To solve the problem of efficiently accessing and parsing web data, here are the detailed steps for leveraging Scraper API documentation:

👉 Skip the hassle and get the ready to use 100% working script (Link in the comments section of the YouTube Video) (Latest test 31/05/2025)

Check more on: How to Bypass Cloudflare Turnstile & Cloudflare WAF – Reddit, How to Bypass Cloudflare Turnstile, Cloudflare WAF & reCAPTCHA v3 – Medium, How to Bypass Cloudflare Turnstile, WAF & reCAPTCHA v3 – LinkedIn Article

Understand the Core Request: Scraper API simplifies web scraping by handling proxies, CAPTCHAs, and retries. Your primary interaction will involve sending an HTTP GET request to their API endpoint with your target URL and API key.

Basic Request Structure:

Endpoint: http://api.scraperapi.com/
Parameters:
- api_key: Your unique API key required.
- url: The URL of the page you want to scrape required.

Example Python requests library:

import requests

api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY' # Replace with your actual API key
target_url = 'http://quotes.toscrape.com/' # Replace with the target website



payload = {'api_key': api_key, 'url': target_url}


response = requests.get'http://api.scraperapi.com/', params=payload

printresponse.text

Explore Advanced Options: The documentation details various parameters to customize your requests:
- render: Set to true for JavaScript rendering e.g., &render=true.
- country_code: To target specific geographic regions e.g., &country_code=us.
- premium: For residential IPs e.g., &premium=true.
- session_number: To maintain a session e.g., &session_number=123.
- browser: To specify browser type chrome or firefox.
- keep_headers: To retain original request headers.
- follow_redirects: To control redirect behavior.
Error Handling: The documentation outlines common HTTP status codes and their meanings e.g., 429 for rate limits, 500 for internal errors. Implement robust error handling in your code.
Rate Limits & Best Practices: Be mindful of your plan’s concurrency limits. The documentation often provides guidance on responsible scraping, such as adding delays between requests time.sleep in Python and respecting robots.txt if you choose not to use the API for specific sites.
Code Examples: The best documentation provides code examples in popular languages like Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, and cURL. Always refer to these to get started quickly.
Pricing & Plans: Understand the request limits and features associated with different pricing tiers to choose the plan that suits your needs.

Table of Contents

Decoding the Web: A Deep Dive into Scraper API Documentation

From market research to competitive analysis, the ability to extract information from the web is invaluable.

However, traditional web scraping can be a labyrinth of proxies, CAPTCHAs, and IP blocks.

This is where a service like Scraper API shines, abstracting away these complexities.

Understanding its documentation isn’t just about syntax.

It’s about unlocking a powerful tool for ethical data acquisition and ensuring your projects run smoothly and efficiently.

We’re talking about streamlining your efforts, similar to how Tim Ferriss would optimize a workflow – no wasted movements, just pure, targeted results.

The Foundation: Getting Started with Scraper API

Getting started with any API requires a clear roadmap, and Scraper API’s documentation provides just that.

It’s designed to get you from zero to scraping in minutes, whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting your journey.

What is Scraper API and Why Use It?

Obtaining Your API Key and First Request

The very first step is to sign up for an account on the Scraper API website e.g., https://www.scraperapi.com/. Upon registration, you’ll be provided with a unique API key.

This key is your authentication token for all requests. Golang web scraper

The documentation typically provides a basic example for your first request, often in cURL or Python, which looks something like this:

import requests

# Your unique API key obtained from Scraper API dashboard
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
# The URL of the webpage you want to scrape
target_url = 'https://example.com'

# Constructing the payload for the GET request
payload = {'api_key': api_key, 'url': target_url}

try:
   # Sending the request to Scraper API endpoint


   response = requests.get'http://api.scraperapi.com/', params=payload

   # Check for successful response
    if response.status_code == 200:


       print"Successfully scraped page content:"
       printresponse.text # Print first 500 characters
    else:
        printf"Error scraping page. Status code: {response.status_code}"
       printresponse.text # Print error message from API
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:


   printf"An error occurred during the request: {e}"

This simple structure is the backbone of all your interactions with the API, allowing you to quickly verify connectivity and functionality.

Essential Parameters for Tailored Scraping

The real power of Scraper API lies in its extensive set of parameters, which allow you to fine-tune your scraping requests to match the complexities of modern websites.

Understanding these parameters is akin to having a multi-tool for data extraction – you select the right attachment for the job.

