Data scraping
Data scraping
Notify me when this page changesWHAT’S NEW
Indicator: Seven Web Scrapers Put to the Test
CSV Laundry
Free browser tool that trims cell whitespace, removes empty data rows and optionally removes identical rows from comma-separated data. It handles quoted fields and processes up to 1 MB locally without an account or uploading the table. CashOps is an AI-operated project; this deterministic tool is separate from an optional paid custom-cleanup service.
Data Donkee
A web agent for extracting structured website data without coding.
Open Data Loader (PDFs)
PDF Parser for AI-ready data. Automate PDF accessibility. Open-source.
JPG to Excel Converter | Free AI OCR Table Extractor
JPG2EXCEL
An AI-powered tool that extracts text and complex layouts from JPG images and converts them into editable Excel spreadsheets. It is designed for scanned invoices, reports, and data tables where accuracy matters. The service is fast and free, helping eliminate manual data entry permanently.
AI SPREADSHEET AND SCRAPING TOOLS
Note: We’re adding new tools and resources to this page regularly. If you have a bad experience with one, let us know about it and we’ll remove it if necessary. | Find more useful tools on our Coding page.
NICAR Conference Resources Database
Links to presentations, GitHub repos, and tipsheets this year. The database starts at 2020.
Data Analyst
ChatGPT’s app for visualizing and analyzing data.
Data Analysis Buddy Custom GPT
Use to assess a dataset, the present the information visually.
ExcelMatic
AI-powered Excel analysis and visualization
GPTExcel
Generates Excel formulas with AI
Cohesive AI
Scrape web pages and analyze Google Sheets with this AI tool.
ScrapeGraphAI
An AI-powered webscraper available on Hugging Face.
Overpass Turbo
Do rapid geolocation is possible via a remarkable web-based data mining tool for OpenStreetMaps.
JPG2EXCEL
An AI-powered tool that extracts text and complex layouts from JPG images and converts them into editable Excel spreadsheets. It is designed for scanned invoices, reports, and data tables where accuracy matters. The service is fast and free, helping eliminate manual data entry permanently.
ScrapingBee
Web scraping API that will pull comments off of websites
Apify
Explore 6,000+ pre-built Actors for your web scraping and automation projects. Social media, SEO, news, real estate listings and more.
Scrapy
Open source, code-based scraper that will scrape comments off of websites
Firecrawl
Power your AI apps with clean data crawled from any website. Open-source tool.
Crawl4AI
Code-based web scraper
Hugging Face No-Code Web Scraper
This tool on Hugging Face is simple: Write a prompt for what you want, plug in a URL and hit a button. It scrapes the page for you.
TextSniper
A simple and easy to use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) app that helps instantly extract text from images, PDFs, slides, Zoom calls, or even YouTube videos.
Document Feature Extraction with OpenAI
DataFuel
Turn websites into LLM-ready data and scrape entire knowledge bases in a single query
Lido Document Processing
AI-driven PDF data extraction
JPG to Excel Converter | Free AI OCR Table Extractor
Digital Digging: Using AI to Find Hidden Data Sources
Tips from Henk Van Ess.
Forloop.ai
A no-code platform for web scraping and data preparation
Rows.com
A spreadsheet “with superpowers.” Connect and analyze data, build forms and dashboards, automate and share them. Eliminate manual work that slows you down.
Bright Data: Free Datasets and Webscraping Tools for Journalists
A free program for journalist and newsrooms that scales to their needs. Whether you have a web scraping project and need someone to do the technical work or have a data team, Bright Data has the staff and tools to support you.
Instant Data Scraper Browser Extension
Scrape data into spreadsheets (video data, HTML tables, etc.)
SheetAI
Write descriptive prompt and the material will appear in your Google Sheet.
GPTExcel
Turn verbal descriptions into functional Excel formulas
Simplescraper
For easily extracting data into JSON or CSV files
ChangeDetection.io
Good for monitoring changes in website content.
Cloud Convert AI Converter
Easily convert media files, and it supports more than 50 formats/
PDFescape
A great alternative to Adobe Acrobat for editing PDFs.
Koncile
Customisable OCR for data extraction
SnagIt
Tech Smith tool that lets you scroll the page and pull text, then save as a PDF. Starts with a $39 plan.
Browse.ai
AI-powered tool for no-code web scraping.
