scraperapi-cli

ScraperAPI CLI (sapi)

sapi is the official ScraperAPI command-line tool. It is the right choice when:

• The user is already in a terminal and wants a result now without writing a script.
• A scrape is part of a shell pipeline (sapi … | jq …, xargs, make, GitHub Actions).
• A one-off scheduled task (cron, launchd, systemd timer) needs to hit ScraperAPI without a project setup.
• The user is exploring — testing whether --render or --premium unblocks a target before committing the choice to code.

If the user is writing application code in Python, Node, PHP, Ruby, or Java, point them at the matching SDK skill instead — the CLI is for shells, not application logic.

Install and authenticate

npm install -g scraperapi-cli    # requires Node.js 18+
sapi init                        # interactive: prompts for the key and validates it

Non-interactive setup (for CI / Dockerfiles):

sapi init --api-key "$SCRAPERAPI_API_KEY"

Key resolution order

sapi looks for the API key in this order, stopping at the first hit:

1. --api-key <key> flag on the command
2. SCRAPERAPI_API_KEY environment variable
3. ~/.config/scraperapi/config.json (written by sapi init)

In CI, prefer the env var — it keeps the key out of shell history and config files.

Output contract — important for piping

Stream	What goes there
stdout	The data (page body, JSON, table rows)
stderr	Spinners, warnings, errors

When stdout is not a TTY (a pipe or redirect), sapi automatically switches to JSON mode:

sapi scrape https://example.com | jq .body            # auto-JSON
sapi scrape https://example.com > out.json            # auto-JSON
sapi scrape https://example.com                       # human output (page body to stdout)

Force JSON mode in a TTY with --json. Force a specific body format with --output html|markdown|text|json|csv — --output overrides the non-TTY auto-JSON rule, so you can pipe raw HTML or markdown into another tool without it being wrapped in JSON.

sapi does not prompt for confirmation on expensive calls. If you want to check what a request will cost before running it, use sapi cost.

sapi scrape <url> — synchronous fetch

The workhorse command. Returns the page body to stdout.

sapi scrape https://example.com
sapi scrape https://example.com --render                       # +10 credits, JS rendering
sapi scrape https://example.com --render --wait-for "#main"    # wait for selector
sapi scrape https://example.com --country gb                   # geotarget UK
sapi scrape https://example.com --premium                      # +10 credits, residential proxies
sapi scrape https://example.com --ultra-premium                # +30 credits, hardest sites
sapi scrape https://example.com --autoparse --json             # structured JSON for supported sites
sapi scrape https://example.com --screenshot --json            # PNG (+10 credits) returned as base64 in JSON
sapi scrape https://example.com --async                        # submit as async job, prints jobId

Escalation ladder

Always start at the cheapest option and only escalate when a request fails:

1. Default (1 credit). If 200 → done.
2. --render if the page loads content via JavaScript (SPA, hydrated tables, infinite scroll). +10 credits.
3. --premium if the site returns 403 / a block page from datacenter IPs. +10 credits.
4. --ultra-premium only for the hardest anti-bot sites (Cloudflare Turnstile, sophisticated fingerprinting). +30 credits.

Combining flags adds credits — --render --premium is ~20 credits per success.

Flag reference

Flag	Description	Credits
--render	JavaScript rendering	+10
--premium	Residential proxies	+10
--ultra-premium	Advanced anti-bot bypass	+30
--screenshot	PNG screenshot (base64 in JSON mode)	+10
--autoparse	Auto-parsed JSON for supported sites	—
--country <cc>	ISO 3166-1 (e.g. us, gb, de)	—
--device <type>	mobile or desktop user-agent	—
--output <fmt>	html, markdown, text, json, csv	—
--session <n>	Sticky session number (reuse IP)	—
--wait-for <sel>	CSS selector to wait for (needs --render)	—
--timeout <sec>	Request timeout (default 70)	—
--async	Submit as async job, print job ID, exit	—
--json	Force JSON output mode	—
--api-key <key>	Override the configured API key for one call	—

There is no interactive confirmation step — sapi scrape runs the request immediately. Use sapi cost <url> (below) to preview credit cost without spending credits.

sapi cost <url> — preview credit cost

sapi cost https://example.com                   # base cost
sapi cost https://example.com --render          # with JS rendering
sapi cost https://example.com --render --premium
sapi cost https://example.com --render --json   # machine-readable

Accepts the same parameter flags as sapi scrape (everything except --async and --timeout) and prints something like 25 credits. Useful as a pre-flight check before running an expensive batch — wire it into a script when you want to fail fast if a chosen flag combination is more expensive than expected.

sapi jobs — async scraping

Use async for batches, slow targets, or fire-and-forget work.

sapi scrape https://example.com --async              # returns a jobId on stdout
sapi jobs list                                        # list all jobs
sapi jobs get <jobId>                                 # poll until done, print result
sapi jobs get <jobId> --no-poll                       # one-shot status check
sapi jobs cancel <jobId>                              # cancel a running job
sapi jobs batch urls.txt                              # submit up to 50,000 URLs from a file

urls.txt is one URL per line. Batches are the right tool whenever there are more than ~100 URLs — sync sapi scrape calls in a loop will burn through your concurrent request budget and hit 429s.

