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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

ScrapeGraphAI vs ScraperAPI

ScrapeGraphAI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents · All 167 scrapers comparisons

ScrapeGraphAIScrapeGraphAI · HTTP API B68.3/100#221 of 950 ScraperAPIScraperAPI (saas.group) · HTTP API D52.1/100#739 of 950

Which one, for what

ScrapeGraphAI B

Good for LLM pipelines that want prompt-to-JSON extraction and for agents that must pay with a wallet.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 64 against 45
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 67
  • Security & auth, 39 against 29
  • Payments & pricing, 90 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 70 against 61
  • Transparency & trust, 60 against 54

Watch for

Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages

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
  • Free to start without a card

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

CategoryWeight this runScrapeGraphAIScraperAPIEdge
Reliability16%206445ScrapeGraphAI +19
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28867ScrapeGraphAI +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.27274ScraperAPI +2
Security & auth14%17.53929ScrapeGraphAI +10
Payments & pricing10%12.59040ScrapeGraphAI +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87061ScrapeGraphAI +9
Transparency & trust7%8.86054ScrapeGraphAI +6
Negative events≤1500
Total68.3 · B52.1 · D

Facts side by side

FactScrapeGraphAIScraperAPI
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorScrapeGraphAIScraperAPI (saas.group)
Hosted endpointhttps://v2-api.scrapegraphai.comhttps://api.scraperapi.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for scraping$2 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402payer tooling onlyno
Tools exposed2028
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.ScrapeGraphAI/scrapegraph-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-07-312026-08-07
Terms last updated2026-06-04couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2024-03-15no date given
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingyescouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity2.4k npm/wk, 46k PyPI/wk5 stars
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

Verdicts

ScrapeGraphAI

An agent can mint an account and key over x402 or MPP with no signup. Rate limits and plan prices differ between docs pages.

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

ScrapeGraphAI

  1. Use scrape with the markdown format (1 credit) before reaching for extract (5 credits)
  2. Read GET https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com/api/agent/protocols for current packs and prices before paying over x402
  3. MCP tool calls stop at 60 seconds. Use crawl_start and poll for anything longer
  4. Back off 1, 2 then 4 seconds on a 429 rate_limit_exceeded. No Retry-After is sent
  5. Use Orthogonal's x402 gateway when you need to pay per call without a key

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, ScrapeGraphAI or ScraperAPI?

ScrapeGraphAI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do ScrapeGraphAI and ScraperAPI need an API key?

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

Can an agent call ScrapeGraphAI and ScraperAPI without installing anything?

Yes. ScrapeGraphAI has a hosted endpoint at https://v2-api.scrapegraphai.com and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.

Other comparisons with ScrapeGraphAI or ScraperAPI

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