Alibaba Scraper: Public Product and Supplier Pages
ProxyField's Web Scraping API, in development, is priced for public Alibaba.com product, search and supplier pages at $0.50 per 1,000 successful results over plain HTTP, or $0.20 from 10,000 results in one purchase, and $2.00 per 1,000 with JS rendering. Without permission, Alibaba.com and 1688 forbid automated collection (Alibaba.com Terms of Use, clause 4.1.2; 1688 legal notice, January 16, 2026), so check the Alibaba.com Open Platform first; on public pages you may collect, fix the country, keep one sticky session per product, leave a few seconds between requests per IP and stop at the first challenge. For API access, contact sales, or run your own Alibaba scraper today on residential proxies with the Easy Trial: 1 GB for $2.95.
Through the sales team on our 24/7 live chat
| Fetch | Entry | Volume, from |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP | $0.50 | $0.20 |
| JS rendering | $2.00 | $1.00 |
Billed on successful results only.
Official route first
Before you scrape, check whether an approved channel gives you the data:
- Alibaba.com Open Platform (openapi.alibaba.com): Alibaba's API platform, where developers register an app and request API permissions. If its APIs cover your fields, use them.
- Alibaba.com's Terms of Use (effective July 30, 2025), clause 4.1.2, bar the "systematic retrieval of Site Content" to create or compile a collection, "whether through robots, spiders, automatic devices or manual processes", without written permission (Alibaba.com Terms of Use).
- 1688's legal notice (法律声明, effective January 16, 2026) says that without prior permission from Alibaba Group, no one may obtain or use the site's content with robots, crawlers, automated programs or simulated user actions, including copying, mirroring and downloading (1688 legal notice).
- Suppliers themselves: for a short list, a supplier's own catalog or price sheet is more exact than a scraped page, because tiers change with SKU, packaging and shipping.
ProxyField's rule for every site: public pages only, and follow the site's terms. The rest of this page is for public pages you are entitled to collect.
Alibaba data on public pages
Alibaba.com is a wholesale marketplace: suppliers, most of them in China, list products for business buyers, with prices that fall as the order grows. A logged-out visitor sees products, price tiers and supplier profiles; messages, quotes and orders need an account.
| Page type | Example URL | What the public page shows |
|---|---|---|
| Search results | alibaba.com/trade/search?SearchText=<term> | Product title, price range, minimum order quantity (MOQ), supplier name, years on the platform, a link to each product |
| Product page | alibaba.com/product-detail/<title>_<id>.html | Price tiers by quantity, MOQ, attributes, customization options, lead time, sample terms, ratings |
| Supplier storefront | <supplier>.en.alibaba.com | Company name, location, years on the platform, verification badges, response rate, main products |
| Reviews | on product and supplier pages | Ratings, review text, buyer country |
There is no separate Alibaba API: you send an Alibaba or 1688 URL to the Web Scraping API. It is designed to return the page itself as HTML, Markdown or plain text, or a JSON envelope with the status code, the final URL, the headers, the cookies and the content; it has no parsed Alibaba fields, so your parser reads them (see what a tier-price record looks like).
How the Web Scraping API fetches an Alibaba page
The API is in development; this is its design. You send the URL of a public product, search or storefront page and choose plain HTTP or JS rendering; the API returns the page. The API takes a POST to https://api.proxyfield.io/v1/scrape with your API key in an Authorization: Bearer <api_key> header and a JSON body: url, render (false for plain HTTP, true for JS rendering), country and output (html, markdown, text or json). country sets the country the request comes from as a two-letter code, which sets the market whose prices and currency Alibaba shows; for search pages and blocks that load with scripts, wait_for takes a CSS selector to wait for before the rendered page is returned. Parameter reference: API documentation.
# The request the Web Scraping API takes (access through Contact sales)
curl https://api.proxyfield.io/v1/scrape \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <api_key>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/example-product_1600000000000.html", "render": false, "country": "us", "output": "json"}'Example response (shortened; content is the page's HTML):
{
"metadata": {"id": "req_8e3a7d14c6f0b29d", "api": "web_scrape", "status": "success", "billed": true},
"status_code": 200,
"final_url": "https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/example-product_1600000000000.html",
"content_type": "text/html; charset=utf-8",
"content": "<!DOCTYPE html><html lang=\"en\">…</html>"
}| Choice | Price per 1,000 successful results | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Plain HTTP | $0.50, from $0.20 at volume | Product pages, whose data ships in the HTML |
| JS rendering | $2.00, from $1.00 at volume | Search pages and blocks that load with scripts |
Start with plain HTTP on product pages; switch to JS rendering where the price tiers or the result list come back empty.
