How to Use Bright Data: APIs, Proxies & Datasets (2026)

Quick Start

This guide covers every Bright Data feature:

• Getting Started — Create your account and set up proxy management
• How to Use Datasets Marketplace — Access pre collected, structured web data instantly
• How to Use Web Scraper API — Collect web data from popular sites with ready endpoints
• How to Use Web Unlocker — Reach blocked web pages with the Web Unlocker API
• How to Use Massive & Diverse Proxy Network — Route web scraping through millions of rotating IPs
• How to Use ISP Proxies — Get datacenter speed with real ISP trust
• How to Use Residential Proxies — Scrape sensitive pages through genuine residential IPs
• How to Use ECommerce Insights — Track product and price web data for market insights
• How to Use SERP API — Pull real time search results as structured data
• How to Use Crawl API — Crawl whole websites and feed your AI agents

Time needed: 5 minutes per feature

Also in this guide: Pro Tips | Common Mistakes | Troubleshooting | Pricing | Alternatives

Why Trust This Guide

I have used Bright Data for over a year and tested every feature in this quick start guide. This walkthrough comes from real hands on web scraping, not vendor screenshots.

Bright Data is one of the most powerful web data platforms available today.

But most users only scratch the surface of what it can do.

This guide shows you how to use bright data for every major task.

Step by step, with screenshots and pro tips.

Bright Data Tutorial

This complete Bright Data tutorial walks you through every feature step by step, from account setup to advanced data collection tips for developers.

Bright Data

Collect web data at any scale with reliable proxies, the scraping browser, and ready made APIs. Bright Data powers compliant data collection for thousands of customers. Start with pay as you go pricing.

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Getting Started with Bright Data

Before using any feature, complete this one time setup.

It takes about 3 minutes.

Here are the top benefits you unlock:

Now let us walk through each step.

Step 1: Create Your Account

Visit the Bright Data website and click Start Free Trial.

Enter your email and create a password.

Add a payment method to activate pay as you go billing.

✓ Checkpoint: Check your inbox for a confirmation email.

Step 2: Open Your Dashboard

Once signed in, you land on the main dashboard.

Here is what the dashboard looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: You should see proxy management and product tabs.

Step 3: Create Your First Zone

Navigate to Add Zone and give it a meaningful name.

Fill in the zone details, then save to finish the process.

This stores your proxy credentials for every request.

How to Use Bright Data Datasets Marketplace

Datasets Marketplace lets you tap into pre collected, structured web data without running a single scraper.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Open the Datasets Marketplace

From the dashboard, click Datasets and browse the catalog.

Step 2: Pick a dataset

Filter by domains, country, or category to find a tailored match.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the datasets marketplace screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Download or schedule

Export the file in CSV or JSON, or set real time refreshes.

How to Use Bright Data Web Scraper API

Web Scraper API lets you collect web data from popular sites using ready made endpoints and JavaScript logic.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Choose a target

Search the template library for the website you want to scrape.

Step 2: Configure the request

Set parameters, then send requests through the API endpoint.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the web scraper api screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Receive structured data

Parse the response and pipe it into your tools or BI stack.

How to Use Bright Data Web Unlocker

Web Unlocker lets you reach blocked web pages automatically while the platform handles anti bot blocking.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Create an unlocker zone

In Proxies and Scraping, add a new Web Unlocker zone.

Step 2: Send your URL

Route requests to the Web Unlocker API with your credentials.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the web unlocker screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Get clean HTML

The tool returns rendered pages, bypassing CAPTCHAs and blocks.

How to Use Bright Data Massive & Diverse Proxy Network

Massive & Diverse Proxy Network lets you route requests through millions of IPs for resilient, large scale web scraping.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Open proxy management

Go to the proxy management panel inside your dashboard.

Step 2: Select a proxy type

Compare residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile IPs by use case.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the massive & diverse proxy network screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Connect and test

Copy the proxy credentials and run a quick connection test.

How to Use Bright Data ISP Proxies

ISP Proxies lets you blend the speed of datacenter IPs with the trust of real ISP addresses.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Activate an ISP zone

Create an ISP proxy zone from the dashboard.

Step 2: Set targeting

Choose a country and define your domains for tailored access.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the isp proxies screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Integrate the proxy

Add the credentials to your scraping browser or script.

How to Use Bright Data Residential Proxies

Residential Proxies lets you scrape sensitive web pages through genuine residential IPs across many domains.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Create a residential zone

Add a residential proxy zone in proxy management.

Step 2: Pick geo targets

Select country and city level targeting for compliant access.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the residential proxies screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Run your scraper

Plug the endpoint into Selenium, Puppeteer, or Playwright.

How to Use Bright Data ECommerce Insights

ECommerce Insights lets you pull product, price, and review web data for market and competitor insights.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Select a retail source

Choose the ecommerce domains you want to monitor.

Step 2: Define data points

Pick fields like price, stock, and ratings to extract.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the ecommerce insights screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Schedule collection

Set a refresh cadence to track changes over time.

How to Use Bright Data SERP API

SERP API lets you gather real time search engine results as structured web data at scale.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Open the SERP zone

Create a SERP API zone from your dashboard.

Step 2: Build your query

Set the keyword, country, and device for each request.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the serp api screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Collect results

Receive parsed rankings, ads, and snippets in JSON.

How to Use Bright Data Crawl API

Crawl API lets you crawl entire websites and hand clean web data to your AI agents.

Here is how to use it step by step.

Step 1: Set a seed URL

Enter the starting page and crawl depth.

Step 2: Define rules

Filter by path, file type, or domains to focus the crawl.

