AlterLabQuickstart
Your First Request
Learn how to make your first API call and scrape a web page in under 2 minutes.
1. Get Your API Key
First, you'll need an API key. Sign up at alterlab.io and navigate to your dashboard to generate one.
Your API key will look like this:
sk_live_xxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKeep Your API Key Secret
Never share your API key or commit it to version control. Use environment variables to store it securely.
2. Make a Request
Now let's scrape a web page. Here's a simple example that fetches the content of example.com:
Bash
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://example.com"}'Replace YOUR_API_KEY
Don't forget to replace
YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key from the dashboard.3. Understand the Response
The API returns a JSON object with the scraped content and metadata:
Response
JSON
{
"success": true,
"content": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>...",
"url": "https://example.com",
"status_code": 200,
"credits_used": 1,
"tier_used": "curl",
"timing": {
"total_ms": 245
}
}Key Response Fields
contentThe raw HTML content of the scraped pagesuccessWhether the scrape completed successfullycredits_usedCost of this requesttier_usedThe scraping tier used (curl, http, stealth, browser, or captcha)You Did It!
Congratulations! You've successfully made your first API request. The HTML content is now available in the
content field.Next Steps
Now that you've made your first request, explore more powerful features: