Quickstart

Zero to your first SmartScraper response. If you’d rather read code, the Introduction has copy-paste examples for all three products on one page.

Create an account

Sign up at webscrape.ai/app/signup. New accounts start with 500 credits — enough for 100 SmartScraper calls or 500 raw fetches.

Generate an API key

Open API Keys in the dashboard and click Generate. Copy the key right away — it starts with wsg_live_ and we only show the full secret once. You can revoke it whenever.

Make your first call

Fetch any page and extract structured data with one HTTP request:

curl https://api.webscrape.ai/v1/smartscraper \
  -H "X-API-Key: wsg_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "website_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
    "user_prompt": "Extract the front-page stories with title, url, and score.",
    "output_schema": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "stories": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "title": {"type": "string"},
              "url":   {"type": "string"},
              "score": {"type": "integer"}
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }'

import requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.webscrape.ai/v1/smartscraper",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "wsg_live_..."},
    json={
        "website_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
        "user_prompt": "Extract the front-page stories with title, url, and score.",
        "output_schema": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "stories": {
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "title": {"type": "string"},
                            "url":   {"type": "string"},
                            "score": {"type": "integer"},
                        },
                    },
                }
            },
        },
    },
    timeout=120,
)
print(resp.json())

const resp = await fetch("https://api.webscrape.ai/v1/smartscraper", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "wsg_live_...",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    website_url: "https://news.ycombinator.com",
    user_prompt: "Extract the front-page stories with title, url, and score.",
    output_schema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        stories: {
          type: "array",
          items: {
            type: "object",
            properties: {
              title: { type: "string" },
              url:   { type: "string" },
              score: { type: "integer" },
            },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  }),
});
console.log(await resp.json());

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    body, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
        "website_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
        "user_prompt": "Extract the front-page stories with title, url, and score.",
        "output_schema": map[string]any{
            "type": "object",
            "properties": map[string]any{
                "stories": map[string]any{
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": map[string]any{
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": map[string]any{
                            "title": map[string]string{"type": "string"},
                            "url":   map[string]string{"type": "string"},
                            "score": map[string]string{"type": "integer"},
                        },
                    },
                },
            },
        },
    })

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.webscrape.ai/v1/smartscraper", bytes.NewReader(body))
    req.Header.Set("X-API-Key", "wsg_live_...")
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    defer resp.Body.Close()
    out, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(out))
}

use serde_json::json;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let body = json!({
        "website_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
        "user_prompt": "Extract the front-page stories with title, url, and score.",
        "output_schema": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "stories": {
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "title": {"type": "string"},
                            "url":   {"type": "string"},
                            "score": {"type": "integer"}
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    });

    let resp = reqwest::Client::new()
        .post("https://api.webscrape.ai/v1/smartscraper")
        .header("X-API-Key", "wsg_live_...")
        .json(&body)
        .send()
        .await?;

    println!("{}", resp.text().await?);
    Ok(())
}

Inspect the response

A successful call comes back wrapped in the standard envelope:

{
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "result": {
      "stories": [
        { "title": "Show HN: ...", "url": "https://...", "score": 312 }
      ]
    },
    "latency_ms": 1842
  },
  "credits_used": 5,
  "credits_remaining": 495,
  "request_id": "req_aB3xY9Kp"
}

Your extracted data is at data.result. The request_id also comes back as the X-Request-ID response header — hold on to it so support can trace a specific call. See Errors for the queued and error envelope shapes.

Next steps

Pick the right product

SmartScraper isn’t always the answer. Compare the three.

Credits & pricing

Per-endpoint costs and stealth surcharges.

Stealth mode

When to set stealth: true and what it costs.

API reference

Full request and response schemas for every endpoint.

Get started

Features

Concepts

Next steps

Pick the right product

Credits & pricing

Stealth mode

API reference

​Next steps

Pick the right product

Credits & pricing

Stealth mode

API reference

Next steps