Is it legal to scrape data from IQAir?

Scraping IQAir for personal use or academic research is generally permissible, provided you do not violate their Terms of Service or overwhelm their servers. For commercial use, it is best to consult their official API terms to ensure compliance with their data redistribution policies.

Does IQAir have an official API?

Yes, IQAir provides the AirVisual API, which offers structured access to real-time and historical air quality data. They offer multiple tiers, including a free 'Community' plan for limited requests and professional plans for large-scale enterprise needs.

How do I bypass the Cloudflare protection on IQAir?

Bypassing Cloudflare requires tools that can solve JavaScript challenges and manage browser fingerprints, such as Playwright with the stealth plugin or specialized scraping browsers. Using high-quality residential proxies is also essential to avoid IP-based blocks.

What is the best way to handle dynamic content on IQAir city pages?

Since IQAir hydrates its AQI values after the initial page load, you must use a headless browser (like Puppeteer or Playwright) that waits for the DOM to be fully rendered. Alternatively, you can inspect the network traffic to see if the data can be fetched directly from a hidden API endpoint.

How often does IQAir update its air quality data?

IQAir typically updates its data every hour, though some stations may report more frequently. If you are tracking real-time events like wildfires, a scraping interval of 15-30 minutes is recommended to capture the latest fluctuations.

Can I scrape historical air quality data from IQAir?

Yes, IQAir city pages often contain charts showing hourly and daily historical trends. You can scrape these by targeting the data points in the SVG charts or by accessing the historical data tables provided on the city-specific history pages.

What data format is best for storing AQI data?

For environmental monitoring, JSON is the most flexible format for nested data like hourly forecasts. However, for long-term research, storing the data in a Time-Series Database (TSDB) or a simple CSV file is better for performing statistical analysis over time.

How to Scrape IQAir Air Quality Data

Learn how to scrape real-time air quality index (AQI), PM2.5, and weather data from IQAir to monitor pollution trends and build health-focused applications.

Start Scraping Free

iqair.comHard

Coverage:GlobalUnited StatesChinaIndiaEuropeSoutheast Asia

Available Data8 fields

TitleLocationDescriptionImagesSeller InfoPosting DateCategoriesAttributes

All Extractable Fields

City NameCountry/RegionAir Quality Index (AQI)Main Pollutant TypePM2.5 ConcentrationPM10 ConcentrationTemperatureHumidityWind SpeedBarometric Pressure7-Day Air Quality ForecastStation GPS CoordinatesHistorical Hourly AQIHealth RecommendationsFire/Smoke Map Data

Technical Requirements

JavaScript Required

No Login

Has Pagination

Official API Available

Anti-Bot Protection Detected

CloudflareBrowser FingerprintingRate LimitingIP BlockingJavaScript Challenges

View API Documentation

About IQAir

Learn what IQAir offers and what valuable data can be extracted from it.

Global Air Quality Monitoring

IQAir is a Swiss-based air quality technology company that operates the world's most comprehensive platform for tracking global air pollution. They aggregate data from over 30,000 monitoring stations, including official government sensors and their own proprietary AirVisual network, providing a real-time global map of air health.

Comprehensive Environmental Data

The platform provides detailed metrics including the US Air Quality Index (AQI), concentrations of specific pollutants like PM2.5, PM10, Ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide, alongside meteorological data such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed. It also features city-specific rankings and health recommendations based on current air conditions.

Value for Data Science and Research

Scraping this data is highly valuable for environmental researchers, urban planners, and health-tech developers. It allows for the analysis of long-term pollution trends, the impact of air quality on public health, and the correlation between environmental factors and economic indicators like real estate value or retail foot traffic.

Why Scrape IQAir?

Discover the business value and use cases for extracting data from IQAir.

