We benchmarked the best web scraping APIs using 12,500 requests across 3,000+ real-world URLs in e-commerce, search engines (SERP), and social media. See the performance of tools: price per request, response time, success rate, and how much data each API actually returns.
Web scraping API benchmark results
The two charts below plot median response time against the average number of data fields returned by each API. The upper-left quadrant (high data depth, low latency) is the most attractive. For definitions, see methodology.
Response time vs. data detail
Success rate
Response time
Pros & cons of the top web scraping APIs
- Benchmark highlight: extracted 220+ data fields in our SERP tests, capturing details that others missed.
Bright Data lets users specify exactly which data to retrieve, enabling faster responses through its custom IDE scrapers and ready-to-use templates for common sites (Amazon, YouTube, Facebook). Reducing the requested data dropped the response time to ~3.5s in our tests. It offers pay-as-you-go and custom pricing.
In scraping, there is a trade-off between response time and the amount of data to retrieve. Since scraping users require fresh data, these services collect data using proxies or unblockers after the client’s request. The more pages that need to be crawled, the longer it takes to return the data.
Get 25% off Bright Data’s Web Scraping APIs by entering the promo code API25.
Visit Website- Benchmark highlight: the most consistent latency across our tests, with no major spikes.
Oxylabs offers a general-purpose web scraping API suitable for a wide range of domains. Oxylabs provides dedicated endpoints, also known as parametrized sources, for specific websites and platforms.
Oxylabs uses a feature-based pricing model for its Web Scraper API, with costs adjusted based on the complexity of the scraping. Users pay only for what they use, with lower rates for simpler targets that don’t require JavaScript rendering.
Get 2,000 free scraping credits
Visit Website- Benchmark highlight: the fastest budget-friendly API for Amazon and Target, with a ~2s median response time.
Decodo offers two primary Web Scraping API services, core and advanced, for different data extraction projects. The core plan is ideal for users who need basic scraping capabilities without advanced features. Its geo-targeting is limited to 8 countries.
The advanced plan covers advanced features such as JavaScript rendering, structured data outputs (JSON/CSV), and global geo-targeting.
Apply SCRAPE30 for 30% off- Benchmark highlight: the fastest API in our test, under 2s for basic extraction, and the best value at $0.13 per 1,000 pages.
Zyte provides a general-purpose scraper API with proxy management features and browser automation capabilities. The scraper API allows you to handle request headers, cookies, and toggle JavaScript.
- Benchmark highlight: excelled at social media scraping, staying stable as platforms updated anti-bot measures.
Apify is a developer-focused web scraping platform that offers pre-made scrapers and automation tools called Actors.
You can use Actors as they are, ask to modify them for your use case, or create your own. Developers can create and run Actors in various programming languages (such as JavaScript/TypeScript and Python) by using code templates, universal scrapers, or the open-source web scraping library, Crawlee.
- Benchmark highlight: a near-100% success rate in our SERP benchmark, staying under the 5-second response mark.
Nimble offers general-purpose, SERP, e-commerce, and maps APIs featuring integrated rotating residential proxies and unlocker proxy solutions. The web API supports batch requests, allowing up to 1,000 URLs per batch.
Web scraping API pricing
Web scraper API vs. proxies: Which is more cost-effective?
With proxies, you are still responsible for managing browser headers, rotating IPs, solving CAPTCHA, and handling JS rendering.
Web scraper APIs include a proxy layer and a management layer. They handle unblocking, bypassing anti-bot measures, and running JavaScript automatically.
Add as preferred sourceWhich platforms does each web scraping API support?
Below is a detailed breakdown of which platforms (Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc.) each provider supports and where they excel.
E-commerce APIs
E-commerce APIs are offered by most providers:
* Though Apify offers scraping APIs for these page types via its community-maintained APIs, we were not able to access these Actors as part of the plan provided to us by Apify.
Ranking: Providers are sorted from left to right by the number of APIs they offer. If they provide the same number of APIs, they are listed alphabetically.
For more, see eCommerce-scraping APIs.
Social media APIs
While some providers offer many social media APIs, some don’t provide any:
A social network is included with a ✅ if
- It has an API for all the page types in that social network in our benchmark set, and
- Its API has a>90% success rate
For more: social media scraping
Search engine APIs
Search engine APIs are offered by all providers:
For more: SERP APIs
Web scraping API benchmark methodology
Test URLs
We analyzed 3,000+ real-world URLs across three high-stakes categories:
- 1,700 eCommerce URLs, as explained in the e-commerce scraper benchmark.
- 1,100 social media URLs as outlined in the social media scraper benchmark.
- 200 query result pages, as explained in the SERP API benchmark.
Speed & latency
- Proxies and web unblocker: Response time is measured.
- Scraping API: Response time is calculated as the difference between webhook callback time and request time.
All providers’ response times are calculated on the same set of pages on which they all returned successful responses. It would not be fair to compare the response time of an unsuccessful response to that of a successful one, since an unsuccessful response can be generated faster.
For example, if four unblockers were run on 600 URLs and 540 returned successful results, those 540 URLs form the basis for the response time calculation.
Success rates
Requirements for a successful request for a web scraper API:
- HTTP response code: 200
- A response longer than 500 characters
If a web scraper returns successful results more than 90% of the time for a specific type of page (e.g., Walmart search pages) and if the correctness of the results is validated by random sampling of 10 URLs, then we list that provider as a scraping API provider for that type of page.
Most scraper APIs had more than 90% success rates for their target pages. Therefore, rather than focusing on 1-2% differences between different APIs, we list all APIs that returned successful results more than 90% of the time.
Even though we used fresh URLs, a small percentage of them returned 404 during the test. They were excluded from the test.
Determining participants
- Web scraper APIs: Participants’ websites were scanned to identify relevant scrapers.
- Proxies: All providers except Zyte were included.
Average # of fields
- For each successful API result, we count the number of fields returned in the JSON file. Each key is counted regardless of its value.
FAQs
Use a Web Search API (SERP API) when you specifically need indexed data from search engines like Google or Bing for SEO tracking, keyword research, or competitive monitoring.
Use a Web Scraping API when you need to extract direct, real-time data from specific websites like Amazon, Instagram, or any public domain that isn’t primarily a search engine.
High-performance APIs like Nimble and Bright Data are specifically designed to mimic real human behavior. In our tests, they maintained a near-100% success rate even on platforms with the toughest security by using advanced residential proxy networks and automated browser rendering.
Cite this benchmark
Pick the format that matches where you're publishing. Pasting the link version into your CMS preserves the backlink.
@misc{dogan2026,
author = {Dogan, Sedat and Karatas, Gulbahar},
title = {{Benchmarked the Best Web Scraping APIs}},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
howpublished = {\url{https://aimultiple.com/web-scraping-apis}},
note = {AIMultiple. Retrieved June 25, 2026}
}
- Has 20 years of experience as a white-hat hacker and development guru, with extensive expertise in programming languages and server architectures.
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