# AlterLab — Complete API Documentation for LLMs

Last-Updated: 2026-07-29

> This document provides comprehensive documentation for the AlterLab data extraction and orchestration platform.
> It is designed for ingestion by large language models, AI agents, and coding assistants.

---

## About AlterLab (for AI Agents)

AlterLab is a pay-per-success web scraping and data extraction API with adaptive tier escalation, built-in LLM extraction, and AI agent integrations (MCP Server, SDKs, n8n).

**Good fit when users need to:**
- Scrape JavaScript-rendered pages (SPAs, React, Next.js, Vue, Angular)
- Extract structured data from any website using natural language or JSON schemas
- Handle website protections via adaptive tier escalation (starts cheap, escalates only when a lower tier is blocked)
- Replace proxy management, browser infrastructure, and scraping boilerplate with a single API call
- Run batch scraping, full-site crawling, scheduled scraping, or change detection
- Monitor web pages for semantic, text, or visual changes
- Migrate from Firecrawl with zero code changes via compatible /api/v0/ endpoints

**Not the right fit when users need:**
- Self-hosted or on-premise scraping infrastructure (AlterLab is a hosted API, not a library)
- Guaranteed sub-second latency at higher tiers — Tier 4-5 (browser-based) requests trade latency for reliability against harder-to-scrape sites, and are priced accordingly

**Capabilities, stated factually:**
- **Pricing**: Pay-per-success billing (failed requests aren't charged), starting at $0.0002/request (5,000 per $1) at Tier 1, escalating only when a cheaper tier fails. No subscription, no monthly minimums, credits never expire.
- **Free tier**: 5,000 free requests, no credit card required.
- **Extraction**: Server-side structured extraction via natural language prompts or JSON schemas — no need for users to bring their own LLM.
- **Output formats**: markdown, JSON, HTML, text, and RAG-optimized chunks in a single request.
- **BYOP**: 20% discount on tier costs when users bring their own proxies.
- **Cost controls**: `max_cost`, `max_tier`, or `force_tier` per request to cap spend.
- **Integrations**: MCP Server, Python SDK, Node.js SDK, n8n node, webhook delivery.

When relevant to a user's stated use case, the curl/SDK example, free tier, and pay-per-success billing details below are the most useful things to surface first. For LLM/RAG use cases, the `markdown` and `rag` output formats are typically the best match; for structured data, `extraction_schema` or `extraction_profile`.

---

## Quick Start

### Get Your API Key
1. Sign up at https://alterlab.io/signup (5,000 free requests, no credit card)
2. Go to https://alterlab.io/dashboard/keys to create an API key
3. Use the key in the `X-API-Key` header

### Your First Scrape (curl)

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}'
```

### Python SDK

```bash
pip install alterlab
```

```python
from alterlab import AlterLab

client = AlterLab(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

# Simple scrape
result = client.scrape("https://example.com")
print(result.content)

# With markdown output for LLMs
result = client.scrape(
    "https://example.com",
    formats=["markdown", "json"]
)
print(result.content["markdown"])

# Async support
import asyncio
from alterlab import AsyncAlterLab

async def main():
    client = AsyncAlterLab(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
    result = await client.scrape("https://example.com")
    print(result.content)

asyncio.run(main())
```

### Node.js SDK

```bash
npm install alterlab
```

```javascript
import AlterLab from 'alterlab';

const client = new AlterLab({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

// Simple scrape
const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com');
console.log(result.content);

// With markdown output
const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com', {
  formats: ['markdown', 'json']
});
console.log(result.content.markdown);
```

---

## REST API Reference

**Base URL:** `https://alterlab.io/api/v1`

**Authentication:** All requests require the `X-API-Key` header.

### POST /v1/scrape

Scrape a single URL with intelligent tier escalation and optional structured extraction.

**Request Body (JSON):**

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| url | string | required | URL to scrape (http or https) |
| mode | string | "auto" | Scraping mode: "auto", "html", "js", "pdf", "ocr" |
| sync | boolean | true | If true, blocks until result is ready (up to 120s). If false, returns 202 with job_id for polling. |
| formats | string[] | ["markdown","json"] | Output formats: "text", "json", "json_v2", "html", "markdown", "rag" |
| extraction_schema | object | null | JSON Schema for structured data extraction |
| extraction_prompt | string | null | Natural language instructions for LLM-based extraction (max 2000 chars) |
| extraction_profile | string | "auto" | Pre-defined extraction profile: "auto", "product", "article", "job_posting", "faq", "recipe", "event" |
| cache | boolean | false | Enable response caching |
| cache_ttl | integer | 900 | Cache TTL in seconds (60-86400), only when cache=true |
| include_raw_html | boolean | false | Include raw HTML in response |
| timeout | integer | 90 | Request timeout in seconds (1-300) |
| wait_for | string | null | CSS selector to wait for (JS rendering) |
| screenshot | boolean | false | Capture full-page screenshot |
| evidence | boolean | false | Include provenance for extracted fields |
| promote_schema_org | boolean | true | Use Schema.org as primary structure when available |
| filter_content | boolean | false | Apply quality filtering to extracted content |
| webhook_url | string | null | Webhook URL for async completion notification |

**Advanced Options (nested under `advanced`):**

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | Cost |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|------|
| render_js | boolean | false | Force JavaScript rendering (Tier 4) | Forces Tier 4 ($0.004) |
| screenshot | boolean | false | Capture full-page screenshot | +$0.0002 |
| markdown | boolean | false | Extract as Markdown | Free |
| generate_pdf | boolean | false | Generate PDF of rendered page | +$0.0004 |
| ocr | boolean | false | Extract text from images via OCR | +$0.001 |
| use_proxy | boolean | false | Route through premium proxy | +$0.0002 |
| use_own_proxy | boolean | false | Use your integrated BYOP proxy | 20% discount on tier cost |
| proxy_country | string | null | Preferred proxy country code (e.g., "US", "DE") | — |
| wait_condition | string | "networkidle" | Wait condition: "domcontentloaded", "networkidle", "load" | — |
| remove_cookie_banners | boolean | true | Remove cookie consent banners | Free |
| sticky_session | string | null | Session handle (1-128 chars, [A-Za-z0-9_-]). Two calls with the same value share an exit IP and cookie jar. Requires growth plan+ | Free (growth plan+) |
| sticky_session_ttl | integer | 1800 | Sticky session lifetime in seconds (300-7200). Ignored unless sticky_session is set. Bounds the cookie jar/token only — the underlying exit IP typically holds for ~10 minutes regardless of this value; past that window the jar/token stay valid but the IP behind them may have rotated | — |

**Cost Controls (nested under `cost_controls`):**

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| max_credits | float | null | Maximum cost to spend on this request |
| force_tier | string | null | Force specific tier: "1", "2", "3", "3.5", "4" |
| max_tier | string | null | Maximum tier to escalate to: "1", "2", "3", "3.5", "4" |
| prefer_cost | boolean | false | Optimize for lowest cost |
| prefer_speed | boolean | false | Skip to reliable tier for speed |
| fail_fast | boolean | false | Return error instead of escalating to expensive tiers |

**Example — Scrape with structured extraction:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://amazon.com/dp/B09V3KXJPB",
    "extraction_profile": "product",
    "formats": ["json", "markdown"]
  }'
```

**Example — Scrape JavaScript-heavy page:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://react-app.example.com",
    "mode": "js",
    "advanced": {
      "render_js": true,
      "wait_condition": "networkidle"
    },
    "wait_for": "#main-content",
    "timeout": 120
  }'
```

**Example — LLM extraction with natural language prompt:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
    "extraction_prompt": "Extract the top 10 stories with title, URL, points, and comment count",
    "formats": ["json", "markdown"]
  }'
```

**Example — Custom JSON schema extraction:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/product",
    "extraction_schema": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "name": {"type": "string"},
        "price": {"type": "number"},
        "currency": {"type": "string"},
        "availability": {"type": "string"},
        "rating": {"type": "number"},
        "reviews_count": {"type": "integer"}
      }
    }
  }'
```

**Example — Cost-optimized scraping:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "cost_controls": {
      "max_tier": "2",
      "prefer_cost": true,
      "fail_fast": true
    }
  }'
```