Monitor localized pollution spikes in real-time for public health alerts

Conduct long-term environmental studies on urban air quality trends

Integrate live AQI data into smart home and IoT HVAC systems

Analyze the impact of air quality on local real estate market pricing

Generate competitive market intelligence for air purification businesses

Collect high-resolution datasets for climate change academic research

Scraping Challenges

Technical challenges you may encounter when scraping IQAir.

Advanced Cloudflare protection that blocks non-browser traffic

Dynamic data hydration where AQI values are injected via JavaScript

Aggressive rate limiting that triggers CAPTCHAs on repeated city visits

Complex nested CSS selectors for real-time station-level details

Frequent changes to the HTML structure of the city ranking tables

Scrape IQAir with AI

No coding required. Extract data in minutes with AI-powered automation.

How It Works

Describe What You Need

Tell the AI what data you want to extract from IQAir. Just type it in plain language — no coding or selectors needed.

AI Extracts the Data

Our artificial intelligence navigates IQAir, handles dynamic content, and extracts exactly what you asked for.

Get Your Data

Receive clean, structured data ready to export as CSV, JSON, or send directly to your apps and workflows.

Why Use AI for Scraping

Bypasses Cloudflare and browser fingerprinting automatically

Native JavaScript execution to capture dynamically loaded AQI values

Cloud-based scheduling for 24/7 environmental monitoring without downtime

Easy visual selection of complex elements like weather charts and maps

Direct integration with Google Sheets for real-time data logging

Start Scraping Free

No credit card requiredFree tier availableNo setup needed

No-Code Web Scrapers for IQAir

Point-and-click alternatives to AI-powered scraping

Several no-code tools like Browse.ai, Octoparse, Axiom, and ParseHub can help you scrape IQAir. These tools use visual interfaces to select elements, but they come with trade-offs compared to AI-powered solutions.

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools

Install browser extension or sign up for the platform

Navigate to the target website and open the tool

Point-and-click to select data elements you want to extract

Configure CSS selectors for each data field

Set up pagination rules to scrape multiple pages

Handle CAPTCHAs (often requires manual solving)

Configure scheduling for automated runs

Export data to CSV, JSON, or connect via API

Common Challenges

Learning curve

Understanding selectors and extraction logic takes time

Selectors break

Website changes can break your entire workflow

Dynamic content issues

JavaScript-heavy sites often require complex workarounds

CAPTCHA limitations

Most tools require manual intervention for CAPTCHAs

IP blocking

Aggressive scraping can get your IP banned

Code Examples

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Note: IQAir uses Cloudflare; simple requests may be blocked.
# This example demonstrates the structure if anti-bot is bypassed.
url = 'https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city'
headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/119.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
}

try:
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    if response.status_code == 200:
        soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
        # City title is often in an h1
        city = soup.find('h1').text.strip() if soup.find('h1') else 'N/A'
        # AQI values are usually inside specific status classes
        print(f'City: {city}')
    else:
        print(f'Blocked by Cloudflare: {response.status_code}')
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}')

When to Use

Best for static HTML pages where content is loaded server-side. The fastest and simplest approach when JavaScript rendering isn't required.

Advantages

●Fastest execution (no browser overhead)
●Lowest resource consumption
●Easy to parallelize with asyncio
●Great for APIs and static pages

Limitations

●Cannot execute JavaScript
●Fails on SPAs and dynamic content
●May struggle with complex anti-bot systems

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

def scrape_iqair_live():
    with sync_playwright() as p:
        # Launching browser with stealth-like settings
        browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
        context = browser.new_context(user_agent='Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)...')
        page = context.new_page()

        # Navigate to a specific city page
        page.goto('https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city', wait_until='networkidle')

        # Wait for the dynamic AQI value element to appear
        page.wait_for_selector('.aqi-value__value')

        # Extract data from the DOM
        data = {
            'city': page.inner_text('h1'),
            'aqi': page.inner_text('.aqi-value__value'),
            'pollutant': page.inner_text('.pollutant-level-wrapper b'),
            'temp': page.inner_text('.weather__detail--temp')
        }

        print(data)
        browser.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    scrape_iqair_live()

When to Use

Use when content loads dynamically via JavaScript, or when you need to interact with the page (clicks, scrolls, form fills). Handles modern anti-bot detection better.

