# ScrapeAtlas vs ScraperAPI

> ScrapeAtlas scores 63 (B) to ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D) for extraction. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scraperapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scraperapi.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scraperapi.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

ScrapeAtlas scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do extraction.

- ScrapeAtlas: grade B, 63/100, rank #481 of 1226. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeatlas.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapeatlas.json
- ScraperAPI: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #882 of 1226. 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 242 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ScrapeAtlas (B)

Good for: Agents that need structured public data from a named social, video, forum, marketplace or prediction-market platform, such as a creator's profile and recent posts, a thread's comments, a product's reviews or a market's order book, paid per successful request without a subscription.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 67
- Security & auth, 55 against 29
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 61
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 54

Watch for: No status page or incident history was found, and the terms promise no uptime, throughput or continued availability of an endpoint

### 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.

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 | ScrapeAtlas | ScraperAPI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 42 | 45 | ScraperAPI +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 67 | ScrapeAtlas +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 74 | ScrapeAtlas +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 29 | ScrapeAtlas +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 40 | ScrapeAtlas +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 61 | ScrapeAtlas +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 54 | ScrapeAtlas +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63 · B** | **52.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ScrapeAtlas | ScraperAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OD. Media & Technology LLC | ScraperAPI (saas.group) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapeatlas.com` | `https://api.scraperapi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under ScrapeAtlas's Terms of Service. The @scrapeatlas/cli package on npm is MIT with no public source repository | none |
| Tools exposed | 373 | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.OnlineDopamine/scrapeatlas` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2026-08-07 |
| Terms last updated |  | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 5 stars |

## Verdicts

**ScrapeAtlas.** An OpenAPI 3.1 file with 386 operations, typed parameters and a uniform failure object, published limits of 120 requests a minute and 4 concurrent, and 1 credit per successful request with failed calls free. No status page, security.txt or SDKs, the MCP server is a preview with 373 tools, and the product is five weeks old.

**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

### ScrapeAtlas

1. Send the key as `x-api-key` on https://api.scrapeatlas.com and check `status` on every HTTP 200; `partial` is usable data with `coverage.warnings`, `failed` and `challenged` carry `failure.code`.
2. Retry only on `upstream_rate_limited`, `timeout` and `busy`, after the `retry-after` on a 429. Stay under 120 requests a minute and 4 concurrent per account.
3. Pass the returned `cursor` back unchanged for the next page, and use `since` and `until` (ISO 8601 or Unix seconds) where listed; each page costs another credit.
4. Each platform has its own response schema, so read the endpoint's response fields before mapping; unknown values are `null`, never 0.
5. For MCP, connect to https://api.scrapeatlas.com/mcp over Streamable HTTP with `Authorization: Bearer` and expect 373 tools; the two account tools and failed calls cost 0 credits.

### 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, ScrapeAtlas or ScraperAPI?

ScrapeAtlas scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

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

ScrapeAtlas takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ScraperAPI needs an API key.

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

Yes. ScrapeAtlas has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapeatlas.com and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with ScrapeAtlas or ScraperAPI

- [Bright Data vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Context.dev vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-scraperapi.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 Scrapewise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapewise.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)
- [Context.dev vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [jevcrawl vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jevcrawl-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [Olostep vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScrapeAtlas](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapeatlas.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs Scrapewise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapewise.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScrapeAtlas vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeatlas-vs-zyte.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [jevcrawl vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jevcrawl-vs-scraperapi.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp