# Scrapeless vs ScraperAPI

> Scrapeless scores 54.1 (C) to ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scraperapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scraperapi.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scraperapi.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Scrapeless scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do scraping.

- Scrapeless: grade C, 54.1/100, rank #693 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapeless.json
- ScraperAPI: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #739 of 950. 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 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Scrapeless (C)

Good for: An agent that needs one key for unlocking, a remote browser and AI answer-engine scraping, and is happy to read the pricing JSON rather than llms.txt.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 45
- Security & auth, 35 against 29
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 61

Watch for: llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search

### 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.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

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 | Scrapeless | ScraperAPI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 45 | Scrapeless +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 67 | ScraperAPI +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 74 | ScraperAPI +24 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 29 | Scrapeless +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | ScraperAPI +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 61 | Scrapeless +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 54 | ScraperAPI +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.1 · C** | **52.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Scrapeless | ScraperAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Scrapeless (NST Labs Tech) | ScraperAPI (saas.group) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapeless.com` | `https://api.scraperapi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk | 5 stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Scrapeless.** Hosted streamable HTTP MCP at api.scrapeless.com/mcp with header auth, plus a stdio package, both in the official MCP registry. llms.txt quotes Deep SerpApi at $0.1 per 1,000 while the plan data charges $1 per 1,000 for Google Search.

**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

### Scrapeless

1. Use scrape_markdown for reading pages and save the browser_* tools for clicks and logins, since browser time bills by the hour
2. Call browser_close when done so the session and its billing stop
3. Set limit on crawl_start. Unset, it defaults to 10,000 pages
4. Crawls are asynchronous. Call crawl_start, then poll crawl_result with the returned id
5. Set SCRAPELESS_API_KEY for the stdio server. Older guides use SCRAPELESS_KEY, which still works as a fallback

### 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, Scrapeless or ScraperAPI?

Scrapeless scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Scrapeless has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapeless.com and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Scrapeless or ScraperAPI

- [Firecrawl MCP vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Bright Data vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Diffbot vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Olostep vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Olostep vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrape.do vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Scrapeless vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-zyte.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)
- [Diffbot vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)