How to Bypass Akamai’s Bot Detection with ScraperAPI

The Akamai challenge

If you have ever tried scraping a website protected by Akamai, you know how quickly things can go wrong. At first, everything seems fine. Your requests are being processed, the data is accurate, and your scraper is functioning correctly. Then it suddenly stops.

You start seeing 403 Forbidden errors, Access Denied pages with long reference numbers, or messages like “validating your request” that never complete.

This happens because Akamai is doing more than checking your requests. It analyses your IP reputation, headers, tokens, and even how your browser behaves. The moment something looks unusual, your traffic is flagged as a bot and blocked.

Akamai is one of the toughest bot managers to bypass, but it is not impossible. With the right approach, you can make your scraper behave like a real user and access public data without being blocked.

ScraperAPI is explicitly designed for this challenge. It handles IP rotation, browser-like headers, JavaScript rendering, and session management automatically. You send one request, and ScraperAPI ensures it passes Akamai’s checks behind the scenes.

In this guide, you will learn how to bypass Akamai’s bot detection using ScraperAPI. We will walk through setup, code examples, result validation, and a technical explanation of how each layer of protection is handled.

Ready? Let’s get started!

TL;DR

You might get a few successful responses from Akamai-protected sites using a simple script, but those wins don’t last. Once Akamai starts detecting patterns in your IP, headers, or browser fingerprint, your requests begin to fail with 403 Forbidden errors or endless “validating your request” loops.

ScraperAPI removes that uncertainty. It manages every layer of Akamai’s protection automatically:

• Rotates residential and mobile IPs with clean reputations
• Sends browser-accurate headers and valid tokens
• Executes Akamai’s sensor scripts in a real rendering environment
• Maintains sessions and cookies to keep your traffic consistent

Instead of dealing with unpredictable results or rewriting your scraper after every block, you get stable access, clean data, and reliable performance over time. It is not about getting a 200 once; it is about keeping it consistently.

Why Akamai Blocks Requests

Akamai is one of the most advanced bot management systems on the web. It protects thousands of high-traffic websites by constantly analyzing how requests behave. Unlike simple firewalls, it does not rely on one rule. It uses multiple layers of checks that work together to identify and block automated traffic.

Here are the main ways Akamai detects and blocks scrapers:

• IP Reputation: Akamai maintains a global database that tracks IP activity across the internet. If your requests come from datacenter IPs, shared proxies, or addresses previously flagged for suspicious behavior, they are likely to be blocked instantly. Residential and mobile IPs tend to pass these checks more easily because they appear to be regular user traffic.
• Header Validation and Token Checks: Akamai-enabled sites may validate standard and custom headers (for example, User-Agent or site-specific headers) and sometimes require tokens to verify legitimacy. The exact headers and token requirements depend on the site’s configuration. Missing or inconsistent headers or expired tokens can cause requests to fail on certain sites.
• JavaScript and Sensor Challenges: Before serving content, Akamai may run lightweight JavaScript checks in the background. These scripts collect behavioral data, such as page rendering time, mouse movements, and interaction timing. If your scraper cannot run these scripts or fails to send back the expected signals, the session is flagged and blocked.
• Browser Fingerprinting: Akamai examines your browser environment in detail. It examines details such as canvas and WebGL rendering, installed fonts, time zone, and other fingerprinting data. Headless browsers or scripts with incomplete fingerprints are easily detectable, leading to a quick block.
• Rate and Behavioral Analysis: Even if your requests look correct, sending them too quickly or in identical patterns can raise red flags. Akamai monitors request timing, navigation patterns, and referrers to ensure they match real user behavior.

Together, these layers create a strong barrier against bots. The challenge is not to trick one system, but to align with all of them at once. In the next section, we’ll explore how ScraperAPI approaches this problem and provides a clean, reliable way to pass Akamai’s checks.

The Engineering Approach: Bypass Akamai with ScraperAPI

Akamai’s protection is built to stop bots that don’t behave like real users. If your scraper is blocked, it’s rarely a random occurrence. It usually means your requests failed one or more of Akamai’s checks. Maybe your IP was flagged, your headers didn’t match a browser’s fingerprint, or your client skipped a JavaScript sensor challenge.

To scrape successfully, your requests must appear and behave like genuine traffic. This means using trusted IP addresses, realistic headers, proper pacing, and valid session cookies. It also means being able to run Akamai’s injected JavaScript to pass sensor checks. Handling all of that manually is a complex and time-consuming process.

