Alibaba Scraper: Prices, MOQ, Suppliers

What you get

Every result is one row in the run's dataset. Download it as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the Apify API.

The main fields of each row:

• Product ID (productId)
• title
• Price from (priceMin)
• Price to (priceMax)
• Min order (minOrder)
• Unit (minOrderUnit)
• sold
• Supplier (supplierName)
• Country (supplierCountry)
• Product URL (url)

What people use it for

• Sourcing research: compare price ranges, quantity price tiers and minimum orders of a product across suppliers.
• Supplier shortlists: sort offers by the supplier's country, years on Alibaba.com, verified badge and response rate.
• Product research: see which offers sell most (units sold) and which certifications they carry.
• Price monitoring: track the prices of a product keyword on a schedule.

Run it on Apify

1. Open alibaba-scraper on Apify and sign in, or make an Apify account.
2. On the Input tab, fill in the fields listed below. The form opens with example values filled in.
3. Click Start. Rows appear on the Output tab while the run works.
4. Export the rows as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or read them through the Apify API.
5. To run it again on a schedule, save the input as a task and add a schedule in the Apify Console.

What you can set

• Keywords (searchTerms): Products as a buyer would type them, one per line, for example led strip lights.
• Alibaba keyword page URLs (searchUrls): Optional alibaba.com keyword pages (https://www.alibaba.com/wholesale/....html).
• Pages per keyword (maxPages): How many result pages (about 47 offers each) to read per keyword. Default: 2.
• Maximum results (maxItems): The run stops after this many result rows. It also caps what one run can cost. Default: 200.
• Only new results (onlyNew): Skip rows that an earlier run with the same input already returned, so a scheduled run gives each new row once. Skipped rows are not charged. The keys of returned rows are kept in a key-value store in your Apify account. A run stops after 200 seen rows in a row. Default: false.
• Proxy configuration (proxyConfiguration): Leave as is: the run starts on the cheapest network the site accepts and switches to Apify Proxy automatically when the site blocks it. Pick proxy groups here only to force one specific network.

Example input

This is the input the actor is tested with every day.

{
  "searchTerms": [
    "led strip lights"
  ],
  "maxPages": 1,
  "maxItems": 20
}

Run it from Python

The official apify-client package starts the run, waits for it and reads the rows. It needs your own Apify API token.

# pip install apify-client
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")  # your own API token, from the Apify Console
run_input = {
    "searchTerms": ["led strip lights"],
    "maxPages": 1,
    "maxItems": 20,
}
run = client.actor("v0iddo/alibaba-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Limits

• Reads Alibaba's public keyword pages (alibaba.com/wholesale/...). Its search box pages are closed to automated access in robots.txt, so filters such as price range or supplier type are not offered.
• Most product keywords have a page. When one has none, the run tries the plural once and logs the keyword if that has none either.
• Prices are as shown to a visitor of the English site, usually in US dollars; quantityPrices lists the price per quantity tier when the offer has tiers.
• Supplier contact details are not collected.
• On an Apify account without a paid plan a run returns up to 20 results; on any paid Apify plan it returns up to Maximum results.
• Only publicly visible data is collected. No login, no paywalled content, no personal contact details.
• The actor reads only pages that the site's robots.txt leaves open to automated access.
• Sites change their pages from time to time. The actor is checked automatically and repaired when a check fails.
• Each run sends one short usage record to the developer: the Actor and run IDs, the number of results, whether the run succeeded (and if not, the kind of error, such as "blocked" or "input problem"), whether the account is on a paid Apify plan, how the run was started (for example from the Console, the API or a schedule) and a one-way fingerprint of the account (a hash, not the account ID), so that repeat runs of one account count once. It contains nothing from your input or results.

Questions

Do I need an account on Alibaba.com, cookies or an API key?

No. The actor reads only what every visitor of Alibaba.com can see, without logging in. You only need an Apify account to start it.

How many results can one run return?

Up to 20,000 rows per run. Without a limit it stops at 200. Set Maximum results to the number you need; large jobs can also be split into several runs or scheduled.

Why did my run return no results?

The status message of the run says why: nothing matched the input, the input was not a page the actor understands, the page is closed to automated access by robots.txt, or the site refused every network the actor tried. Check the input against the example above and run it again with a small limit.

Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. Save your input as a task and add a schedule in the Apify Console (daily, hourly or with a cron expression). Each run gets its own dataset, so you keep a history. Turn on Only new results in the task and each run returns only the rows no earlier run with that input returned, so every row is paid for once.

Which formats can I export?

JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML table and RSS from the Output tab or the API. Integrations send the rows to Google Sheets, Slack, Make, Zapier, n8n or a webhook.

More

• Google Maps Scraper: Places, Phones, Hours
• All our scrapers on the Apify Store