Alibaba Image Search - Reverse Lookup of Suppliers by Photo

What does Alibaba Image Search do?

Alibaba Image Search takes a product photo URL and returns the Alibaba.com wholesale listings that look like it: the factories and trading companies selling that product, with price range, minimum order quantity (MOQ), supplier name, country, years on Alibaba, verified status, store ratings and certificates. It is a reverse image search for Alibaba that you can call as an API, in bulk, without an Alibaba account.

Paste a picture from Amazon, Shopify, AliExpress, a competitor's store or your own CDN. The image is uploaded to Alibaba's own search-by-image service, and you get up to 100 matches per image, best match first, at $5 per 1,000 matches. Images that fail to download or find nothing are free.

Not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Alibaba.com or Alibaba Group.

Why use a reverse image search on Alibaba?

• 🏭 Find the factory behind a product: you saw it on Amazon or in an ad; get the manufacturers that make it and what they charge per unit.
• 📦 Dropshipping and private label sourcing: compare MOQ, price tiers and supplier history for the same item across dozens of suppliers in one run.
• 🛡️ Supplier vetting: sort matches by years on Alibaba, third-party audit (SGS, TÜV Rheinland, Intertek), certificates (CE, RoHS, BSCI, ISO) and store rating before you message anyone.
• 💰 Margin checks: put a retail price next to the wholesale price range of the same product.
• 🤖 AI agents and pipelines: an agent holding a product image can call this Actor through the Apify API or MCP server and get clean JSON back.

What data can it extract?

Field	Example
inputImageUrl, matchRank	your image URL, 1 (1 = closest match)
productId, title, productUrl	1601719654949, Wholesale New Classic EVA Smell Proof Fanny Bag ..., listing URL
imageUrl, images	full-size main image and gallery images of the match
priceMin, priceMax, currency, priceText	4.45, 8.95, USD, US$4.45-8.95
promotionPrice, discount	sale price and 10% off when Alibaba shows one
moq, moqUnit	500, pieces
soldCount, estimatedDelivery	125, 06 Jan (when shown)
supplierName, supplierId, supplierCountry	Shenzhen New Concept Bag Co., LTD, 246726480, CN
supplierUrl, supplierProfileUrl, contactSupplierUrl	supplier storefront, company profile and contact form
goldSupplierYears	8 (years as a paying Alibaba supplier)
isVerified, verifiedBy	true, TÜV Rheinland (see the FAQ for how this is decided)
supplierReviewScore, supplierReviewCount	4.7, 5 (score is null for stores with no reviews yet)
supplierServiceScore, supplierShippingScore, productScore	4.8, 4.4, 4.9 (store rating parts, out of 5)
certificates	["CE", "ROHS", "BSCI", "ISO"]
isAd, scrapedAt	sponsored flag, timestamp

How to search Alibaba by image

1. Click Try for free.
2. Paste one or more product image URLs (one per line). JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF up to 10 MB work.
3. Set Max matches per image (default 20, up to 100).
4. Click Start.
5. Download the matches as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.

How much does it cost?

You pay $0.005 per matched product ($5 per 1,000 matches) plus $0.00005 per run start. With the default of 20 matches, one image costs $0.10; the full 100 matches cost $0.50. Proxy is included.

Free: images that cannot be downloaded, links that are not images, files over 10 MB, failed uploads and images with zero matches. Each gives an error row and no charge. On the Apify free plan, the $5 monthly credit covers about 1,000 matches (about 50 images at 20 matches). Set a maximum cost per run and the Actor stops when it reaches it.

Input

{
    "imageUrls": [
        "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Stainless_steel_water_bottle.jpg",
        "https://s.alicdn.com/@sc04/kf/H037807d8a9054fac93009001064c56c4e.jpg"
    ],
    "maxMatchesPerImage": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Output

One row per match. You can download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML.

