How fast is the Alibaba API?

Parseium's Alibaba scraper API delivers responses in milliseconds to seconds, depending on your configuration.

Response times

Parse endpoint (you provide HTML)

Typical: 100-500ms
Use case: When you already have the HTML and just need extraction

Scrape endpoint (we fetch for you)

Simple pages: 2-4 seconds
JavaScript-heavy pages: 3-6 seconds
With wait conditions: 4-10 seconds (configurable)

Alibaba pages are JavaScript-heavy and often include dynamic pricing and supplier widgets, so expect 3-6 second response times for most scrape requests.

Performance features

Always-warm browsers

Unlike cold-start services, our browsers are pre-warmed and ready to go:

No 10-30 second browser startup delays
Consistent, predictable response times
Sub-second parsing once HTML is loaded

Managed proxies included

Automatic proxy rotation to avoid rate limits
High-quality residential proxies available
No need to maintain your own proxy infrastructure
Geographic targeting for region-specific content

Optimization tips

To get the fastest possible responses:

Use parse endpoint: If you can fetch HTML yourself, parsing is near-instant
Minimize wait times: Only wait as long as necessary for content to load
Use domcontentloaded: Faster than networkidle for most pages
Cache when possible: Store extracted data and refresh only when needed
Batch requests: Extract multiple products from search/category pages

Timeout limits

Scrape endpoint: 120 second timeout
Parse endpoint: 60 second timeout

Most Alibaba requests complete well within these limits.