Simplescraper
Allows users to easily extract data from websites and convert it into a JSON or CSV file. startups that want to scale without hiring humans.
AI Excel Bot
Turns plain text into Excel formulas
Numerous.ai
Add ChatGPT to your Google Sheets or Excel. Seven-day free trial and pricing starting at $99 a year.
= Equals
Spreadsheet assistant
Excel Formula Generator
Excel formula bot. Very simple to use
CSV Laundry
Free browser tool that trims cell whitespace, removes empty data rows and optionally removes identical rows from comma-separated data. It handles quoted fields and processes up to 1 MB locally without an account or uploading the table. CashOps is an AI-operated project; this deterministic tool is separate from an optional paid custom-cleanup service.
VidMate
A free video downloader that allows users to download HD videos, music, movies, and status updates from popular platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It also features an MP3 converter, high download speeds, and supports various quality options up to 8K resolution. Additionally, VidMate offers a built-in music and video player, offline sharing, and the ability to save WhatsApp status and Instagram photos permanently on your Android device
Reworkd
Scrape hundreds of websites using AI.
SheetMagic
AI web scraping for Google Sheets
Document AI
Mistral’s tool scrapes text from documents
FileDrop
Generates Google Sheets formulas in seconds
Graphy
Use data to build visual presentations
PandaETL
An AI tool that helps you extract valuable information from any document and organizes with just a few steps.
Graphy AI
Just upload your data, and it will generate a number of charts based on that data.
Indicator: Seven Web Scrapers Put to the Test
Data Donkee
A web agent for extracting structured website data without coding.
Open Data Loader (PDFs)
PDF Parser for AI-ready data. Automate PDF accessibility. Open-source.
SiteDelta Watch
This Firefox plug-in lets you monitor updates to web pages, much like VisualPing and Excel. It not only sends an alert but it also lists the changes made to the page since you started monitoring it.
Instant Data Scraper
Specify sections of pages by selectors and use it to grab data from a link on the page, among other options.
Instagram Scraper
This paid tool on Apify “allows you to scrape posts from a user’s profile page, hashtag page, or place. When a link to an Instagram post is provided, it can scrape Instagram comments.”
Chat2DB
Write SQL and analyze data with AI
Equals
AI spreadsheet assistant
Coefficient
Supercharge your spreadsheets with GPT-powered AI tools for connecting data, building reports, and automatically analyzing and visualizing trends in your data.
Github CoPilot
Build scrapers and entire coding projects
AnyParser Pro
Extract content from PDFs, images and other files
ChatCSV
Interview data with this tool. $20 a month
VisualPing
Monitor web page updates. Get an email when a page updates. Good for tracking government sites. Free with paid updates.
Distill.io
Monitor web pages. Free with paid updates.
Dashbreeze
Create data dashboards
MyMap.ai
Free with paid upgrades. Make charts, mind maps and much more. Not to be confused with Google MyMaps.
Wachete
Monitor web pages for changes. Lots of pro features. Daily/weekly summary email. Monitor pages which require clicks or submission of values. Monitor specific parts of a page. Download data. Free plan monitors up to five pages.. $5 a month after that.
Drippi
Scrape thousands of leads from Twitter/X
DeepDiveDuck
Keep track of key changes to your competitors’ websites. Get alerts on key changes, including staff changes, pricing tweaks, new products, address changes, and more. Free trial, then paid
Compint Competitor Website Monitoring
Track competitors website changes on a daily basis while controlling frequency and sensitivity. Free tool.
The Essential AI Toolkit for Journalists and Content Creators
Browse.ai
Web scraping tool that you also can monitor pages with.
Dark Visitors
Monitor web scraping and bot activity, first identified the new crawler.
Datalab
Transform your data into AI-driven insights
GIJN: Basics of Using Google Sheets
Parsehub.com
Web scraping tool
Scrap.so
Web scraping tool. One-time fee to use.
Parsehub.com
Free web-scraping tool
Outwit Hub Scraper
Only the first 100 rows are free, then paid.
Infography
Convert blogs into infographics
Reworkd
No-code web data scraping tool
FormX.ai
Automate data extraction and capture. Transforms physical documents to structured digital data.
Numerous AI
Google Sheets and MS Excel are made simple. Use this AI tool to extract, categorize, generate formulas, and use ChatGPT to work like a pro.
