What is the best web scraping API?

AlterLab is the best web scraping API for developers who need reliable anti-bot bypass at the lowest cost. It bypasses Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, Akamai, and Kasada automatically with a 98%+ success rate. Pricing starts at $0.0002 per request (5,000 pages per dollar) with no monthly subscription — credits never expire. AlterLab is 93% cheaper than ScraperAPI and 95% cheaper than Firecrawl for equivalent workloads.

How to bypass Cloudflare bot protection?

AlterLab bypasses Cloudflare bot protection automatically, including JavaScript challenges, Turnstile CAPTCHAs, and Bot Management. Send any Cloudflare-protected URL to the AlterLab API, and the 5-tier escalation system handles TLS fingerprinting, browser automation, and CAPTCHA solving without manual configuration. The success rate for Cloudflare bypass exceeds 98%. Pricing: $0.002 per request for Cloudflare bypass (Protected tier), or $0.02 per request if CAPTCHAs are involved (Fortress tier).

How much does a web scraping API cost?

AlterLab web scraping API costs $0.0002 per request for simple sites (5,000 pages per dollar), $0.002 for anti-bot bypass (500 pages per dollar), $0.004 for JavaScript rendering (250 pages per dollar), and $0.02 for CAPTCHA solving (50 solves per dollar). The minimum deposit is $10 with no monthly subscription. Credits never expire. This is 70-95% cheaper than ScraperAPI ($0.0029/request, $49/month minimum), Firecrawl ($0.004/request, $19/month minimum), and Bright Data ($0.0015/request, $500/month minimum).

How to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?

AlterLab renders JavaScript-heavy websites using headless Chromium browsers powered by Playwright. Set render_js: true in your API request to scrape React, Vue, Angular, and any SPA. The Dynamic tier ($0.004 per request) launches a full browser, executes JavaScript, waits for content to load, and returns the final HTML, markdown, or structured JSON. Custom wait_for selectors ensure dynamic content is fully rendered before extraction.

Can I extract structured data like product prices and reviews?

AlterLab extracts structured data from any website using AI-powered JSON schema extraction. Define the fields you want (product name, price, reviews, stock status) and AlterLab returns clean JSON. This works for e-commerce sites, job boards, real estate listings, and any page with structured content. Combine extraction with anti-bot bypass to scrape protected sites like Amazon, Walmart, and Target without getting blocked.

Trusted by developers worldwide

Transform the Web into Data

AlterLab turns any URL into LLM-ready markdown, structured JSON, and clean text. JavaScript rendering, intelligent extraction, and adaptive AI handle the hard parts.
Ship your data pipeline in minutes.

Documentation

99.9% uptime

195+ proxy countries

No credit card

From $0.0002/request

Live

api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape

POST

98%+

Anti-Bot Bypass Rate

5,000

Pages Per $1

5 Tiers

Auto-Escalation System

Developer Experience

Simple API, Powerful Results

Get started in minutes with our intuitive API. One request gives you structured data, screenshots, PDFs, and more. No browser management, no infrastructure headaches.

Multi-Format Output

Markdown, JSON, HTML, text

Adaptive Rendering

JS, SPAs, shadow DOM

3 Lines to Integrate

Any language, any stack

RequestTab to switch

Response

200 OK·1.2s

Up to 5,000 free scrapes included. No credit card required.

AlterLab Cortex

An autonomous AI system that monitors your scraping infrastructure, diagnoses failures in real-time, and deploys optimizations automatically.

Zero-Touch Optimization

Cortex operates autonomously, continuously improving your scraping success rates without manual intervention.

Detect

Monitor all scraping requests and identify patterns in failures

Diagnose

AI analyzes root causes using ML models and historical data

Optimize

Generate and test multiple solution candidates in parallel

Deploy

Automatically roll out the best-performing strategy

Autonomous Failure Recovery

When a scrape fails, Cortex analyzes the root cause, generates multiple fix strategies, validates them in parallel, and deploys the optimal solution, all without human intervention.

Adaptive Anti-Bot Strategies

Cortex continuously learns from successful and failed attempts, dynamically adjusting browser fingerprints, request patterns, and timing to stay ahead of detection systems.

