Startpage Search Scraper

Startpage Search Scraper

Scrape organic search results from Startpage, the leading Google SERP alternative that returns Google-quality results without tracking or ads based on your search history. The Startpage Search Scraper is a Google search alternative API for developers — enter one or more queries and get back structured rankings, titles, URLs, snippets, and sitelinks, ready for SEO research, rank tracking, or AI agent workflows.

Run unlimited queries with pagination, filter by 63 regions, 82 languages, safe search level, and time period — get clean organic rankings without ads, knowledge panels, or personalization noise.

Copy to your AI assistant

Copy this block into ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or any LLM to start using this actor.

Startpage Search Scraper (parsebird/startpage-search-scraper) — Scrapes organic search results from Startpage, a Google SERP alternative / Google search alternative with no tracking. Input: {"queries": ["web scraping"], "maxItems": 10, "region": "all", "language": "english", "safeSearch": "moderate", "timePeriod": "any"}. Fields: queries (string array, required — each query is fully paginated before the next starts), maxItems (integer, required — max organic results across all queries combined, 0 = unlimited), region (63 supported locales, e.g. en_US, de_DE, es_ES, en-GB_GB; default all), language (82 supported languages; default english), safeSearch (strict/moderate/off; default moderate), timePeriod (any/day/week/month/year; default any). Outputs per result: query, position, page, pagePosition, title, url, displayUrl, domain, snippet, sitelinks (conditional), anonymousViewUrl (conditional). API: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parsebird~startpage-search-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN. Get token: https://console.apify.com/account#/integrations

What does Startpage Search Scraper do?

Startpage Search Scraper turns any Startpage query into structured JSON, CSV, or Excel data — the same organic results you see at startpage.com, but machine-readable. Startpage is a Google search alternative that proxies Google's index while stripping tracking, making it a common Google SERP alternative for SEO research and privacy-conscious data collection. Enter your queries, set your filters, and the scraper:

• 🔍 Runs one or more search queries, each fully paginated before the next starts
• 📊 Extracts organic rankings, titles, URLs, display URLs, domains, and snippets
• 🔗 Captures sitelinks and Anonymous View proxy links when Startpage includes them
• 🌍 Filters by region (63 Startpage-supported locales) and language (82 supported languages)
• 🛡️ Controls explicit-content filtering with strict, moderate, or off safe search
• ⏱️ Restricts results to a recent time window — past day, week, month, or year
• ♾️ Paginates automatically up to your maxItems limit, or scrape as many pages as Startpage returns
• ⚡ Runs on lightweight infrastructure (128–512 MB) — fast and cost-efficient

Because Startpage is a Google SERP alternative, this scraper is a practical way to pull Google-quality organic rankings for rank tracking and competitor research without dealing with Google's own bot defenses directly.

What data can you extract from Startpage search results?

Field	Description
query	The original search query that produced this result
position	Overall rank across all pages saved for this query
page	Startpage result page number
pagePosition	Rank within that specific page
title	Result headline as displayed on Startpage
url	Destination URL
displayUrl	URL text shown in the result
domain	Destination hostname
snippet	Result description
sitelinks	Related links shown below the result, when present
anonymousViewUrl	Startpage's Anonymous View proxy link, when present

How to scrape Startpage search results

1. Open the Startpage Search Scraper on Apify
2. Enter one or more Search Queries — keywords or operators like site:apify.com actors
3. Set Max Results to control how many organic results to collect across all queries (default: 10)
4. Optionally choose a Region and Language to localize results
5. Set Safe Search and Time Period if you need filtered or recent results
6. Click Start and wait for results
7. Export your data as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the dataset tab

Quick start input:

{
    "queries": ["best web scraping platforms", "web scraping API"],
    "maxItems": 50,
    "region": "en_US",
    "language": "english",
    "safeSearch": "moderate",
    "timePeriod": "month"
}

Domain-scoped search:

{
    "queries": ["site:apify.com scraping actors"],
    "maxItems": 100,
    "region": "en-GB_GB",
    "language": "english",
    "safeSearch": "strict",
    "timePeriod": "week"
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
queries	string array	Yes	—	Keywords or search operators. Each query is fully paginated before the next starts
maxItems	integer	Yes	10	Maximum organic results to save across all queries combined. Set 0 for unlimited
region	string	No	all	Preferred result region — choose all or a supported locale such as en_US, de_DE, es_ES, en-GB_GB
language	string	No	english	Preferred result language, selected from Startpage's 82 supported languages
safeSearch	string	No	moderate	Explicit-content filtering: strict, moderate, or off
timePeriod	string	No	any	Recency filter: any, day, week, month, or year