Advantages

●Executes JavaScript like a real browser
●Handles SPAs and dynamic content
●Better anti-bot evasion with stealth plugins
●Can take screenshots and PDFs

Limitations

●Slower than HTTP requests
●Higher memory/CPU usage
●More complex to set up

import scrapy

class IQAirRankingSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = 'iqair_spider'
    start_urls = ['https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality-ranking']

    def parse(self, response):
        # Extract data from the global ranking table
        # Note: Scrapy usually needs a JS middleware like scrapy-playwright for this site
        for row in response.css('table.ranking__table tr'):
            yield {
                'rank': row.css('td.rank::text').get(),
                'city': row.css('a.city-name::text').get(),
                'aqi': row.css('td.aqi::text').get(),
                'country': row.css('span.country-name::text').get()
            }

When to Use

Ideal for large-scale crawling projects that need to scrape thousands of pages. Built-in support for rate limiting, retries, and data pipelines.

Advantages

●Built for scale (millions of pages)
●Automatic request throttling
●Built-in data export pipelines
●Middleware system for proxies/headers

Limitations

●Steeper learning curve
●Overkill for small projects
●No native JavaScript rendering

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  try {
    // Emulate a real user to avoid immediate blocking
    await page.setUserAgent('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36...');
    await page.goto('https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

    // Capture dynamic content
    const result = await page.evaluate(() => {
      return {
        city: document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText,
        aqi: document.querySelector('.aqi-value__value')?.innerText,
        main_pollutant: document.querySelector('.pollutant-level-wrapper b')?.innerText
      };
    });

    console.log(result);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Scraping failed:', err);
  } finally {
    await browser.close();
  }
})();

When to Use

Choose this if you're in a Node.js/JavaScript ecosystem or need tight integration with frontend tools. Similar capabilities to Playwright.

Advantages

●Native JavaScript/TypeScript support
●Chrome DevTools Protocol access
●Large ecosystem and community
●Good for JS-heavy projects

Limitations

●Chrome-only (vs Playwright's multi-browser)
●Similar overhead to Playwright
●Less mature stealth options

How to Scrape IQAir with Code

Python + Requests

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Note: IQAir uses Cloudflare; simple requests may be blocked.
# This example demonstrates the structure if anti-bot is bypassed.
url = 'https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city'
headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/119.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
}

try:
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    if response.status_code == 200:
        soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
        # City title is often in an h1
        city = soup.find('h1').text.strip() if soup.find('h1') else 'N/A'
        # AQI values are usually inside specific status classes
        print(f'City: {city}')
    else:
        print(f'Blocked by Cloudflare: {response.status_code}')
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}')

Python + Playwright

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

def scrape_iqair_live():
    with sync_playwright() as p:
        # Launching browser with stealth-like settings
        browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
        context = browser.new_context(user_agent='Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)...')
        page = context.new_page()

        # Navigate to a specific city page
        page.goto('https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city', wait_until='networkidle')

        # Wait for the dynamic AQI value element to appear
        page.wait_for_selector('.aqi-value__value')

        # Extract data from the DOM
        data = {
            'city': page.inner_text('h1'),
            'aqi': page.inner_text('.aqi-value__value'),
            'pollutant': page.inner_text('.pollutant-level-wrapper b'),
            'temp': page.inner_text('.weather__detail--temp')
        }

        print(data)
        browser.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    scrape_iqair_live()