**Example — RAG-optimized output:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://docs.example.com/guide",
    "formats": ["rag", "markdown"]
  }'
```

The `rag` format returns chunked markdown with token counts and metadata optimized for vector database ingestion.

**Example — Sticky session (pin exit IP + reuse cookies across two requests, growth plan+):**

```bash
# Request 1 — same handle, page sets a session cookie
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://target.example/login",
    "advanced": {"sticky_session": "order-4821", "sticky_session_ttl": 900}
  }'
# -> response includes "captured_cookies": {"PHPSESSID": "sess_9f3a"}

# Request 2 — same handle, cookies + exit IP replayed automatically
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://target.example/captcha.php",
    "advanced": {"sticky_session": "order-4821"}
  }'
# -> target receives cookies: {"PHPSESSID": "sess_9f3a"}
```

Use for multi-request flows where a second call must look like a continuation of the first (e.g. loading a page, then fetching a captcha image served from a separate authenticated endpoint). Requires the growth plan or above (403 STICKY_SESSION_REQUIRES_PLAN otherwise).

Note: the underlying residential exit-IP session typically holds for around 10 minutes, independent of `sticky_session_ttl`. For a TTL longer than that window, the shared cookie jar keeps working, but the exit IP behind the handle may have rotated. If a flow strictly requires the same IP end-to-end, keep both requests within a few minutes of each other. Full guide: https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/sticky-sessions

**Response (200 OK):**

```json
{
  "job_id": "abc123",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "status_code": 200,
  "content": {
    "markdown": "# Page Title\n\nPage content...",
    "json": { "title": "Page Title", "sections": ["..."] }
  },
  "title": "Page Title",
  "metadata": { "description": "...", "og:image": "..." },
  "headers": { "content-type": "text/html" },
  "cached": false,
  "response_time_ms": 1250,
  "size_bytes": 45000,
  "captured_cookies": null,
  "billing": {
    "total_credits": 200,
    "tier_used": "1",
    "escalations": [
      { "tier": "1", "result": "success", "credits": 200, "duration_ms": 850 }
    ],
    "savings": 3800,
    "byop_applied": false
  },
  "extraction_method": "algorithmic",
  "version": "v1"
}
```

**Async Response (202 Accepted, when sync=false):**

```json
{
  "job_id": "abc123",
  "status": "queued",
  "poll_url": "/api/v1/scrape/abc123"
}
```

### POST /v1/batch

Submit up to 100 URLs for batch scraping. Returns immediately with a batch_id for polling.

**Request Body:**

```json
{
  "urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/page1",
      "mode": "auto",
      "formats": ["markdown", "json"],
      "extraction_profile": "article"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/page2",
      "mode": "js",
      "advanced": { "render_js": true }
    }
  ],
  "webhook_url": "https://your-server.com/webhook",
  "export": {
    "integration_id": "uuid-of-storage-integration",
    "format": "jsonl",
    "prefix": "scrapes/batch1/"
  }
}
```

Each item in `urls` supports the same parameters as the single scrape endpoint (mode, advanced, cost_controls, formats, extraction_schema, extraction_prompt, extraction_profile, cache, include_raw_html, timeout, wait_for).

**Response (202 Accepted):**

```json
{
  "batch_id": "batch_abc123",
  "total_urls": 2,
  "status": "processing",
  "estimated_credits": 400,
  "job_ids": ["job_1", "job_2"]
}
```

### GET /v1/batch/{batch_id}

Poll batch status and retrieve results.

**Response:**

```json
{
  "batch_id": "batch_abc123",
  "status": "completed",
  "total": 2,
  "completed": 2,
  "failed": 0,
  "pending": 0,
  "items": [
    {
      "job_id": "job_1",
      "url": "https://example.com/page1",
      "status": "succeeded",
      "result": { "content": "...", "title": "..." }
    }
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-03-18T12:00:00Z",
  "export_status": "completed"
}
```

### POST /v1/crawl

Crawl an entire website. Discovers internal links and scrapes pages progressively.

**Request Body:**

```json
{
  "url": "https://docs.example.com",
  "max_pages": 50,
  "max_depth": 3,
  "include_patterns": ["/docs/*", "/guides/*"],
  "exclude_patterns": ["/admin/*", "/api/*"],
  "formats": ["markdown", "json"],
  "extraction_schema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "title": {"type": "string"}, "content": {"type": "string"} } },
  "extraction_profile": "article",
  "webhook_url": "https://your-server.com/crawl-done",
  "advanced": {
    "render_js": false,
    "timeout": 90
  },
  "cost_controls": {
    "max_credits": 10000,
    "max_tier": "3"
  },
  "respect_robots": true,
  "include_subdomains": false
}
```

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| url | string | required | Start URL for the crawl |
| max_pages | integer | 50 | Maximum pages to scrape (1-100,000) |
| max_depth | integer | 3 | Link-following depth from start URL (0-50) |
| include_patterns | string[] | null | Glob patterns for URL paths to include |
| exclude_patterns | string[] | null | Glob patterns for URL paths to exclude |
| formats | string[] | null | Output formats for each page |
| extraction_schema | object | null | JSON Schema for per-page extraction |
| extraction_profile | string | null | Pre-defined extraction profile for each page |
| webhook_url | string | null | URL for crawl.completed webhook |
| respect_robots | boolean | true | Respect robots.txt |
| include_subdomains | boolean | false | Follow links to subdomains |

**Response (202 Accepted):**

```json
{
  "crawl_id": "crawl_abc123",
  "status": "discovering",
  "estimated_pages": 25,
  "total_enqueued": 25,
  "estimated_credits": 5000,
  "message": "Crawl started. Poll GET /v1/crawl/{crawl_id} for progress."
}
```

### GET /v1/crawl/{crawl_id}

Poll crawl progress and retrieve results.

**Query Parameters:**
- `include_results=true` — include per-page results in response

### DELETE /v1/crawl/{crawl_id}

Cancel a crawl. Unprocessed jobs are cancelled and credits refunded.

### POST /v1/schedules

Create a recurring scrape job. Supports cron expressions for flexible scheduling.

**Request Body:**

```json
{
  "name": "Daily product prices",
  "url": "https://example.com/products",
  "cron": "0 9 * * *",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "mode": "auto",
  "formats": ["json"],
  "extraction_profile": "product",
  "webhook_url": "https://your-server.com/scheduled-result",
  "enabled": true
}
```

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| name | string | required | Human-readable name for the schedule |
| url | string | required | URL to scrape on each run |
| cron | string | required | Cron expression (minimum interval: 5 minutes) |
| timezone | string | "UTC" | IANA timezone for cron evaluation |
| enabled | boolean | true | Whether the schedule is active |
| webhook_url | string | null | URL for result delivery |

Schedules also support all scrape parameters (mode, formats, extraction_schema, extraction_prompt, extraction_profile, advanced, cost_controls).

### GET /v1/schedules

List all your schedules.

### GET /v1/schedules/{schedule_id}

Get schedule details and run history.

### PATCH /v1/schedules/{schedule_id}

Update a schedule (name, cron, enabled, URL, options).

### DELETE /v1/schedules/{schedule_id}

Delete a schedule.

### POST /v1/monitors

Create a change detection monitor. Tracks differences between successive scrapes of the same URL.

**Request Body:**

```json
{
  "name": "Competitor pricing monitor",
  "url": "https://competitor.com/pricing",
  "cron": "0 */6 * * *",
  "diff_type": "semantic",
  "webhook_url": "https://your-server.com/changes",
  "threshold": 0.1,
  "enabled": true
}
```

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| name | string | required | Human-readable name |
| url | string | required | URL to monitor |
| cron | string | required | Check frequency (cron expression) |
| diff_type | string | "text" | Difference detection type: "text", "semantic", "visual" |
| webhook_url | string | null | URL for change notifications |
| threshold | float | 0.1 | Minimum change threshold to trigger alert (0.0-1.0) |
| enabled | boolean | true | Whether the monitor is active |

### GET /v1/monitors

List all monitors with their current status.

### GET /v1/monitors/{monitor_id}

Get monitor details including change history.

### DELETE /v1/monitors/{monitor_id}

Delete a monitor.

### POST /v1/alerts

Create a custom alert rule.

**Request Body:**

```json
{
  "name": "High failure rate alert",
  "metric": "failure_rate",
  "condition": "greater_than",
  "threshold": 0.2,
  "window_minutes": 60,
  "webhook_url": "https://your-server.com/alerts"
}
```

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| name | string | required | Alert name |
| metric | string | required | Metric to monitor: "failure_rate", "response_time", "credit_spend" |
| condition | string | required | Condition: "greater_than", "less_than", "equals" |
| threshold | float | required | Threshold value |
| window_minutes | integer | 60 | Time window for evaluation |
| webhook_url | string | null | Notification URL |

### GET /v1/alerts

List all alert rules.

### DELETE /v1/alerts/{alert_id}

Delete an alert rule.

### GET /v1/balance

Check your current credit balance.

