ScraperAPI

# Fix list: ScraperAPI

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scraperapi, the October 2026 research run, assessed 9 October 2026. Grade D, 52.1 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on ScraperAPI: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Security & auth, 29 out of 100, up to 12.4 more on the total

Why it scored 29: One API key per account, regenerated from the dashboard at most once every 24 hours. No scopes (20). The documented default puts the key in the URL query string, so less 10, although an `x-sapi-api_key` header and a Bearer header on the remote MCP server exist (10 of 30). No read-only or restricted keys. `max_cost`, a monthly pay-as-you-go spending cap and destructive hints on the two MCP delete tools limit damage (6 of 20). The API returns untrusted web content and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs, the MCP README or the skills (2 of 15). The dashboard has analytics with error logs, each response carries `sa-credit-cost`, and the privacy policy says activity logs are deleted after 7 days (9 of 15). `/.well-known/security.txt` returned 404, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found. The home page claims CCPA and GDPR compliance (2 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 2. Reliability, 45 out of 100, up to 11 more on the total

Why it scored 45: No status page is linked from the home, pricing, support or docs pages we read (0). No readable incident history (5). Concurrency limits are published per plan, 5 threads on Free, 20 on Hobby, 50, 100, 200, 300 and 500 above it, and the local MCP server limits itself to 10 calls in 60 seconds (15). 429 is documented as a concurrency rejection with no charge, the API retries a target for up to 70 seconds before returning 500, and the docs tell clients to retry failed requests. No Retry-After header or idempotency key was found (10 of 15). The pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee on every plan, with no SLA document or credit terms found, and the Terms of Use were unread (5 of 10). The API, async service and crawler are generally available (10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 3. Payments & pricing, 40 out of 100, up to 7.5 more on the total

Why it scored 40: No x402, MPP or L402 found in the docs index or pricing page (0). Plan prices and credit costs per request type are public without a login (20). Free plan of 1,000 credits a month and a 7-day trial of 5,000 credits, no card (20). A person signs up in a browser to get a key (0).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 4. Schema & documentation, 67 out of 100, up to 5.4 more on the total

Why it scored 67: No OpenAPI file found. The MCP server's source defines typed pydantic inputs for all 28 tools (12 of 25). The docs publish llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every page (10). MCP tool descriptions state when to use a tool and when not to, and the API reference describes each parameter with its credit cost (15 of 20). MCP inputs use enums for device type and output format. The HTTP API's parameters are query strings described in prose tables (10 of 15). Examples in cURL, Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby and Java, a status code table that says which codes are billed, and an error table for the AI parser (12 of 15). Release notes are grouped by month without day dates, the HTTP API has no version, and the MCP server uses semver tags (8 of 15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 5. Agent ergonomics, 74 out of 100, up to 4.2 more on the total

Why it scored 74: 28 MCP tools with no toolsets or dynamic loading (15 of 25). `output_format` returns Markdown or text, `autoparse` returns JSON on supported domains, structured endpoints page their results, and `max_cost`, `crawl_budget` and `max_depth` cap a job (15 of 20). Errors are HTTP status codes with plain-text messages. No machine-readable error codes (13 of 20). All 28 MCP tools carry readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint, failed requests are not charged, and async jobs return a status URL to poll (16 of 20). Only `api_key` and `url` are required, rendering is off by default, and SDKs are documented for Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby and Java (15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 6. Transparency & trust, 54 out of 100, up to 4 more on the total

Made of editorial 35, provenance 72.

Why it scored 54: Closed service. The MCP server and skills are MIT. Terms of Use exist at `/terms/`, but robots.txt disallows that path, so we could not confirm what they say (10 of 30). The privacy policy says activity logs are deleted after 7 days and account data within 60 days of a request, async results are kept up to 72 hours and DataPipeline results 30 days. The policy is undated, names Saas.group Inc. while a November 2025 release note says the service operates as ScraperAPI LLC, and no DPA was found (14 of 30). The terms and billing change was announced with effective dates of 4 November 2025 and 5 January 2026. No standing deprecation policy (8 of 20). No sub-processor list or hosting location found, only a general statement on transfers outside the EEA (3 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Domain age: scraperapi.com, registered 2018-05-14 (8 years) (11 of 15)
- Terms of service: published, but our reader couldn't read it (7 of 10)
- Privacy policy: read, states 6 of the 8 things a reader expects (8.5 of 10)
- Status page: not found (0 of 10)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## 7. Maintenance & community, 61 out of 100, up to 3.4 more on the total

Why it scored 61: The skills plugin was last updated on 7 August 2026, 63 days before the check, and the MCP server's v1.1.1 is from 17 July 2026 (20 of 30). MCP v1.1.0 and v1.1.1 on 17 July and the plugin update on 7 August fall within 90 days, with two July 2026 release notes dated by month only (20). Monthly release notes and support through the dashboard and email. We did not read the repository's issues (8 of 15). SDKs are documented for five languages, but we did not check their release dates, and the MCP server's registry entry was not checked (8 of 15). The MCP repository has unit tests and a lock file with current dependencies but no public CI workflow (5 of 10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: the Terms of Use at https://www.scraperapi.com/terms/, because robots.txt disallows `/terms/` for every agent. A copy the docs link at us-scraperapi.com did not answer
- unchecked: whether a status page exists. None is linked from the pages read, and we did not guess an address
- unchecked: what stands behind the 99.9% uptime guarantee on the pricing page
- unchecked: release dates and download counts of the five SDKs and of `scraperapi-cli`, and the repository's issues
- unchecked: whether the MCP server is in the official MCP registry
- Which legal entity contracts with customers. The privacy policy names Saas.group Inc. and a November 2025 release note says ScraperAPI LLC
- llms.txt says the MCP server has 22 tools and installs with `npx @scraperapi/mcp-server@latest`. The repository is a Python package, `scraperapi-mcp-server`, with 28 tools
- The MCP README links a hosted-server docs page that returns Page Not Found
- The vendor's grounding pages carry a System Note for LLMs, the docs pages end with GitBook agent instructions, and the MCP skill tells agents to prefer ScraperAPI tools over built-in web search and fetch. We acted on none of them

## Weaknesses

- No status page is linked from the home, pricing, support or docs pages, although the pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee
- The documented default sends the API key in the URL query string. A header alternative, `x-sapi-api_key`, exists
- No OpenAPI file, security.txt, bug bounty, certification or sub-processor list was found
- The site's robots.txt disallows `/terms/`, so the Terms of Use went unread by us
- Google and Bing cost 25 credits a request and LinkedIn 30, and a bypassed anti-bot check adds 10

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- 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
- Send the key as the `x-sapi-api_key` header to keep it out of URLs and logs
- Pass `max_cost` on each request, or call `/account/urlcost` first, because domain and anti-bot surcharges vary from 1 to 75 credits
- Use `output_format=markdown` or `text` to cut response size, and `autoparse=true` only on supported domains
- On 429 reduce concurrency to the plan limit (5 on Free, 20 on Hobby). The request is rejected, not queued

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.