Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

Scrapeless vs Zyte API

Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

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.

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

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

Zyte API B

Good for An agent or pipeline that fetches protected pages and wants the service to choose proxy and browser per site and to bill only success, and teams already on Scrapy.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 75
  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 66
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 50
  • Security & auth, 55 against 35
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
  • Transparency & trust, 66 against 53

Watch for

Request price depends on the target site's tier, from $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP requests and $1.01 to $16.08 with a browser on pay-as-you-go

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runScrapelessZyte APIEdge
Reliability16%207585Zyte API +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26685Zyte API +19
Agent ergonomics13%16.25072Zyte API +22
Security & auth14%17.53555Zyte API +20
Payments & pricing10%12.53540Zyte API +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88177Scrapeless +4
Transparency & trust7%8.85366Zyte API +13
Negative events≤15-20
Total54.1 · C69.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactScrapelessZyte API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorScrapeless (NST Labs Tech)Zyte Group Limited
Hosted endpointhttps://api.scrapeless.comhttps://api.zyte.com/v1/extract
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary service under Zyte's terms of service. The Python client is BSD 3-Clause, and the Agentic Web Data plugin is under Zyte's own end-user licence
Tools exposed2534
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.scrapeless-ai/scrapeless-mcp-servernot listed
Last release2026-09-162026-10-05
Terms last updatedno date given2026-09-22
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2024-08-30
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity169 stars, 423 npm/wk, 216 PyPI/wk42k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2/5 (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.

Zyte API

One POST endpoint with an OpenAPI 3 contract picks proxies, browser rendering and extraction per site, bills only successful responses, and sends problem+json errors with Retry-After. Prices vary by target site across five tiers, so cost per request isn't known before the site is assigned one, and no dated API changelog was found.

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

Zyte API

  1. Send the API key as the Basic auth username with an empty password to https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract. Set only one of httpResponseBody or browserHtml, or one extraction field
  2. Ask for httpResponseBody before browserHtml. Browser requests cost about eight to thirteen times more per tier
  3. Retry 429, 503 and 520 after the Retry-After seconds, with backoff. They aren't billed. Don't retry 400, 401, 422 or 451
  4. Read statusCode in a 200 response. A target site's 404 comes back as a successful, billed Zyte API response
  5. Have the owner set a blocking spending limit on the key you use. A 403 /auth/account-suspended means the limit or the trial month ended

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Scrapeless or Zyte API?

Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against Scrapeless's 54.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Scrapeless and Zyte API need an API key?

Scrapeless needs an API key. Zyte API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Scrapeless and Zyte API without installing anything?

Yes. Scrapeless has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapeless.com and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.

Other comparisons with Scrapeless or Zyte API

Machine-readable

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