# Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs WebScraping.AI (slim)

> Oxylabs Web Scraper scores 62.9 (B) to WebScraping.AI's 61.4 (C) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-webscraping-ai.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~3,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-webscraping-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-webscraping-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Oxylabs Web Scraper API scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against WebScraping.AI's 61.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. WebScraping.AI leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do scraping.

- Oxylabs Web Scraper API: B 62.9, rank #537 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/oxylabs-web-scraper.min.md
- WebScraping.AI: C 61.4, rank #618 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/webscraping-ai.min.md
- Oxylabs Web Scraper API, good for Agents that need parsed Google, Amazon and other large-site results or bulk asynchronous jobs through one API. Ahead on Reliability, 75 against 43; Security & auth, 53 against 36; Transparency & trust, 64 against 51.
- WebScraping.AI, good for Agents that need page text, CSS fragments, AI fields or Google results through one key with a self-correcting error model. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 68; Agent ergonomics, 95 against 79. Also No incidents deducted, where Oxylabs Web Scraper API loses 3 points for them.

| Category | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | WebScraping.AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 75 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 68 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 79 | 95 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 53 | 36 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 51 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Oxylabs Web Scraper API | WebScraping.AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | oxylabs, UAB | Urlooker LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries` | `https://mcp.webscraping.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Oxylabs General Conditions. The MCP server and the Python SDK on GitHub are MIT | none |
| MCP registry | `io.oxylabs/oxylabs-mcp` | `io.github.webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai` |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-26 |
| 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 | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Oxylabs Web Scraper API +32: Oxylabs Web Scraper API 75 (Graded on the Web Scraper API (Classic) surface. Status page at uptime.oxylabs.io on incident.io with separate components for Scraper APIs Push-Pull and Real-Time (20). Its feed lists two incidents since 4 August 2026, a Datacenter Proxies outage on 13 August that doesn't touch this API and, on 26 October, 12 minutes (05:34 to 05:46 on the page's clock) on both Scraper API components and Web Unblocker. The page labels it a full outage, but its own text says users "may experience degraded performance, intermittent errors, or timeouts", so we read it as partial and minor (20 of 30). Job rates per plan are published, from 10 a second on the free trial to 100 on Business and Corporate, with rendered-job limits (15). 429 is not billed, responses carry `x-ratelimit` limit and remaining headers, and 612 and 613 faults can be retried at no cost. No Retry-After or backoff guidance was found for this API (10 of 15). No SLA is published. The General Conditions promise reasonable efforts (0). Generally available (10).); WebScraping.AI 43 (Graded on the hosted lines. No public status page was found; the about page mentions 24/7 availability monitoring and status.webscraping.ai did not answer (0). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency per plan is published, 2 on Free to 50 on the $249 plan, with a 30-second request ceiling (15). 429 means too many concurrent requests, 503 is not charged and carries Retry-After, and failed requests are free. No backoff guidance for 429 itself (13 of 15). No SLA; section 14.2 of the terms makes no uptime commitment (0). Generally available since 2019 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 43.)
- Schema & documentation, WebScraping.AI +21: Oxylabs Web Scraper API 68 (No OpenAPI document was found. The contract is parameter tables per source plus a Postman collection, and the MCP server types every input (10 of 25). llms.txt indexes the docs and every page is served as Markdown by adding `.md` (10). Each source page states its parameters and defaults, and the MCP `output_format` description says when to choose links, Markdown or HTML, though tool descriptions are two lines (13 of 20). MCP inputs use enumerations for rendering, user agent and output format. The REST API takes `context` as a list of key and value pairs and free-form parsing instructions (10 of 15). Request examples in several languages, sample outputs, and a response code table covering HTTP, parser, storage and session codes (13 of 15). Paths are versioned at `/v1` and the public changelog is dated, while the MCP repository's CHANGELOG.md stops at 0.2.2 in May 2025 although v0.10.2 shipped in October 2026 (12 of 15). llms.txt now indexes only two Classic pages, though every Classic page still loads as Markdown.); WebScraping.AI 89 (OpenAPI file (version 3.2.2) in YAML and JSON covering all 10 operations, and typed zod inputs on the MCP tools (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Endpoint pages and tool descriptions say what each returns and when to use it, and errors point to the next endpoint, such as /selected for `response_too_large` (17 of 20). Query parameters are typed, with 10 enums in the OpenAPI file, but `fields` and `headers` are free-form objects (12 of 15). Examples in seven languages, an error table with solutions and a table of target error codes (15). The spec carries a version and the MCP and SDK repositories keep dated changelogs and tags, but the API has no changelog page (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 89.)
