Getting Started with Web Scraping in n8n: The HTTP Node Method

Learn how to scrape websites using n8n's HTTP node—no complex setup required. This guide walks you through basic HTTP requests, configuration tips, and what to watch out for when collecting data from the web.

So you want to pull data from websites automatically. Maybe you're tracking prices, monitoring content changes, or building a dataset. Whatever the reason, n8n's HTTP node is usually where you'll start.

It's pretty straightforward: you send a request to a website, you get back the HTML. Then you pick through it for the bits you need. Not glamorous, but it works.

What You're Actually Working With

The HTTP node is n8n's Swiss Army knife for talking to web servers. GET, POST, PUT, DELETE—it handles all the basic HTTP methods you'd expect. For scraping purposes, you'll mostly be using GET requests to fetch webpage content.

Think of it as your browser, but without the browser part. You ask for a page, the server hands over the raw HTML, and you're off to the races.

Your First Scraping Setup

Here's the basic idea:

1. Drop an HTTP node into your workflow

2. Set the method to GET

3. Paste in the URL you want to scrape

4. Hit execute

The node spits out the entire HTML document. From there, you'll need additional nodes—like Function or Set nodes—to parse and extract the specific data you're after. The HTTP node just handles the fetching part.

It's a clean division of labor. One node grabs the content, others process it.

Things That'll Trip You Up (And How to Avoid Them)

The User Agent Problem

By default, n8n's HTTP node identifies itself as axios/xx when making requests. Websites see this and think "bot." Many will just block you outright.

The fix? Pretend to be a regular browser. Change the user agent to something like Chrome or Firefox. You can grab your own browser's user agent string from the Developer Tools, or just Google "chrome user agent" and copy one of the recent ones.

If you're dealing with sites that have more sophisticated blocking, you might need something more robust. That's where tools like ScraperAPI come in handy—they handle all the user agent rotation, IP management, and anti-bot detection automatically, so you don't have to manually configure everything or worry about getting blocked.

The Concurrent Request Trap

The HTTP node fires off requests simultaneously when you feed it multiple URLs. Sounds efficient, right? Except when you accidentally hammer a website with 50 requests at once, get your IP banned, or crash your n8n instance because it's choking on all that traffic.

Use the Batching option to limit concurrent requests, or wrap things in a Loop node to control the flow. Your future self will thank you.

When Websites Fight Back

403 Forbidden. 429 Too Many Requests. These error codes are websites telling you to slow down or go away.

The HTTP node has a Retry setting that'll automatically try again when requests fail. It's better than nothing, but it's pretty basic. If you're hitting errors consistently, you probably need to space out your requests more, rotate IPs, or rethink your approach entirely.

The Reality Check

Using n8n's HTTP node for web scraping is great for simple jobs. Personal projects, one-off data collection, websites that don't care about bots—it'll handle those just fine.

But it has limits. No IP rotation, basic retry logic, manual user agent configuration. For straightforward scraping tasks, these limitations are manageable. For anything more complex—sites with aggressive anti-scraping measures, large-scale data collection, or production workflows—you'll quickly run into walls.

Still, everyone starts somewhere. The HTTP node is a solid first step into web scraping, and for plenty of use cases, it's all you'll ever need.

Wrapping Up

The HTTP node gives you a no-fuss way to start pulling data from websites in n8n. It handles the basic request-response cycle, and with a few configuration tweaks, you can avoid the most common pitfalls. Just remember: change that user agent, control your request rate, and don't be surprised when websites occasionally push back. For more demanding scraping scenarios where you need reliability at scale, ScraperAPI handles the heavy lifting with automatic IP rotation, headless browser support, and built-in anti-bot bypass—letting you focus on the data instead of the infrastructure.