Top 7 Web Scraping APIs That Actually Work in 2025

You know that feeling when you need data from a website, but the thought of writing scrapers, managing proxies, and dealing with CAPTCHAs makes you want to take a nap instead? Yeah, I've been there. The good news is, web scraping APIs exist so you don't have to become a proxy management expert just to grab some product listings or search results. Here's what actually works right now, without the sales pitch nonsense.

What You're Really Getting Here

If you're building an app that needs live pricing data, training an AI model, or just trying to keep tabs on competitor activity, you need reliable data extraction that doesn't break every other day. These APIs handle the annoying stuff—rotating IPs, solving CAPTCHAs, rendering JavaScript—so you can actually ship your project instead of debugging why Amazon blocked you again. Most support multiple programming languages, offer structured data formats like JSON, and won't force you to become a DevOps wizard just to get started.

1. Bright Data

Bright Data is the heavyweight champion here. They've got a 72 million residential proxy pool, which is basically a fancy way of saying they can make your requests look like they're coming from real people all over the world.

Their Web Unlocker API works for general scraping needs. It handles JavaScript rendering, rotates IPs automatically, and uses anti-detection techniques that actually work. The SERP API is built specifically for search engines and boasts a 99%+ success rate, which is pretty solid if you're scraping Google or Bing.

What's interesting is their dataset marketplace. You can grab pre-collected data samples before committing, which beats the usual "pay first, regret later" approach. They're running a matched deposit promotion right now—drop in $500, they match it, you've got $1,000 to play with.

Pricing: Starts at $499/month subscription or $1 per 1,000 results pay-as-you-go. There's a 7-day trial for businesses.

Best for: Complex scraping tasks, e-commerce platforms, situations where you absolutely cannot afford failures.

2. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI is the budget-friendly option that doesn't completely suck. It supports Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, and Java, so you're covered regardless of what language you're stuck with.

The setup is straightforward—send a request with your target URL and parameters, get data back. It handles Google Search, Google Shopping, and various Amazon sites with specific parsing parameters. The downside? Only 12 countries for geotargeting, and it was noticeably slower than competitors when we tested it on Google (about twice as slow). There's also a 5% failure rate, which isn't terrible but isn't great either.

If you're just getting started or scraping sites without heavy protection, the free plan gives you 1,000 API credits monthly with 5 concurrent connections. For serious testing, there's a 7-day trial with 5,000 credits.

When you're dealing with web scraping at scale, having reliable infrastructure becomes crucial. The difference between a smooth operation and constant headaches often comes down to choosing tools that handle the technical complexity for you.

👉 Skip the proxy management headaches and focus on what matters—getting your data

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $49/month for 100,000 API credits.

Best for: Beginners, unprotected websites, developers who need multi-language support without breaking the bank.

3. Oxylabs

Oxylabs is known for having really good proxies, and their APIs reflect that quality. They've got a 100M residential proxy pool with coverage in 195 locations.

The Web Scraper API is their general-purpose tool. The SERP Scraper API does city-level and coordinate-level targeting, which is useful for location-specific search results. They also offer Real Estate and E-Commerce specific APIs.

Their AI-based parser is actually pretty smart—it can structure data from websites automatically, especially e-commerce sites. In testing, they hit 98%+ success rates on both Google and Amazon with faster response times than most competitors. Social media scraping was slower, particularly sites requiring headless browsers.

The pricing is higher than some others, but the performance backs it up.

Pricing: SERP, E-Commerce, and Web Scraper APIs start at $49 for 17,500 results ($2.80 per 1,000). Real Estate Scraper is $99 for 76,000 results ($1.30 per 1,000). 7-day free trial included.

Best for: Projects where success rate and speed matter more than price, e-commerce scraping, SEO data collection.

4. ScrapingBee

ScrapingBee handles the hard stuff—rotating proxies, CAPTCHA solving, headless browsing. They're currently testing a Stealth Proxy feature in beta that's supposed to make scraping difficult sites easier.

The platform is designed to be beginner-friendly. You don't need to be a coding wizard to get started, and they provide tutorials for different programming languages. This makes it accessible if you're new to web scraping or just want something that works without a steep learning curve.

Pricing: Starts at $49/month for the freelancer plan. Business plans are $599+/month depending on your needs.

Best for: Websites with heavy protection, CAPTCHA-heavy sites, developers who want simplicity over complexity.

5. Apify

Apify is less of an API and more of a platform. They've got pre-built scrapers for popular websites, which means you might not even need to write code. If the pre-built ones don't fit, you can create custom scrapers.

Most actors (that's what they call their scrapers) are built with Crawlee, so if you're planning anything complex, learning that framework helps. The platform is intuitive enough for beginners but can get expensive when you scale up.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $49/month.

Best for: People who want ready-made solutions, beginners who don't want to code everything, projects that fit pre-built scraper templates.

6. RapidAPI

RapidAPI isn't a scraping API itself—it's a marketplace with over 40,000 APIs, including many scraping-related ones. If you need something specific that the other options don't offer, you might find it here.

The platform handles over 5 billion API calls monthly, so it's not some sketchy operation. They've got enterprise tools for API management, usage tracking, and monetization if you're thinking about publishing your own API later.

Pricing: Varies wildly depending on which API you use from the marketplace.

Best for: Finding niche APIs, managing multiple API subscriptions in one place, developers who need variety.

7. Infatica

Infatica has a network of over 20 million proxy IPs and focuses on avoiding CAPTCHAs and IP blocks. Their dashboard lets you manage your IP list, trigger rotations, and change geolocations without digging through documentation.

They offer a free trial and flexible pricing—either fixed monthly rates per IP or pay-per-GB for residential SOCKS5 services.

Pricing: Based on usage—either monthly per-IP rates or pay-per-GB model. Free trial available.

Best for: Projects where CAPTCHA and IP blocking are major pain points, businesses needing flexible proxy management.

The Real Talk

Look, picking a web scraping API isn't about finding the "best" one—it's about finding the one that fits what you're actually doing. If you're scraping Amazon at scale, you need something like Bright Data or Oxylabs. If you're a solo developer scraping unprotected sites on a budget, ScraperAPI makes sense. If you want ready-made solutions and hate coding, Apify's your friend.

The point is to stop wrestling with technical details and start using the data. These APIs exist so you can focus on building whatever you're building instead of becoming a proxy rotation expert. Choose based on your actual needs—budget, target sites, technical skill level—and you'll be fine. The worst choice is spending weeks building a custom scraper that breaks constantly when one of these could have handled it in a day.

Modern web scraping demands tools that stay ahead of anti-bot measures while keeping your costs predictable. Whether you're tracking market trends, aggregating product data, or monitoring content changes, the right API infrastructure makes the difference between a project that scales and one that constantly needs maintenance.

👉 Get the reliability and speed your data extraction pipeline deserves