Handling JavaScript with `render` Parameter

Many contemporary websites rely heavily on JavaScript to load content dynamically.

If you try to scrape such a site without rendering JavaScript, you’ll often end up with an empty or incomplete HTML response.

The render=true parameter tells Scraper API to spin up a headless browser like Chrome or Firefox to execute JavaScript before returning the page content.

This is crucial for single-page applications SPAs or sites that use client-side rendering frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.js.

When to use render=true:
- Websites where content appears after a brief loading spinner.
- Sites that dynamically load product listings, reviews, or news articles.
- Interactive charts or graphs that are populated by JS.
Performance Note: Rendering JavaScript consumes more resources and takes longer. Scraper API typically charges more “credits” for rendered requests compared to static HTML requests. Based on industry benchmarks, a rendered request can take 3-5 times longer and cost 2-3 times more than a non-rendered one. Use it judiciously.

Geographic Targeting with `country_code`

Sometimes, the content displayed on a website varies based on the user’s geographic location. E-commerce sites, news portals, and streaming services frequently implement geo-blocking or localized content. The country_code parameter e.g., &country_code=us for United States, &country_code=gb for Great Britain allows you to route your request through a proxy server located in a specific country. This ensures you see the content precisely as a user from that region would. Scraper API boasts a network of proxies spanning over 195 countries, providing unparalleled flexibility for global data acquisition.

Common Use Cases:
- Price comparison: Checking prices in different regions.
- Localized content: Accessing region-specific news or product catalogs.
- SEO monitoring: Verifying search rankings from various countries.

Residential Proxies with `premium`

The premium=true parameter leverages Scraper API’s residential proxy network. Get api of any website

Residential proxies are IP addresses associated with real homes and internet service providers ISPs, making them significantly harder for websites to detect and block compared to datacenter proxies.

While more expensive, they offer a higher success rate for highly protected websites that employ advanced anti-bot technologies.

When premium=true is your go-to:
- Highly aggressive anti-bot sites: Large e-commerce platforms, social media sites.
- Frequent blocking: When standard proxies are consistently getting blocked.
- High-value data: When data integrity and successful extraction are paramount.
- Industry data indicates residential proxies have an average success rate of 99.1% on challenging targets, compared to 85-90% for datacenter proxies.

Maintaining Sessions with `session_number`

For scenarios where you need to interact with a website over multiple requests, such as logging in, navigating through paginated results, or adding items to a cart, you’ll need to maintain a consistent session.

The session_number parameter allows you to tell Scraper API to reuse the same underlying proxy and browser session for a series of requests.

This simulates a real user’s continuous interaction, preventing the website from treating each request as a new, unrelated visitor.

Example: To perform a login sequence, you might send the login request with session_number=123, then subsequent requests to navigate inside the logged-in area would also use session_number=123. The documentation is key here to understand how long sessions are maintained and any associated limitations.

Advanced Configuration and Request Customization

Beyond the core parameters, Scraper API offers a suite of advanced configurations that provide even finer control over your scraping operations.

Mastering these options is crucial for tackling niche scraping challenges and optimizing your resource usage.

Specifying Browser Type and Headers

The browser parameter allows you to choose between chrome default and firefox for JavaScript rendering.

While Chrome is generally preferred for its market share and compatibility, Firefox might offer slight advantages or be necessary for sites optimized for that specific browser.

The keep_headers=true parameter instructs Scraper API to forward your original request headers to the target website. Php site

This can be useful for impersonating specific user agents, sending custom cookies though session_number is often better for session management, or passing authentication tokens.

Example of custom User-Agent header:

headers = {


   'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 Windows NT 10.0. Win64. x64 AppleWebKit/537.36 KHTML, like Gecko Chrome/100.0.4896.127 Safari/537.36'
}


payload = {'api_key': api_key, 'url': target_url}


response = requests.get'http://api.scraperapi.com/', params=payload, headers=headers

This sends the User-Agent through your requests call, which Scraper API then forwards to the target if keep_headers=true is used.

Customizing Browser Actions with `callback_url`

For highly interactive websites, sometimes you need to trigger specific browser actions after the page loads but before the HTML is returned. The callback_url feature allows you to specify a webhook that Scraper API will call with the rendered page content. This is particularly useful for scraping data from elements that only appear after a button click, a scroll event, or a specific user interaction that isn’t easily triggered by URL parameters.

While this adds complexity, it opens up possibilities for scraping dynamic content that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The documentation will provide detailed instructions on setting up your webhook endpoint and handling the incoming data.