Here is what this looks like:

✓ Checkpoint: Confirm the crawl api screen loads correctly.

Step 3: Export the data

Download the crawled pages or stream them to your platform.

Bright Data Pro Tips and Shortcuts

After testing Bright Data for over a year, here are my best tips for developers.

Quick Wins

Hidden Features Most People Miss

• Browser API: Run scraping logic on managed cloud browsers to handle complex tasks without your own browser infrastructure.
• Scraping Functions: Write custom JavaScript that runs server side, so you extract only the web data you need.
• Integrations: The control panel supports Selenium, Puppeteer, and Playwright, so you reuse existing scripts to interact with live web pages.

Bright Data Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake #1: Using the wrong proxy type

Mistake #2: Ignoring rate limits

Mistake #3: Skipping the scraping browser

Bright Data Troubleshooting

Problem: Requests keep getting blocked

Cause: The target site detects your IPs or fingerprint.

Fix: Switch to residential proxies and enable the Web Unlocker API for that zone.

Problem: Pages load empty

Cause: The content renders with JavaScript after the initial response.

Fix: Use the scraping browser so the full page renders before you extract data.

Problem: Proxy connection error

Cause: Your credentials or zone settings are incorrect.

Fix: Recheck the zone name, country target, and credentials in proxy management.

📌 Note: If none of these fix your issue, contact Bright Data support.

What is Bright Data?

Bright Data is a web data platform that helps you collect publicly available information across domains at scale.

Think of it like a toolbox of proxies, APIs, and a scraping browser for every data collection job. For example, you can scrape one page or millions.

It champions compliant practices that align with GDPR and CCPA.

Watch this quick overview:

It includes these key features:

• Datasets Marketplace: Pre collected, structured web data ready to download.
• Web Scraper API: Ready made endpoints to collect data from popular sites.
• Web Unlocker: Automatic unblocking for hard to reach web pages.
• Massive & Diverse Proxy Network: Residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile IPs.
• ISP Proxies: Datacenter speed paired with real ISP trust.
• Residential Proxies: Genuine home IPs for sensitive targets.
• ECommerce Insights: Product and price tracking for market insights.
• SERP API: Real time search engine results as data.
• Crawl API: Site wide crawling that feeds your AI agents.

For a full review, see our Bright Data review.

Bright Data Pricing

Here is what Bright Data costs in 2026:

Pricing is pay as you go, billed mostly per GB or per request.

Free trial: Yes, free trials are available on most products.

Pay as you go: Yes, with no commitment plans for flexible scaling.

💰 Best Value: Web Scraper API at $0.79 — the cheapest route into structured web data.

Bright Data vs Alternatives

How does Bright Data compare? Here is the competitive landscape:

Quick picks:

• Best overall: Bright Data — widest IP pool and feature set
• Best budget: Smartproxy — friendly pricing for small teams
• Best for beginners: ScrapingBee — simple scraping API setup
• Best for auto extraction: Zyte — smart parsing for developers

🎯 Bright Data Alternatives

Looking for Bright Data alternatives? Here are the top options:

• 🚀 Oxylabs: A close rival with a large residential proxy pool and enterprise grade web scraping tools for heavy data collection workloads.
• 💰 Smartproxy: A budget friendly proxy provider with a simpler dashboard, good for smaller teams starting web scraping projects.
• 🧠 Zyte: A developer focused platform with smart automatic extraction and AI driven parsing for structured web data.
• 👶 ScrapingBee: A beginner friendly scraping API that handles headless browsers and rendering with minimal setup.

For the full list, see our Bright Data alternatives guide.

⚔️ Bright Data Compared

Here is how Bright Data stacks up against each competitor:

• Bright Data vs Oxylabs: Oxylabs matches Bright Data on scale, but Bright Data’s browser and dataset catalog give it a wider feature set.
• Bright Data vs Smartproxy: Smartproxy wins on price and ease, while Bright Data wins on raw IP volume and advanced unblocking.
• Bright Data vs Zyte: Zyte leads on automatic extraction, but Bright Data offers more proxy types and broader country coverage.
• Bright Data vs ScrapingBee: ScrapingBee is easier for small jobs, while Bright Data scales further for complex tasks and real value at volume.

Start Using Bright Data Now

You learned how to use bright data across every major feature:

• ✅ Datasets Marketplace
• ✅ Web Scraper API
• ✅ Web Unlocker
• ✅ Massive & Diverse Proxy Network
• ✅ ISP Proxies
• ✅ Residential Proxies
• ✅ ECommerce Insights
• ✅ SERP API
• ✅ Crawl API

Next step: Pick one feature and try it now.

Most people start with the Datasets Marketplace.

It takes under 5 minutes, putting you on the path to delivering real value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bright Data trustworthy?

Yes. Bright Data is an industry leading web data platform trusted by thousands of enterprises, with compliant practices that align with GDPR and CCPA regulations.

What is Bright Data used for?

Bright Data is used for web scraping and data collection across domains, powering market research, SEO, ecommerce insights, ad verification, and web data for AI agents.

How much does Bright Data cost?

Pricing is pay as you go. Proxies start near $0.90 per GB, the Web Scraper API from $0.79, and managed services like Bright Insights run higher.

How to use Bright Data proxy?

Create a proxy zone in your dashboard, choose a proxy type, give it a meaningful name, copy the credentials, then add them to your scraper or browser.

Which browser is best for scraping?

Bright Data’s scraping browser is built for scraping. It runs on cloud browser infrastructure and works with Selenium, Puppeteer, and Playwright for complex tasks.