ZenRows by ZenRows

# Fix list: ZenRows

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zenrows, the October 2026 research run, assessed 1 October 2026. Grade BB, 75.1 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 ZenRows: 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, 41 out of 100, up to 10.3 more on the total

Why it scored 41: The Fetch API takes the key only as the apikey query parameter. The hosted MCP takes a Bearer header or OAuth. One account key and no documented scopes (20, less 10 for the query string, so 10 of 30). No read-only subset or confirmation step, though annotations mark the browser tools as not read-only (8 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found in the docs index, MCP README or tool descriptions (0 of 15). X-Request-Id and X-Request-Cost on every response and a free account_usage tool. No request log checked (8 of 15). security.txt valid per the 30 September check, and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 claimed in the site footer. No bug bounty found (15 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. Agent ergonomics, 79 out of 100, up to 3.4 more on the total

Why it scored 79: 44 MCP tools, 36 of them browser actions, with no toolsets. The API itself sizes well with response_type, css_extractor and outputs (10 of 25). Markdown, plain text or PDF output, CSS extraction, outputs filters, an extract tool and 5 batch tools (18 of 20). Coded errors with documented fixes (18 of 20). Every MCP tool carries readOnlyHint and destructiveHint, and only successful requests are billed (18 of 20). mode=auto picks the setup and url is the only required field. Official Python and Node SDKs (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.

## 3. Schema & documentation, 83 out of 100, up to 2.8 more on the total

Why it scored 83: No OpenAPI file found. The API reference is Markdown, and the 44 MCP tools have typed zod inputs (18 of 25). llms.txt with 227 Markdown pages (10). The scrape tool says when to prefer extract, when to turn on js_render or premium_proxy, and gives three examples. The browser tools are terser (18 of 20). URL validation, booleans with defaults and required fields, but css_extractor on the API is a JSON string (12 of 15). Error catalogue of about 35 codes such as AUTH004 and RESP002, grouped by HTTP status with fixes (15). Changelog on Intercom, newest entry 14 July 2026, and semver tags on the MCP. The 2026 renames (Universal Scraper API to Fetch, Scraping Browser to Browser Sessions) aren't in it (10 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.

## 4. Reliability, 87 out of 100, up to 2.6 more on the total

Why it scored 87: Better Stack status page with 6 components (Fetch standard, Fetch headless, Proxies, Residential Proxies, Browser Sessions, website) (20). No incidents from July to 1 October and component uptime of 99.996 to 100 per cent (30). Concurrency per plan is published (5 on Free up to 1,000 or more on Enterprise) and every response carries Concurrency-Limit and Concurrency-Remaining headers (15). Two 429 codes (AUTH006, AUTH008) with advice to use exponential backoff with jitter and watch Concurrency-Remaining. No Retry-After (12 of 15). No SLA found (0). Fetch is 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.

## 5. Payments & pricing, 80 out of 100, up to 2.5 more on the total

Why it scored 80: x402 and MPP through an agent storefront at agents.zenrows.com run by ZeroClick, which sells plans and credits for Fetch and Extract and proxies calls through its own path. Nothing on api.zenrows.com itself (20 of 40). Credit weights and plan prices are public (20). 5,000 free credits a month, no card (20). With no key set, the stdio MCP calls POST https://app.zenrows.com/api/agent/signup, gets a Free key and a claim URL, and an agent can also buy over x402 at the storefront (20).

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.

## 6. Transparency & trust, 75 out of 100, up to 2.2 more on the total

Made of editorial 53, provenance 96.

Why it scored 75: Closed service, with ZENROWS, S.L. named in full (Getxo, Spain, tax ID B10660298). The MCP is MIT (15 of 30). The privacy policy, updated September 2024, keeps account data for the contract plus legal periods. It doesn't say whether scraped content is stored and doesn't mention a DPA (15 of 30). Product renames in 2026 without dated notices, and no deprecation policy found (5 of 20). Six US processors named with their transfer mechanism (Google, Amplitude, AWS, Stripe, ProfitWell, HubSpot) (18 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: zenrows.com, registered 2020-08-05 (6 years) (11 of 15)

## 7. Maintenance & community, 87 out of 100, up to 1.1 more on the total

Why it scored 87: MCP v2.2.4 on 2026-09-18 (30). Twelve MCP tags since 4 August, v2.0.7 to v2.2.4 (20). We couldn't read GitHub issues. PRs are merged within days and the changelog is public, though quiet since 14 July (12 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.ZenRows/zenrows-mcp under the vendor's GitHub organisation (15). CI runs typecheck, lint and tests, and a check that server.json matches the package version (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.

- Whether the Fetch API accepts the key in a header. The API reference shows only the query parameter
- Whether ZenRows stores scraped content, and for how long
- Whether an SLA exists on Enterprise. None found on public pages
- unchecked: GitHub issue responsiveness on zenrows-mcp

## Weaknesses

- The Fetch API only takes the key in the query string
- A protected request costs 25 credits, so real costs sit well above the headline rate
- 44 MCP tools load at once, 36 of them for the browser
- No prompt-injection guidance for the pages it returns
- x402 runs only through a third-party storefront, and the 2026 product renames aren't in the changelog

## 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.

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

## What the review panel asked for

- Per-call x402 pricing
- Document the signup request
- Header auth on Fetch
- MCP toolsets
- dated notices for renames
- a deprecation policy
- toolset filtering
- changelog entries for renames
- Send Retry-After with 429s
- header auth on Fetch
- scoped keys
- add per-call x402 to the API
- toolsets for browser tools

## 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.