# Alibaba Scraper — Products, MOQ & Supplier Data (`memo23/alibaba-scraper`) Actor

Search Alibaba.com products by keyword — pure HTTP, no browser. Each row: title, price range, MOQ, tiered quantity pricing, supplier name/country/years, gold/verified status, review scores, certifications (CE, RoHS), images, and product URL. Chinese wholesale sourcing data as clean JSON.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/memo23/alibaba-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Muhamed Didovic](https://apify.com/memo23) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, AI, Agents
- **Stats:** 21 total users, 20 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Alibaba Scraper — Products, MOQ & Supplier Data

**Search Alibaba.com by keyword and get wholesale product offers as clean JSON: price ranges, minimum order quantities, tiered quantity pricing, supplier profiles, review scores, and certifications.**

Built on plain HTTP against Alibaba's own gallery data service — no browser, no login, 512 MB of memory. Runs are fast and cheap, and the output is sourcing-ready: every row tells you what the product costs at which quantity, who sells it, how long they've been on the platform, and how buyers rate them.

### What you get per product

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `title`, `productUrl`, `productId` | Clean title (no highlight markup) and canonical detail URL |
| `price`, `priceMin`, `minOrder`, `unit` | Display price range (e.g. `US $0.71-$0.78`), lowest price, MOQ (e.g. `5 meters`) |
| `quantityPrices` | Tiered pricing: `[{price, localPrice, quantityMin, quantityMax, unit}]` — the actual wholesale ladder |
| `supplierName`, `supplierCountry`, `supplierYears` | Who sells it, from where, and for how long |
| `goldSupplier`, `assessedSupplier`, `verifiedSupplierPro`, `tradeAssurance` | Supplier trust signals |
| `reviewScore`, `productReviewScore`, `supplierServiceScore`, `shippingTimeScore`, `reviewCount` | Buyer ratings, split by dimension |
| `responseRate`, `employeesTotal` | Supplier responsiveness and size |
| `certifications` | Product certificates shown on the listing (CE, RoHS, …) |
| `mainImage`, `images`, `hasVideo` | Media |
| `category`, `categoryId`, `isAd` | Alibaba's leaf category and whether the listing is a sponsored (P4P) slot |
| `searchTerm`, `page` | Which input keyword and page produced the row |

Rows are deduplicated across pages by `productId` (sponsored listings repeat between pages — you're never charged twice for the same offer).

### Example input

```json
{
    "searchTerms": ["led strip", "yoga mat"],
    "maxPages": 3,
    "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Use cases

Sourcing research is the obvious one: compare MOQ and price ladders across suppliers for a product you want to manufacture or resell. The supplier trust fields (gold status, assessment, trade assurance, response rate, years on platform) make shortlisting programmatic instead of tab-by-tab. Price-tracking across runs, category landscape analysis, and dropshipping catalog discovery all fall out of the same rows.

### FAQ

**Do I need a proxy?** Usually no — the default direct connection works. If runs start failing with blocks, switch the proxy input to Apify Proxy.

**How many products per page?** Alibaba returns roughly 20–48 offers per page depending on the query. `totalCount` for the keyword is logged at the start of each term.

**Does it scrape product detail pages?** Not in this actor — search rows already carry pricing tiers, MOQ, supplier data, and media. Detail-page and supplier-profile scraping are separate problems (those pages are aggressively bot-gated) and belong to a future actor.

**Are sponsored listings included?** Yes, marked with `isAd: true` so you can filter them out.

### Explore more scrapers

- [1688 Wholesale Scraper](https://apify.com/memo23/1688-wholesale-scraper) — Alibaba's China-domestic wholesale platform, with tier pricing and MOQ
- [Xiaohongshu (RedNote) Scraper](https://apify.com/memo23/xiaohongshu-rednote-scraper) — Chinese social commerce signals

### 🤖 For AI Agents & LLM Apps

Compact reference for AI agents calling this actor via the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) or the Apify API (actor: `memo23/alibaba-scraper`).

**Purpose:** Keyword-searches Alibaba.com wholesale product offers over plain HTTP (no browser, no login) and returns sourcing-ready JSON rows — price ranges, MOQ, tiered quantity pricing, supplier profiles, review scores, and certifications.

**Minimal input:**

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

**Output:** one dataset row per product offer; key fields: title, productUrl, productId, price, priceMin, minOrder, unit, quantityPrices (tiered ladder: price, localPrice, quantityMin, quantityMax, unit), supplierName, supplierCountry, supplierYears, goldSupplier, assessedSupplier, verifiedSupplierPro, tradeAssurance, reviewScore, productReviewScore, supplierServiceScore, shippingTimeScore, reviewCount, responseRate, employeesTotal, certifications, mainImage, images, hasVideo, category, categoryId, isAd, searchTerm, page.

**Behaviors an agent should know:**

- Always set `maxItems` (and/or `maxPages`, ~20–48 products per page) to cap output; each term in `searchTerms` runs its own search.
- No login or cookie required; the default direct connection usually works — switch `proxy` to Apify Proxy only if runs start failing with blocks.
- Rows are deduplicated across pages by `productId`, so repeated sponsored listings are not billed twice.
- Sponsored (P4P) listings are included and flagged with `isAd: true` for filtering.
- Billing: Pay-per-event billing — see the Pricing tab on the actor page.

### ⚠️ Disclaimer

This actor collects publicly displayed listing data from Alibaba.com for legitimate sourcing research, price monitoring, and market analysis. You are responsible for complying with applicable laws and Alibaba's terms. Do not use collected data for spam or unfair competitive practices.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Product keywords to search on Alibaba.com, e.g. 'led strip', 'yoga mat', 'usb c cable'. One search per term.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Search pages to fetch per keyword (~20–48 products per page). Default 1.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on total dataset rows across all keywords. Leave empty for no cap.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

Optional proxy. The default (no proxy) usually works — Alibaba's gallery service is open. Set Apify Proxy here if runs start failing.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "led strip"
  ],
  "maxPages": 1,
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "led strip"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("memo23/alibaba-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchTerms": ["led strip"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("memo23/alibaba-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "led strip"
  ]
}' |
apify call memo23/alibaba-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,memo23/alibaba-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/7Rn373Iimdl3A6goA/builds/1BDUcxT7uIjwsJMN1/openapi.json