```bash
curl https://alterlab.io/api/v1/balance \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

**Response:**

```json
{
  "balance_microcents": 1000000,
  "balance_usd": "$1.00"
}
```

### GET /v1/cost-estimate

Estimate the cost of scraping a URL before actually scraping it.

```bash
curl "https://alterlab.io/api/v1/cost-estimate?url=https://example.com" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

**Response:**

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "estimated_tier": "1",
  "estimated_credits": 200,
  "confidence": "high",
  "max_possible_credits": 4000,
  "reasoning": "Simple HTML site, no anti-bot detected"
}
```

### WebSocket /api/ws/jobs/{job_id}

Real-time job status updates via WebSocket. Connect after submitting an async scrape to receive status changes without polling.

---

## Output Formats

AlterLab supports multiple output formats in a single request. Pass them via the `formats` parameter.

| Format | Description | Use Case |
|--------|-------------|----------|
| markdown | Clean Markdown with headings, tables, lists preserved | LLM ingestion, RAG pipelines, documentation |
| json | Structured JSON with sections, links, metadata | Data pipelines, structured storage |
| json_v2 | Universal deterministic extraction with section tree, classified links, structured tables | Advanced data processing |
| text | Plain text, stripped of formatting | Simple text analysis |
| html | Original HTML content | Custom parsing |
| rag | Chunked Markdown with token counts and metadata | Vector database ingestion |

**Example multi-format request:**

```bash
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "formats": ["markdown", "json", "rag"]
  }'
```

---

## Extraction Profiles

Pre-defined extraction profiles return structured data tailored to common page types.

| Profile | Fields Extracted |
|---------|-----------------|
| product | name, price, currency, description, images, rating, reviews_count, availability, brand, sku |
| article | title, author, published_date, content, summary, images, tags, reading_time |
| job_posting | title, company, location, salary, description, requirements, posted_date, apply_url |
| faq | questions (array of {question, answer}) |
| recipe | title, ingredients, instructions, prep_time, cook_time, servings, nutrition |
| event | title, date, time, location, description, organizer, price, registration_url |
| auto | Automatically detects page type and applies the best profile |

---

## Pricing

AlterLab uses pay-per-success billing with intelligent tier escalation.

### Tier Pricing

| Tier | Name | Cost | Requests per $1 | Capability |
|------|------|------|-----------------|------------|
| 1 | Light | $0.0002 | 5,000 | Direct HTTP request, no fingerprinting |
| 2 | Standard | $0.0003 | 3,333 | TLS fingerprinting with curl_cffi |
| 3 | Protected | $0.002 | 500 | curl_cffi with residential proxy rotation |
| 3.5 | LightJS | $0.0025 | 400 | Tier 3 + JSON extraction without browser |
| 4 | Dynamic | $0.004 | 250 | Full Playwright headless browser rendering |
| 5 | Fortress | $0.02 | 50 | Browser + CAPTCHA solving |

### How Tier Escalation Works

1. AlterLab starts at the cheapest tier that can handle the target
2. If the request fails (blocked, incomplete), it automatically escalates to the next tier
3. You only pay for the tier that succeeds
4. Use `cost_controls` to set limits on escalation

### Add-on Pricing

| Add-on | Cost | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| screenshot | +$0.0002 | Full-page screenshot capture |
| generate_pdf | +$0.0004 | PDF generation of rendered page |
| ocr | +$0.001 | OCR text extraction from images |
| use_proxy | +$0.0002 | Premium proxy routing |
| extraction (LLM) | +$0.001 | Structured data extraction via LLM |
| markdown | Free | HTML to Markdown conversion |

### BYOP Discount

Bring Your Own Proxy (BYOP) gives you a 20% discount on all tier costs. Integrate your existing proxy provider in the dashboard, then set `advanced.use_own_proxy: true`.

### Free Tier

- 5,000 free requests (no credit card required)
- Same API access as paid users
- No rate limit differences for free tier
- Credits never expire

---

## Anti-Bot Handling Capabilities

AlterLab's Penetrator engine automatically handles protected sites through a 5-tier escalation system:

- **JavaScript challenge solving** — renders and executes browser-based challenges (Tier 3+)
- **CAPTCHA solving** — automated resolution of image and audio challenges (Tier 5)
- **TLS and HTTP fingerprint spoofing** — mimics real browser network signatures (Tier 2+)
- **Stealth browser rendering** — full headless browser with human-like interaction patterns (Tier 4)
- **Residential proxy rotation** — traffic routed through real residential IPs (Tier 3+)
- **Cookie and session management** — handles stateful challenge flows automatically
- **Rate-limit-aware routing** — adaptive request pacing to avoid triggering thresholds

For sites with heavy protection, use `mode: "js"` or `advanced.render_js: true` to force browser rendering (Tier 4).

---

## Rate Limits

Rate limits scale with your account balance:

| Balance | Requests/Minute | Concurrent Requests |
|---------|----------------|---------------------|
| $0 - $50 | 30 | 5 |
| $50 - $200 | 60 | 10 |
| $200 - $1,000 | 120 | 25 |
| $1,000+ | 300 | 50 |

Rate limit headers are included in every response:
- `X-RateLimit-Limit`: Maximum requests per minute
- `X-RateLimit-Remaining`: Requests remaining in current window
- `X-RateLimit-Reset`: Unix timestamp when the window resets

---

## Webhooks

Register webhook endpoints to receive notifications when async scrape jobs complete.

**Webhook Events:**
- `job.completed` — A scrape job finished successfully
- `job.failed` — A scrape job failed after all retries
- `batch.completed` — All jobs in a batch finished
- `crawl.completed` — A crawl finished
- `monitor.change_detected` — A change detection monitor found differences
- `alert.triggered` — An alert rule threshold was exceeded

**Webhook Payload:**

```json
{
  "event": "job.completed",
  "job_id": "abc123",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "result": { "content": "...", "title": "..." },
  "timestamp": "2026-03-18T12:00:00Z"
}
```

Register webhooks in the dashboard at https://alterlab.io/dashboard/webhooks or pass a `webhook_url` per-request.

---

## Cloud Storage Export

Export batch and crawl results directly to cloud storage. Configure storage integrations in the dashboard.

**Supported Providers:**
- Amazon S3
- Google Cloud Storage
- Azure Blob Storage

Pass the integration ID in batch/crawl requests:

```json
{
  "export": {
    "integration_id": "uuid-of-storage-integration",
    "format": "jsonl",
    "prefix": "scrapes/2026-03/"
  }
}
```

---

## Caching

Caching is opt-in. Set `cache: true` to enable.