Pricing: $0.50 per 1,000 Alibaba pages, from $0.20
Alibaba pages cost the Web Scraping API's price: $0.50 per 1,000 successful results over plain HTTP, from $0.20 at volume, and $2.00 per 1,000 with JS rendering, from $1.00 at volume. You pay only for successful results. The volume prices start at 10,000 successful results in one purchase.
Every response says whether it was billed. Sales contact: the sales team on our 24/7 live chat.
| Billed | Not billed |
|---|---|
| A page Alibaba served with a 2xx status | Error responses |
| A target's 404 or 410 (for example, a removed product) | Blocked and timed-out requests |
| A sign-in page the site serves with a 200 status | Our internal retries |
| Workload (30-day month) | Results | Plain HTTP at $0.50 | JS rendering at $2.00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 products from 30 suppliers, weekly price check (4 runs) | 1,200 | $0.60 | $2.40 |
| 20 search terms × 10 result pages, weekly (4 runs) | 800 | $0.40 | $1.60 |
| 50,000 product pages for a category study, once | 50,000 | $25 | $100 |
At the volume price the 50,000 product pages cost $10 over plain HTTP. Payment and balance: the same crypto balance as proxies, which never expires; there is no subscription or monthly fee. All prices: pricing.
Through the sales team on our 24/7 live chat
Alibaba.com and 1688.com
1688.com is Alibaba Group's wholesale marketplace for buyers inside China: the pages are in Chinese, prices are in yuan, and many suppliers sell on both. Its legal notice requires Alibaba Group's prior permission for automated collection (see official route first). Treat any 1688 page that asks you to sign in as out of scope. Where you collect public 1688 pages, use JS rendering, and for your own scraper use IPs in China: ProxyField has 27.4M+ residential IPs in China, with region and city targeting.
| Item | Alibaba.com | 1688.com |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers | International | Inside China |
| Language and currency | English and other languages; prices in US dollars or local currency | Chinese; prices in yuan |
| Logged-out access | Products, price tiers, supplier profiles | Sign-in pages are out of scope |
| Prices | Quantity tiers, in US dollars or local currency | Quantity tiers in yuan |
| Automated access | Written permission required (Terms of Use, clause 4.1.2) | Prior permission required by the legal notice |
Scrape Alibaba and 1688 supplier listings and tier prices without getting blocked
Prices and currency follow the visitor's market, and fast, repetitive traffic from one IP is what sites refuse first. A checklist for public pages:
-
Fix the market
Put
-country-<cc>in the proxy username (orcountryin the API body) and keep it the same for every check, so tier prices stay comparable:<login>-country-us. -
One sticky session per product
Fetch a product's pages from one IP with
<login>-country-us-session-<id>-ttl-600(10 minutes; sessions run from 30 seconds to 36 hours, 20 minutes ifttlis left out). Rotate to a new session for the next product. -
Plain HTTP first
Product pages carry most of their data in the HTML; switch to JS rendering only where the tiers or the result list come back empty.
-
Pace each IP
Keep a few seconds between requests per IP and spread a large job over many sessions instead of speeding up one.
-
Split broad searches
Narrow terms or categories give shorter result lists that you can finish.
-
Stop on a challenge
On a slider or "verify you are human" page, a 403 or repeated 429, stop that session and slow down; do not push through (table below).
-
Skip sign-in pages
Quotes, messages and anything behind a login stay out of scope.
Read moreShow less
Signs you are blocked, and what to do
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A slider or "verify you are human" page instead of the product | The site treats the traffic as automated | Stop that session, wait, and come back slower; never push through the challenge |
| A 403 status | The request was refused | Stop that session and check the page in a normal browser; if it is refused there too, it is out of scope |
| Repeated 429 statuses | Too many requests too fast | Back off: double the wait between requests per IP and spread the job over more sessions |
| A product page with an empty tier list | The tiers load with scripts, or the page asked you to sign in | Retry that URL once with JS rendering; if it shows a sign-in page, skip it |
| Prices in another currency than expected | The request came from another market | Fix -country-<cc> (or country in the API body) for every check |
These statuses come from the target site, not from ProxyField. Error codes explained: errors.
What it costs to do it this way
- Your own scraper on residential proxies: you pay for the bytes you download. The Easy Trial, 1 GB for $2.95, is about 1,000 product pages at 1 MB of HTML each, or 2,000 at 500 KB. Weigh one of your pages in your browser's developer tools (Network tab) first, because page weight varies.
- The Web Scraping API (in development, Contact sales): 1,000 product pages over plain HTTP cost $0.50, whatever they weigh, and only successful results are billed.
