Lesson 01

Getting started with ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI is a single HTTP endpoint. You send it a target URL and your API key, and it returns the fetched page. That's the whole mental model.

The base endpoint

Every request in this course goes to the same URL:

https://api.scraperapi.com/

You pass two things: your api_key and the target url you want fetched. ScraperAPI handles the outbound request for you and returns the response.

Required parameters

Name	Type	Description
api_key	string	Your ScraperAPI key. Sign up on scraperapi.com to get one.
url	string	The fully qualified URL you want ScraperAPI to fetch. Include the protocol.

Your first request

Pick your language and run it. Replace YOUR_API_KEY first.

curl "https://api.scraperapi.com/?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&url=https://example.com"

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.scraperapi.com/",
    params={"api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://example.com"},
    timeout=70,
)
print(r.text)

import axios from "axios";

const { data } = await axios.get("https://api.scraperapi.com/", {
  params: { api_key: "YOUR_API_KEY", url: "https://example.com" },
});
console.log(data);

Heads up

Always URL-encode the target URL when you build the request string by hand. Every HTTP client above does that for you automatically when you pass parameters as an object.

Next: GET Requests →