Collectors · Search engines

Image scraper API in Python

Google Images results for a query — thumbnail, source page and host. One POST from Python with query, rows back as JSON with 9 fields, $0.0003 per delivered image. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the search_images collector returns one dict per image, at $0.0003 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/search_images/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "query": "proxy server diagram",
        "country": "us",
        "max_results": 20,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("title"), row.get("thumbnail"), row.get("image"), row.get("source"))

Python: one Image search run (Diagrammi (US)), printing title, thumbnail, image, source

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Image search collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	yes	What to search, e.g. "proxy server diagram".
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — proxy exit geo and Google locale (gl). Omit for the default pool.
`lang`	string	no	Interface language (hl), e.g. en, it, de.
`max_results`	integer	no (default 20)	How many images to deliver at most (1–100). You pay only for delivered images.

Response fields

9 fields per image.

Fields of each row (image)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`title`	string, nullable	Image title as shown.
`thumbnail`	string, nullable	Thumbnail URL (always present in the grid).
`image`	string, nullable	Full-size image URL when Google exposes it.
`source`	string, nullable	Host of the page showing the image.
`source_url`	string, nullable	URL of the page showing the image.
`domain`	string, nullable	Host of the source page, without www.
`title_truncated`	boolean	True when Google printed the title cut with an ellipsis.
`page`	integer	Which result page this row came from.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/search_images/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"query":"proxy server diagram","country":"us","max_results":20}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0003 per delivered image.

What Image search rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0003
1,000	$0.30
10,000	$3.00

Up to 100 images per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 6,666 images. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Image search API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 6,666 images of this collector at $0.0003 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 100 images per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0003 per delivered image, no subscription.

Get an API key Image scraper API