Yelp Dataset API
Business reviews, ratings, and local business data for reputation monitoring and market research.
Available Data
Here's what you can extract from Yelp using AlterLab:
Business Use Cases
How businesses use Yelp data to make better decisions:
- Reputation monitoring
- Local competitor analysis
- Customer sentiment tracking
- Location intelligence for expansion
How It Works
Identify your target businesses on Yelp
Provide the Yelp business page URLs for the locations you want to monitor. Yelp URLs follow a consistent /biz/{slug} pattern. You can also start with a Yelp search URL to discover all businesses in a category and location.
AlterLab renders the reviews and business data
Yelp's review section loads via JavaScript and is hidden from simple requests. AlterLab renders the full business page including dynamically loaded reviews, photo counts, and business attribute details.
Get reputation and competitive intelligence
Receive overall star rating, review count, individual review text with reviewer details and dates, business hours, categories, and price range — structured for reputation monitoring dashboards or competitive local market analysis.
Key Insight
Yelp's rating algorithm filters reviews it suspects are fake or biased — the displayed rating may differ from the raw average of all submitted reviews. The 'currently not recommended' reviews are visible at a separate URL but not counted in the main rating. For reputation analysis, the displayed rating and recommended-review subset are the metrics that matter for customer perception.
Data Freshness
Review counts and ratings should be checked weekly for active monitoring. Business details (hours, phone, address) change less frequently — monthly is sufficient. For competitor tracking, weekly collection catches new review patterns.
Sample Output
Here's exactly what you receive when you collect Yelp data with AlterLab — clean, structured JSON ready for your application or spreadsheet.
{
"url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-bottle-coffee-san-francisco",
"business_id": "blue-bottle-coffee-san-francisco",
"name": "Blue Bottle Coffee",
"rating": 4.2,
"review_count": 1283,
"price_range": "$$",
"categories": [
"Coffee & Tea",
"Cafes"
],
"address": "66 Mint St, San Francisco, CA 94103",
"phone": "+1 (510) 653-3394",
"hours": {
"monday": "7:00 AM - 6:00 PM",
"tuesday": "7:00 AM - 6:00 PM",
"saturday": "8:00 AM - 6:00 PM",
"sunday": "8:00 AM - 5:00 PM"
},
"recent_reviews": [
{
"rating": 5,
"text": "Best espresso in the city. The staff knows their craft.",
"date": "2026-06-20",
"reviewer": "Sarah M."
},
{
"rating": 3,
"text": "Good coffee but can get crowded on weekends.",
"date": "2026-06-18",
"reviewer": "James K."
}
],
"scraped_at": "2026-06-25T09:42:11Z"
}Quick Start
POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape
X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY
{
"url": "https://yelp.com/...",
"advanced": { "render_js": true }
}Need an API key? — no credit card required. 5,000 requests included.
Pricing at Scale
AlterLab uses pay-as-you-go pricing — no monthly minimums, no contracts. Balance never expires.
| Volume | Static pages | JS-rendered pages |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 requests | $0.20 | $2.00 |
| 10,000 requests | $2.00 | $20.00 |
| 100,000 requests | $20.00 | $200.00 |
| 1,000,000 requests | $200.00 | $2,000.00 |
Static pages: $0.0002/request · JavaScript-rendered pages (like Yelp): $0.002/request · First 5,000 requests free. Full pricing details →
Frequently Asked Questions
What Yelp data can I collect?
You can collect publicly visible business information including ratings, review text, reviewer details, business hours, categories, and price ranges from any Yelp business page.
Can I track review sentiment over time?
Yes. By regularly collecting reviews from your business and competitors, you can monitor sentiment trends, identify service issues early, and measure the impact of improvements.
Is this useful for multi-location businesses?
Very much so. Multi-location businesses use AlterLab to monitor reviews and ratings across all their locations simultaneously, identifying which locations need attention.
Related Use Cases
Responsible Use
AlterLab is designed for extracting publicly available data. Always review the terms of service for any website you access, respect robots.txt directives, and ensure your use case complies with applicable laws in your jurisdiction.
Data Extraction Guides
Python Web Scraping API
Official Python SDK with async support and 5,000 free scrapes to start.
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Pricing
From $0.0002/request. No subscriptions. Balance never expires.
Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.
$1 free credit — up to 5,000 scrapes. No credit card.
Just a POST request.
No credit card required · $1 free credit, up to 5,000 scrapes · Balance never expires