Overview
Apify is a cloud platform where you run pre-built scrapers, called Actors, against sites like Google, LinkedIn and Reddit and get structured JSON back. Someone has almost certainly already solved the site you need, with proxies and anti-bot handling included. Content marketers use it to monitor brand mentions or feed a research pipeline with live SERP data.
Key Features
- ✓26,000+ ready-to-run Actors covering major platforms and sites
- ✓MCP server so AI agents can discover and trigger Actors dynamically
- ✓Residential and datacenter proxy network included in plans
- ✓Schedule, monitor, and chain Actor runs with webhooks
- ✓Pay-per-usage pricing with no rental lock-in from 2026
Related tools
Other AI Research & Intelligence tools to consider:
Crawl4AI
Open-source crawler that turns pages into LLM-ready markdown
Free, open source (Apache-2.0)
Exa AI
Embeddings-first search API built for AI agents and applications
Free (1K searches/mo, Pro from $40/mo)
Firecrawl
Turn any website into clean markdown for AI pipelines
Free (500 lifetime credits); paid from $19/mo
Happenstance
AI search across your own Gmail, LinkedIn and X network to find warm intros
Free; $30/mo Pro ($24 billed yearly)
NotebookLM
Google's AI research assistant that synthesizes your documents into insights
Free / $19.99/mo via Google One AI Premium