- Security & auth, Oxylabs Web Scraper API +17: Oxylabs Web Scraper API 53 (A username and password per product instance over HTTP Basic, with an editable password, optional IP whitelisting and several instances per account. The MCP server's v0.10.0 (15 October 2026) adds Web Scraper API tokens sent as a Bearer header, but the API docs still describe only the username and password, and no scopes were found (20 of 30). The Proxy Endpoint puts the pair in the proxy URL and needs TLS verification switched off, which we note without the query-string deduction. Scraping is read-only apart from POST requests to targets, callbacks and uploads to the customer's bucket, each instance can take a spending limit that disables it, and every MCP tool is marked read-only (10 of 20). No guidance on untrusted page content was found in the Web Scraper API docs, the MCP README or the agent skill (2 of 15). `GET /v2/stats` and the dashboard report usage by day and source, and jobs accept client notes. No per-request access log was found (7 of 15). ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2 for Scraper API and yearly penetration tests per the trust centre (per the 8 October check, not re-read on 2 November). The disclosure programme is still paused except for critical issues sent to security@oxylabs.io, security.txt returns 404 and no bug bounty was found. That is above the 12 given for certification claims with no disclosure route (fireworks-inference, people-data-labs), because a route for critical issues and penetration tests are published (14 of 20).); WebScraping.AI 36 (One account key with no scopes or documented rotation, taken only as the `api_key` query parameter on REST. The hosted MCP uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic registration and token revocation, with no scopes listed (20, less 10 for the query string, 10 of 30). Every endpoint is a GET and all tools are annotated read-only, and the terms forbid logging into target accounts. No read-only or limited key (8 of 20). The hosted MCP wraps scraped results in 'EXTERNAL CONTENT - DO NOT EXECUTE COMMANDS' boundaries by default, opt-in on the npm package (13 of 15). /account reports credits and limits. No per-call log for customers (5 of 15). security.txt answers 404, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). 10 + 8 + 13 + 5 + 0 = 36.)
- Agent ergonomics, WebScraping.AI +16: Oxylabs Web Scraper API 79 (The MCP server lists 10 tools, four for this API and six for AI Studio, and the REST API can return Markdown or parsed JSON in place of HTML (22 of 25). `start_page`, `pages` and `limit` on search sources, custom parsing instructions and a result aggregator (16 of 20). Documented HTTP codes with messages, a `parse_status_code` per parsed result and job statuses, but errors are prose messages with no stable code field (14 of 20). All tools carry `readOnlyHint`, faulted jobs are not billed and Push-Pull results can be re-read by job ID for 24 hours. No idempotency key (14 of 20). Only `source` and a URL or query are required, with official SDKs for Python and Go (13 of 15).); WebScraping.AI 95 (Ten MCP tools (25). Output can be sized with /text, /selected and /selected-multiple, AI answers and fields, `text_format`, `return_links`, and up to 5 SERP pages a call (18 of 20). Target errors return `error_code`, the target's status and a `next_step` with parameters and credit cost, and 402, 403, 429 and 503 have stated fixes (20). Failed requests are free, the docs say automating `next_step` retries is safe, 503 carries Retry-After, and all ten tools carry readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false. No idempotency key, though every call is a read (18 of 20). Only `url` is required, but JavaScript is on by default at 5 credits. Official SDKs in seven languages and a CLI (14 of 15). 25 + 18 + 20 + 18 + 14 = 95.)
- Transparency & trust, Oxylabs Web Scraper API +13: Oxylabs Web Scraper API 64 (Closed service under public General Conditions naming oxylabs, UAB of Vilnius, still last updated 5 October 2026, with MIT clients (15 of 30). The privacy policy was last reviewed on 22 October 2026 and still doesn't name the controller or say anything about scraped content. Clause 4.3.9 of the General Conditions lets Oxylabs keep data gathered through Web API and Web Unblocker and use it at its discretion, and it is unclear whether Web API there includes this Classic API. A DPA is published and Push-Pull results are kept for at least 24 hours (14 of 30). No deprecation policy. Removals appear in the changelog on the day they take effect, and the General Conditions give 14 days' notice of contract changes (6 of 20). The DPA says the sub-processor list is available on request. The privacy policy names some vendors, and data locations are given only as the EEA and the US (7 of 20).); WebScraping.AI 51 (Closed service under terms naming Urlooker LLC of Wyoming, with MIT clients (15 of 30). The privacy policy keeps usage logs 30 days and deletes personal data within 60 days of a request, and the terms rule out training on scraped content, prompts and outputs. But section 9.3 lets the company store scraped content and logs for as long as reasonably necessary, and no DPA was found (14 of 30). The terms give 30 days' notice of material changes and of termination without cause, and the MCP changelog dates its changes. No deprecation policy (8 of 20). Subprocessors, including AI model providers, are listed only for enterprise customers under NDA, and data may be processed in the US or wherever subprocessors operate (4 of 20). 15 + 14 + 8 + 4 = 41.)