ScraperAPI simplifies the entire process into a single call. It rotates clean residential and mobile IPs, attaches real browser headers, executes JavaScript when required, and maintains session continuity, ensuring your traffic remains consistent and undetected.

Let’s walk through how to set it up, run it, and verify your scraper is working against an Akamai-protected site.

Prerequisites

Before writing any code, ensure that everything is in order. Setting up correctly will save time and help you confirm that your requests pass Akamai’s checks.

1. Get Your ScraperAPI Key: Go to ScraperAPI’s signup page and create a free account. You get 5,000 requests to test this out.

2. Set Up Your Development Environment: 

You’ll need a way to send HTTP requests and handle responses from the API:

• Python: Install the requests library if you don’t already have it. Run:

pip install requests

• Node.js: Install the axios package. Run:

npm install axios

• cURL: No installation is needed if you already have a terminal.

Ensure your environment is functioning correctly by running a simple test script or command.

3. Choose a Target URL: For this tutorial, we’ll use https://www.usatoday.com/, a site that uses Akamai protection.
You can replace it with any other Akamai-protected site you want to scrape.

Once you have your key, language set up, and target URL ready, you can proceed to writing and running your first request.

Implementation Example

Now that everything is set up, you can start making requests through ScraperAPI.
Each example below sends a request to https://www.usatoday.com/ and returns a Markdown version of the page. ScraperAPI handles all of Akamai’s challenges behind the scenes, including IP reputation checks, JavaScript execution, and fingerprint validation.

You can test this with Python, Node.js, or cURL, whichever you prefer.

Python Example

Create a file called bypass_akamai.py and add the following:

import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_SCRAPERAPI_KEY"
TARGET_URL = "https://www.usatoday.com/"

payload = {
    "api_key": API_KEY,
    "url": TARGET_URL,
    "render": "true",  # Executes JavaScript and sensor checks
    "output_format": "markdown"
}

# This simple API call handles all of Akamai's challenges for you.
response = requests.get("http://api.scraperapi.com/", params=payload)

print(f"Status code: {response.status_code}")
markdown_data = response.text
print(markdown_data[:500])  # Preview the first 500 characters

Run the script with:

python bypass_akamai.py

You should see a 200 OK response followed by a Markdown preview of the USA Today homepage.

Node.js Example

Create a file called bypassAkamai.js:

const axios = require("axios");

const API_KEY = "YOUR_SCRAPERAPI_KEY";
const TARGET_URL = "https://www.usatoday.com/";

const payload = {
  api_key: API_KEY,
  url: TARGET_URL,
  render: "true", // Executes JavaScript and sensor checks
  output_format: "markdown"
};

// This simple API call handles all of Akamai's challenges for you.
axios.get("http://api.scraperapi.com/", { params: payload })
  .then(response => {
    console.log("Status code:", response.status);
    console.log(response.data.slice(0, 500)); // Preview the first 500 characters
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error("Request failed:", error.message);
  });

Run it with:

node bypassAkamai.js

You should get a 200 OK response with a mmarkdown version of the homepage printed to your console.

cURL Example

If you want a quick test, run this in your terminal:

curl 
"http://api.scraperapi.com/?api_key=YOUR_SCRAPERAPI_KEY&url=https://www.usatoday.com/&render=true&output_format=markdown"

This is useful for confirming that your API key is valid and your request parameters are correct before writing code.

Validating the Result

When everything is working, you’ll see:

• A 200 OK status code showing the request was successful
• Markdown output with page content, including navigation links and headlines

Example snippet:

Status code: 200
[Skip to main content](#mainContentSection) 

[![USA TODAY](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/gannett-web/properties/usatoday/logos-and-branding/logo-compact.svg)](/)

* [Home](/)
* [U.S.](/news/nation/)
* [Politics](/news/politics/)
* [Sports](/sports/)
* [Entertainment](/entertainment/)
* [Life](/life/)
* [Money](/money/)
* [Tech](/tech/)
* [Travel](/travel/)
* [Opinion](/opinion/)
* [Crossword](http://puzzles.usatoday.com/)

If you choose a specific endpoint (let’s say /news/), you’ll get something like:

Status code: 200
[Government shutdown countdown: Will there be a last-minute breakthrough after today's showdown at the White House?](/story/news/politics/2025/09/29/government-shutdown-trump-congress-meeting/86406112007/)

[Find us on Google 📌](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=usatoday.com) [Quick Cross is free! 🧩](https://puzzles.usatoday.com/) [50 distinctive houses 🏠](/picture-gallery/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2025/09/29/real-estate-search-homes-addressusa/82988797007/) [Shop top sellers 🛍

If you still get a block page or see a 403 Forbidden response:

• Add “premium“: “true” or “ultra_premium“: “true” to your payload to activate premium residential and mobile IPs, and to enable advanced bypass mechanisms.
• Slow down your request frequency with minor random delays
• Double-check your API key and that you still have available free requests

Once you consistently get valid page content, you’re ready to use this in your production scraper.