What a tier-price record looks like
The page gives you price tiers by quantity, the MOQ and the lead time; your parser turns them into one record per product. An example of the output to aim for (illustrative values, your parser's output, not an API field list):
[
{"site": "alibaba.com", "product_id": "1600000000000", "title": "Stainless steel water bottle 500 ml",
"currency": "USD", "moq": 100,
"tiers": [{"min_qty": 100, "price": 2.10}, {"min_qty": 1000, "price": 1.85}, {"min_qty": 5000, "price": 1.60}],
"lead_time_days": 15, "supplier": "Example Trading Co., Ltd.", "supplier_years": 6, "checked_country": "us"},
{"site": "1688.com", "product_id": "700000000000", "title": "不锈钢保温杯 500ml",
"currency": "CNY", "moq": 2,
"tiers": [{"min_qty": 2, "price": 15.80}, {"min_qty": 100, "price": 13.50}],
"supplier": "示例工厂", "checked_country": "cn"}
]Keep checked_country and the date with every record: the same product can show other tiers in another market.
What teams use Alibaba data for
- Sourcing: compare suppliers of the same product by price tier, MOQ, lead time and years on the platform.
- Landed-cost and margin checks for products you resell on Amazon or your own store.
- Market research: which products and variants suppliers push in a category, and how prices move.
- Supplier lists: verification badges, response rates and main products, before you send a request.
Not allowed on ProxyField: spam, fraud including fake accounts or engagement, and accessing data behind logins you are not entitled to. Sending quotes or messages to suppliers through a scraper is not data collection.
Scrape Alibaba with Python and ProxyField proxies
For a few hundred products, Python through residential IPs works: fetch the product page, read the title and the description tag, and save the HTML so you can locate the price tiers in it. Keep to 1 request every few seconds per IP and use a new session for each product (checklist above).
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
proxy = "http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
url = "https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/example-product_1600000000000.html"
resp = requests.get(url, proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy},
headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0", "Accept-Language": "en-US"},
timeout=30)
soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, "html.parser")
title = soup.find("meta", property="og:title")
if resp.status_code != 200 or title is None:
print("Challenge or missing page:", resp.status_code, "- slow down and rotate the IP")
else:
print(title["content"])
open("product.html", "w").write(resp.text) # find the price tiers and MOQ, then parse themProxyField residential proxies cost $2.95/GB for 1 GB and from $1.95/GB at volume, with no subscription; the traffic never expires, and all purchases are final. You get 412M+ residential IPs in 195+ countries, targeting by country, region (state) and city, over HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS5, with unlimited concurrent threads.
Is it legal to scrape Alibaba?
Alibaba.com's Terms of Use (clause 4.1.2) bar systematic retrieval of site content by robots, spiders or other automatic devices without written permission (Alibaba.com Terms of Use, effective July 30, 2025), so collecting its pages without that permission breaches its terms, separate from whether it breaks a law. Prices, MOQs and product attributes are facts; product photos and descriptions belong to the suppliers and can be protected by copyright, so store facts rather than republishing content. The wider answer is in Is It Legal to Scrape eBay, Walmart, Zillow and Other Marketplaces? and Is Web Scraping Legal? US, EU and UK Rules (2026).
Alibaba.com's Open Platform is the approved data channel, and 1688's legal notice requires prior permission for automated collection (official route first). ProxyField's acceptable use policy allows collecting public web data, price monitoring and market research, and forbids accessing data behind logins you are not entitled to. ProxyField's rule for every site: public pages only, and follow the site's terms. This is not legal advice.
More scrapers
- AliExpress scraper Alibaba Group's retail marketplace.
- Amazon scraper API Amazon product and search pages, $0.60 per 1,000 successful results, from $0.30.
- Ecommerce scraper product pages from online stores on the same Web Scraping API.
- Web Scraping API any URL, plain HTTP or with JS rendering, from $0.20 per 1,000 successful results.
- All scraper APIs
Alibaba Scraper FAQ
24/7 support by live chat, including help with setup and integration.
How can I scrape supplier listings and tiered prices from Alibaba and 1688 without my scraper getting blocked?
ProxyField residential proxies, from 1 GB for $2.95, run such a scraper, but start with permission: Alibaba.com's Terms of Use (clause 4.1.2) and 1688's legal notice both require it for automated collection, so use Alibaba.com's Open Platform where its APIs cover your data. On public pages you may collect, fix the country of every check, keep one sticky session per product (-session-<id>-ttl-600), fetch product pages over plain HTTP first, keep a few seconds between requests per IP, and stop on a challenge, a 403 or repeated 429s. Parse each product into one record with the MOQ and a list of quantity tiers.
What is an Alibaba scraper and how does it work?
ProxyField's Web Scraping API, in development, is designed to work as an Alibaba scraper: you send a public Alibaba product, search or supplier URL and get the page back, for $0.50 per 1,000 successful results over plain HTTP, from $0.20 at volume. Your code then reads the price tiers, MOQ and supplier details from the page; you pay only for successful results.
How do I scrape Alibaba?
Run a search on Alibaba.com, collect the product links from the result pages, then fetch each product page for its price tiers, MOQ, attributes and supplier. Rotate residential IPs, keep the rate low and fix the country of every request, because prices follow the visitor's market.