Debugging and Error Handling Strategies

No scraping project is without its hiccups.

Understanding how to debug issues and handle errors gracefully is paramount.

Scraper API provides verbose logging and clear error codes.

HTTP Status Codes:
- 200 OK: Success.
- 429 Too Many Requests: You’ve hit your rate limit or the target website is rate-limiting you. Implement exponential backoff.
- 500 Internal Server Error: An issue on Scraper API’s end rare.
- 503 Service Unavailable: Often related to the target website’s server issues or extreme blocking.
- 403 Forbidden: The target website is blocking the request. Try premium=true or a different country_code.
Scraper API Specific Headers: The API often includes X-Scraperapi-Status and X-Scraperapi-Retries headers in its response, which can provide insights into how the request was handled. For instance, a 403 from Scraper API itself indicates a problem with your API key or plan.
Debugging Tips:
- Start with a simple request and gradually add parameters.
- Check response.status_code and response.text for clues.
- Test URLs in a browser to see if content loads as expected for a human.
- Utilize render=true if content is missing, but verify it’s a JavaScript issue.
- Consult Scraper API’s dashboard for detailed usage logs and error reports.

Responsible Scraping and Ethical Considerations

While Scraper API provides the tools to extract data, it’s crucial to approach web scraping with an ethical mindset. Scrape all content from website

As responsible data professionals, we must adhere to legal and moral guidelines, ensuring our actions align with principles of fairness and respect for data ownership.

This is similar to how we would approach any venture in a just and upright manner, seeking benefit without causing harm.

Respecting `robots.txt` and Terms of Service

Many websites publish a robots.txt file e.g., https://example.com/robots.txt which outlines rules for web crawlers, indicating which parts of the site they prefer not to be accessed. While Scraper API bypasses some anti-bot measures, ignoring robots.txt can lead to legal issues or, at the very least, bad online citizenship. Always check a website’s robots.txt before scraping. Furthermore, always review a website’s Terms of Service ToS. Many ToS explicitly prohibit automated scraping, especially for commercial purposes or if it puts undue strain on their servers. Disregarding these can lead to legal action or your IP addresses or even Scraper API’s proxies being permanently banned.

Key takeaway: Just because you can scrape something doesn’t mean you should. Always prioritize ethical conduct.

Managing Request Frequency and Rate Limits

Scraper API, like any service, has rate limits to ensure fair usage and prevent abuse.

These limits are typically tied to your subscription plan and define how many concurrent requests you can make or how many requests you can send per second/minute.

Consequences of exceeding limits:
- 429 Too Many Requests: Your requests will be throttled or blocked.
- Temporary IP blocks: The target website might block the underlying proxy IPs.
- Account suspension: For severe or persistent abuse.
Best practices:
- Implement delays: Use time.sleep in your code between requests. For example, a delay of 1-5 seconds between requests is often a good starting point for polite scraping.
- Use exponential backoff: If you receive a 429 error, wait a little longer before retrying e.g., 2s, then 4s, then 8s.
- Monitor usage: Regularly check your Scraper API dashboard for usage statistics.
- Distribute load: If you have a massive scraping task, consider scheduling it over a longer period or using multiple API keys/accounts if allowed by your plan.

Data Storage and Compliance GDPR, CCPA

Once you’ve scraped data, the responsibility shifts to how you store and use it. If you’re collecting any personal data even indirect identifiers, you must comply with stringent regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR in Europe or the California Consumer Privacy Act CCPA in the United States. These laws mandate transparency, data minimization, and secure storage.

Key considerations:
- Anonymize data: If personal identifiers are not essential, anonymize them.
- Secure storage: Store data in encrypted databases.
- Data retention policies: Don’t keep data longer than necessary.
- User consent: If possible and necessary, obtain explicit consent for data collection.
- Consult legal counsel: When in doubt, especially for commercial projects involving personal data, seek expert legal advice. The average fine for a GDPR violation in 2023 was €1.5 million, illustrating the severe consequences of non-compliance.

Integration with Popular Programming Languages

A well-documented API provides clear examples and libraries for common programming languages.

This significantly reduces the learning curve and allows developers to integrate the service into their existing workflows seamlessly.

Scraper API generally provides examples for Python, Node.js, Ruby, PHP, and cURL.