Output example

{
    "query": "best web scraping platforms",
    "position": 1,
    "page": 1,
    "pagePosition": 1,
    "title": "Web Scraping, Data Extraction and Automation",
    "url": "https://apify.com/",
    "displayUrl": "https://apify.com/",
    "domain": "apify.com",
    "snippet": "Build and run web scrapers and automation tools in the cloud.",
    "sitelinks": [
        { "title": "Apify Store", "url": "https://apify.com/store" }
    ],
    "anonymousViewUrl": "https://us3-browse.startpage.com/av/proxy?ep=..."
}

Use cases

• SEO rank tracking — Monitor how your pages rank on a Google SERP alternative over time
• Competitor research — See which pages and domains rank for your target keywords
• SERP feature audits — Compare sitelinks, snippets, and titles across queries
• Content gap analysis — Discover which topics and domains dominate a keyword
• Domain-scoped audits — Use site: operators to check indexing for a specific site
• AI agent grounding — Feed structured Google search alternative results into LLM pipelines and RAG systems
• Privacy-conscious research — Collect search data without triggering Google's own tracking or personalization
• Trend monitoring — Schedule recurring runs to track how rankings shift over time

How much does it cost to scrape Startpage?

The Startpage Search Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. You are charged per organic result scraped — no separate compute fees on top.

Event	Price per event	Price per 1,000
result-scraped (Free)	$0.0015	$1.50
result-scraped (Bronze)	$0.0014	$1.40
result-scraped (Silver)	$0.0012	$1.20
result-scraped (Gold)	$0.001	$1.00

Each result pushed to the dataset counts as one event. For example, scraping 1,000 results on the Free plan costs $1.50, and $1.00 on the Gold plan.

Apify's Free plan includes monthly platform credits, so you can try the Startpage Search Scraper's free trial before committing to a paid plan.

Integrations and API access

Use the Startpage Search Scraper programmatically via the Apify API, JavaScript client, or Python client.

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("parsebird/startpage-search-scraper").call(run_input={
    "queries": ["web scraping API"],
    "maxItems": 50,
    "region": "en_US",
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["position"], item["title"], item["url"])

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: "YOUR_API_TOKEN" });

const run = await client.actor("parsebird/startpage-search-scraper").call({
    queries: ["web scraping API"],
    maxItems: 50,
    region: "en_US",
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => console.log(item.position, item.title, item.url));

You can also connect the Startpage Search Scraper to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, and other platforms via Apify integrations. Schedule runs daily, weekly, or at any interval for automated rank tracking, and export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel directly from the dataset tab.

Is it legal to scrape Startpage?

Scraping publicly available search results is generally considered legal based on the 2022 US appeals court ruling in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn. This actor only accesses publicly available organic search results — it does not log in, bypass paywalls, or access private data.

Always review Startpage's Terms of Service and comply with applicable laws in your jurisdiction. For guidance, see Apify's guide to web scraping legality.

Related Actors

Looking for other search or SEO data sources on Apify?

• Startpage News Scraper — Scrape Startpage news search results, a Google News alternative
• Startpage Images Scraper — Scrape Startpage image search results, a Google Images alternative
• Startpage Videos Scraper — Scrape Startpage video search results, a Google Videos alternative
• YouTube Search Scraper — Scrape YouTube search results for videos, channels, and playlists
• Pinterest Search Scraper — Scrape Pinterest search results and pin data

FAQ

Is Startpage really a Google search alternative? Yes. Startpage licenses Google's search index and displays Google-quality organic results while stripping tracking, ads personalization, and search history logging — making it one of the most widely used privacy-focused Google SERP alternatives.

How many results can I scrape per run? Set maxItems to any number, or 0 to paginate until Startpage stops returning results. Results are shared across all queries in the queries list, and each query is fully paginated before the next one starts.

Why do my region or language filters not change every result? Startpage — like Google — still ranks pages by relevance first. A strongly English-dominant query can keep returning English-language results even with a different language filter applied. Region and language settings bias which locale of the index is queried, but don't force a specific language onto every result.

What is the anonymousViewUrl field? It's Startpage's built-in Anonymous View link — a proxy URL that lets you open a result without the destination site seeing your IP address or browser fingerprint. It's only included when Startpage provides one for a result.

Can I schedule recurring runs? Yes. Use Apify's scheduling feature to run the scraper daily, weekly, or at any custom interval — useful for ongoing rank tracking on this Google SERP alternative.

Can I use this with my AI assistant or MCP server? Yes. Copy the AI assistant block from the top of this page into ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor. You can also use the Apify MCP server to connect this actor to any AI agent framework.

Something isn't working. How do I get help? Open an issue in the Issues tab on the actor page. Include your input configuration and any error messages.