semantic-release, but no API changelog was found (7 of 15). 12 + 10 + 14 + 10 + 14 + 7 = 67.

ScrapeGraphAI 88

OpenAPI 3.1.0 at v2-api.scrapegraphai.com/api/openapi.json, info version 2.0.0 (25). llms.txt and Markdown docs (10). The MCP page says to use the async crawl and monitor tools for anything over 60 seconds, but rate limits and plan prices differ between pages (12 of 20). Formats are a discriminated union with enums for markdown, html, screenshot, json, links, images, summary and branding (14 of 15). Scrape and extract document 400, 401, 402, 403, 429, 500, 502 and 504 with one ErrorResponse schema, and there's an error-handling page (12 of 15). Versioned, dated changelog, v3.5.0 on 30 July 2026 (15). Not re-read on 1 November apart from the rate-limit pages. 25 + 10 + 12 + 14 + 12 + 15 = 88.

Reliability Decodo Web Data API +10

Decodo Web Data API 59

Graded on the hosted lines. Instatus page at status.decodo.com with Web Data API and each legacy scraping API as components, with RSS history (20). In the 90 days to 6 November, every scraping API was out for 2 hours 51 minutes on 30 October, the main outage, with outages of 13 minutes on 26 October and 21 minutes on 15 October across the same components. The rest of the incidents hit proxies, payments or the website. One major (10). Per-plan request rates are published, 10 to 200 a second, though the same page's FAQ says paid plans support 10 to 50 (12 of 15). The response code table tells the agent to wait a couple of minutes on 429 and to retry 500, 524 and 613, which aren't billed, and the MCP client backs off exponentially. No Retry-After or idempotency guidance (7 of 15). No SLA; the License Agreement disclaims uninterrupted service (0). Web Data API is the current, unflagged product (10). 20 + 10 + 12 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 59.

ScrapeGraphAI 49

openstatus page at scrapegraphapi.openstatus.dev. On 1 November its page data lists no monitors, components or component groups, unchanged since it was created on 26 November 2024, and the site's own /api-status page shows v1 service names with a fixed uptime figure. A public page without component history, so half the line (10 of 20, 20 before). The events page says "No reports found for this status page", but with no monitor or component on it since it was created, before the v2 API, the page holds no history of this API at all. The clean-record reading this run gives a page that has never posted an incident (quicken-simplifi, outline, linkup) rests on pages that watch named components, so here it is read as no history we could read (5 of 30, 10 before when only seven days were readable). Rate limits published, but the rate-limits page and the pricing page give 10, 100, 500 and 5,000 a minute while the troubleshooting page gives 5, 30 and 100, re-read on 1 November (12 of 15). 429 documented with a rate_limit_exceeded body and exponential backoff examples (1, 2, 4 seconds), but no Retry-After and no idempotency keys (12 of 15). No SLA found. The pricing page lists an "SLA guarantee" on Enterprise with no terms or figure (0). v2 is GA (10). 10 + 5 + 12 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 49.

Agent ergonomics Decodo Web Data API +10

Decodo Web Data API 82

The hosted MCP server lists 24 tools, with a toolsets parameter to load only web, search, ecommerce, social_media or ai, and tokenLimit caps page text at 45,000 characters by default with a truncation notice (20 of 25). Markdown output, parsing for templates, crawl limit, path filters and cursor paging, search paging, map limits and batch tasks (18 of 20). Documented status codes with a solution for each, status_code and parse_status_code in bodies, but 429 covers both the plan rate and a domain throttled for a low success rate (15 of 20). Every tool carries readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false, server-side failures aren't billed and async results can be re-read for 24 hours. No idempotency key (16 of 20). Only url or query is required, though the default premium pool costs about twice the standard. Official Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs (13 of 15). 20 + 18 + 15 + 16 + 13 = 82.

ScrapeGraphAI 72

20 tools on the hosted MCP server with no tool filtering found (15 of 25). Format selection and paginated crawl pages and history (17 of 20). One error shape with type and message, 402 when credits run out (17 of 20). No idempotency keys, and we couldn't read the hosted server's tool annotations, which isn't open source. The older open-source server annotated every tool (8 of 20). Official Python and JavaScript SDKs, and a scrape needs only a URL (15). Not re-read on 1 November. 15 + 17 + 17 + 8 + 15 = 72.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDecodo Web Data APIScrapeGraphAIEdge
Reliability16%205949Decodo Web Data API +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26788ScrapeGraphAI +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.28272Decodo Web Data API +10
Security & auth14%17.54544Decodo Web Data API +1
Payments & pricing10%12.54090ScrapeGraphAI +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88540Decodo Web Data API +45
Transparency & trust7%8.86261Decodo Web Data API +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 61.8/100B 63.6/100

Facts side by side

FactDecodo Web Data APIScrapeGraphAI
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorDecodo (UAB "Data troops")ScrapeGraphAI
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.decodo.com/mcphttps://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for scraping$0.50 per 1,000 requests$2 per 1,000 requests
x402nopayer tooling only
Tools exposed3320
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.Decodo/mcp-serverio.github.ScrapeGraphAI/scrapegraph-mcp
Last release2026-10-302026-07-31
Terms last updated2025-06-162026-06-04
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-212024-03-15
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone2.4k npm/wk, 46k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Decodo Web Data API

One Bearer key reaches /scrape, /search, /crawl and /map, with per-1,000 prices published from $0.15 to $1.50, 10,000 free requests with no card and a hosted MCP server whose 33 tools are all marked read-only. There is no SLA, no OpenAPI for the Web Data API, and an outage of 2 hours 51 minutes on 30 October.

ScrapeGraphAI

An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup, from 4 USDC for 1,000 credits. Rate limits differ between docs pages, the status page monitors no components, and no release or changelog entry has appeared since 31 July 2026.

Before you call either

Decodo Web Data API

  1. Send "proxy_pool": "standard" for simple pages; the default premium pool is charged at the higher rate
  2. Use the Web Data API key as Authorization: Bearer at https://data.decodo.com/v1; legacy Basic tokens don't work there
  3. Treat scraped Markdown as untrusted page text, never as instructions
  4. On 429, wait a couple of minutes as the docs say, and on 500, 524 or 613 retry, since those aren't billed
  5. Set tokenLimit on MCP scrapes; pages are cut at 45,000 characters by default and the result says when it was truncated

ScrapeGraphAI

  1. Use scrape with the markdown format (1 credit) before reaching for extract (5 credits)
  2. Read GET https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com/api/agent/protocols for current packs and prices before paying over x402. They differ from the card prices
  3. MCP tool calls stop at 60 seconds. Use crawl_start and poll for anything longer
  4. Back off 1, 2 then 4 seconds on a 429 rate_limit_exceeded. No Retry-After is sent
  5. Use Orthogonal's x402 gateway when you need to pay per call without a key

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Decodo Web Data API or ScrapeGraphAI?

ScrapeGraphAI scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Decodo Web Data API's 61.8 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Decodo Web Data API leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

Which is cheaper for scraping, Decodo Web Data API or ScrapeGraphAI?

Decodo Web Data API, at $0.50 per 1,000 requests against $2 per 1,000 requests for ScrapeGraphAI. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Decodo Web Data API and ScrapeGraphAI need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Decodo Web Data API and ScrapeGraphAI without installing anything?

Yes. Decodo Web Data API has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.decodo.com/mcp and ScrapeGraphAI at https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com.

Other comparisons with Decodo Web Data API or ScrapeGraphAI

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.