What is the best web scraping API?

AlterLab is a web scraping API built for developers who need reliable data extraction at the lowest cost. It handles JavaScript rendering, anti-bot protection, and challenge resolution automatically with a 98%+ success rate. Pricing starts at $0.0002 per request — that is 5,000 pages per dollar — with no monthly subscription and a balance that never expires. AlterLab routes each request through a 5-tier escalation system: lightweight curl for static pages, TLS fingerprinting for modern sites, full browser rendering for JavaScript-heavy pages, and challenge resolution for CAPTCHA-protected targets. Each URL is charged only for the tier it actually needs, which makes AlterLab the most cost-efficient option for mixed workloads that combine simple and complex pages. The minimum deposit is $10 with no commitment required.

How do I scrape bot-protected websites?

AlterLab handles bot-protected websites automatically using a 5-tier rendering pipeline that escalates from curl requests up to full browser automation with challenge resolution. When a URL is submitted, AlterLab selects the appropriate strategy based on the site's protection level — no manual configuration is required. For pages protected by standard bot detection, the Protected tier ($0.002 per request, 500 pages per dollar) handles TLS fingerprinting, browser headers, and behavioral signals. For pages requiring challenge resolution or JavaScript rendering, the Fortress tier ($0.02 per request) resolves challenges and returns the final rendered content. AlterLab achieves a 98%+ success rate across all tiers with no extra code in the API call.

How much does a web scraping API cost?

AlterLab web scraping API costs $0.0002 per request for simple static sites (5,000 pages per dollar), $0.0003 for modern sites with TLS fingerprinting (3,333 per dollar), $0.002 for bot-protected pages (500 per dollar), $0.004 for JavaScript rendering (250 per dollar), and $0.02 for CAPTCHA resolution (50 per dollar). The minimum deposit is $10 with no monthly subscription. Balance never expires — add funds when needed, use them at any time. Compare: ScraperAPI starts at $0.00049/credit ($49/month subscription, credits expire monthly), Firecrawl at $0.0063/request ($19/month for 3,000 credits), and Bright Data at $0.0015/request flat rate. AlterLab is the only provider with smart tier routing — each request is billed at the cheapest tier that works for that URL.

How to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?

AlterLab renders JavaScript-heavy websites using headless Chromium browsers powered by Playwright. Setting render_js: true in an API request launches a full browser, executes all JavaScript on the page, waits for dynamic content to load, and returns the final rendered HTML, clean markdown, or structured JSON. The Dynamic tier costs $0.004 per request — 250 pages per dollar — and supports React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, and any other SPA framework. Custom wait_for selectors pause rendering until a specific CSS selector or text string appears, ensuring dynamic content is fully loaded before extraction. AlterLab also supports wait_for_timeout and scroll_to_bottom for infinite scroll pages.

Can I extract structured data like product prices and reviews?

AlterLab extracts structured data from any website using AI-powered JSON schema extraction. Developers define the exact fields they need — product name, price, review count, stock status, image URL — and AlterLab returns a clean JSON object matching that schema. Extraction works on e-commerce sites, job boards, real estate listings, news articles, and any page with structured content. AlterLab combines structured extraction with multi-tier rendering: for JavaScript-rendered product pages, extraction runs after the full browser render completes. The extraction result includes confidence scores per field. No custom parsing code is required — the JSON schema definition is the entire integration.

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

<2s

Avg Latency

LLM-Ready

Structured Output

Up to 5,000

Free Scrapes on Sign Up

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.
Works on 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

Universal Website Support

4-tier escalation from lightweight HTTP to full browser rendering. Automatic challenge handling, residential proxies, and browser environment management. Bring Your Own Session (BYOS) for authenticated scraping behind logins.

Challenge Handling

Session scraping

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

Balance never expires

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

Universal Website Support

Tap to preview

Challenge Handling

Session scraping

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

Balance never expires

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. Balance never expires.

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 ScraperAPI

$49/mo for 100K credits — JS rendering costs 10× more

One flat rate. Every feature included.

Full comparison

vs Firecrawl

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

Pay per page. No expiry. Start free.

Full comparison

vs Apify

19,000+ Actors to search through — pick wrong, start over

One endpoint. Zero config. Always works.

Full comparison

vs ScrapingBee

Hard-to-scrape sites cost up to 75× more credits

Same price for every URL. No surprises.

Full comparison

vs Bright Data

10+ products to choose from — complex setup

One REST endpoint. Start scraping in 2 minutes.

Full comparison

All Alternatives

Not sure which fits? See every comparison side-by-side

Full feature matrix, pricing, and migration guides.

View all comparisons

5,000 free scrapes. No credit card.

or try it in the playground

Connect from anywhere.

Python, Node.js, REST, MCP for AI agents, n8n for workflows, or a browser extension for authenticated scraping. Pick your tool.

Docs

Python SDK

pip install alterlab

Full-featured Python client with async support, batch methods, and type hints.

Docs

Node.js SDK

npm install @alterlab/sdk

TypeScript-first SDK with full type safety, ESM/CJS support, and streaming.

