# Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs Scrapingdog

> Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), 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-scrapingdog
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingdog.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingdog.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapingdog.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 Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), 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
- Scrapingdog: grade E, 39.2/100, rank #810 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingdog.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 62
- Schema & documentation, 68 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 44
- Security & auth, 53 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 45
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 55

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

### Scrapingdog (E)

Good for: A budget agent that wants parsed Google, Amazon or LinkedIn results and can keep the key out of logs.

Watch for: API key only travels in the URL query string


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | Scrapingdog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 62 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +18 |
| 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 | 44 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +35 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 5 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +48 |
| 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 | 45 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 55 | Oxylabs Web Scraper API +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **63 · B** | **39.2 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | Scrapingdog |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | oxylabs, UAB | Scrapingdog (OpenData Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries` | `https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| 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 | 35 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.oxylabs/oxylabs-mcp` | `io.github.Darshan972/scrapingdog-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-07 | 2026-07-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-05 | 2026-01-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-10-14 | 2025-07-17 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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 | 0 stars, 41 npm/wk, 12 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (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.

**Scrapingdog.** A plain request is 1 credit, about $0.20 per 1,000 on Lite. API key only travels in the URL query string.

## 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

### Scrapingdog

1. Add dynamic=false unless the page needs JavaScript. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1, whatever the MCP description says
2. Keep request URLs out of logs, since they carry api_key
3. Set client timeouts above 60 seconds and retry on 429 or timeout. Failures aren't billed
4. Prefer the parsed endpoints (Google, Amazon) over scraping the raw page when one exists

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Oxylabs Web Scraper API or Scrapingdog?

Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapingdog's 39.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Oxylabs Web Scraper API has a hosted endpoint at https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries and Scrapingdog at https://api.scrapingdog.com/scrape.


## For agents

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

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