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    Quickstart

    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.

    After signing in, you'll land on the dashboard overview where you can access all features.

    Your API key will look like this:

    sk_live_xxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Keep 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"}'
    Try in Playground

    Replace YOUR_API_KEY

    Don't forget to replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key from the dashboard.
    You can also test requests interactively using the API Playground in your 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 page
    successWhether the scrape completed successfully
    credits_usedCost of this request
    tier_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:

    Extract Structured Data

    Use AI to extract specific data into JSON format

    JavaScript Rendering

    Scrape dynamic sites that require JavaScript

    Batch Scraping

    Scrape multiple URLs in a single API call

    Webhooks

    Get notified when async scrapes complete

    InstallationREST API
    Last updated: March 2026

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