Python `requests` Library Examples

Python’s requests library is the de facto standard for HTTP requests, making it a perfect fit for integrating with Scraper API. Scraper api free

Basic GET Request: As shown in “Getting Started” section
POST Request Example:

Some websites require POST requests, for example, to submit forms or login.
import requests
import json

api_key = ‘YOUR_API_KEY’
target_url = ‘https://httpbin.org/post‘ # A test URL for POST requests

Data to be sent in the POST request body

post_data = {
‘username’: ‘testuser’,
‘password’: ‘testpassword’
payload = {
‘api_key’: api_key,
‘url’: target_url,
‘method’: ‘POST’, # Indicate it’s a POST request
‘body’: json.dumpspost_data, # JSON encode the body
‘headers’: json.dumps{‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’} # Set appropriate headers
try:
response = requests.post’http://api.scraperapi.com/‘, json=payload # Send POST request to Scraper API
if response.status_code == 200:
print”POST request successful:”
printresponse.json # Parse the JSON response
else:

printf”Error: {response.status_code}, {response.text}”
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
printf”Request failed: {e}”
This example demonstrates how to send a POST request through Scraper API to a target URL, which then itself receives the POST request.

Node.js `axios` or `node-fetch` Examples

For JavaScript developers working with Node.js, axios or the built-in node-fetch are common choices for making HTTP requests.

axios Example GET with render:

const axios = require'axios'.

async function scrapePage {
    const apiKey = 'YOUR_API_KEY'.


   const targetUrl = 'https://quotes.toscrape.com/js/'. // A JS-heavy site

    try {


       const response = await axios.get'http://api.scraperapi.com/', {
            params: {
                api_key: apiKey,
                url: targetUrl,


               render: true // Enable JavaScript rendering
            }
        }.


       console.log"Scraped content first 500 chars:".


       console.logresponse.data.substring0, 500.
    } catch error {


       console.error'Error scraping:', error.response ? error.response.status : error.message.
        if error.response {


           console.error'Response data:', error.response.data.
        }
    }

scrapePage.

cURL Examples for Quick Testing

cURL is an indispensable command-line tool for making HTTP requests.

It’s often used for quick testing or when you need to embed requests in shell scripts.

Basic GET with cURL: Scrape all data from website



curl "http://api.scraperapi.com/?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&url=https://httpbin.org/html"

GET with render and country_code:

Curl “http://api.scraperapi.com/?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&url=https://example.com&render=true&country_code=gb“

These examples, readily available in the documentation, serve as powerful starting points, allowing developers to quickly adapt the API to their preferred development environment.

Advanced Features and Use Cases

Beyond basic page fetching, Scraper API offers features that cater to more sophisticated scraping requirements.

These advanced capabilities enable you to tackle complex scenarios, from capturing full-page screenshots to handling specific response formats.

Capturing Screenshots with `screenshot`

Sometimes, you need more than just the HTML content. you need a visual representation of the webpage. This is particularly useful for:

Quality assurance: Verifying that a page renders correctly.
Competitor monitoring: Tracking visual changes on competitor websites.
Compliance: Documenting the appearance of a page at a specific time.
Error logging: Capturing a screenshot when a scraping error occurs to aid in debugging.

The screenshot=true parameter tells Scraper API to return a full-page screenshot as a PNG or JPEG image, rather than the HTML.

You can often specify parameters like screenshot_format png or jpeg, screenshot_full_page to capture the entire scrollable page, and screenshot_viewport to specify the browser window size.

Example Python:

target_url = ‘https://www.google.com‘
output_filename = ‘google_screenshot.png’ Data scraping using python

 'screenshot': 'true',
 'screenshot_full_page': 'true',
 'screenshot_format': 'png'



response = requests.get'http://api.scraperapi.com/', params=payload, stream=True
     with openoutput_filename, 'wb' as f:


        for chunk in response.iter_contentchunk_size=8192:
             f.writechunk


    printf"Screenshot saved to {output_filename}"
     printf"Error capturing screenshot. Status code: {response.status_code}"
     printresponse.text


 printf"An error occurred: {e}"

This feature consumes more credits due to the rendering and image generation process, typically 5-10 times the cost of a standard HTML request.

Parsing JSON Responses

Many modern APIs and internal data structures on websites return data in JSON format rather than HTML. While Scraper API primarily returns HTML, if the target URL itself returns JSON, Scraper API will simply pass that through. This is particularly useful for scraping data from internal APIs that a website uses to populate its content.

Scenario: A website might use a /api/products endpoint that returns product data in JSON. You can point Scraper API to this JSON endpoint, and it will handle the proxy/CAPTCHA challenges, returning the raw JSON.
Key: Ensure your target URL actually returns JSON. You can verify this by visiting the URL directly in your browser and checking the “Response Headers” for Content-Type: application/json.