{
    "inputImageUrl": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Stainless_steel_water_bottle.jpg",
    "matchRank": 5,
    "productId": "1601808281691",
    "title": "Outdoor Travel Camping Stainless Steel Portable Insulated Activated Carbon Water Bottle Filter Large Capacity Direct Drinking",
    "productUrl": "https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Outdoor-Travel-Camping-Stainless-Steel-Portable_1601808281691.html",
    "imageUrl": "https://s.alicdn.com/@sc04/kf/H7b3ce4c27002405a814e67bc4f6125ech.jpg",
    "priceMin": 9.18,
    "priceMax": 11.44,
    "currency": "USD",
    "priceText": "US$9.18-11.44",
    "moq": 50,
    "moqUnit": "pieces",
    "soldCount": 203,
    "supplierName": "Sichuan Mybottle Technology Co., Ltd.",
    "supplierId": "270587440",
    "supplierCountry": "CN",
    "supplierUrl": "https://mybottle.en.alibaba.com/",
    "goldSupplierYears": 5,
    "isVerified": true,
    "verifiedBy": "SGS",
    "supplierReviewScore": 4.7,
    "supplierReviewCount": 32,
    "supplierServiceScore": 4.8,
    "supplierShippingScore": 4.6,
    "productScore": 4.7,
    "certificates": ["CE", "EMC", "FCC", "ROHS"],
    "isAd": false,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-23T11:40:14.472Z"
}

A failed image looks like { "inputImageUrl": "...", "error": "Could not download the image (HTTP 404)." } and is not charged.

Tips

• Match quality depends on the photo. A sharp picture of the product alone, on a plain background, finds the closest listings. Lifestyle shots, collages, screenshots with text or flat graphics still return results, but they are only loosely related, and those rows are charged like any other.
• Keep the default of 20 matches unless you need the long tail. Alibaba ranks the closest listings first, so the later ranks drift toward merely similar items.
• Use direct image links. The URL must return the image file itself (right-click the picture, then "Copy image address"), not the product page.
• Images on Alibaba's own CDN (alicdn.com) are searched by URL directly; all other images are downloaded and uploaded to Alibaba's image search first.
• Do not submit photos of people. This tool is for products. Every image you submit is uploaded to Alibaba's image search service.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client this Actor as a tool through Apify's MCP server: add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=tenfoldfleet/alibaba-image-search as a remote MCP server and sign in with your Apify account. The agent fills in the image URLs, runs the Actor and reads the matches itself; you pay the same per-event price as a normal run.

FAQ

How is isVerified decided?

Alibaba's search results carry no single "verified" flag. This Actor sets isVerified: true when the listing shows a third-party audit of the supplier (verifiedBy, such as SGS, TÜV Rheinland or Intertek) or company audit badges (such as BSCI, ISO or SEDEX, also listed in certificates). In our tests about a third to a half of matches met that rule (32% in our cloud benchmark). It is a useful filter, not a guarantee: check the supplier's profile before you order.

What happens to my images?

Each image is downloaded by the Actor and uploaded to Alibaba's image search service, the same one behind the camera icon on Alibaba.com, where Alibaba stores it. Do not submit images you are not allowed to share, and do not submit pictures of people.

How many matches can I get per image?

Up to 100. Alibaba stops at 100 matches for any image.

Which image formats work?

JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF up to 10 MB. Alibaba cannot read some files as sent, for example large or animated WebP images; when a file returns no matches, the Actor converts it to a plain JPEG and searches once more, at no extra cost. Shopify image links are fetched at 1,600 px wide, so very large product PNGs stay under the 10 MB limit. SVG files are rejected for free.

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

No. The Actor uses the public search-by-image feature that Alibaba.com offers every visitor.

Is it the same as searching AliExpress or 1688 by image?

No. This Actor searches Alibaba.com, the B2B wholesale marketplace, so results are factory and supplier listings with MOQs and price ranges, not retail AliExpress items.

Can I use it from code?

Yes, through the Apify API, the JavaScript or Python client, scheduled runs, webhooks, or integrations such as Make, Zapier and n8n.

Support

Found an image that should match but does not? Open an issue in the Issues tab with the image URL.

This Actor reads only public product listings that Alibaba.com shows to every visitor. It does not log in, solve CAPTCHAs or collect personal data. Alibaba and Alibaba.com are trademarks of their owner; this Actor is independent and not endorsed by Alibaba Group.

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