# Universal price scraper (`zinc_grill/universal-price-scraper`) Actor

Universal competitor-price scraper. Extracts prices with currency from any product page - auto-detects argep.hu and arukereso.hu offer lists. Highly customizable

- **URL**: https://apify.com/zinc\_grill/universal-price-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Gergő Gyulai](https://apify.com/zinc_grill) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, E-commerce, Other
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $45.00 / 1,000 result scrapeds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use 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

## 🛒 Universal Product Price Scraper

**One actor. Any shop. Real prices, real currencies.**

Drop in a product URL — from a comparison site like ÁrGép, from a generic Shopify store, or from that weirdly-built niche shop nobody's ever scraped before — and get back the price and currency. No per-site integration work. No maintenance of a hundred CSS selectors.

---

### Why this actor?

#### ⚡️ Two-pass fetching cuts your bill
We try every unknown shop **without a proxy first**. Most sites just serve HTML — no bot wall, no retry needed. Only the stubborn pages escalate to residential-proxy mode. You pay the same flat rate either way, but the actor uses proxy bandwidth only when it has to.

#### 🌍 Works on sites we've never seen
A 5-tier extraction cascade handles the long tail:

1. **JSON-LD structured data** (`Product` / `Offer` / `AggregateOffer`) — the gold standard, used by most modern e-commerce platforms
2. **OpenGraph / product meta tags** (`og:price:amount`, `product:price:amount`, `twitter:data1`)
3. **Schema.org microdata** (`[itemprop="price"]`, `[itemprop="priceCurrency"]`)
4. **CSS heuristics** — common price classes (`.price`, `.product-price`, `.sale-price`, `[data-price]`, …) or **your own selector** if you pass one
5. **Regex scan of visible text** — as a last resort, picks the most-repeated amount+currency pair on the page

Higher tiers are used first. If JSON-LD is there, we don't guess from CSS.

#### 💱 Currency detected automatically
Returns **ISO 4217 codes** — `HUF`, `EUR`, `USD`, `GBP`, `PLN`, `CZK`, `RON`, `SEK`, `DKK`, `NOK`, `CHF`, `JPY`, `BGN`, `HRK`, `UAH`, `RUB`, `TRY`, `INR`, and more — parsed from structured data, meta tags, or inline symbols (`€`, `$`, `£`, `¥`, `Ft`, `zł`, `Kč`, `лв`, `₴`, `₽`, `₺`, `₹`).

#### 🔢 Locale-aware number parsing
No more hand-written regex per country:

| Input             | Parsed              |
| ----------------- | ------------------- |
| `12 990 Ft`       | `12990 HUF`         |
| `12.990,50 €`     | `12990.50 EUR`      |
| `12,990.50 USD`   | `12990.50 USD`      |
| `$1,299`          | `1299 USD`          |
| `52900.00`        | `52900` + currency inferred from page |

#### 🥷 Camoufox stealth
The actor ships with [Camoufox](https://github.com/daijro/camoufox) — a hardened Firefox that defeats the bot walls on `argep.hu`, `arukereso.hu`, and most major anti-scraping setups. Combined with Apify's residential proxy pool, it gets through where generic headless browsers get blocked.

#### 🚀 Fast by default
Images, videos, and fonts are aborted before they load on every page — we only care about the price markup, not the hero banner. Typical pages finish in 3–8 seconds.

#### 💶 Competition-site support out of the box
Ready-made extractors for the two largest Hungarian price-comparison sites:

- **`argep.hu`** — extracts the full seller list from `.offerListHoverContainer` blocks with prices + shipping
- **`arukereso.hu`** — extracts all offers from `.optoffer` blocks via Schema.org microdata

One run can mix comparison-site URLs and any-site URLs freely.

---

### Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.argep.hu/product/example-p12345/" },
    { "url": "https://www.arukereso.hu/..." },
    { "url": "https://shop.example.com/p/widget-42" },
    {
      "url": "https://stubborn-site.example/product/xyz",
      "userData": { "cssSelector": ".product__price--sale" }
    }
  ],
  "maxRequestsPerCrawl": 100,
  "excludeShops": ["myshop.hu"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}
````

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `startUrls[].url` | Any product URL. The actor auto-detects the host and picks the right strategy. |
| `startUrls[].userData.cssSelector` | *(optional)* Pin a specific CSS selector for the price element when defaults aren't enough. Applied at step 4 of the cascade. |
| `maxRequestsPerCrawl` | Safety cap on pages per run. Default: 100. |
| `excludeShops` | Hide your own shop (or any shop) from the returned offer list. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Residential proxy is strongly recommended for pass 2 and for comparison sites. |

***

### Output

**Successful comparison-site scrape (all sellers):**

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.argep.hu/product/example-p12345/",
  "source": "argep",
  "offers": [
    { "seller": "ShopA", "price": 184900, "currency": "HUF" },
    { "seller": "ShopB", "price": 189000, "currency": "HUF", "shipping": 1990, "shippingCurrency": "HUF" }
  ],
  "fetchedAt": "2026-04-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

**Successful universal scrape (single offer, seller = hostname):**

```json
{
  "url": "https://shop.example.com/p/widget-42",
  "source": "universal",
  "offers": [
    { "seller": "shop.example.com", "price": 49.99, "currency": "EUR" }
  ],
  "fetchedAt": "2026-04-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