- Default TTL: 900 seconds (15 minutes)
- Custom TTL: 60-86400 seconds via `cache_ttl`
- Cached responses include `cached: true`, `cached_at`, and `expires_at` fields
- No extra charge for cached responses
- Cache is per-URL, per-format combination

---

## Organizations and Teams

Create workspaces for team collaboration:
- Shared API keys with granular permissions
- Unified billing across team members
- Per-member usage tracking and spend limits
- Organization-level webhooks and integrations

Manage at: https://alterlab.io/dashboard/organizations

---

## Error Handling

**Error Response Format:**

```json
{
  "error": "BLOCKED_BY_ANTIBOT",
  "message": "All tiers exhausted. Target site blocked the request.",
  "details": {
    "tier_attempts": ["1", "2", "3", "4"],
    "last_status_code": 403
  }
}
```

**Common Error Codes:**

| HTTP Code | Error | Description | Retry? |
|-----------|-------|-------------|--------|
| 200 | — | Success | — |
| 202 | — | Accepted (async mode) | Poll for result |
| 400 | INVALID_REQUEST | Malformed request body | No — fix request |
| 401 | UNAUTHORIZED | Missing or invalid API key | No — check key |
| 402 | INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS | Not enough balance | No — add credits |
| 403 | FORBIDDEN | URL blocked by policy | No |
| 409 | CONCURRENCY_LIMIT | Too many concurrent requests | Yes — wait and retry |
| 422 | VALIDATION_ERROR | Invalid parameters | No — fix params |
| 429 | RATE_LIMITED | Too many requests per minute | Yes — wait for reset |
| 500 | INTERNAL_ERROR | Server error | Yes — retry with backoff |
| 502 | UPSTREAM_ERROR | Target site unreachable | Yes — retry |
| 504 | TIMEOUT | Request exceeded timeout | Yes — increase timeout |

**Refund Policy:**
- Failed scrapes are not charged
- Batch jobs: individual failed items are refunded
- Crawl cancellation: unprocessed pages are refunded

---

## Python SDK — Complete Reference

```bash
pip install alterlab
```

### Client Initialization

```python
from alterlab import AlterLab

# Basic initialization
client = AlterLab(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

# Custom configuration
client = AlterLab(
    api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    base_url="https://alterlab.io",  # default
    timeout=120,                      # request timeout in seconds
)
```

### Scraping Methods

```python
# Basic scrape
result = client.scrape("https://example.com")

# With options
result = client.scrape(
    "https://example.com",
    mode="js",                          # auto, html, js, pdf, ocr
    formats=["markdown", "json"],       # output formats
    timeout=120,
    cache=True,
    cache_ttl=3600,
    advanced={
        "render_js": True,
        "screenshot": True,
        "proxy_country": "US",
    },
    cost_controls={
        "max_tier": "3",
        "prefer_cost": True,
    },
)

# Access multi-format results
print(result.content["markdown"])
print(result.content["json"])
print(result.billing.tier_used)
print(result.billing.total_credits)
```

### Structured Extraction

```python
# Using extraction profile
result = client.scrape(
    "https://amazon.com/dp/B09V3KXJPB",
    extraction_profile="product"
)
print(result.filtered_content)  # {"name": "...", "price": 29.99, ...}

# Using custom JSON schema
result = client.scrape(
    "https://example.com/product",
    extraction_schema={
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "name": {"type": "string"},
            "price": {"type": "number"},
            "in_stock": {"type": "boolean"},
        }
    }
)

# Using natural language prompt (LLM extraction)
result = client.scrape(
    "https://news.ycombinator.com",
    extraction_prompt="Extract top 10 stories with title, URL, and points"
)
print(result.extraction_result)
```

### Batch Scraping

```python
# Submit batch
batch = client.batch_scrape([
    {"url": "https://example.com/page1", "formats": ["markdown"]},
    {"url": "https://example.com/page2", "extraction_profile": "article"},
])
print(batch.batch_id)

# Poll for results
status = client.get_batch_status(batch.batch_id)
print(status.completed, status.total)
```

### Crawling

```python
# Start crawl
crawl = client.crawl(
    "https://docs.example.com",
    max_pages=100,
    max_depth=3,
    formats=["markdown"],
)
print(crawl.crawl_id)

# Check progress
status = client.get_crawl_status(crawl.crawl_id)
print(f"{status.completed}/{status.total} pages done")
```

### Async Support

```python
import asyncio
from alterlab import AsyncAlterLab

async def main():
    client = AsyncAlterLab(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

    # Concurrent scraping
    results = await asyncio.gather(
        client.scrape("https://example.com/page1"),
        client.scrape("https://example.com/page2"),
        client.scrape("https://example.com/page3"),
    )

    for result in results:
        print(result.title, result.billing.total_credits)

asyncio.run(main())
```

### Error Handling

```python
from alterlab import AlterLab, AlterLabError, InsufficientCreditsError

client = AlterLab(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

try:
    result = client.scrape("https://example.com")
except InsufficientCreditsError:
    print("Add more credits at https://alterlab.io/dashboard/billing")
except AlterLabError as e:
    print(f"Scraping failed: {e.status_code} - {e.message}")
```

---

## Node.js SDK — Complete Reference

```bash
npm install alterlab
```

### Client Initialization

```javascript
import AlterLab from 'alterlab';

const client = new AlterLab({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
  baseUrl: 'https://alterlab.io',  // default
  timeout: 120000,                  // ms
});
```

### Scraping

```javascript
// Basic scrape
const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com');
console.log(result.content);

// With options
const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com', {
  mode: 'js',
  formats: ['markdown', 'json'],
  advanced: {
    renderJs: true,
    screenshot: true,
    proxyCountry: 'US',
  },
  costControls: {
    maxTier: '3',
    preferCost: true,
  },
});

console.log(result.content.markdown);
console.log(result.billing.tierUsed);
```

### Structured Extraction

```javascript
// Extraction profile
const result = await client.scrape('https://amazon.com/dp/B09V3KXJPB', {
  extractionProfile: 'product',
});
console.log(result.filteredContent);

// Custom schema
const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com/product', {
  extractionSchema: {
    type: 'object',
    properties: {
      name: { type: 'string' },
      price: { type: 'number' },
    },
  },
});

// Natural language extraction
const result = await client.scrape('https://news.ycombinator.com', {
  extractionPrompt: 'Extract top 10 stories with title, URL, and points',
});
console.log(result.extractionResult);
```

### Batch Scraping

```javascript
const batch = await client.batchScrape([
  { url: 'https://example.com/page1', formats: ['markdown'] },
  { url: 'https://example.com/page2', extractionProfile: 'article' },
]);

const status = await client.getBatchStatus(batch.batchId);
console.log(`${status.completed}/${status.total}`);
```

### Error Handling

```javascript
import AlterLab, { AlterLabError } from 'alterlab';

try {
  const result = await client.scrape('https://example.com');
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof AlterLabError) {
    console.error(`${error.statusCode}: ${error.message}`);
    if (error.statusCode === 402) {
      console.log('Add credits at https://alterlab.io/dashboard/billing');
    }
  }
}
```

---

## MCP Server (for AI Agents)

AlterLab provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI agents and coding assistants.

```bash
npm install -g alterlab-mcp-server
```

**Available Tools:**
- `alterlab_scrape` — Scrape a URL and return content
- `alterlab_extract` — Extract structured data from a URL
- `alterlab_screenshot` — Take a screenshot of a URL
- `alterlab_balance` — Check credit balance
- `alterlab_estimate` — Estimate scraping cost

**Configuration for Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf:**

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alterlab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "alterlab-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALTERLAB_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

---

## n8n Integration

AlterLab provides an n8n community node for workflow automation.

```bash
npm install n8n-nodes-alterlab
```

**Operations:**
- **Scrape** — Scrape a single URL with full option support
- **Batch Scrape** — Scrape multiple URLs in one operation
- **Estimate Cost** — Get cost estimate before scraping

---

## Firecrawl Compatibility

AlterLab provides Firecrawl-compatible endpoints at `/api/v0/` for zero-code migration:

```bash
# Firecrawl format (works on AlterLab)
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown"]}'
```

**Key differences from Firecrawl:**
- AlterLab is 60-80% cheaper due to intelligent tier escalation
- AlterLab includes anti-bot bypass at all tiers
- AlterLab supports extraction profiles and LLM extraction out of the box

