1688 Global Product Search Scraper

Find export-ready 1688 products with English titles, English supplier names, and USD price evidence — in one search. Instead of handing you a mixed-language catalog or relabelled CNY prices, this Actor keeps only search results that prove the requested English/USD context.

Architecture: thin Apify Actor → alibaba-1688-com Cloud Run worker (HTTPS + API key).
Worker URL is config (WORKER_BASE_URL), not hardcoded-only — migrate the worker by updating Actor env without a code change. Set WORKER_PROVIDES_PROXY=1 when the worker supplies its own PROXY_URL.

Type a product keyword, click Start, and download a structured product table for sourcing, catalog research, price monitoring, or an AI workflow.

What you can do with it

1. Find products to source

Search a product category such as phone case, women dress, or home storage and compare offers before opening supplier conversations.

You only fill in the keyword and how many verified listings you want:

Field	What to enter
keyword	An English product phrase
maxResults	Number of listings to save
maxPages	Search pages to inspect

The result is a clean, exportable table with a product ID, English title, supplier, USD price, images, sales text, and direct listing link.

2. Compare wholesale price signals

Each saved row includes the USD price evidence shown by the 1688 Global search surface. The raw CNY reference price is retained separately when present; it is never relabelled as USD.

This makes it practical to sort a spreadsheet by price, inspect image counts, and shortlist offers without manually converting each product card.

3. Build a supplier shortlist

The search card can include supplier name, supplier identifiers, supplier tenure text, star level, supplier-tag asset, and sales text.

These are search-list signals, not a claim that the Actor has collected a complete supplier profile. Use them to prioritize which offers deserve a manual follow-up.

4. Monitor a category

Run the same keyword on a schedule and compare the exported tables over time. Each row includes the keyword, requested page, position, source endpoint, and capture timestamp, so downstream systems can retain provenance.

5. Feed an AI or automation workflow

Download CSV, JSON, or Excel from Apify, or send the Dataset to Make, n8n, Zapier, Python, or an MCP-enabled agent. The row contract is structured enough for filters such as “USD price below $10” or “supplier has 5 images”.

How to use — no code required

1. Click Try for free.
2. Enter an English keyword.
3. Keep Use Apify Residential Proxy enabled and choose US.
4. Set a small maxResults value for a first run.
5. Click Start and open the Dataset when the run finishes.

That is the full workflow: search, wait, download. Start with one result to verify the product category, then increase the output cap.

Free Apify plan limits (set by this Actor's developer)

Limit	Free Apify plan	Paid Apify plan
Runs of this Actor	10 runs total	Unlimited
Listings per run (maxResults)	Up to 100	Up to 100

These caps are enforced by the Actor developer (not Apify platform errors). When you hit the 10-run limit, the run finishes gracefully with a clear status message asking you to upgrade.

What you get back

Every emitted row has passed the Actor’s English/USD acceptance contract. Core fields include:

• offerId — stable 1688 offer identifier.
• title and sellerName — English product and supplier text from the accepted search result.
• priceMin, priceText, and priceCurrency — verified USD pricing evidence.
• priceInCny and cnyToUsdRate — separate source/reference evidence when supplied; never a relabelled price.
• mainImage, galleryImages, and imageCount — images shown by the search result.
• salesText, starLevel, supplierYearsText, and sellingPoints — available card-level commercial signals.
• supplierLoginId, supplierMemberId, and supplierTagAssetUrl — supplier identifiers/assets exposed by the search result.
• page, position, keyword, and capturedAt — row provenance.

The Actor also writes INPUT_ECHO, RUN_SUMMARY, and redacted NETWORK_DIAGNOSTICS to the default key-value store. These let you audit whether a run used the verified Global-search path without storing cookies, tokens, signatures, or raw browser traffic.

Pricing

Pay only when the Actor starts and when it returns a Dataset item. No subscription. Platform usage costs are paid by the Actor owner, so the event prices below are the prices you see.

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.005 per GB of allocated Actor memory (minimum one event)
Verified result	$3.00 per 1,000 Dataset items ($0.003 each)

The result charge is linear: no output items means no result-item charge. The Actor charges the platform dataset event after a successful write (apify-default-dataset-item, with a legacy fallback). Charge failures are logged and do not erase already-written Dataset rows.

The start event is counted by Apify from allocated memory; for example, a 4 GB run starts at $0.020, then adds $0.003 for each verified Dataset item.

Free Apify plan: up to 10 runs of this Actor and 100 listings per run. Upgrade to a paid Apify plan for unlimited runs. (Limits set by the Actor developer.)

Zero verified listings

If the Global search API returns a validated English/USD empty page, the run finishes as SUCCEEDED with resultStatus=VALID_ZERO_RESULTS, an empty Dataset, and no result charge. Check RUN_SUMMARY.zeroResultNote.

Connect to your tools

Use Actor ID lentic_clockss/1688-global-scraper in the Apify integration for Make, n8n, Zapier, or your own code. For AI-agent workflows, the Actor can be discovered through the Apify MCP server.

When to use something else

If you need...	This Actor is not the right current path
SKU-level inventory, product descriptions, price ladders, or full specifications	Detail access is not yet a stable anonymous capability; use a verified detail-data provider or manually validate shortlisted offers.
Chinese domestic-market search results	This Actor is intentionally limited to the 1688 Global English/USD search surface.
Guaranteed live shipping quotes or supplier verification	Search-card signals are not a substitute for supplier due diligence.

Input reference

Parameter	Default	Description
keyword	phone case	English product keyword.
maxResults	20	Maximum verified English/USD listings to save (1–100). Free plan: also 10 total runs of this Actor.
maxPages	1	Search pages to observe (1–5).
useApifyProxy	true	Uses Apify RESIDENTIAL unless Actor env WORKER_PROVIDES_PROXY=1.
proxyCountry	US	Residential proxy country currently supported by this Actor.
includeDetails	false	Best-effort detail navigation only (title/snippet status). Not SKU/attrs/price-ladder extraction.
maxDetailItems	1	When details are enabled, how many rows to open (defaults to 1 if omitted).
workerBaseUrl	(env)	Optional per-run override of the Cloud Run worker origin. Default: Actor env WORKER_BASE_URL.

FAQ

Why is a result missing? The Actor rejects a response if the observed Global-search payload does not prove the requested keyword, English language, USD currency, numeric offer ID, English text, and USD price evidence.

Can I search in Chinese? The product contract is English/USD search-list output. Use English keywords for this Actor.

I'm on the free Apify plan — are there limits? Yes. Free Apify plan users get 10 runs of this Actor and up to 100 listings per run. These limits are set by the Actor developer (not Apify). When you hit the run cap, the run finishes with a clear status message — it is not a platform bug.

Why are detail fields limited? 1688 detail pages can redirect anonymous browser sessions to a login flow. The Actor records that boundary honestly rather than inventing detail data.

Can I schedule it? Yes. Create an Apify schedule with the same input and send the Dataset to your preferred automation.