GPT for Sheets and Docs Guide
How to use GPT for Sheets and Docs add-ons
Retab
Complete developer platform and SDK for shipping state-of-the-art document processing in the age of LLMs. Extract data from any document format.
Maps Scraper AI
Like a robot that scrapes Bing Maps, giving us real, verified leads. It’s the best way to get leads automatically, straight from Maps listings.
Handinger
Cheap and simple ways to pull data from the internet
Alice
Built by journalists, this is a secure tool for journalists to record, get high-accuracy transcripts and use AI to analyze your entire dataset. Endorsed by journalists for its privacy, this is as secure as it gets. Used by organizations globally, pay-as-you-go pricing.
Email AI Extractor
Extract emails from websites using AI
NoteThisDown
Convert handwritten notes into digital text. Seven-day free trial, then $8 a month.
Lido
Automates PDF data extraction with AI
Video: ChatGPT for Data Analytics
A one-hour, basic video tutorial on how to use the ChatGPT Data Analysis tool
Source: How to Use ChatGPT to Pull Data Out of Messy PDFs
30 Data Cleaning Tips
Google Sheets and Python
PandaChat
Helps you understand any type of data
Monitr
AI-powered data analysis tool
Generative AI in the Newsroom: Bringing Open Source Models to Spreadsheets
By Nick Diakopoulos
Jsonify
Auto updates spreadsheets
InfoWorld: ChatGPT Tools for R Programming
Journalist’s Resource: Using Per Capita in Data Stories
SCRAPING PDFS
Tabula.technology
Download this desktop tool to scrape tables out of native .PDFs. Also offers tips on preparing scanned .PDFs for scraping.
PDF Insight
Generates “insights and summaries of PDF documents uploaded by users.”
PDF.ai
Upload PDFs and analyze them. Delete the PDF when you’re done for security.
ChatPDF
Chat with a PDF you upload
PDF Parser
Analyze, visualize, and communicate data for insights
CometDocs File Converter
Convert your PDF files to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more. Convert various formats to PDF. Store & share your documents for free. Also available as phone and tablet apps.
PDFtoExcel.com
A free web-based service for extracting data tables from regular and scanned PDF files into fully editable Excel spreadsheets. Email address is not required; converts PDFs of any size and does not impose any limits on the number of files that can be converted for free. It can come handy to investigative and data journalists for extracting tabular data from PDFs to .XLSX format for free, especially when working with the big tables.
Tiny Wow
A great collection of tools that solve file management issues, including merging PDFs.
AbletoExtract
Download a free trial version to pull data out of scanned PDFs.
Batch Link Downloader
A free Chrome extension that lets you mouse over files on a web page and it will batch download them. E.g.: A government page with links to dozens of .PDFs.
Advanced PDF OCR
Session from NICAR 22 on how to scrape data out of PDFs.
OTHER SCRAPING TOOLS
PDFPlumber
A great PDF to text tool.
ExportData
Twitter data export tool. Allows downloading historical tweets since 2006, exporting unlimited followers and followings, and gathers historical Twitter trends in 63 countries and 400 cities.
Data Scraping in Google Sheets
This tutorial and formula that will help you scrape HTML tables out of web pages.
Introduction to Web Scraping
Python scraping primer with Mindy McAdams.
DataWrangler
Wrangler is an interactive tool for data cleaning and transformation. Spend less time formatting and more time analyzing your data.
Outwit Hub Web Scraper
OutWit Hub breaks down Web pages into their different constituents and allows you to scrape them. Pull links, text, photos, RSS feeds and more.
LA Times Data Desk: Github Scrapers
A demo of how the Times’ scrapers work using coronavirus data.
PhantomBuster
Helps with data extraction from social media and websites. Pull lists of influencers from LinkedIn and top 10 articles to add to outreach lists, but you can also automate things like following people on Twitter or liking Instagram posts.
Clay
Automated, self-fulling spreadsheet that you can use to take Twitter handles or LinkedIn URLs and have it fill out people’s information into a searchable spreadsheet. Then search for keywords from bios, locations, or sort by follower account to see who you want to reach out to. The tool also has a data scraper built-in as a Chrome extension and can pull tables from websites pretty reliably.
GIJN: Free, Game-Changing Data Extraction Tools that Require No Coding Skills
An excellent collection of scraping tools from the IRE 2022 conference.