Cross-Domain Intelligence

Insights learned from one domain automatically improve performance on similar sites. The system builds a knowledge graph of web structures, defense mechanisms, and optimal extraction patterns.

Predictive Optimization

Machine learning models predict which sites are likely to change or implement new protections, proactively testing and adapting strategies before issues arise.

Cortex included in every plan. 5,000 free scrapes to start.

or try it in the playground

Why teams switch to AlterLab

Extract more. Pay less.
Access any website.

Six capabilities that set us apart from every other scraping API.

LLM-Ready Output

Your AI agents waste most of their context window parsing raw HTML. Cortex strips the noise and delivers clean markdown, JSON, or text - up to 70% fewer tokens, zero parsing code.

EXTRACTION ENGINE

CONTEXT TOKENS

~12,847

Product Title

</div>

...

FORMAT: JSON + MARKDOWN

CORTEX v3.2

3 output formats

Cortex-enhanced

Cortex AI

A self-learning engine that adapts to every domain. Auto-generates extraction playbooks, learns optimal headers and cookies, and gets smarter with every scrape - zero configuration.

CORTEX LEARNING

// domain analysis

Scanning amazon.com...

Inspecting DOM structure...

Analyzing request patterns...

Detecting protection layers...

Mapping cookie dependencies...

Fingerprinting rendering engine...

Correlating traffic signatures...

Auto-analysis

Continuous learning

Access Any Website

4-tier escalation from simple HTTP to full stealth penetration. Automatic CAPTCHA solving, residential proxies, and browser fingerprint rotation - 99.9% success rate.

Auto CAPTCHA

Residential proxies

3-Line Integration

One REST endpoint. Three lines of code. No SDKs to install, no OAuth flows to configure. Just POST a URL and get structured data back. Works with any language.

REST API

Any language

Scale to Millions

Queue thousands of URLs in a single request. Intelligent parallelization with automatic retries. Webhook delivery as results complete - no polling, no infrastructure to manage.

Webhook delivery

Unlimited scale

Unbeatable Pricing

5,000 pages per dollar. Competitors charge 5-10x more for the same data. No gotchas, no overages - just honest pricing.

Up to 5,000 free scrapes

No monthly subscriptions

Credits never expire

LLM-Ready Output

Your AI agents waste most of their context window parsing raw HTML. Cortex strips the noise and delivers clean markdown, JSON, or text - up to 70% fewer tokens, zero parsing code.

EXTRACTION ENGINE

CONTEXT TOKENS

~12,847

Product Title

</div>

...

FORMAT: JSON + MARKDOWN

CORTEX v3.2

3 output formats

Cortex-enhanced

Cortex AI

A self-learning engine that adapts to every domain. Auto-generates extraction playbooks, learns optimal headers and cookies, and gets smarter with every scrape - zero configuration.

Tap to preview

Auto-analysis

Continuous learning

Access Any Website

4-tier escalation from simple HTTP to full stealth penetration. Automatic CAPTCHA solving, residential proxies, and browser fingerprint rotation - 99.9% success rate.

Tap to preview

Auto CAPTCHA

Residential proxies

3-Line Integration

One REST endpoint. Three lines of code. No SDKs to install, no OAuth flows to configure. Just POST a URL and get structured data back. Works with any language.

Tap to preview

REST API

Any language

Scale to Millions

Queue thousands of URLs in a single request. Intelligent parallelization with automatic retries. Webhook delivery as results complete - no polling, no infrastructure to manage.

Tap to preview

Webhook delivery

Unlimited scale

Unbeatable Pricing

5,000 pages per dollar. Competitors charge 5-10x more for the same data. No gotchas, no overages - just honest pricing.

Tap to preview

Up to 5,000 free scrapes

No monthly subscriptions

Credits never expire

Up to 5,000 free scrapes. No credit card required.

or try it in the playground

Why teams switch

What you actually get.

Not vague promises. Specific capabilities backed by competitive research versus building it yourself or paying a competitor.