Example Python – assuming target_url returns JSON:

Target_url = ‘https://api.example.com/products‘ # Example: an API endpoint returning JSON

    data = json.loadsresponse.text # Parse the JSON response


    print"Successfully retrieved JSON data:"
     printjson.dumpsdata, indent=2

except requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError:

print"Error: Response was not valid JSON."

Integrating with Third-Party Parsers

While Scraper API excels at fetching the raw webpage content, it doesn’t typically offer built-in parsing capabilities like XPath or CSS selectors. This is by design, allowing you to choose the best-of-breed parsing library for your specific needs.

Popular Python Parsing Libraries:
- Beautiful Soup: Excellent for HTML parsing, navigating the DOM, and extracting data using CSS selectors or element names. Highly versatile.
- LXML: A fast, powerful XML and HTML toolkit that supports XPath and CSS selectors. Often used for performance-critical tasks.
- Pandas: For structuring scraped data into DataFrames, especially useful after initial parsing for data analysis.
Workflow:
1. Use Scraper API to get the raw HTML.
2. Pass the HTML content to your chosen parsing library e.g., Beautiful Soup. Web scraping con python
3. Extract the specific data points you need e.g., product names, prices, reviews.
4. Store the structured data e.g., in CSV, JSON, or a database.

This modular approach ensures that Scraper API focuses on its core strength fetching, while you retain flexibility for data extraction and transformation.

Pricing, Support, and Community Resources

Understanding the operational aspects of Scraper API – its pricing, the support available, and how to tap into community knowledge – is just as important as mastering its technical parameters.

This section provides a practical overview of managing your Scraper API usage effectively.

Understanding Pricing Tiers and Credit Consumption

Scraper API typically operates on a credit-based system, where different types of requests consume a varying number of credits.

Standard HTML requests: Usually consume 1 credit.
JavaScript rendered requests render=true: Might consume 5-10 credits per request.
Residential proxy requests premium=true: Also consume a higher number of credits, often 10-20 credits per request.
Screenshot requests: Can be the most credit-intensive, as they involve rendering and image processing.

Scraper API offers various pricing tiers e.g., Free, Hobby, Startup, Business, Enterprise, each with a monthly credit allowance and specific features e.g., concurrency limits, number of supported countries, access to residential proxies. It’s crucial to select a plan that aligns with your anticipated usage volume and the complexity of the websites you intend to scrape.

Many plans offer a free trial, which is an excellent opportunity to test the service and estimate your credit consumption for typical tasks.

Support Channels and Documentation Updates

High-quality support is invaluable when working with any API. Scraper API typically provides:

Comprehensive documentation: The primary source of truth, covering parameters, error codes, and code examples. Regular updates reflect new features or changes.
FAQ section: Addresses common questions and troubleshooting tips.
Email support: For more specific technical issues or account-related inquiries. Response times vary based on your plan level.
Live chat for higher tiers: Often available for immediate assistance.

Always check the documentation first, as most common issues are already addressed there. API documentation is dynamic. Web scraping com python

New features are added, and old ones might be deprecated.

Make it a habit to periodically review the latest documentation to stay updated and leverage new functionalities.

Community Forums and Best Practices Sharing

While Scraper API doesn’t have a direct public community forum, you can find discussions and best practices shared in broader web scraping communities:

Stack Overflow: A vast repository of programming questions and answers. Search for “scraperapi” or general web scraping questions.
Reddit communities: Subreddits like r/webscraping, r/datascience, or r/learnprogramming frequently discuss scraping tools and techniques.
GitHub: Many developers share open-source scraping projects or gists that use Scraper API, providing real-world examples.
Developer blogs: Many tech blogs or industry experts share their experiences and optimal strategies for using web scraping APIs.

Engaging with these communities can provide valuable insights into advanced patterns, troubleshooting obscure issues, and discovering innovative ways to apply Scraper API to your projects.

Learning from collective experience is a powerful accelerator in mastering any complex tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Scraper API used for?

Scraper API is primarily used for web scraping, allowing users to extract data from websites without dealing with common obstacles like IP blocking, CAPTCHAs, and browser rendering issues.

It simplifies the process by providing a single API endpoint that handles these complexities.

How do I get an API key for Scraper API?

You get an API key for Scraper API by signing up for an account on their official website e.g., https://www.scraperapi.com/. Once registered, your unique API key will be displayed in your user dashboard, usually under a “Dashboard” or “API Key” section.