Technical Deep Dive: How ScraperAPI Bypasses Akamai

Akamai uses multiple layers of detection to identify automated traffic. Each layer looks for different signals, from IP reputation and header consistency to browser fingerprints and JavaScript execution. To stay undetected, your scraper has to get every one of these signals right. ScraperAPI handles this automatically, making each request look, feel, and behave like a legitimate browser session.

Here’s how it works behind the scenes:

IP Rotation

Akamai’s global IP reputation system flags data center and proxy IPs that are frequently used for scraping. Once flagged, those IPs are subject to instant blocks or CAPTCHA challenges. It also monitors traffic patterns, watching for bursts or repeated requests from the same network range.

ScraperAPI routes traffic through large pools of residential and mobile IPs that resemble regular consumer connections. For multi-page sessions, it can keep the same IP active long enough to appear consistent, then switch to a new one for the next session. This combination of rotation and stickiness ensures that requests come from trusted networks and follow patterns similar to those of real users.

Header and Token Management

Akamai checks headers carefully, not just for their presence but also for order, values, and timing. Headers that are incomplete, inconsistent, or out of sequence can expose automation. Many Akamai-protected sites also rely on cryptographic tokens that expire quickly and must be refreshed.

ScraperAPI takes care of both. Each request includes complete, browser-accurate headers that match modern clients. It automatically manages short-lived tokens, fetching and attaching them as needed. This makes your scraper’s requests indistinguishable from those sent by a real browser.

Browser Fingerprinting

To catch headless browsers, Akamai performs deep fingerprinting using data such as canvas and WebGL rendering, audio contexts, font lists, and timing metrics. Static or repeated fingerprints reveal scripted automation.

ScraperAPI simulates genuine browsing environments, producing dynamic and realistic fingerprints that vary per session but remain consistent within it. These fingerprints align with what Akamai expects from regular users, helping your traffic blend in with legitimate browser patterns.

JavaScript and Sensor Execution

Akamai often injects lightweight JavaScript, known as sensors, to collect timing data, rendering behavior, and interaction signals. If a client cannot run these scripts or fails to return the expected values, the request will be stalled or blocked.

With ScraperAPI, these scripts run automatically through a rendering layer that mimics the behavior of a real browser. It executes Akamai’s injected code, captures the required sensor outputs, and passes validation quietly. The result is a request that completes all behavioral checks without any manual setup.

Session Handling

Many Akamai-protected sites depend on session continuity to verify legitimacy. Cookies, CSRF tokens, and other session identifiers must persist across multiple requests. Scrapers that restart fresh each time appear suspicious and are quickly flagged.

ScraperAPI manages session state in the background, preserving cookies and tokens across calls. Each session behaves like a stable user journey, maintaining continuity across pages. When a session expires or becomes invalid, ScraperAPI automatically regenerates a new one.

By addressing each of Akamai’s defenses, from IP reputation and header accuracy to fingerprints, sensor data, and sessions, ScraperAPI ensures your requests pass all validation layers. Instead of managing proxies, tokens, and cookies manually, you can focus entirely on collecting the data you need.

Conclusion: Access Data Behind Akamai

You’ve now seen how to scrape Akamai-protected sites reliably with ScraperAPI. By combining clean residential IP addresses, accurate browser headers, token handling, and JavaScript execution, your requests can bypass every layer of Akamai’s detection system and consistently return real data.

Instead of juggling proxies, managing cookies, or solving sensor scripts on your own, you can send a single request and let ScraperAPI handle the rest. The result is stable, predictable scraping without the usual maintenance headaches.

You can start testing today with a free ScraperAPI account. It includes 5,000 requests, so you can try everything from this guide on your own and see how easily it works in your setup.

If you want to explore other protection systems, take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Bypassing Anti-Bot Detection for more in-depth strategies.