Taobao Product Search Scraper

Search Taobao’s public Singapore storefront with one keyword and extract server-rendered product listings, including IDs, titles, prices, shops, categories, shipping flags, images, and links. No Taobao login or browser is required. Runs go through the Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy, which is preset in the input, as in the sample run.

• Compare storefront and CNY prices for product research and price monitoring.
• Build catalogues keyed by item ID, shop, category, product link, and image URL.
• Filter listing data using free-shipping and area-restriction flags.
• Repeat keyword searches to collect current listing records without opening product detail pages.

What you get

The Actor reads the first server-rendered listing page returned by Taobao’s public Singapore storefront. It stores fields exposed on that listing page and does not open individual product detail pages.

Field	Type	Description
itemId, title	string	Product ID and title; in every record.
price, currency	number, string	Storefront price and its currency; in every record. A local storefront value is used when available, otherwise CNY.
url	string	Product URL; omitted when not accepted as a Taobao URL.
priceCny, priceHkd, priceTwd	number	Price in CNY, HKD or TWD; each omitted when the listing does not expose it.
shopId, shopName	string	Shop ID and name when exposed.
mainImage	string	Main image URL when exposed.
images	array of strings	Image URLs; omitted when the list is empty or invalid. Falls back to mainImage when no list is exposed.
categoryId	integer	Taobao category ID when exposed.
freeShipping, areaLimit	boolean	Free-shipping and area-restriction flags; each omitted when no valid flag is exposed.
descriptionMatchScore	number	Listing description-match score when exposed.
sellingPoints	array of strings	Selling points; omitted when none are exposed.
discountType	string	Discount label; omitted when absent, empty, or 0.

Sample output

The following is a real record from a sample run (item 1078252573693), shown with its full, unshortened title. Optional keys that Taobao does not expose are omitted from a record.

{
  "itemId": "1078252573693",
  "title": "【国补至高省500】vivo iQOO 16旗舰高通骁龙新品大内存双芯游戏电竞手机iQOO官方旗舰店官网正品iqoo16国补",
  "price": 1321.73,
  "currency": "SGD",
  "url": "https://world.taobao.com/item/Z3o4Q252b0ZUb3dIbGlqem9tcWVtUT09.htm",
  "priceCny": 6799,
  "priceHkd": 8057.49,
  "priceTwd": 33308.3,
  "shopId": "71799145",
  "shopName": "iQOO手机官方旗舰店",
  "mainImage": "https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/O1CN01BQVUaE0FcEK1chua_!!6000000004934-2-yinhe.png",
  "categoryId": 1512,
  "freeShipping": false,
  "areaLimit": false,
  "descriptionMatchScore": 4.84,
  "images": ["https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/O1CN01BQVUaE0FcEK1chua_!!6000000004934-2-yinhe.png"],
  "sellingPoints": ["探索不止 逐光而行"]
}

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event billing.

You pay only for the events listed below. This Actor does not use the Pay per event + usage option, so the platform usage of your runs (compute, proxy traffic and storage) is not billed to you separately.

The Free-plan event prices are:

Event	Unit	Free-plan price	Condition
apify-actor-start	One Actor Start event	$0.00005 per event	Charged when the Actor starts running; one event per GB of run memory, with a minimum of one event. One start event applies to runs of up to 1 GB.
apify-default-dataset-item	One scraped result with all fields	$0.0019 per event	Charged for each product result stored in the dataset.

For 1,000 results with one start event, 1,000 × $0.0019 = $1.90, plus one Actor Start event at $0.00005, for $1.90005 under the Free plan.

For 10,000 results with one start event, 10,000 × $0.0019 = $19.00, plus one Actor Start event at $0.00005, for $19.00005 under the Free plan.

The Apify Free plan includes $5 of monthly platform usage credit. With one start event, the $5 credit on the Free plan covers 2,631 result events.

How to use

1. Enter one non-empty product keyword in keywords. Chinese keywords usually match Taobao’s catalogue best.
2. Set maxResults to the maximum number of records to store from the returned listing page, or leave it at the default of 50.
3. Leave region at sg.
4. Keep proxyConfiguration on the Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy, as in the example below and the sample run.
5. Start the Actor and read the returned product records from the dataset.
6. Repeat the run through Apify Schedules; daily is a reasonable starting point for listing or price monitoring.

Example input:

{
  "keywords": "手机",
  "maxResults": 10,
  "region": "sg",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Export the dataset as JSON or CSV, or read it through the Apify dataset API.

Input parameters

Parameter	What it does	Default
keywords	Required non-empty string containing one Taobao product keyword.	手机 UI prefill; required
maxResults	Maximum number of parsed product records to store. The input schema accepts integers from 1 to 1000.	50
region	Selects the Taobao storefront used for the listing request. Only sg is supported.	sg
proxyConfiguration	Proxy settings.	Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy

Limits and edge cases

Condition	What you see	What to do
The listing page has fewer records than maxResults.	Fewer records than requested. maxResults does not request more listing pages.	Use another keyword or run again.
keywords is blank or missing.	The run raises an error asking for one Taobao search keyword.	Provide one non-empty keyword.
maxResults is not a number.	The Actor falls back to 50.	Pass an integer from 1 to 1000.
maxResults is less than 1.	The run raises an error: maxResults must be at least 1.	Use an integer of at least 1.
region is not sg.	The run raises an error: only the verified sg storefront is supported.	Set region to sg.
Taobao returns no product records after parsing.	The run fails with "Taobao returned no product records; the page may be unavailable or gated". Access depends on Taobao's current response.	Change the keyword or run again later.
A Taobao request fails.	The run raises a request error before records are stored.	Retry the run.
A run is interrupted after records were pushed.	Pushed records stay in the dataset; the rest are not added.	Read the partial dataset and run again.
A value appears only on a product detail page, or an optional field is not exposed.	The value is not included; the field is omitted from that record.	Treat the field as absent.

FAQ

How much does it cost to scrape Taobao?

You pay per start event and per stored result. See Pricing for the prices, conditions and worked examples.

Why did my run return no products?

See the "no product records" row in Limits and edge cases for the error text and what to do.

What should I check if the Actor is not working?

Confirm that keywords is a non-empty string, maxResults is at least 1, and region is sg. Run once with maxResults set to 1 and look at the dataset.

Is it legal to use data from Taobao’s public storefront?

The Actor reads public, server-rendered listing data from Taobao’s Singapore storefront. Taobao’s source terms and applicable law depend on your use case, so review them before collecting or using the data; this Actor does not provide a legal guarantee.