# ScrapingAnt vs Zyte API

> Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zyte
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zyte.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zyte.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapingant-vs-zyte.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

Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do scraping.

- ScrapingAnt: grade F, 35.5/100, rank #827 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapingant.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scrapingant.json
- Zyte API: grade B, 69.7/100, rank #166 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zyte.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zyte.json

## Which one, for what

### ScrapingAnt (F)

Good for: A low-volume agent that wants cheap rendered fetches and a tiny tool list, and doesn't need an audit trail.

Watch for: API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs

### 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 30
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 66
- Security & auth, 55 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 5
- 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

| Category | Weight | ScrapingAnt | Zyte API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 85 | Zyte API +55 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 85 | Zyte API +42 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 72 | Zyte API +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 10 | 55 | Zyte API +45 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 5 | 77 | Zyte API +72 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 66 | Zyte API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **35.5 · F** | **69.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ScrapingAnt | Zyte API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ScrapingAnt (DATAANT) | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general` | `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary 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 exposed | 3 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2024-07-16 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-08-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 90 npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**ScrapingAnt.** 10,000 free credits a month with no card. API Basics puts the key in the query string, so it lands in logs.

**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

### ScrapingAnt

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header rather than the query string
2. Use `/v2/markdown` for LLM input, and set `browser=false` on static pages to pay 1 credit instead of 10
3. Switch to `proxy_type=residential` only after a 423 (anti-bot) response. It raises a browser request from 10 to 125 credits
4. On the free plan a second concurrent request gets 409. Wait for the first to finish
5. Google, Bing and Yandex result pages come back as raw HTML through `/v2/general`, so you parse them yourself

### 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, ScrapingAnt or Zyte API?

Zyte API scores 69.7 (B) on agent readiness against ScrapingAnt's 35.5 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do ScrapingAnt and Zyte API need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call ScrapingAnt and Zyte API without installing anything?

Yes. ScrapingAnt has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/general and Zyte API at https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with ScrapingAnt or Zyte API

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