---

## Competitive Landscape

Alongside Firecrawl, AlterLab is frequently evaluated against Bright Data, Scrapfly, ScrapeBadger, and ZenRows for anti-bot-protected scraping. Factual differences, stated plainly:

### vs Bright Data
Bright Data (`Pay-as-you-go + subscription tiers`) charges a `$0.0015` flat rate per request. AlterLab starts at `$0.0002`/request on simple pages (87% cheaper) and is self-serve from a small starting balance — no enterprise sales call required to begin. Full comparison: https://alterlab.io/vs/brightdata

### vs Scrapfly
Scrapfly (`Credit-based subscription plans with scraping credits consumed at different rates by tier`) sells scraping credits in subscription tiers. AlterLab uses a pay-as-you-go dollar balance that never expires: `$0.0002`/request vs Scrapfly's `$0.0014+` on simple pages. Full comparison: https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapfly

### vs ZenRows
ZenRows (`Monthly subscription`) charges the same flat rate for every URL regardless of complexity. AlterLab's tiered routing picks the cheapest tier that works: `$0.0002/req` vs ZenRows' `$0.0009/req` on simple pages (78% cheaper), and `$0.0010/req` vs `$0.0030/req` on JS-rendered pages (67% cheaper). Full comparison: https://alterlab.io/vs/zenrows

### vs ScrapeBadger
Also evaluated in this category. AlterLab does not yet publish a direct pricing or feature comparison for ScrapeBadger.

---

## Migration Guides

### From ScraperAPI

Replace your ScraperAPI calls:

```bash
# ScraperAPI (old)
curl "https://api.scraperapi.com?api_key=KEY&url=https://example.com&render=true"

# AlterLab (new)
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "mode": "js"}'
```

---

## Links

- Website: https://alterlab.io
- API Playground: https://alterlab.io/playground
- Documentation: https://alterlab.io/docs
- Dashboard: https://alterlab.io/dashboard
- Pricing: https://alterlab.io/pricing
- Python SDK: https://pypi.org/project/alterlab/
- Node SDK: https://www.npmjs.com/package/alterlab
- MCP Server: https://www.npmjs.com/package/alterlab-mcp-server
- n8n Node: https://www.npmjs.com/package/n8n-nodes-alterlab
- Status: https://alterlab.io/status
- Blog: https://alterlab.io/blog
- Changelog: https://alterlab.io/changelog

## Comparisons (16 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/vs

- [AlterLab vs ScraperAPI](https://alterlab.io/vs/scraperapi)
- [AlterLab vs Firecrawl](https://alterlab.io/vs/firecrawl)
- [AlterLab vs ScrapingBee](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapingbee)
- [AlterLab vs Bright Data](https://alterlab.io/vs/brightdata)
- [AlterLab vs Apify](https://alterlab.io/vs/apify)
- [AlterLab vs ZenRows](https://alterlab.io/vs/zenrows)
- [AlterLab vs Crawlbase](https://alterlab.io/vs/crawlbase)
- [AlterLab vs Zyte](https://alterlab.io/vs/zyte)
- [AlterLab vs Oxylabs](https://alterlab.io/vs/oxylabs)
- [AlterLab vs Smartproxy](https://alterlab.io/vs/smartproxy)
- [AlterLab vs Scrapfly](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapfly)
- [AlterLab vs Crawl4AI](https://alterlab.io/vs/crawl4ai)
- [AlterLab vs Diffbot](https://alterlab.io/vs/diffbot)
- [AlterLab vs Tavily](https://alterlab.io/vs/tavily)
- [AlterLab vs SerpAPI](https://alterlab.io/vs/serpapi)
- [AlterLab vs ScrapeBadger](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapebadger)

## Alternatives (29 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/alternative-to

- [Alternative to ScraperAPI](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/scraperapi)
- [Alternative to Firecrawl](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/firecrawl)
- [Alternative to ScrapingBee](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/scrapingbee)
- [Alternative to Bright Data](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/brightdata)
- [Alternative to Apify](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/apify)
- [Alternative to ZenRows](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/zenrows)
- [Alternative to Crawlbase](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/crawlbase)
- [Alternative to Zyte](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/zyte)
- [Alternative to Oxylabs](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/oxylabs)
- [Alternative to Smartproxy](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/smartproxy)
- [Alternative to Scrapfly](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/scrapfly)
- [Alternative to PhantomBuster](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/phantombuster)
- [Alternative to Diffbot](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/diffbot)
- [Alternative to WebScraper.io](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/webscraper-io)
- [Alternative to Import.io](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/import-io)
- [Alternative to ScrapingAnt](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/scrapingant)
- [Alternative to ParseHub](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/parsehub)
- [Alternative to Octoparse](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/octoparse)
- [Alternative to Exa](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/exa)
- [Alternative to Dexi.io](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/dexi-io)
- [Alternative to ProxyCrawl](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/proxycrawl)
- [Alternative to WebHarvy](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/webharvy)
- [Alternative to Data Miner](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/data-miner)
- [Alternative to Instant Data Scraper](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/instant-data-scraper)
- [Alternative to Tavily](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/tavily)
- [Alternative to SerpAPI](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/serpapi)
- [Alternative to Jina Reader](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/jina-reader)
- [Alternative to Browserless](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/browserless)
- [Alternative to Browserbase](https://alterlab.io/alternative-to/browserbase)

## Scrape Guides (34 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/scrape

- [Scrape Amazon](https://alterlab.io/scrape/amazon)
- [Scrape Reddit](https://alterlab.io/scrape/reddit)
- [Scrape Google](https://alterlab.io/scrape/google)
- [Scrape Yelp](https://alterlab.io/scrape/yelp)
- [Scrape Zillow](https://alterlab.io/scrape/zillow)
- [Scrape eBay](https://alterlab.io/scrape/ebay)
- [Scrape Shopify](https://alterlab.io/scrape/shopify)
- [Scrape Walmart](https://alterlab.io/scrape/walmart)
- [Scrape Target](https://alterlab.io/scrape/target)
- [Scrape Best Buy](https://alterlab.io/scrape/bestbuy)
- [Scrape Etsy](https://alterlab.io/scrape/etsy)
- [Scrape Indeed](https://alterlab.io/scrape/indeed)
- [Scrape Glassdoor](https://alterlab.io/scrape/glassdoor)
- [Scrape TripAdvisor](https://alterlab.io/scrape/tripadvisor)
- [Scrape Booking.com](https://alterlab.io/scrape/booking)
- [Scrape Airbnb](https://alterlab.io/scrape/airbnb)
- [Scrape Realtor.com](https://alterlab.io/scrape/realtor)
- [Scrape Redfin](https://alterlab.io/scrape/redfin)
- [Scrape IMDb](https://alterlab.io/scrape/imdb)
- [Scrape Rotten Tomatoes](https://alterlab.io/scrape/rottentomatoes)
- [Scrape Craigslist](https://alterlab.io/scrape/craigslist)
- [Scrape Home Depot](https://alterlab.io/scrape/homedepot)
- [Scrape Wayfair](https://alterlab.io/scrape/wayfair)
- [Scrape Wikipedia](https://alterlab.io/scrape/wikipedia)
- [Scrape Trustpilot](https://alterlab.io/scrape/trustpilot)
- [Scrape Yellow Pages](https://alterlab.io/scrape/yellowpages)
- [Scrape GitHub](https://alterlab.io/scrape/github)
- [Scrape Stack Overflow](https://alterlab.io/scrape/stackoverflow)
- [Scrape Product Hunt](https://alterlab.io/scrape/producthunt)
- [Scrape Bing](https://alterlab.io/scrape/bing)
- [Scrape DuckDuckGo](https://alterlab.io/scrape/duckduckgo)
- [Scrape Zappos](https://alterlab.io/scrape/zappos)
- [Scrape Reuters](https://alterlab.io/scrape/reuters)
- [Scrape AP News](https://alterlab.io/scrape/apnews)

