Quickstart

This guide shows how to scrape your first URL using Web Unlocker.

Prerequisites

A Web Unlocker API key. Get one with the form on the Web Unlocker page. The key arrives within one business day, with free requests to test on your own targets. No card is needed.
Python 3.x, Node.js, or any HTTP client

Authentication

All requests require your API key in the apikey header:

apikey: YOUR_API_KEY

The base URL for all API requests is:

https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1

Make your first request

Send a GET request with the target URL as a query parameter. The response is the fully rendered HTML of the page.

cURL

curl "https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1/scrape?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com" \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_API_KEY"

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1/scrape",
    params={"url": "https://example.com"},
    headers={"apikey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
)

print(response.text)

JavaScript (Node.js / Browser)

const response = await fetch(
  "https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1/scrape?url=" +
    encodeURIComponent("https://example.com"),
  { headers: { apikey: "YOUR_API_KEY" } }
);

const html = await response.text();
console.log(html);

What you get back

The response body is the raw rendered HTML of the page — the same content you’d see if you opened the URL in a browser. No JSON wrapper, no parsing needed.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head><title>Example Domain</title></head>
  <body>...</body>
</html>

Other formats

Add the format query parameter to get the page in another format:

`format`	Response body
`html`	Page HTML (the default)
`markdown`	Page content as Markdown
`json`	JSON object with the URL, request metadata, and the page HTML

curl "https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1/scrape?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com&format=json" \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_API_KEY"

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "metadata": {
      "response_time_ms": 297,
      "status_code": 200
    },
    "html": "<!DOCTYPE html><html lang=\"en\">..."
  }
}

Handling errors

Check the HTTP status code before processing the response:

Status	Meaning	Response body
`200`	Success	The page in the requested format
`400`	Bad request, for example the `url` parameter is missing	`{"success":false,"error":"Request failed"}`
`401`	The `apikey` header is missing	`{"message":"Missing API key in request"}`

If you get 429 or a 5xx status, retry with exponential backoff.

response = requests.get(
    "https://parsing.webunlocker.gologin.com/v1/scrape",
    params={"url": "https://example.com"},
    headers={"apikey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    html = response.text
else:
    print(f"Error {response.status_code}: {response.text}")

Quick start with CLI

You can also scrape pages using the Gologin CLI tools without writing code:

Web Unlocker CLI

npm install -g gologin-webunlocker

GOLOGIN_WEBUNLOCKER_API_KEY=wu_... gologin-webunlocker scrape https://example.com
GOLOGIN_WEBUNLOCKER_API_KEY=wu_... gologin-webunlocker text https://example.com
GOLOGIN_WEBUNLOCKER_API_KEY=wu_... gologin-webunlocker markdown https://example.com

Gologin Web Access CLI (unified)

npm install -g gologin-web-access

export GOLOGIN_WEB_UNLOCKER_API_KEY="wu_..."
gologin-web-access read https://example.com
gologin-web-access scrape-json https://example.com
gologin-web-access batch-scrape https://example.com/page/1 https://example.com/page/2 --format text

See Web Unlocker SDK and CLI and Web Access CLI for full details.

Introduction

API Reference

Scraping API & Web Unlocker

Node.js SDK

Python SDK

Limitations

Prerequisites

Authentication

Make your first request

cURL

Python

JavaScript (Node.js / Browser)

What you get back

Other formats

Handling errors

Quick start with CLI

Web Unlocker CLI

Gologin Web Access CLI (unified)

​Prerequisites

​Authentication

​Make your first request

​cURL

​Python

​JavaScript (Node.js / Browser)

​What you get back

​Other formats

​Handling errors

​Quick start with CLI

​Web Unlocker CLI

​Gologin Web Access CLI (unified)

Prerequisites

Authentication

Make your first request

cURL

Python

JavaScript (Node.js / Browser)

What you get back

Other formats

Handling errors

Quick start with CLI

Web Unlocker CLI

Gologin Web Access CLI (unified)