Detect Protection

Analyze a URL for anti-bot and CAPTCHA systems without performing a full scrape.

POST /v1/web/detect

Detect Protection

cURL

curl --request POST \
  --url https://scrapebadger.com/v1/web/detect \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: <api-key>' \
  --data '
{
  "url": "<string>",
  "timeout": 15000,
  "country": "<string>"
}
'

200 — Protection Detected

{
  "url": "https://protected-site.com",
  "antibot_systems": [
    {
      "system": "cloudflare_turnstile",
      "confidence": 0.92,
      "details": "Turnstile widget detected in page HTML"
    }
  ],
  "captcha_systems": [],
  "is_blocked": true,
  "blocking_type": "cloudflare",
  "recommendation": "Use browser engine with anti_bot enabled",
  "credits_used": 1,
  "duration_ms": 1240
}

Quickly scan a URL to identify which anti-bot and CAPTCHA systems are in use. Results are cached per domain for 5 minutes — cached hits cost 0 credits.

Request Body

url · string · required

The URL to analyze for anti-bot and CAPTCHA protection systems. Must be a valid HTTP or HTTPS URL.

timeout · integer · default: 15000

Request timeout in milliseconds. Range: 1000 – 60000.

country · string

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for proxy geo-targeting. Some sites show different protection depending on the visitor’s location.

{ "country": "US" }

Response

url · string

The analyzed URL.

antibot_systems · array

List of anti-bot systems detected on the page.

Show child attributes

system · string

System name. Common values: cloudflare_turnstile, datadome, akamai, kasada, amazon_waf, imperva, perimeterx.

confidence · number

Confidence score from 0.0 to 1.0.

details · string

Additional detection details.

captcha_systems · array

List of CAPTCHA systems detected on the page.

Show child attributes

system · string

System name. Common values: recaptcha_v2, recaptcha_v3, hcaptcha, geetest.

confidence · number

Confidence score from 0.0 to 1.0.

details · string

Additional detection details.

is_blocked · boolean

Whether the page is currently showing a blocking/challenge page.

blocking_type · string

Type of blocking detected (e.g., cloudflare, datadome). null if not blocked.

recommendation · string

Suggested scraping strategy based on the detected protection. For example: "Use browser engine with anti_bot enabled".

credits_used · integer

Credits charged for this request. 1 for a fresh scan, 0 for a cached result.

duration_ms · integer

Response time in milliseconds.

Examples

Basic detection

cURL

curl -X POST "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/web/detect" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://scrapebadger.com"}'

Detect with geo-targeting

{
  "url": "https://region-restricted-site.com",
  "country": "DE",
  "timeout": 20000
}

Error Responses

Status	Description
400	Invalid URL
402	Insufficient credits
429	Rate limit exceeded
500	Unexpected server error

200 — Protection Detected

{
  "url": "https://protected-site.com",
  "antibot_systems": [
    {
      "system": "cloudflare_turnstile",
      "confidence": 0.92,
      "details": "Turnstile widget detected in page HTML"
    }
  ],
  "captcha_systems": [],
  "is_blocked": true,
  "blocking_type": "cloudflare",
  "recommendation": "Use browser engine with anti_bot enabled",
  "credits_used": 1,
  "duration_ms": 1240
}

Authorizations

x-api-key · string · header · required

Body

application/json

url · string · required

The URL to analyze.

timeout · integer · default: 15000

Request timeout in milliseconds.

country · string

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for proxy geo-targeting.

Response

200 - application/json

Detection result

url · string

antibot_systems · array

captcha_systems · array

is_blocked · boolean

blocking_type · string | null

recommendation · string | null

credits_used · integer

duration_ms · integer