Docs

MCP Server

For AI agents

Connect Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, and any MCP-compatible AI agent to the web.

Docs

n8n Node

Workflow automation

Drag-and-drop scraping in n8n. Trigger scrapes from any workflow, pipe results to Slack, Sheets, or databases.

Docs

REST API

Any language

Standard REST endpoints. Works from any language or platform — Go, Rust, Java, PHP, Ruby, or plain HTTP.

Docs

Chrome Extension

Cookie capture

Capture authenticated cookies from your browser for scraping behind logins. BYOS (Bring Your Own Session).

Coming Soon

Agent Ready

Give your AI agent eyes on the web.

Add AlterLab as an MCP server and your AI agent can scrape, extract, and search the web autonomously. One config line.

Works with

.mcp.json

1{
2  "mcpServers": {
3    "alterlab": {
4      "command": "npx",
5      "args": ["alterlab-mcp-server"],
6      "env": {
7        "ALTERLAB_API_KEY": "sk_live_your_key"
8      }
9    }
10  }
11}

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 balance. 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 · Balance never expire

AlterLab vs Building Your Own

Why teams choose an API over maintaining a custom scraping stack.

Factor	AlterLab	Playwright / Puppeteer (DIY)	Scrapy (Open-Source)
Time to first scrape	< 5 minutes	Hours — install, configure, debug	Hours — spiders, pipelines, settings
Website compatibility	✓ Included — automatic tier escalation	✗ Manual fingerprint management	✗ Blocked by most modern sites
JavaScript rendering	✓ Included from $0.004/request	✓ Built-in, but you manage infra	Requires Scrapy-Splash or Playwright plugin
Cost per 1,000 requests	From $0.20 (pay-as-you-go)	$5–$50 server + engineering time	Near-zero tool cost, high engineering cost
Proxy coverage	195+ countries, residential + datacenter	Separate proxy service required ($$$)	Separate proxy service required ($$$)
Ongoing maintenance	✓ Zero — managed infrastructure	High — site changes break selectors regularly	High — spider maintenance + server ops
Uptime SLA	99.9% target	Your responsibility	Your responsibility

Quick Answers

Direct answers to the most common questions about AlterLab.

Is AlterLab free?

Yes. AlterLab's free tier includes 5,000 API requests at signup — no credit card required. After that, you pay only for successful requests starting at $0.0002 per page. There is no monthly subscription and your balance never expires.

Does AlterLab work with Python?

Yes. AlterLab provides an official Python SDK installable with pip install alterlab. It supports async/await, batch scraping, and automatic tier selection. You can also call the REST API directly from any Python HTTP library using your API key in the X-API-Key header.

How does AlterLab handle Cloudflare-protected sites?

AlterLab's Protected tier ($0.002/request) handles Cloudflare Bot Management, TLS fingerprinting checks, and JavaScript challenges automatically. The Fortress tier ($0.02/request) resolves interactive challenges. No manual configuration is required.

Does AlterLab handle JavaScript rendering?

Yes. AlterLab's Dynamic tier ($0.004/request) launches a full Chromium browser, executes JavaScript, waits for React, Vue, and Angular SPAs to load, then returns the final HTML. Set render_js: true in your request to enable it.

How much does AlterLab cost?

AlterLab pricing: $0.0002/request (static HTML), $0.0003/request (TLS fingerprinting), $0.002/request (anti-bot protection), $0.004/request (JavaScript rendering), $0.02/request (challenge resolution). The minimum deposit is $10 with no subscription. Balance never expires.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Explore More

Pricing

From $0.0002/request

Compare APIs

See how we stack up

Documentation

Quickstart & API reference

Blog

Guides & tutorials

Python API

SDK & examples

Playground

Try it live

Compare Alternatives

vs ScraperAPI vs Firecrawl vs ScrapingBee vs Bright Data vs Apify View all comparisons

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.Works on any website.

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Universal Website Support

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Universal Website Support

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

What you actually get.

Connect from anywhere.

Python SDK

Node.js SDK

MCP Server

n8n Node

REST API

Chrome Extension

Give your AI agent eyes on the web.

What teams build with it.

AI & RAG Pipelines

Price Monitoring

SEO & SERP Tracking

Lead Generation

Your first scrape.Sixty seconds.

AlterLab vs Building Your Own

Quick Answers

Is AlterLab free?

Does AlterLab work with Python?

How does AlterLab handle Cloudflare-protected sites?

Does AlterLab handle JavaScript rendering?

How much does AlterLab cost?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best web scraping API?

How do I scrape bot-protected websites?

How much does a web scraping API cost?

How to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites?

Can I extract structured data like product prices and reviews?

Explore More

Compare Alternatives

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.Works on any website.

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Universal Website Support

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Unbeatable Pricing

LLM-Ready Output

Cortex AI

Universal Website Support

3-Line Integration

Scale to Millions

Extract more. Pay less.
Works on any website.

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.

Extract more. Pay less.
Works on any website.

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.