Idiomatic batch pipeline

sapi jobs batch returns a JSON array — one entry per submitted job, each with its own id. Poll each child with sapi jobs get:

# 1. Submit a batch, grab every child job id.
sapi jobs batch urls.txt --json | jq -r '.[].id' > job-ids.txt

# 2. Wait for each one (`jobs get` polls automatically until finished).
while read -r ID; do
  sapi jobs get "$ID" --json >> batch-results.ndjson
done < job-ids.txt

# 3. Extract bodies that succeeded.
jq -s '[.[] | select(.status=="finished") | .response.body]' batch-results.ndjson

sapi structured — pre-parsed JSON for supported sites

Whenever the target is Amazon, Google, Walmart, eBay, or Redfin, prefer structured over scrape + --autoparse + manual parsing. The endpoints return clean, schema-stable JSON.

# Amazon
sapi structured amazon product https://amazon.com/dp/B09XYZ
sapi structured amazon search "wireless headphones"
sapi structured amazon offers https://amazon.com/dp/B09XYZ
sapi structured amazon reviews https://amazon.com/dp/B09XYZ

# Google
sapi structured google serp "best espresso machine"
sapi structured google news "artificial intelligence"
sapi structured google jobs "software engineer remote"
sapi structured google shopping "standing desk"
sapi structured google maps "coffee shops near me"

# Walmart / eBay / Redfin
sapi structured walmart product https://walmart.com/ip/123456
sapi structured ebay product https://ebay.com/itm/123456
sapi structured redfin listing https://redfin.com/home/12345
sapi structured redfin search "Austin TX"
sapi structured redfin agents "Portland OR"

All structured commands accept --json for raw output (auto-on when piped). See docs.scraperapi.com for the schema of each vertical.

sapi crawler — whole-site crawl

sapi crawler start example.com           # kick off a crawl, prints jobId
sapi crawler status <jobId>              # progress
sapi crawler results <jobId>             # list discovered URLs (human table)
sapi crawler results <jobId> --json      # JSON object: { jobId, urls: [...] }

The crawler is for discovering URLs across a domain. To then scrape each one, feed the result into sapi jobs batch:

sapi crawler results "$CRAWL" --json | jq -r '.urls[]' > urls.txt
sapi jobs batch urls.txt

sapi pipeline — DataPipeline projects

Projects are configured in the ScraperAPI dashboard; the CLI drives runs and reads results.

sapi pipeline list                  # list your projects
sapi pipeline run <projectId>       # trigger a run, prints jobId
sapi pipeline status <jobId>        # check run status
sapi pipeline results <jobId>       # fetch results

If the user wants recurring scraping but has no project yet, point them at the dashboard — sapi does not create projects.

sapi account — credits and key management

sapi account                        # human summary: credits left, plan, period
sapi account --json                 # machine-readable
sapi account keys list              # list API keys on the account
sapi account keys create            # create a new key (returns once — copy it)
sapi account keys revoke <keyId>    # revoke a key

Always run sapi account before kicking off anything large — it's the cheapest way to confirm the key works and that there are enough credits.

sapi config — persistent defaults

sapi config list
sapi config get api_key
sapi config set default_country gb
sapi config set default_output_format markdown
sapi config set default_timeout 90

Settable keys: api_key, default_country, default_output_format, default_timeout. Use SCRAPERAPI_API_KEY env var instead of config set api_key when the machine is shared.

Shell recipes

Scrape, extract a title with pup, append to CSV

URL="https://example.com"
TITLE=$(sapi scrape "$URL" --json | jq -r .body | pup 'title text{}')
echo "$URL,$TITLE" >> titles.csv

Daily price check via cron

# crontab: 7am every day
0 7 * * * /usr/local/bin/sapi structured amazon product https://amazon.com/dp/B09XYZ --json \
  | jq '{ts: now, price: .pricing}' >> ~/prices.ndjson

Parallel scrape with xargs

# Run 5 in parallel; --json puts one record per line (no prompts to worry about).
cat urls.txt | xargs -n1 -P5 sapi scrape --render --json > out.ndjson

Above ~100 URLs prefer sapi jobs batch over this — it sidesteps the concurrent request limit.

Fail-loud in CI

sapi exits non-zero on any error, so set -e works as expected:

set -euo pipefail
sapi account --json | jq -e '.credits > 1000'             # fails the build if low
sapi scrape "$URL" --output markdown > page.md

Escalate on block

sapi scrape "$URL" --output html > out.html \
  || sapi scrape "$URL" --render --output html > out.html \
  || sapi scrape "$URL" --premium --output html > out.html

Cheap → expensive, only paying for the next tier when the previous one fails. --output html keeps raw HTML in each redirect — without it the non-TTY rule would wrap the body in JSON.

When NOT to reach for sapi

• Inside application code (Python, Node, PHP, Ruby, Java) — use the matching SDK skill; shelling out to a CLI is brittle.
• Tight loops over thousands of URLs in a shell script — submit a batch with sapi jobs batch instead so ScraperAPI handles concurrency and retries.
• Long-running scheduled projects with webhook delivery — DataPipeline (dashboard-configured) is the right product; the CLI drives runs but does not replace the project model.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
command not found: sapi	Not installed, or npm global bin not on $PATH	npm install -g scraperapi-cli; check npm config get prefix
401 Invalid API key	Key missing or wrong	Run sapi account to confirm; re-run sapi init
403 on a public page	Datacenter IP blocked	Retry with --premium, then --ultra-premium
429 from sapi	Hit concurrent request limit	Switch to sapi jobs batch or add xargs -P cap
Hangs forever in a script	Default 70s timeout, target is slow	--timeout 120, or use --async
Output is JSON instead of HTML	stdout is piped → auto-JSON	Force with --output html if you want raw HTML in a pipe

See docs.scraperapi.com for the full parameter reference and current credit costs.