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GET
cURL
Use this endpoint to pull scraped data directly from the Bright Data API once an async collection job finishes. This is the simplest delivery method: you trigger a job, poll until the snapshot is ready, then download the results on demand.

When to use API download

API download is the right choice when:
  • You want a pull-based workflow instead of pushing data to your own infrastructure.
  • You don’t need results delivered to a specific storage bucket or webhook endpoint.
  • Your result set fits within the 5 GB per-request size limit.
  • You are prototyping or running ad-hoc jobs and don’t want to configure a delivery destination.
If you need automatic delivery or larger result sets, see the other delivery options (webhooks, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Snowflake).

How it works

  1. Trigger an async collection with POST /datasets/v3/trigger. The response contains a snapshot_id.
  2. Poll GET /datasets/v3/progress/{snapshot_id} until status is ready.
  3. Call this endpoint with the snapshot_id to download the data.
Results are retained for 16 days after collection. Download within that window, or configure a delivery option to have data pushed to your storage automatically.

Quick example

cURL
The response is the raw dataset in the format you request. JSON returns an array of records, NDJSON and JSON Lines return one record per line, and CSV returns a header row followed by rows.

Downloading large snapshots in parts

For snapshots larger than a few hundred megabytes, split the download into parts to avoid timeouts and memory pressure on your client:
  1. Request the first batch with a batch_size (minimum 1000 records) and part=1.
  2. Call GET /datasets/v3/snapshot/{snapshot_id}/parts to see how many parts exist.
  3. Request each remaining part by incrementing the part parameter.
Keep batch_size, format and compress identical across all part requests, otherwise the API returns an error.

Limits

Endpoint

Authorizations

Authorization
string
header
required

Use your Bright Data API Key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

How to authenticate:

  1. Obtain your API Key from the Bright Data account settings at https://brightdata.com/cp/setting/users
  2. Include the API Key in the Authorization header of your requests
  3. Format: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Example:

Learn how to get your Bright Data API key: https://docs.brightdata.com/api-reference/authentication

Path Parameters

snapshot_id
string
required

The ID that was returned when the collection was triggered

Example:

"s_m4x7enmven8djfqak"

Query Parameters

format
enum<string>

Format of the data to be received

Available options:
json,
ndjson,
jsonl,
csv
compress
boolean

Whether the result should be compressed or not

batch_size
integer

Divide the snapshot into batches of X records

Required range: x >= 1000
part
integer

If batch_size was provided, specifies which batch part to download

Response

Okk

Snapshot data in the requested format