Web scraping APIs: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank web scraping apis by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Scraping APIs and data extraction services used to collect web content, bypass blocks, and automate large-scale website data access. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 14, 2026Download this ranking as a PDF
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At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
ScraperAPI and Firecrawl share the top rank with identical visibility scores of 12.5% and citation rates of 25.0%, giving them a composite score of 16.2 against a category average visibility of just 3.8%. The gap between these two leaders and the rest of the field is stark: ScrapingBee sits at rank 3 with a composite of 12.5, while Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Apify all score 8.8 despite matching the leaders on raw visibility. Seven of the top ten brands score zero on both metrics.
A clear divergence exists between being named and being cited. Bright Data and Oxylabs both achieve 12.5% visibility, meaning Google AI Mode mentions them, but their citation rates are 0.0%, indicating the model does not link out to them as trusted sources. ScraperAPI and Firecrawl, by contrast, convert their 12.5% visibility into 25.0% citation rates, suggesting their content is being directly referenced rather than merely referenced in passing.
The top cited sources in this category include scrape.do, youtube.com, reddit.com, alterlab.io, and proxyway.com alongside scraperapi.com and firecrawl.dev. The presence of YouTube, Reddit, and third-party review or comparison sites signals that Google AI Mode is anchoring on community and aggregator content rather than vendor documentation alone. This pattern suggests that brands absent from those platforms and third-party roundups face a structural disadvantage in citation capture regardless of their domain authority.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
ScraperAPI 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #1+12pp
-
Firecrawl 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #2+12pp
-
ScrapingBee 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #3+12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
scraperapi.com
|
12% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
ScraperAPI leads with a 25.0% citation rate, more than eight times the 3.1% category average, making it the most trusted source in Google AI Mode responses. |
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| 2 |
firecrawl.dev
|
12% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Firecrawl matches ScraperAPI exactly at 12.5% visibility and 25.0% citation, sharing the top composite score of 16.2 despite being a newer entrant with a .dev domain. |
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| 3 |
scrapingbee.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
ScrapingBee achieves 12.5% visibility but only a 12.5% citation rate, placing its composite at 12.5 and midway between the top pair and the zero-citation group below. |
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| 4 |
brightdata.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Bright Data reaches 12.5% visibility, matching the leaders, but records a 0.0% citation rate, cutting its composite to 8.8 and signalling a named-but-not-linked status. |
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| 5 |
oxylabs.io
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Oxylabs mirrors Bright Data with 12.5% visibility and 0.0% citations, sharing an 8.8 composite despite being a widely recognised proxy and scraping infrastructure provider. |
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| 6 |
apify.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
zyte.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
serpapi.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
webscrapingapi.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
zenrows.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
crawlbase.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
diffbot.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
import.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
parsehub.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
phantombuster.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
grepsr.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
nubela.co
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
netnut.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
dataforseo.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
scrapingdog.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on web scraping apis, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own web scraping apis brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about web scraping apis AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in the Web scraping APIs category?
ScraperAPI and Firecrawl are joint leaders, each with 12.5% visibility, 25.0% citation rates, and a composite score of 16.2, well above the category average of 3.8% visibility.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for Web scraping API research?
The top cited sources include scrape.do, youtube.com, reddit.com, alterlab.io, and proxyway.com, alongside scraperapi.com and firecrawl.dev, indicating heavy reliance on community and third-party comparison content.
Which brands have high visibility but zero citations in this category?
Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Apify all reach 12.5% visibility but record 0.0% citation rates, meaning Google AI Mode mentions them without linking to their domains.
How concentrated is AI visibility in Web scraping APIs?
Only six of the top ten brands achieve any visibility at all, and seven score zero on both visibility and citations, with the average visibility across the category sitting at just 3.8%.
Which engine drives visibility for Web scraping API brands?
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, meaning the entire measured landscape in this audit reflects Google AI Mode behaviour exclusively.
Which brands showed the biggest visibility gains in the latest audit period?
ScraperAPI, Firecrawl, and ScrapingBee are the only brands listed as risers, each moving from 0.0% to 12.5% visibility, with ScraperAPI and Firecrawl also gaining 25.0 citation points each.