ReferenceDifficulty: Very Easy

Wikipedia Data Extraction

Extract publicly available data from Wikipedia at scale using AlterLab's API — JavaScript rendering, structured extraction, and automatic retries in one request.

Automatic renderingJavaScript supportStructured data extractionChallenge resolution

Website Compatibility Notes

Wikipedia has minimal protections and serves static HTML. No JavaScript rendering needed. Respect their rate limits and User-Agent policy.

Quick Start — Extract from Wikipedia

cURL
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
    "advanced": { "render_js": true }
  }'

Need an API key? Sign up free — no credit card required.

Python Example

Python
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape",
    headers={
        "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
        "advanced": {"render_js": True},
    },
)

data = response.json()
print(data["content"][:500])  # First 500 chars of extracted content

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I extract Wikipedia article content?

Send Wikipedia article URLs to AlterLab. Since Wikipedia serves static HTML, no JavaScript rendering is needed. You'll receive the full article content with sections, tables, references, and infoboxes.

Can I extract structured data from Wikipedia infoboxes?

Yes. Wikipedia infoboxes contain structured key-value data (e.g., population, area, founding date). AlterLab returns the full HTML which you can parse for specific infobox fields.

Is there a better way to access Wikipedia data?

Wikipedia offers a free API (api.wikimedia.org) for structured access. AlterLab is useful when you need the rendered visual layout, tables, or content that the API doesn't easily expose.

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. Do not use this service to access non-public, authenticated, or personally identifiable data without appropriate authorization.

Your first scrape.
Sixty seconds.

$1 free balance. No credit card. No SDK.Just a POST request.

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

No credit card required · Up to 5,000 free scrapes · Balance never expire