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Web Unlocker

How the tiered fetch engine gets through anti-bot protection.

The problem

Many sites actively block automated traffic — with IP reputation checks, browser fingerprinting, JavaScript challenges, and CAPTCHAs. A naive HTTP request gets a 403 or a block page instead of the data.

The tiered engine

Every fetch inside a scraper goes through a smart-fetch function that escalates only as needed:

Tier Method When it's used Cost
1 Direct fetch with browser-like headers Always tried first Free
2 Rotating proxy pool Tier 1 is blocked (403/429/CAPTCHA) Included
3 Managed web unlocker Tier 2 is still blocked Metered

Escalation is lazy: if tier 1 succeeds, tiers 2 and 3 never run. This keeps easy pages free and reserves premium capacity for the pages that need it.

Nothing to configure

The unlocker is fully managed by the platform — there's nothing for you to set up. Every fetch automatically escalates through the tiers as needed, and you only ever pay the flat $0.005 per page scrape (there's no premium surcharge for unlocked pages).

Premium scrapers

Some scrapers — like Google Search Results and Amazon Product Scraper — start at tier 3 because their targets block everything else. These are marked Premium in the store and run through the managed unlocker automatically.

Use the unlocker responsibly. Respect robots.txt, rate limits, and each site's terms of service. See our Acceptable Use Policy.