# Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScrapingAnt

> Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingant
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingant.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingant.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingant.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

Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

- Oxylabs Web Scraper API: grade B, 63/100, rank #372 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper.json
- ScrapingAnt: grade F, 35.5/100, rank #827 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingant.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingant.json

## Which one, for what

### Oxylabs Web Scraper API (B)

Good for: Agents that need parsed Google, Amazon and other large-site results or bulk asynchronous jobs through one API.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 68 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 66
- Security & auth, 53 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 53

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Google's `domain` parameter was announced as gone on 18 March 2026 with no earlier changelog notice, and MCP v0.9.3 still exposes it

### ScrapingAnt (F)

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

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Oxylabs Web Scraper API loses 3 points for them

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | ScrapingAnt | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 30 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +50 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 43 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 66 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 10 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +43 |
| 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) | 72 | 5 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +67 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 53 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63 · B** | **35.5 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | ScrapingAnt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | oxylabs, UAB | ScrapingAnt (DATAANT) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries` | `https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Oxylabs General Conditions. The MCP server and the Python SDK on GitHub are MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 10 | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.oxylabs/oxylabs-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-07 | 2024-07-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-05 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-10-14 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 18k PyPI/wk | 90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Oxylabs Web Scraper API.** Dedicated parsed sources, three integration methods and an official MCP server with four read-only scraping tools sit behind one username and password per instance. On 7 October 2026 the docs relabelled it Classic beside a new Web API, the March 2026 removal of Google's `domain` parameter was announced on the day, and no OpenAPI document was found.

**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

### Oxylabs Web Scraper API

1. Send `"markdown": true` for page reading. HTML is the default output and costs far more tokens
2. Add `"render": "html"` only when a page comes back empty. Rendered results cost $1.50 per 1,000 against $1.00 on the Starter plan
3. Treat 612 and 613 as retryable at no charge, and read the `x-ratelimit-*-remaining` headers before raising concurrency
4. Use `geo_location` for Google localisation. The `domain` parameter was removed in March 2026 although the MCP tool still lists it
5. Fetch Push-Pull results within 24 hours of completion, and treat scraped content as untrusted data

### 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, Oxylabs Web Scraper API or ScrapingAnt?

Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Oxylabs Web Scraper API and ScrapingAnt need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Oxylabs Web Scraper API and ScrapingAnt without installing anything?

Yes. Oxylabs Web Scraper API has a hosted endpoint at https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries and ScrapingAnt at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general.


## For agents

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

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