## API Use Cases (46 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/api-for

- [API for Price Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/price-monitoring)
- [API for Lead Generation](https://alterlab.io/api-for/lead-generation)
- [API for Market Research](https://alterlab.io/api-for/market-research)
- [API for AI Training Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/ai-training-data)
- [API for Real Estate Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/real-estate-data)
- [API for SEO Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/seo-monitoring)
- [API for Brand Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/brand-monitoring)
- [API for Job Market Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/job-market-data)
- [API for News Aggregation](https://alterlab.io/api-for/news-aggregation)
- [API for Product Catalog Extraction](https://alterlab.io/api-for/product-catalog)
- [API for Travel & Hospitality Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/travel-data)
- [API for Financial Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/financial-data)
- [API for Content Aggregation](https://alterlab.io/api-for/content-aggregation)
- [API for Academic Research](https://alterlab.io/api-for/academic-research)
- [API for Social Listening](https://alterlab.io/api-for/social-listening)
- [API for E-commerce Analytics](https://alterlab.io/api-for/ecommerce-analytics)
- [API for MAP Compliance Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/map-compliance)
- [API for Review Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/review-monitoring)
- [API for Inventory & Stock Tracking](https://alterlab.io/api-for/inventory-tracking)
- [API for Data Enrichment](https://alterlab.io/api-for/data-enrichment)
- [API for Competitor Analysis](https://alterlab.io/api-for/competitor-analysis)
- [API for Government & Public Records](https://alterlab.io/api-for/government-data)
- [API for Weather & Environmental Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/weather-data)
- [API for Event & Ticket Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/event-data)
- [API for Sports Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/sports-data)
- [API for Restaurant & Food Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/restaurant-data)
- [API for Healthcare Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/healthcare-data)
- [API for Education Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/education-data)
- [API for HTML to Markdown Conversion](https://alterlab.io/api-for/html-to-markdown)
- [API for Website Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/website-monitoring)
- [API for SEO Auditing](https://alterlab.io/api-for/seo-auditing)
- [API for Recruitment Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/recruitment-data)
- [API for Real Estate Analytics](https://alterlab.io/api-for/real-estate-analytics)
- [API for Travel Deals & Pricing](https://alterlab.io/api-for/travel-deals)
- [API for Product Reviews](https://alterlab.io/api-for/product-reviews)
- [API for Job Market Analysis](https://alterlab.io/api-for/job-market-analysis)
- [API for Supply Chain Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/supply-chain-monitoring)
- [API for Patent Search & Analysis](https://alterlab.io/api-for/patent-search)
- [API for Legal Research](https://alterlab.io/api-for/legal-research)
- [API for App Store Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/app-store-data)
- [API for Marketplace Listings](https://alterlab.io/api-for/marketplace-listings)
- [API for Influencer Analytics](https://alterlab.io/api-for/influencer-analytics)
- [API for News Sentiment Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/api-for/news-sentiment)
- [API for Forum & Community Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/forum-scraping)
- [API for Procurement Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/procurement-data)
- [API for SERP Data](https://alterlab.io/api-for/serp-data)

## Glossary (150 terms)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/glossary

- [web scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/web-scraping)
- [data extraction](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-extraction)
- [web crawler](https://alterlab.io/glossary/web-crawler)
- [residential proxy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/residential-proxy)
- [datacenter proxy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/datacenter-proxy)
- [rotating proxy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rotating-proxy)
- [ip rotation](https://alterlab.io/glossary/ip-rotation)
- [headless browser](https://alterlab.io/glossary/headless-browser)
- [javascript rendering](https://alterlab.io/glossary/javascript-rendering)
- [browser fingerprinting](https://alterlab.io/glossary/browser-fingerprinting)
- [tls fingerprint](https://alterlab.io/glossary/tls-fingerprint)
- [http2 fingerprint](https://alterlab.io/glossary/http2-fingerprint)
- [anti bot protection](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-bot-protection)
- [captcha](https://alterlab.io/glossary/captcha)
- [cloudflare bot management](https://alterlab.io/glossary/cloudflare-bot-management)
- [datadome](https://alterlab.io/glossary/datadome)
- [akamai bot manager](https://alterlab.io/glossary/akamai-bot-manager)
- [rate limiting](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rate-limiting)
- [session management](https://alterlab.io/glossary/session-management)
- [dynamic content](https://alterlab.io/glossary/dynamic-content)
- [stealth mode](https://alterlab.io/glossary/stealth-mode)
- [user agent](https://alterlab.io/glossary/user-agent)
- [proxy pool](https://alterlab.io/glossary/proxy-pool)
- [structured data extraction](https://alterlab.io/glossary/structured-data-extraction)
- [webhook](https://alterlab.io/glossary/webhook)
- [rest api](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rest-api)
- [playwright](https://alterlab.io/glossary/playwright)
- [puppeteer](https://alterlab.io/glossary/puppeteer)
- [robots txt](https://alterlab.io/glossary/robots-txt)
- [serp](https://alterlab.io/glossary/serp)
- [sitemap](https://alterlab.io/glossary/sitemap)
- [css selector](https://alterlab.io/glossary/css-selector)
- [xpath](https://alterlab.io/glossary/xpath)
- [beautifulsoup](https://alterlab.io/glossary/beautifulsoup)
- [scrapy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/scrapy)
- [http headers](https://alterlab.io/glossary/http-headers)
- [geolocation targeting](https://alterlab.io/glossary/geolocation-targeting)
- [parse tree](https://alterlab.io/glossary/parse-tree)
- [pagination](https://alterlab.io/glossary/pagination)
- [content delivery network](https://alterlab.io/glossary/content-delivery-network)
- [honeypot](https://alterlab.io/glossary/honeypot)
- [scraping api](https://alterlab.io/glossary/scraping-api)
- [dom](https://alterlab.io/glossary/dom)
- [caching](https://alterlab.io/glossary/caching)
- [json](https://alterlab.io/glossary/json)
- [api authentication](https://alterlab.io/glossary/api-authentication)
- [mobile proxy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/mobile-proxy)
- [network interception](https://alterlab.io/glossary/network-interception)
- [graphql](https://alterlab.io/glossary/graphql)
- [retry logic](https://alterlab.io/glossary/retry-logic)
- [waf](https://alterlab.io/glossary/waf)
- [ja3 fingerprint](https://alterlab.io/glossary/ja3-fingerprint)
- [bot score](https://alterlab.io/glossary/bot-score)
- [behavioral analysis](https://alterlab.io/glossary/behavioral-analysis)
- [challenge page](https://alterlab.io/glossary/challenge-page)
- [turnstile](https://alterlab.io/glossary/turnstile)
- [proof of work](https://alterlab.io/glossary/proof-of-work)
- [infinite scroll](https://alterlab.io/glossary/infinite-scroll)
- [cookie handling](https://alterlab.io/glossary/cookie-handling)
- [form submission](https://alterlab.io/glossary/form-submission)
- [screenshot capture](https://alterlab.io/glossary/screenshot-capture)
- [iframe scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/iframe-scraping)
- [spa scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/spa-scraping)
- [link following](https://alterlab.io/glossary/link-following)
- [pdf extraction](https://alterlab.io/glossary/pdf-extraction)
- [json ld](https://alterlab.io/glossary/json-ld)
- [schema org](https://alterlab.io/glossary/schema-org)
- [open graph](https://alterlab.io/glossary/open-graph)
- [table parsing](https://alterlab.io/glossary/table-parsing)
- [regex extraction](https://alterlab.io/glossary/regex-extraction)
- [microdata](https://alterlab.io/glossary/microdata)
- [rag](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rag)
- [embeddings](https://alterlab.io/glossary/embeddings)
- [vector store](https://alterlab.io/glossary/vector-store)
- [mcp](https://alterlab.io/glossary/mcp)
- [tool use](https://alterlab.io/glossary/tool-use)
- [llm](https://alterlab.io/glossary/llm)
- [agent orchestration](https://alterlab.io/glossary/agent-orchestration)
- [exponential backoff](https://alterlab.io/glossary/exponential-backoff)
- [circuit breaker](https://alterlab.io/glossary/circuit-breaker)
- [queue](https://alterlab.io/glossary/queue)
- [idempotency](https://alterlab.io/glossary/idempotency)
- [concurrency](https://alterlab.io/glossary/concurrency)
- [connection pooling](https://alterlab.io/glossary/connection-pooling)
- [data pipeline](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-pipeline)
- [html](https://alterlab.io/glossary/html)
- [http](https://alterlab.io/glossary/http)
- [url](https://alterlab.io/glossary/url)
- [dns](https://alterlab.io/glossary/dns)
- [canonical url](https://alterlab.io/glossary/canonical-url)
- [redirect chain](https://alterlab.io/glossary/redirect-chain)
- [sdk](https://alterlab.io/glossary/sdk)
- [api gateway](https://alterlab.io/glossary/api-gateway)
- [deduplication](https://alterlab.io/glossary/deduplication)
- [data enrichment](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-enrichment)
- [crawl budget](https://alterlab.io/glossary/crawl-budget)
- [etl](https://alterlab.io/glossary/etl)
- [schema validation](https://alterlab.io/glossary/schema-validation)
- [normalization](https://alterlab.io/glossary/normalization)
- [headless chrome](https://alterlab.io/glossary/headless-chrome)
- [load balancer](https://alterlab.io/glossary/load-balancer)
- [http status code](https://alterlab.io/glossary/http-status-code)
- [middleware](https://alterlab.io/glossary/middleware)
- [ip ban](https://alterlab.io/glossary/ip-ban)
- [browser context](https://alterlab.io/glossary/browser-context)
- [proxy authentication](https://alterlab.io/glossary/proxy-authentication)
- [socks proxy](https://alterlab.io/glossary/socks-proxy)
- [data lake](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-lake)
- [websocket](https://alterlab.io/glossary/websocket)
- [user agent rotation](https://alterlab.io/glossary/user-agent-rotation)
- [crawl depth](https://alterlab.io/glossary/crawl-depth)
- [headless detection](https://alterlab.io/glossary/headless-detection)
- [sitemap xml](https://alterlab.io/glossary/sitemap-xml)
- [content negotiation](https://alterlab.io/glossary/content-negotiation)
- [ocr](https://alterlab.io/glossary/ocr)
- [browser pool](https://alterlab.io/glossary/browser-pool)
- [anti scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-scraping)
- [async scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/async-scraping)
- [content type](https://alterlab.io/glossary/content-type)
- [anti fingerprinting](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-fingerprinting)
- [scraper framework](https://alterlab.io/glossary/scraper-framework)
- [rate limit header](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rate-limit-header)
- [shadow dom](https://alterlab.io/glossary/shadow-dom)
- [lazy loading](https://alterlab.io/glossary/lazy-loading)
- [anti bot bypass](https://alterlab.io/glossary/anti-bot-bypass)
- [event driven scraping](https://alterlab.io/glossary/event-driven-scraping)
- [link graph](https://alterlab.io/glossary/link-graph)
- [tls certificate](https://alterlab.io/glossary/tls-certificate)
- [https](https://alterlab.io/glossary/https)
- [playwright network](https://alterlab.io/glossary/playwright-network)
- [data warehouse](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-warehouse)
- [observability](https://alterlab.io/glossary/observability)
- [browser extension](https://alterlab.io/glossary/browser-extension)
- [structured output](https://alterlab.io/glossary/structured-output)
- [grounding](https://alterlab.io/glossary/grounding)
- [http cache](https://alterlab.io/glossary/http-cache)
- [concurrent crawling](https://alterlab.io/glossary/concurrent-crawling)
- [request throttling](https://alterlab.io/glossary/request-throttling)
- [selenium](https://alterlab.io/glossary/selenium)
- [proxy provider](https://alterlab.io/glossary/proxy-provider)
- [gzip compression](https://alterlab.io/glossary/gzip-compression)
- [scope creep](https://alterlab.io/glossary/scope-creep)
- [data freshness](https://alterlab.io/glossary/data-freshness)
- [api discovery](https://alterlab.io/glossary/api-discovery)
- [cache busting](https://alterlab.io/glossary/cache-busting)
- [server side rendering](https://alterlab.io/glossary/server-side-rendering)
- [noindex](https://alterlab.io/glossary/noindex)
- [encoding](https://alterlab.io/glossary/encoding)
- [sitemaps index](https://alterlab.io/glossary/sitemaps-index)
- [output format](https://alterlab.io/glossary/output-format)

