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Head to head · Scraping · October 2026 research run

ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee scores 59.2 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do scraping.

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

ScraperAPIScraperAPI (saas.group) · HTTP API D52.1/100#739 of 950 ScrapingBeeScrapingBee (Oxylabs group) · HTTP API C59.2/100#557 of 950

Which one, for what

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

  • Schema & documentation, 67 against 60
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 68

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

ScrapingBee C

Good for Agents that mix general scraping with ready-made Google, Amazon and YouTube endpoints and want spend capped per call.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 45
  • Security & auth, 37 against 29
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 61
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 54

Watch for

remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runScraperAPIScrapingBeeEdge
Reliability16%204570ScrapingBee +25
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26760ScraperAPI +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.27468ScraperAPI +6
Security & auth14%17.52937ScrapingBee +8
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86185ScrapingBee +24
Transparency & trust7%8.85463ScrapingBee +9
Negative events≤1500
Total52.1 · D59.2 · C

Facts side by side

FactScraperAPIScrapingBee
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorScraperAPI (saas.group)ScrapingBee (Oxylabs group)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.scraperapi.comhttps://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
Tools exposed2818
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-072026-09-11
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2024-07-15
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2024-07-15
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readnot found in the text
Popularity5 stars132 stars, 49k npm/wk, 72k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone4/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

ScrapingBee

Dedicated Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini endpoints next to the general HTML API. remote-mcp.txt says the hosted MCP only takes the key as ?api_key= in its URL.

Before you call either

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

ScrapingBee

  1. Send render_js=false for static pages and files. It cuts the cost from 5 credits to 1
  2. Use mode=auto with max_cost=25 to stop it escalating to 75-credit stealth requests
  3. Keep the MCP URL with ?api_key= out of logs and shared configs
  4. Back off exponentially on 429 from the MCP, since its concurrency is shared across customers
  5. Expect 404 and 410 from the target to be billed. Other failures aren't

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ScraperAPI or ScrapingBee?

ScrapingBee scores 59.2 (C) on agent readiness against ScraperAPI's 52.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. ScraperAPI leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

Do ScraperAPI and ScrapingBee need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call ScraperAPI and ScrapingBee without installing anything?

Yes. ScraperAPI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scraperapi.com and ScrapingBee at https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/.

Other comparisons with ScraperAPI or ScrapingBee

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