DuckDuckGo returns 202 to your scraper - what to use instead

html.duckduckgo.com returns a 202 bot-challenge page to scripted GET requests - not an error you can retry past, just a page with no results in it. Google and Bing don't permit automated HTML access at all. Free HTML search endpoints are not built for programmatic use; a licensed search API is.

Fix: one call, 1 credit
50 free credits on signup, no card
unified JSON, no proxies or parsers to keep alive

1What people try first

Approach	What happens
html.duckduckgo.com	202 challenge page. No results.
Google or Bing HTML	Blocked, and scraping them breaks their terms.
SearxNG instance	Workable if you host it, but public instances rate-limit hard.
A search API	Clean JSON, no challenge pages, no proxy budget.

2The one-call fix

curl -H "x-api-key: $SS_KEY" \
  "https://api.socialsearchapi.com/v1/web/search?query=cloudflare+workers+pricing"

Signup is an email and a 6-digit code, no card. Create a key in the dashboard and your account starts with 50 free credits on any platform, so the command above runs as-is.

Real response from that endpoint, captured 2026-08-27:

{
  "success": true,
  "platform": "web",
  "data": {
    "total": 3,
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "https://theserverless.dev/calculators/workers",
        "title": "Cloudflare Workers Cost Calculator",
        "url": "https://theserverless.dev/calculators/workers",
        "created_at": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "credits_used": 2
}

Get a key50 free credits · no card

Verified against a live Web / News response on 2026-08-27. Platform terms and pricing change often. If something here has gone stale, tell us at support@socialsearchapi.com.

DuckDuckGo returns 202 to your scraper - what to use instead

1What people try first

2The one-call fix

3Related