Output

Raw HTML soup: write parsers, maintain them, waste LLM tokens

LLM-ready markdown, structured JSON, clean text in one call

fewer tokens

Pricing

$333/mo subscriptions, credit multipliers, "premium URL" surcharges

$0.0002 per page. Same price for every URL. Credits never expire.

pages per dollar

Access

Blocked by CAPTCHAs, fingerprinting, IP bans. Manual workarounds.

4-tier auto-escalation with CAPTCHA solving & residential proxies

success rate

Integration

SDKs, Actors, platform lock-in: choose from 19,000+ tools

POST a URL, get data back. Works with curl, Python, Node, anything.

lines of code

Switching from something else?

vs Firecrawl

Plans from $16 to $530/mo, and credits still expire monthly

Pay per page. Start free.

Full comparison

vs Apify

19,000+ Actors: which one do you need?

One endpoint. Zero config.

Full comparison

vs ScrapingBee

Hard-to-scrape sites cost 75× more credits

Same price for every URL.

Full comparison

5,000 free scrapes. No credit card.

or try it in the playground

Use cases

What teams build with it.

One API, every data workflow. From AI pipelines to competitive intelligence, same endpoint, same price.

AI & RAG Pipelines

Feed any website into your LLM. Get markdown and structured JSON back, no parsing, no token waste. Build knowledge bases, train agents, power RAG.

LLM-ready outputSchema extractionBatch ingestion

response.json

{ "format": "markdown",

"content": "# Product Review\n...",

"tokens_saved": "~70%" }

Price Monitoring

Track competitor pricing across any retailer. Extract product data, availability, and reviews at scale. Same price per page, no "premium URL" surcharges.

Any retailerReal-time pricingStructured data

response.json

{ "price": "$29.99",

"availability": "in_stock",

"competitor": "store.com" }

SEO & SERP Tracking

Monitor keyword rankings, analyze competitor pages, and extract search features. Works across Google, Bing, and regional engines without getting blocked.

SERP extractionRank trackingAnti-bot bypass

response.json

{ "position": 3,

"keyword": "best scraping api",

"featured_snippet": true }

Lead Generation

Extract business data, contact information, and company profiles from directories, social platforms, and industry sites. Feed directly into your CRM.

Directory scrapingContact extractionCRM-ready

response.json

{ "company": "Acme Inc",

"email": "[email protected]",

"industry": "SaaS" }

5,000 free scrapes. No credit card.

or try it in the playground

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.

$1 free credit. No credit card. No SDK.
Just a POST request.

terminal

curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \

-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \

-H "Content-Type: application/json" \

-d '{"url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown"]}'

No credit card required · Up to 5,000 free scrapes · Credits never expire

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about our web scraping API, pricing, and capabilities.

Transform the Web into Data

Simple API, Powerful Results

Multi-Format Output

Adaptive Rendering

3 Lines to Integrate

AlterLab Cortex

Zero-Touch Optimization

Detect

Diagnose

Optimize

Deploy

Autonomous Failure Recovery

Adaptive Anti-Bot Strategies

Cross-Domain Intelligence

Predictive Optimization

Extract more. Pay less.Access any website.

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Access Any Website

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Access Any Website

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

What you actually get.

What teams build with it.

AI & RAG Pipelines

Price Monitoring

SEO & SERP Tracking

Lead Generation

Your first scrape.Sixty seconds.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best web scraping API?

How to bypass Cloudflare bot protection?

How much does a web scraping API cost?

How to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?

Can I extract structured data like product prices and reviews?

AlterLab Cortex

Zero-Touch Optimization

Detect

Diagnose

Optimize

Deploy

Autonomous Failure Recovery

Adaptive Anti-Bot Strategies

Cross-Domain Intelligence

Predictive Optimization

Extract more. Pay less.Access any website.

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Access Any Website

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Access Any Website

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

What you actually get.

What teams build with it.

AI & RAG Pipelines

Price Monitoring

SEO & SERP Tracking

Lead Generation

Your first scrape.Sixty seconds.

Extract more. Pay less.
Access any website.

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.

Extract more. Pay less.
Access any website.

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.