Does Scraper API handle JavaScript rendering?

Yes, Scraper API handles JavaScript rendering.

You can enable this feature by adding the render=true parameter to your API request, which instructs the API to load the page in a headless browser and execute JavaScript before returning the content. Api bot

Can Scraper API bypass CAPTCHAs?

Yes, Scraper API is designed to bypass CAPTCHAs automatically.

It uses various techniques and a large proxy network to solve CAPTCHAs, allowing you to access pages that would otherwise be blocked.

What is the `premium` parameter in Scraper API?

The premium parameter premium=true in Scraper API allows you to use residential proxies.

Residential proxies are IP addresses assigned by Internet Service Providers ISPs to real homes, making them less likely to be detected and blocked by aggressive anti-bot systems compared to datacenter proxies.

How do I target a specific country with Scraper API?

You can target a specific country with Scraper API by using the country_code parameter e.g., country_code=us for the United States or country_code=gb for Great Britain. This routes your request through a proxy server located in the specified country.

Is Scraper API free to use?

Scraper API typically offers a free trial or a free tier with a limited number of credits.

Beyond that, it operates on a subscription model with various paid plans based on your usage volume and required features.

What programming languages does Scraper API support?

Scraper API is language-agnostic as it’s an HTTP API.

However, its documentation provides explicit code examples and integration guidance for popular programming languages such as Python, Node.js JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and cURL.

Can I maintain a session with Scraper API?

Yes, you can maintain a session with Scraper API by using the session_number parameter. Cloudflare protection bypass

This allows you to send multiple requests that reuse the same underlying proxy and browser session, useful for tasks like logging in or navigating paginated content.

What is the difference between `render` and `premium`?

render=true tells Scraper API to execute JavaScript on the page, returning the fully loaded content.

premium=true tells Scraper API to use a residential proxy, which is less likely to be blocked, but does not inherently enable JavaScript rendering unless render=true is also specified.

How does Scraper API handle redirects?

Scraper API handles redirects by default, following them to the final destination URL.

You can usually control this behavior, and the documentation specifies parameters to disable or manage redirect following if needed.

What are the common error codes from Scraper API?

Common error codes from Scraper API include HTTP status codes like 429 Too Many Requests, often due to rate limits, 403 Forbidden, target site blocking or invalid API key, and 500 Internal Server Error, an issue on Scraper API’s end.

Can I use Scraper API for POST requests?

Yes, you can use Scraper API for POST requests.

You need to specify the method=POST parameter in your request to Scraper API and include the body parameter with your POST data, typically JSON-encoded.

Does Scraper API offer screenshot capabilities?

Yes, Scraper API offers screenshot capabilities.

You can capture full-page screenshots by including the screenshot=true parameter in your request. Cloudflare anti scraping

You can also specify the format PNG/JPEG and whether to capture the full page.

Is it ethical to use Scraper API for web scraping?

The ethicality of web scraping depends on your actions.

While Scraper API provides the tools, it’s crucial to respect robots.txt files, comply with website Terms of Service, manage request frequency to avoid overloading servers, and adhere to data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

How does Scraper API compare to building my own scraping infrastructure?

Scraper API significantly simplifies web scraping by abstracting away the complexities of proxy management, CAPTCHA solving, and browser rendering.

Building your own infrastructure for these tasks is highly complex, time-consuming, and costly to maintain, especially at scale.

Can Scraper API be used for scraping highly protected websites?

Yes, Scraper API, especially with its premium residential proxy and render JavaScript execution parameters, is highly effective at scraping highly protected websites that employ advanced anti-bot technologies.

What is the typical response time for a Scraper API request?

The typical response time for a Scraper API request varies.

A basic HTML request might take a few hundred milliseconds to a couple of seconds.

Requests with render=true JavaScript rendering or premium=true residential proxies will take longer, often several seconds, due to the additional processing involved.

Does Scraper API provide data parsing features?

No, Scraper API typically provides the raw HTML or JSON content of the webpage. Get api from website

It does not offer built-in data parsing capabilities like XPath or CSS selectors. You would use separate libraries e.g., Beautiful Soup or LXML in Python to parse the content returned by Scraper API.

What happens if I exceed my Scraper API credit limit?

If you exceed your Scraper API credit limit, your subsequent requests will likely fail or return a 429 Too Many Requests error.

You will typically need to upgrade your plan or wait for your credit allowance to reset based on your subscription cycle.

Scraper api documentation