What types of data can I extract from Alibaba?
Product titles, price tiers by quantity, minimum order quantity, attributes, customization and sample terms, lead times, ratings and reviews, plus supplier name, location, years on the platform, verification badges and response rate. Quotes, messages and orders sit behind a login and are out of scope.
How much does it cost to scrape Alibaba?
On ProxyField's Web Scraping API, 50,000 Alibaba product pages cost $25 over plain HTTP, or $10 at the volume price; a weekly price check on 300 products is 1,200 pages a month, $0.60. Your own scraper on residential proxies starts at 1 GB for $2.95.
What's the rate limit for scraping Alibaba?
There is no approved rate: Alibaba.com's Terms of Use require written permission for systematic retrieval by robots or spiders (clause 4.1.2), and 1688's legal notice requires prior permission for automated collection. On public pages you are entitled to collect, keep a few seconds between requests per IP, spread a large job over many sessions, and stop when a challenge, a 403 or repeated 429s appear.
How can I scrape Alibaba products without getting blocked?
Fix the country of every check, keep one sticky session per product (-session-<id>-ttl-600), fetch product pages over plain HTTP first, keep a few seconds between requests per IP and stop when challenges appear. Use residential IPs rather than datacenter ones; ProxyField's start at 1 GB for $2.95.
How do I handle JavaScript when scraping Alibaba?
Product pages carry most of their data in the HTML, so plain HTTP is enough for them. For search pages and blocks that load with scripts, use a headless browser such as Playwright or JS rendering, which costs $2.00 per 1,000 successful results on ProxyField, from $1.00 at volume.
Can I scrape Alibaba from a specific country?
Yes: send the requests through IPs in that country, because Alibaba shows prices and currency for the visitor's market. ProxyField residential proxies offer targeting by country, region (state) and city, with 412M+ residential IPs in 195+ countries.
Which programming languages can I use to scrape Alibaba?
Any language that can send HTTP requests through a proxy: Python with requests and Beautiful Soup is the most common, and Node.js, Go and Java work the same way. For pages that need a browser, use Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium.
Show 9 more questionsShow fewer questions
How do I get structured JSON from Alibaba?
Fetch the product page and turn the fields you need into JSON in your own parser: one record per product with moq, a tiers list of {min_qty, price}, the currency, lead time and supplier, as in the example record. Check the parser on a sample every week, because page layouts change.
Can I scrape Alibaba or 1688 without writing code?
For a few dozen products, a browser extension that exports a page to CSV is enough. For regular pulls, an automation tool with an HTTP step can call a scraping API and write the results to a spreadsheet.
What are the main use cases for scraping Alibaba data?
Sourcing and supplier comparison, landed-cost and margin checks for resellers, market research on products and prices in a category, and competitive analysis of what other sellers source. Most of these uses need price tiers, MOQs and supplier facts.
Which proxy is best for Alibaba?
ProxyField's rotating residential proxies, from $1.95/GB, suit Alibaba: IPs from real home internet providers, a new IP on every request and country targeting for the market whose prices you want. For 1688, use IPs in China, where ProxyField has 27.4M+ residential IPs.
Can Alibaba detect proxies?
Sites like Alibaba can recognise datacenter IP ranges and traffic that requests too fast or looks automated, and may answer with a challenge. Residential IPs at a modest rate are flagged less often than datacenter ranges, but no proxy makes a scraper invisible.
What is 1688.com?
1688.com is Alibaba Group's wholesale marketplace for buyers inside China, in Chinese and with prices in yuan. Many suppliers list the same products there and on Alibaba.com.
What is a 1688 scraper?
A tool or script that collects product, price and supplier data from 1688.com's public pages. Because 1688 is built for buyers in China, a 1688 scraper usually needs JS rendering, IPs in China and a parser that handles Chinese text.
How do I scrape data from 1688?
Start with permission: 1688's legal notice requires Alibaba Group's prior permission for robots, crawlers and simulated user actions. For public pages you may collect, use JS rendering or a headless browser through IPs in China (ProxyField has 27.4M+), read the price tiers in yuan, MOQ and supplier, and leave every sign-in page alone.
Is it legal to scrape Alibaba and 1688?
Alibaba.com's Terms of Use (clause 4.1.2) require written permission for systematic retrieval by robots or spiders, and 1688's legal notice requires prior permission for automated collection, so scraping without permission breaches the terms even on public pages; whether it also breaks a law depends on what you collect and where. Prices, MOQs and attributes are facts, while photos and descriptions can be protected by copyright. This is not legal advice.
Related pages
Collect Alibaba pages with the Web Scraping API
Billed on successful results only. Contact sales for the Web Scraping API and the volume you need, or run your own scraper on residential proxies. 24/7 live chat helps with setup and integration.