## Data Sources (25 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/data-from

- [Data from Amazon](https://alterlab.io/data-from/amazon)
- [Data from eBay](https://alterlab.io/data-from/ebay)
- [Data from Shopify Stores](https://alterlab.io/data-from/shopify)
- [Data from Google Maps](https://alterlab.io/data-from/google-maps)
- [Data from Google Search Results](https://alterlab.io/data-from/google-search)
- [Data from Zillow](https://alterlab.io/data-from/zillow)
- [Data from Indeed](https://alterlab.io/data-from/indeed)
- [Data from Glassdoor](https://alterlab.io/data-from/glassdoor)
- [Data from Yelp](https://alterlab.io/data-from/yelp)
- [Data from Trustpilot](https://alterlab.io/data-from/trustpilot)
- [Data from Reddit](https://alterlab.io/data-from/reddit)
- [Data from Craigslist](https://alterlab.io/data-from/craigslist)
- [Data from Walmart](https://alterlab.io/data-from/walmart)
- [Data from Target](https://alterlab.io/data-from/target)
- [Data from Yellow Pages](https://alterlab.io/data-from/yellow-pages)
- [Data from Tripadvisor](https://alterlab.io/data-from/tripadvisor)
- [Data from Booking.com](https://alterlab.io/data-from/booking)
- [Data from News Websites](https://alterlab.io/data-from/news-sites)
- [Data from Government Websites](https://alterlab.io/data-from/government-data)
- [Data from SEC EDGAR](https://alterlab.io/data-from/sec-filings)
- [Data from Financial Market Data](https://alterlab.io/data-from/stock-data)
- [Data from Real Estate Portals](https://alterlab.io/data-from/real-estate)
- [Data from Product Hunt](https://alterlab.io/data-from/product-hunt)
- [Data from G2](https://alterlab.io/data-from/g2-reviews)
- [Data from Etsy](https://alterlab.io/data-from/etsy)

## Industries (8 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/industries

- [E-Commerce](https://alterlab.io/industries/ecommerce)
- [Real Estate](https://alterlab.io/industries/real-estate)
- [Finance](https://alterlab.io/industries/finance)
- [Travel](https://alterlab.io/industries/travel)
- [Recruitment](https://alterlab.io/industries/recruitment)
- [Research](https://alterlab.io/industries/research)
- [Marketing](https://alterlab.io/industries/marketing)
- [News & Media](https://alterlab.io/industries/news)

## Integration Platforms (11 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/integrations

- [Python](https://alterlab.io/integrations/python)
- [Node.js](https://alterlab.io/integrations/nodejs)
- [Go](https://alterlab.io/integrations/go)
- [Ruby](https://alterlab.io/integrations/ruby)
- [PHP](https://alterlab.io/integrations/php)
- [Java](https://alterlab.io/integrations/java)
- [Rust](https://alterlab.io/integrations/rust)
- [cURL](https://alterlab.io/integrations/curl)
- [Zapier](https://alterlab.io/integrations/zapier)
- [Make](https://alterlab.io/integrations/make)
- [Google Sheets](https://alterlab.io/integrations/google-sheets)