**No price found:**

```json
{
  "url": "...",
  "source": "universal",
  "offers": [],
  "error": "No offers found",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-04-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `source` | `'argep'`, `'arukereso'`, or `'universal'` — which strategy handled the URL. |
| `offers` | Up to 20 offers, sorted by price ascending, deduplicated by (seller, price). |
| `offers[].price` | Number. Decimals preserved (`49.99` EUR); integer for whole-unit currencies (`12990` HUF). |
| `offers[].currency` | ISO 4217 code, or `null` if it couldn't be detected. |
| `offers[].shipping` | `0` for free shipping; number otherwise. |
| `fetchedAt` | ISO-8601 timestamp. |

***

### Pricing

**$0.015 per successfully scraped page** — pay-per-event.

You're charged only when the actor actually extracts at least one price from a URL. Failed scrapes, blocked pages, and empty results are free.

***

### Real use cases

- **Competitive price monitoring** — track what every competitor charges across comparison sites and their own stores in one run
- **Price-drop alerts** — schedule daily/hourly runs, diff against the previous dataset, alert on change
- **Marketplace research** — feed hundreds of URLs from mixed sources into one job
- **Product catalog hydration** — enrich your own SKU database with live market prices and currencies
- **MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) enforcement** — catch resellers listing below your floor

***

### FAQ

**Can I use it on sites outside Hungary?**
Yes — the universal extractor is language- and currency-agnostic. We've tested against EUR, USD, GBP, PLN, CZK, and more.

**What happens on JavaScript-rendered SPAs?**
The actor is a full browser (Camoufox), so JS executes before extraction. If the price is rendered client-side, we'll still see it.

**What if the default CSS heuristics pick the wrong price (e.g., crossed-out old price)?**
Pass `userData.cssSelector` on that URL. The override is used at step 4 in place of the generic class list, so you pin the exact element you want.

**What data does it return for universal URLs that I can't get elsewhere?**
Price, currency, and the seller hostname. Comparison-site scrapes return full seller lists — that's where the multi-offer shape shines.

**How does the two-pass strategy save me money?**
Pass 1 runs without a proxy. For easy pages, that's all it takes — no residential-proxy bandwidth, no retries, same billing rate. Proxy-gated sites still work, they just take the scenic route.

**Can I throttle or limit the run?**
Set `maxRequestsPerCrawl` to cap the number of pages. Apify's per-actor spending limits also apply automatically.

**Is it legal / ethical to scrape these sites?**
That's on you, the person running the actor. This tool gives you the technical capability to fetch publicly visible prices — it doesn't grant you permission to do so. **You are solely responsible** for:

- Complying with each target site's Terms of Service and `robots.txt`
- Respecting rate limits and not overloading any server
- Complying with GDPR, CCPA, local data-protection law, and applicable competition law in your jurisdiction
- Making sure you have a lawful basis to collect, store, and use the data you fetch
- Honoring any cease-and-desist or opt-out request you receive from a target site

The author(s) and Apify provide this actor **as-is, with no warranty**, and accept no liability for how it's used, what it's pointed at, or any consequences downstream. If you're unsure whether a specific use case is permissible, consult a lawyer before running it at scale.

***

### Let's go

[Run this actor on Apify](https://apify.com/) with a sample URL and see what comes back. Feedback, feature requests, and weird edge-case URLs all welcome.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Product URLs to scrape. ÁrGép (argep.hu) and Árukeresö (arukereso.hu) use site-specific extractors that return all seller offers; any other host uses the universal extractor that returns the displayed price. You may attach `userData.cssSelector` (a CSS selector string) to any row — when set, the universal extractor tries that selector at its CSS step before falling back to generic heuristics.

## `maxRequestsPerCrawl` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of pages to process in a single run

## `excludeShops` (type: `array`):

Shop names or domains to exclude from results (e.g., your own shop to avoid self-matching). Applies to all sources — comparison sites and universal.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings for the crawler. Residential proxies are recommended to avoid blocking.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://google.com"
    }
  ],
  "maxRequestsPerCrawl": 100,
  "excludeShops": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "HU"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://google.com"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("zinc_grill/universal-price-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 = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://google.com" }] }

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://google.com"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call zinc_grill/universal-price-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=zinc_grill/universal-price-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Universal price scraper",
        "description": "Universal competitor-price scraper. Extracts prices with currency from any product page - auto-detects argep.hu and arukereso.hu offer lists. Highly customizable",
        "version": "0.0",
        "x-build-id": "70SIkIUDMBlqMORHh"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/zinc_grill~universal-price-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-zinc_grill-universal-price-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/zinc_grill~universal-price-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-zinc_grill-universal-price-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/zinc_grill~universal-price-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-zinc_grill-universal-price-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "startUrls"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "startUrls": {
                        "title": "Start URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Product URLs to scrape. ÁrGép (argep.hu) and Árukeresö (arukereso.hu) use site-specific extractors that return all seller offers; any other host uses the universal extractor that returns the displayed price. You may attach `userData.cssSelector` (a CSS selector string) to any row — when set, the universal extractor tries that selector at its CSS step before falling back to generic heuristics.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "object",
                            "required": [
                                "url"
                            ],
                            "properties": {
                                "url": {
                                    "type": "string",
                                    "title": "URL of a web page",
                                    "format": "uri"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    },
                    "maxRequestsPerCrawl": {
                        "title": "Max requests per crawl",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 10000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum number of pages to process in a single run",
                        "default": 100
                    },
                    "excludeShops": {
                        "title": "Exclude shops",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Shop names or domains to exclude from results (e.g., your own shop to avoid self-matching). Applies to all sources — comparison sites and universal.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "default": []
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Proxy settings for the crawler. Residential proxies are recommended to avoid blocking.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": true,
                            "apifyProxyGroups": [
                                "RESIDENTIAL"
                            ],
                            "apifyProxyCountry": "HU"
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```