Reviews & DirectoriesDifficulty: Moderate

Yelp Data Extraction

Extract publicly available data from Yelp 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

Yelp uses moderate bot protections including JavaScript-rendered review content and infinite scroll pagination. Static HTML requests return incomplete data — reviews require rendering to appear. The search results page loads business listings dynamically. Yelp applies rate limiting based on IP address for rapid sequential requests. Cookie presence affects the amount of review content returned before a login prompt appears.

Technical Context

Yelp's review section loads via JavaScript pagination. The first set of reviews is included in the initial render, but scrolling or paginating to additional reviews requires additional rendering steps. Business search results at yelp.com/search load business cards dynamically based on map viewport. Each business page URL follows a consistent pattern (/biz/{slug}) making systematic collection straightforward.

Common Data Fields

Typical fields available when extracting data from Yelp:

Business name
Overall star rating (out of 5)
Total review count
Business address and neighborhood
Phone number
Website URL
Business hours (by day)
Price range ($ to $$$$)
Category tags
Individual review text
Reviewer name and review date
Review star rating
Amenities and attributes

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.

Quick Start — Extract from Yelp

cURL
# Always verify the target site's robots.txt and terms of service before extracting data.
curl -X POST https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/best-pizza-new-york",
    "advanced": { "render_js": true }
  }'

Need an API key? — no credit card required.

Python Example

Python
import requests

# Always verify the target site's robots.txt and terms of service before extracting data.
response = requests.post(
    "https://alterlab.io/api/v1/scrape",
    headers={
        "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/best-pizza-new-york",
        "advanced": {"render_js": True},
    },
)

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I extract Yelp business listings?

Send the Yelp business page URL to AlterLab with JavaScript rendering enabled. You'll receive the full page with business name, address, phone, hours, categories, rating, and review count.

Can I extract Yelp reviews?

Yes. AlterLab renders the full review section including reviewer names, ratings, dates, and review text from publicly visible Yelp business pages.

Does AlterLab support Yelp search results?

Absolutely. Pass a Yelp search URL and AlterLab returns the rendered results including business names, ratings, review counts, price ranges, and categories for each listing.

How do I extract reviews beyond the first page?

Yelp paginates reviews using a start parameter in the URL (e.g., ?start=20 for the third page). Request each page URL sequentially through AlterLab to collect reviews across all pages.

Can I extract Yelp data for multiple locations?

Yes. Construct search URLs with your location parameter (e.g., yelp.com/search?find_desc=restaurants&find_loc=Chicago,IL) and extract the business listings for each city or neighborhood you need.

What Yelp data is available without a login?

Business names, addresses, phone numbers, hours, categories, star ratings, review counts, and a portion of individual reviews are publicly visible. Some review content may be gated after a certain count. AlterLab extracts all publicly visible content.

How do I extract Yelp business listings?

Send the Yelp business page URL to AlterLab with JavaScript rendering enabled. You'll receive the full page with business name, address, phone, hours, categories, rating, and review count.

Can I extract Yelp reviews?

Yes. AlterLab renders the full review section including reviewer names, ratings, dates, and review text from publicly visible Yelp business pages.

Related Use Cases

Lead Generation API →Review Monitoring API →Restaurant & Food Data API →

Business Data Guide

Yelp Data for Business →

Developer Scraping Resources

How to Scrape Yelp Data: Complete Guide

Step-by-step tutorial with Python and Node.js code examples, structured extraction, and cost breakdown for Yelp scraping.

How to Handle Bot Protection Challenges

All 6 detection layers explained: TLS fingerprinting, JS challenges, Turnstile, and more.

JavaScript Rendering API

Full browser rendering for SPAs, React, and dynamic content.

Python Web Scraping API

pip install alterlab — async-ready Python SDK with 5,000 free scrapes.

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.

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 · $1 free credit, up to 5,000 scrapes · Balance never expires