# ZenRows vs Zyte API

> ZenRows scores 74.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Zyte API's 69.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Zyte API leads on security & auth. Both do scraping. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

ZenRows scores 74.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Zyte API's 69.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Zyte API leads on security & auth. Both do scraping.

- ZenRows: grade BB, 74.8/100, rank #63 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zenrows.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

### ZenRows (BB)

Good for: An agent hitting protected sites that wants the service to choose the setup and bill only success, and for agents that must onboard without a human.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 72
- Payments & pricing, 80 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 77
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 66

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string

### 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:
- Security & auth, 55 against 41

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 | ZenRows | Zyte API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 87 | 85 | ZenRows +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 85 | Zyte API +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 72 | ZenRows +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 41 | 55 | Zyte API +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 80 | 40 | ZenRows +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 77 | ZenRows +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 66 | ZenRows +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.8 · BB** | **69.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ZenRows | Zyte API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ZenRows | Zyte Group Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.zenrows.com/v1/` | `https://api.zyte.com/v1/extract` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | payer tooling only | 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 | 44 | 34 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-01 | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-09-01 | 2024-08-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | 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 | 21 stars, 35k npm/wk | 42k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.8/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**ZenRows.** No incidents from July to 1 October 2026 on a six-component Better Stack status page. The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string.

**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

### ZenRows

1. Start with mode=auto and let it escalate. Force js_render or premium_proxy only when you know the site needs it
2. Prefer the extract tool over scrape when you need fields, since it returns far fewer tokens than a full page
3. Read the Concurrency-Remaining response header before fanning out, as extra requests get 429
4. Set ZENROWS_AUTO_SIGNUP=false in stdio configs so a missing key fails loudly instead of creating an account

### 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, ZenRows or Zyte API?

ZenRows scores 74.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Zyte API's 69.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Zyte API leads on security & auth.

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

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with ZenRows or Zyte API

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