Scrapy
Python-driven web-scraping platform
SimpleScraper.io
Chrome extension or use as a web-based tool. Select on the page what you want to scrape by highlighting with the shift key. Free but has a paid upgrade.
Instant Data Scraper
Chrome extension. Open it once you’re on your page that has a table.
Table Capture
Simple data scraper Chrome extension. Just right click on a table to scrape it.
Batch Link Downloader
A free Chrome extension that lets you mouse over files on a web page and it will batch download them. E.g.: A government page with links to dozens of .PDFs.
PDF Candy
Free suite of PDF and file conversion tools.
Able2Extract Professional
A PDF converter, creator, editor and more. Convert .PDFs into Excel.
Octoparse Web Scraper
Download the software as a free trial before buying. Use it to scrape emails, websites, etc.
Parse Hub
A desktop app that can identify and scrape elements and sub-elements. The free version lets you scrape 200 pages at a time.
Import.io
Structured web scraping and data visualization.
Outwit Hub
A desktop app that can identify each HTML element on a web page and scrape it. The free version lets you download 100 rows at a time.
ExportData
Twitter data export tool. Allows downloading historical tweets since 2006, exporting unlimited followers and followings, and gathers historical Twitter trends in 63 countries and 400 cities.
Minelead.io
A technology solutions company that has developed a cutting-edge email finder and verifier tool. It helps to find professional emails for any company or website and verify their quality through a browser extension, API, or web interface.
ComputerWorld: Seven Best Tools for PDF to Excel Conversion
Sharon Machlis reviews the best tools for converting the files.
GIJN: How to Find Hidden Data in the Web Inspector
Ultimate Facebook Profile Scraper Tool
Guide to Writing Your First Python Web Scraper
15 Best Web Scraping Tools (2021)
Geocod.io
Straightforward and easy-to-use geocoding, reverse geocoding, and data matching for U.S. and Canadian addresses. You get 2,500 free lookups per day. Just upload a spreadsheet.
Excel Formula Bot
Type in a sentence describing what you want the spreadsheet to do and the bot uses AI to generate a formula.
PDF 24 Tools
Edit, merge, split and convert PDF documents
Census Geocoder
Census Geocoder provides interactive & programmatic (REST) access to users interested in matching addresses to geographic locations and entities containing those addresses.
Open Refine
OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data. It’s a free download and available in several languages.
Scraping Bee
ScrapingBee is a web scraping API. It renders Javascript code inside a headless browser and handles proxies. It i’s useful for data journalist in order to scrape data on websites are hard-to-scrape (either using a lot of Javascript, or that are blocking your scrapers).
Mr. Data Converter
Convert your Excel data into one of several web-friendly formats, including HTML, JSON and XML.
Big List of Resources for Design, Data & Code
Data viz tools and resources from ProPublica’s Lena Groeger.
The Hacktavist Toolbox
Great set of tools for analyzing data from Politico.
US Local Data Portals
This Github account lists dozens of portals.
DataPortals.org
A list of more than 400 data portals from around the world.
Flowing Data: How to Find the Data You Need (2016)
Tweepy Tweet Scraper
From Dr. Ken Blake, this tools lets you search recent tweets, using search terms you specify, and save the tweets. along with key metadata, in an Excel file on your computer. Updated April 2021.
Data Wrangler
A data cleaning tool created by Stanford University’s Visualization Group for rearranging data for other tools to use (e.g. spreadsheet).
Online Tools to Convert Data Formats
CSV to JSON, etc.
ExportComments.com
Easily exports all comments from your social media posts to Excel file.
AirTable
Free database tool up to 1,500 records. Pricing from there.
OpenStates.org
Search for bills or legislators across all states.
Free OCR
Scrape text from images. Always double-check your work and 3’s can look like 8’s.
Quandl
Tons of free datasets, and a very, very easy to use API. Even those less technically inclined could spend just a few minutes and get dataviz with async data. Of course, downloadable data is always an option.
Open Addresses
Community-hosted data on Github. Street names, house numbers and postal codes, when combined with geographic coordinates, are the hub that connects digital to physical places. It’s crowdsourced, so fact-check the data.
Twint
An advanced Twitter scraping & OSINT tool written in Python that doesn’t use Twitter’s API, allowing you to scrape a user’s followers, following, Tweets and more while evading most API limitations.
ParseHub
Free web-scraping tool.
Mobile App Scraping: Extract Data from iOS and Android Apps
Resources | Tools | Training