# Diffbot vs ScraperAPI

> Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) to ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D) for extraction. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do extraction.

- Diffbot: grade C, 54.3/100, rank #687 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/diffbot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/diffbot.json
- ScraperAPI: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #739 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scraperapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scraperapi.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Diffbot (C)

Good for: Agents that want typed article, product or discussion data from arbitrary pages without writing selectors, and teams that also want the Knowledge Graph.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 67
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 54

Watch for: The token is sent as the `token` query parameter on Extract and Knowledge Graph calls. It is the only scheme in the OpenAPI file

### ScraperAPI (D)

Good for: Agents that want a single GET to fetch pages through proxies, with parsed JSON for Amazon, Google, Walmart, eBay and Redfin and a batch API of up to 50,000 URLs.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 63
- Security & auth, 29 against 21

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No status page is linked from the home, pricing, support or docs pages, although the pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Diffbot | ScraperAPI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 45 | Diffbot +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 67 | Diffbot +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 74 | ScraperAPI +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 21 | 29 | ScraperAPI +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 61 | ScraperAPI +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 54 | Diffbot +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.3 · C** | **52.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Diffbot | ScraperAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Diffbot Technologies Corp. | ScraperAPI (saas.group) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.diffbot.com/v3` | `https://api.scraperapi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for extraction | $0.90 per 1,000 pages | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Diffbot's Terms of Use. The Python client, the TypeScript client and the agent skills are MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-15 | 2026-08-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-29 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 9 npm/wk, 45 PyPI/wk | 5 stars |

## Verdicts

**Diffbot.** Extract returns typed JSON for articles, products, discussions and other page types with no selectors to write, under a public OpenAPI 3.1 contract and a free plan that needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string, tokens carry no scopes, and no security page, certification or security.txt was found.

**ScraperAPI.** One GET request with a key and a URL returns a page, and the MCP server's 28 tools carry read-only and destructive hints. No status page, OpenAPI file, security.txt or certification was found, and the documented default puts the API key in the URL query string.

## Before you call either

### Diffbot

1. Call `GET https://api.diffbot.com/v3/analyze?url=<encoded URL>&token=<token>` when the page type is unknown. Use `/v3/article` or `/v3/product` to force one schema
2. Keep the token out of logs and shared URLs. It sits in the query string, so any proxy or log that records the request URL records the token
3. Stay under 5 calls a minute on Free, 5 a second on Startup and 25 a second on Plus. On 429 wait at least one second and back off
4. Check a 200 response for `errorCode`. The official client raises `ExtractionError` when a 200 reports a failed extraction
5. Set `useProxy=default` only when a site blocks the fetch. A proxied page costs 2 credits against 1
6. Install `diffbot` from PyPI, not `diffbot-python`, which stopped at 0.3.0

### ScraperAPI

1. Set the client timeout to 70 seconds. The API retries for that long before it returns 500, and a request cancelled earlier is still charged
2. Send the key as the `x-sapi-api_key` header to keep it out of URLs and logs
3. Pass `max_cost` on each request, or call `/account/urlcost` first, because domain and anti-bot surcharges vary from 1 to 75 credits
4. Use `output_format=markdown` or `text` to cut response size, and `autoparse=true` only on supported domains
5. On 429 reduce concurrency to the plan limit (5 on Free, 20 on Hobby). The request is rejected, not queued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Diffbot or ScraperAPI?

Diffbot scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

### Do Diffbot and ScraperAPI need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Diffbot and ScraperAPI without installing anything?

Yes. Diffbot has a hosted endpoint at https://api.diffbot.com/v3 and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "diffbot", "b": "scraperapi"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare diffbot scraperapi`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/diffbot.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scraperapi.json

## Other comparisons with Diffbot or ScraperAPI

- [Bright Data vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-diffbot.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Diffbot vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Olostep vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zyte.md)
- [Diffbot vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Diffbot vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-olostep.md)
- [Diffbot vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Diffbot vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Diffbot vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Diffbot vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-zyte.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Diffbot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-diffbot.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)