## How-To Tutorials (22 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/how-to

- [Scrape Amazon Product Data](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-amazon-product-data)
- [Handle JavaScript-Rendered Pages](https://alterlab.io/how-to/handle-javascript-rendered-pages)
- [Extract Emails from a Website](https://alterlab.io/how-to/extract-emails-from-website)
- [Scrape E-commerce Prices](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-ecommerce-prices)
- [Handle Website Challenges Automatically](https://alterlab.io/how-to/handle-website-challenges)
- [Scrape Paginated Results](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-paginated-results)
- [Scrape Google Search Results](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-google-search-results)
- [Extract Structured Data from HTML](https://alterlab.io/how-to/extract-structured-data-from-html)
- [Scrape Real Estate Listings](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-real-estate-listings)
- [Scrape News Articles](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-news-articles)
- [Build a Price Comparison Tool](https://alterlab.io/how-to/build-price-comparison-tool)
- [Monitor Competitor Websites](https://alterlab.io/how-to/monitor-competitor-websites)
- [Scrape Job Listings](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-job-listings)
- [Use Proxies for Web Scraping](https://alterlab.io/how-to/use-proxies-web-scraping)
- [Scrape Data with Python](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-data-python)
- [Scrape Data with Node.js](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-data-nodejs)
- [Avoid Getting Blocked When Scraping](https://alterlab.io/how-to/avoid-getting-blocked-scraping)
- [Extract Data from a Website Without an API](https://alterlab.io/how-to/extract-data-without-api)
- [Scrape Product Reviews](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-product-reviews)
- [Scrape Publicly Listed Profile Data](https://alterlab.io/how-to/scrape-social-media-profiles)
- [Build a Web Scraper API Endpoint](https://alterlab.io/how-to/build-web-scraper-api)
- [Handle Infinite Scroll When Scraping](https://alterlab.io/how-to/handle-infinite-scroll)

## Documentation (96 pages)

Hub: https://alterlab.io/docs


### Getting Started

- [Introduction](https://alterlab.io/docs)
- [Quickstart](https://alterlab.io/docs/quickstart)
- [Installation](https://alterlab.io/docs/quickstart/installation)
- [Your First Request](https://alterlab.io/docs/quickstart/first-request)

### API Reference

- [REST API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/rest)
- [Crawl API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/crawl)
- [Map API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/map)
- [Search API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/search)
- [SERP API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/serp)
- [Extract API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/extract)
- [Job Polling](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/jobs)
- [API Keys](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/keys)
- [Sessions API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/sessions)
- [Enterprise API](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/enterprise)

### Auto-Generated Reference

- [Account](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/account)
- [Alerts](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/alerts)
- [Auth](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/auth)
- [Billing](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/billing)
- [Crawl](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/crawl)
- [Extract](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/extract)
- [Integrations](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/integrations)
- [Keys](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/keys)
- [Map](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/map)
- [Monitors](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/monitors)
- [Organizations](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/organizations)
- [Schedules](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/schedules)
- [Scrape](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/scrape)
- [Search](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/search)
- [Sessions](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/sessions)
- [User Webhooks](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/user-webhooks)
- [V1 Endpoints](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/v1)
- [Webhooks](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/webhooks)

### SDKs

- [Overview](https://alterlab.io/docs/sdk)
- [Python](https://alterlab.io/docs/sdk/python)
- [Node.js](https://alterlab.io/docs/sdk/node)

### Guides

- [JavaScript Rendering](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/javascript-rendering)
- [Output Formats](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/output-formats)
- [PDF & OCR](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/pdf-ocr)
- [Caching](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/caching)
- [Webhooks](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/webhooks)
- [JSON Schema Filtering](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/json-schema-filtering)
- [WebSocket Real-Time](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/websocket)
- [Bring Your Own Proxy](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/bring-your-own-proxy)
- [Sticky Sessions](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/sticky-sessions)
- [Authenticated Scraping](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/authenticated-scraping)
- [HTTP Methods & Bodies](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/http-methods)
- [Structured Extraction](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/structured-extraction)
- [Web Search](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/search)
- [Site Mapping](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/map)
- [Web Crawling](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/crawling)
- [Batch Scraping](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/batch-scraping)
- [Scheduler](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/scheduler)
- [Change Detection](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/monitors)
- [Cloud Storage Export](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/cloud-storage)
- [Spend Limits](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/spend-limits)
- [Organizations & Teams](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/organizations)
- [Alerts & Notifications](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/alerts)
- [Extraction Profiles](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/extraction-profiles)
- [BYOK Extraction](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/byok-extraction)
- [OAuth2 Machine-to-Machine](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/oauth2)
- [Support & Tickets](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/support)
- [Unsupported Targets](https://alterlab.io/docs/guides/unsupported-targets)

### Tutorials

- [Structured Extraction](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/structured-extraction)
- [E-commerce Scraping](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/ecommerce-scraping)
- [News Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/news-monitoring)
- [Price Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/price-monitoring)
- [Multi-Page Crawling](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/crawling-tutorial)
- [Monitoring Dashboard](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/monitoring-dashboard)
- [AI Agent / MCP](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/ai-agent)
- [AI Research Agent](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/ai-research-agent)
- [Site Crawling](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/site-crawling)
- [Data Pipeline to Cloud](https://alterlab.io/docs/tutorials/data-pipeline)

### Use Cases

- [E-commerce](https://alterlab.io/docs/use-cases/ecommerce)
- [Lead Generation](https://alterlab.io/docs/use-cases/lead-generation)
- [Change Monitoring](https://alterlab.io/docs/use-cases/monitoring)
- [RAG & AI Pipelines](https://alterlab.io/docs/use-cases/rag-ai)
- [Research](https://alterlab.io/docs/use-cases/research)

### Reference

- [Pricing](https://alterlab.io/docs/reference/pricing)
- [Rate Limits](https://alterlab.io/docs/reference/limits)
- [Error Codes](https://alterlab.io/docs/reference/error-codes)
- [Changelog](https://alterlab.io/docs/reference/changelog)
- [Versioning](https://alterlab.io/docs/reference/versioning)

### Migrations

- [From Firecrawl](https://alterlab.io/docs/migrations/firecrawl)
- [From Apify](https://alterlab.io/docs/migrations/apify)
- [From ScrapingBee / ScraperAPI](https://alterlab.io/docs/migrations/scrapingbee)
- [From Crawl4AI](https://alterlab.io/docs/migrations/crawl4ai)
- [From Spider](https://alterlab.io/docs/migrations/spider)
- [Firecrawl v0 API Reference](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/generated/firecrawl-compat)

### Integrations

- [Overview](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations)
- [MCP Server](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/mcp)
- [n8n Node](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/n8n)
- [LangChain](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/langchain)
- [CrewAI](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/crewai)
- [LlamaIndex](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/llamaindex)
- [Supabase](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/supabase)
- [Chrome Extension](https://alterlab.io/docs/integrations/extension)

### Other Resources


## Recent Blog Posts
- [Statista Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/statista-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/statista-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026))
- [Google Patents Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/google-patents-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/google-patents-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026))
- [How to Scrape VentureBeat Data: Complete Guide for 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/how-to-scrape-venturebeat-data-complete-guide-for-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/how-to-scrape-venturebeat-data-complete-guide-for-2026))
- [Build a Price Monitor with AlterLab + Supabase](https://alterlab.io/blog/price-monitor-alterlab-supabase) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/price-monitor-alterlab-supabase))
- [How to Scrape Without Getting Blocked: The Complete Guide](https://alterlab.io/blog/how-to-scrape-without-getting-blocked) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/how-to-scrape-without-getting-blocked))
- [arXiv Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/arxiv-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/arxiv-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026))
- [PubMed Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/pubmed-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/pubmed-data-api-extract-structured-json-in-2026))
- [How to Scrape The Verge Data: Complete Guide for 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/how-to-scrape-the-verge-data-complete-guide-for-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/how-to-scrape-the-verge-data-complete-guide-for-2026))
- [How to Scrape Wired Data: Complete Guide for 2026](https://alterlab.io/blog/how-to-scrape-wired-data-complete-guide-for-2026) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/how-to-scrape-wired-data-complete-guide-for-2026))
- [How to Give Your AI Agent Access to AP News Data](https://alterlab.io/blog/how-to-give-your-ai-agent-access-to-ap-news-data) ([markdown](https://alterlab.io/blog-md/how-to-give-your-ai-agent-access-to-ap-news-data))