Web Scraping API Benchmarks
Success rates, response times, and cost-per-page data from AlterLab's 5-tier scraping infrastructure. Updated March 2026.
Anti-Bot Bypass Success Rates
Each tier adds capability and cost. AlterLab auto-escalates from the cheapest tier, so you only pay for what's needed.
Response Time Benchmarks
End-to-end response times including proxy routing, rendering, and content extraction. Measured from API request to response delivery.
| Tier | Method | Typical Range | Visualization |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1: Curl | Ultra-fast curl binary | 200–500ms | |
| T2: HTTP | HTTPX with TLS fingerprinting & HTTP/2 | 500–2,000ms | |
| T3: Stealth | curl_cffi with Chrome browser impersonation | 2–5s | |
| T4: Browser | Playwright browser automation | 5–15s | |
| T5: Captcha | Browser with AI-powered captcha solving | 10–30s |
Cost Comparison
Per-request costs across major scraping API providers. AlterLab's pay-per-request model has no monthly minimums or expiring credits.
| Provider | Basic Scrape | JS Rendering | Captcha Solve | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlterLabYou are here | $0.0002 | $0.004 | $0.02 | Pay-per-request |
| ScraperAPI | $0.001 | $0.005 | $0.015 | Monthly subscription |
| Bright Data | $0.001 | $0.01 | $0.03 | Monthly + bandwidth |
| Firecrawl | $0.002 | $0.002 | N/A | Monthly subscription |
| ScrapingBee | $0.001 | $0.005 | $0.015 | Monthly subscription |
Competitor pricing based on publicly available pricing pages as of March 2026. Actual costs may vary by plan and volume.
Anti-Bot System Coverage
AlterLab's multi-tier architecture handles every major anti-bot system in production today.
How Auto-Escalation Works
AlterLab automatically routes each request through the optimal tier, minimizing cost while maximizing success rate.
Start Cheap
Every request begins at Tier 1 ($0.0002). If the target responds with valid HTML, you're done.
Detect & Escalate
If blocked, AlterLab detects the anti-bot system and jumps to the right tier — no wasted intermediate attempts.
Pay for Success
You're charged only for the tier that succeeds. Domain intelligence learns optimal tiers for future requests.
Methodology
These benchmarks are based on aggregated data from AlterLab's production scraping infrastructure, processed across millions of requests. Success rates represent the percentage of requests returning valid HTML content at each tier. Response times are measured end-to-end from API request receipt to response delivery, including proxy routing, DNS resolution, TLS handshake, page rendering (where applicable), and content extraction.
The “overall 98%+ success rate” reflects the combined success of AlterLab's auto-escalation system, which routes requests through progressively more capable tiers until a valid response is obtained. Domain intelligence continuously learns optimal starting tiers for known domains, reducing unnecessary escalation over time.
Competitor pricing data is sourced from publicly available pricing pages and may not reflect negotiated enterprise rates or volume discounts. All data is current as of March 2026.
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