Are you attempting to scrape a website but CAPTCHA is blocking you? Any web scraping effort can be hampered by CAPTCHAs, which are getting harder to solve.

Thankfully, there are some of the methods to bypass CAPTCHA when web scraping, and we'll go over 7 tried-and-true methods in this article.

CAPTCHA: What Is It?

CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart." In order to shield websites from possible damage and bot-like behaviors like scraping, it attempts to block automated programs from accessing them. Before visiting a secured website, a user often has to complete a test known as a CAPTCHA.

Web scrapers have a tough time bypassing CAPTCHAs because they are hard for robots to comprehend but easy for humans to overcome. The user needs to verify their human identity by checking the box in the image below, for instance. This command is not intuitively obeyable by a bot.

How Does Web Scraping Get Blocked by CAPTCHA?

The implementation of a website determines the different shapes that CAPTCHAs take. Some are always there when you visit a website, but most are the result of automated actions like web scraping.

A CAPTCHA might show up during web scraping for any of the following reasons:

• Sending several queries in a short period of time from the same IP
• Automated actions that are repeated, such as clicking on the same link or visiting the same pages
• Suspicious automated interactions, including surfing a lot of pages quickly without interacting, clicking quickly, or completing a form quickly
• Using forbidden websites and ignoring the robots.txt file.

Is It Possible to Bypass CAPTCHA?

Although it's not a simple operation, you can also bypass CAPTCHAs. It is advised to attempt resubmitting the request if the CAPTCHA is blocked and to avoid having it appear in the first place.

You can also answer the CAPTCHA, but doing so will cost you a lot more money and have a far lower success rate. Most CAPTCHA-solving services use human solvers to process queries and then deliver the answer. This method significantly lowers the effectiveness of your scraper and slows it down.

Bypassing CAPTCHAs is more dependable since it takes all the necessary precautions to stop automated behaviors that cause them. We'll go over the best ways to get over CAPTCHAs when web scraping below so you can retrieve the information you need.

How to Bypass CAPTCHA When Web Scraping

This section will walk over seven methods for bypassing the annoying CAPTCHA barriers while web scraping in Python.

Method1. Rotate IPs

The easiest technique for a defensive system to stop access when developing a crawler for URL and data extraction is to prohibit IPs. If the server receives a lot of requests from the same IP address in a short period of time, they will flag that address.

To avoid it, using several IP addresses is the simplest solution. However, it's difficult, if not impossible, to modify that when it comes to servers. Therefore, you would have to use a proxy server to process your requests in order to cycle IPs. With them, your initial requests won't be altered, but the destination server will see their IP address rather than yours.

Method2. Rotate User Agents

A string that a user's web browser sends to a server is called a User Agent (UA). It is found in the HTTP header and provides information about the operating system and type and version of the browser. accessed using a navigator on the client side and JavaScript.The content is identified and rendered in a manner that complies with the user's specifications by the remote web server using the userAgent attribute.

Even though they include various structures and data, the majority of web browsers typically adhere to the same format:

(<system-information>) Mozilla/5.0 <extensions> <platform> (<platform-details>)

For Chrome (Chromium), for instance, a user agent string can be Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64). AppleWebKit/537.36 (similar to Gecko in KHTML) 109.0.0.0 Safari/537.36; Chrome. Breaking it down, it says what the browser is called (Chrome), what version it is running on (109.0.0.0), and what operating system it is running on (Windows NT 10.0, 64-bit CPU).

Using UA strings for scraping can assist disguise your spider as a web browser since they aid web servers in identifying the kind of requests from browsers (and bots).

Take caution: if you employ an incorrectly constituted user agent, your data extraction script will be stopped.

Method3. Use a CAPTCHA Solver

Services known as CAPTCHA solvers allow you to scrape webpages continuously by automatically solving CAPTCHAs. One well-known example is Scrapeless.

Are you tired with CAPTCHAs and continuous web scraping blocks?

Scrapeless: the best all-in-one online scraping solution available!

Utilize our formidable toolkit to unleash the full potential of your data extraction:

Best CAPTCHA Solver

Automated resolution of complex CAPTCHAs to ensure ongoing and smooth scraping.

Try it for free!

Method4. Avoid Hidden Traps

Unbeknownst to you, websites employ cunning traps to identify bots. The honeypot trap, for instance, deceives machines into interacting with concealed features, such as links or invisible form fields.

Human users cannot see these traps; only bots can see them. When users interact with these traps, the website can identify unusual activity and alert the IP address of the bot.

However, you can learn how to recognize and operate these traps. One method is to look for hidden elements in the website's HTML and steer clear of elements with odd names or values.

Method5. Simulate Human Behavior

Replicating human behavior accurately is necessary in order to bypass CAPTCHA when web scraping. For example, submitting several requests in a matter of milliseconds may lead to an IP restriction with a rate limit.

Adding time between requests to lower the frequency of your queries is one method to imitate human behavior. To make it more logical, you might vary the timings. Using exponential backoffs is an additional strategy to lengthen the wait period following each unsuccessful request.

Method6. Save Cookies

Your hidden weapon of choice for web scraping may be cookies. These little files hold information about how you interact with a website, such as your preferences and login status.

Cookies can be helpful if you're scraping behind a login since they save you the trouble of signing in repeatedly and lower the possibility that you'll be discovered. Additionally, cookies allow you to pause or continue a web scraping session at a later time.

Utilizing headless browsers like Selenium and HTTP clients like Requests, you can programmatically save and load cookies and retrieve data without being noticed.

Method7. Hide Automation Indicators

Even using a headless browser, you should exercise caution since websites can detect automated traffic by scanning for telltale signs of automation, such browser fingerprints.

Plugins such as Selenium Stealth, on the other hand, may be used to automate mouse and keyboard motions that resemble those of a person without drawing attention to yourself.

In summary

Although preventing CAPTCHAs from impeding web scraping is a difficult task, you now possess the tools necessary to take on this problem. Large-scale initiatives, however, may require more time and work to fully execute the aforementioned strategies.

With Scrapeless, you may get all the tools you need to efficiently get around CAPTCHAs and other anti-bots.

See for yourself by using Scrapeless for free!