Python + Scrapy

import scrapy

class IQAirRankingSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = 'iqair_spider'
    start_urls = ['https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality-ranking']

    def parse(self, response):
        # Extract data from the global ranking table
        # Note: Scrapy usually needs a JS middleware like scrapy-playwright for this site
        for row in response.css('table.ranking__table tr'):
            yield {
                'rank': row.css('td.rank::text').get(),
                'city': row.css('a.city-name::text').get(),
                'aqi': row.css('td.aqi::text').get(),
                'country': row.css('span.country-name::text').get()
            }

Node.js + Puppeteer

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  try {
    // Emulate a real user to avoid immediate blocking
    await page.setUserAgent('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36...');
    await page.goto('https://www.iqair.com/usa/new-york/new-york-city', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });

    // Capture dynamic content
    const result = await page.evaluate(() => {
      return {
        city: document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText,
        aqi: document.querySelector('.aqi-value__value')?.innerText,
        main_pollutant: document.querySelector('.pollutant-level-wrapper b')?.innerText
      };
    });

    console.log(result);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Scraping failed:', err);
  } finally {
    await browser.close();
  }
})();

What You Can Do With IQAir Data

Explore practical applications and insights from IQAir data.

Real Estate Health Scoring

Property platforms can use historical air quality data to provide health scores for specific neighborhoods.

How to implement:

1Scrape historical PM2.5 and AQI data for specific zip codes.
2Calculate the average number of 'Unhealthy' days per year.
3Integrate this score into property listing pages to inform buyers.
4Update the scores quarterly to reflect seasonal pollution changes.

Use Automatio to extract data from IQAir and build these applications without writing code.

More than just prompts

Supercharge your workflow with AI Automation

Automatio combines the power of AI agents, web automation, and smart integrations to help you accomplish more in less time.

AI Agents

Web Automation

Smart Workflows

Get Started Free

Pro Tips for Scraping IQAir

Expert advice for successfully extracting data from IQAir.

Use high-quality residential proxies to rotate IPs and bypass Cloudflare's reputation-based blocking.

Identify the internal API calls in the browser's Network tab (XHR) to fetch JSON data directly instead of parsing HTML.

Implement random delays between 5 to 15 seconds to simulate human browsing and avoid triggering rate limits.

Scrape at night or during off-peak hours relative to the target city's timezone to minimize detection risk.

Always set a realistic User-Agent and include Referer headers to make requests appear legitimate.

Testimonials

What Our Users Say

Join thousands of satisfied users who have transformed their workflow

Jonathan Kogan

Co-Founder/CEO, rpatools.io

Automatio is one of the most used for RPA Tools both internally and externally. It saves us countless hours of work and we realized this could do the same for other startups and so we choose Automatio for most of our automation needs.

Mohammed Ibrahim

CEO, qannas.pro

I have used many tools over the past 5 years, Automatio is the Jack of All trades.. !! it could be your scraping bot in the morning and then it becomes your VA by the noon and in the evening it does your automations.. its amazing!

Ben Bressington

CTO, AiChatSolutions

Automatio is fantastic and simple to use to extract data from any website. This allowed me to replace a developer and do tasks myself as they only take a few minutes to setup and forget about it. Automatio is a game changer!

Sarah Chen

Head of Growth, ScaleUp Labs

We've tried dozens of automation tools, but Automatio stands out for its flexibility and ease of use. Our team productivity increased by 40% within the first month of adoption.

David Park

Founder, DataDriven.io

The AI-powered features in Automatio are incredible. It understands context and adapts to changes in websites automatically. No more broken scrapers!

Emily Rodriguez

Marketing Director, GrowthMetrics

Automatio transformed our lead generation process. What used to take our team days now happens automatically in minutes. The ROI is incredible.

Jonathan Kogan

Co-Founder/CEO, rpatools.io

Mohammed Ibrahim

CEO, qannas.pro

Ben Bressington

CTO, AiChatSolutions

Sarah Chen

Head of Growth, ScaleUp Labs

We've tried dozens of automation tools, but Automatio stands out for its flexibility and ease of use. Our team productivity increased by 40% within the first month of adoption.

David Park

Founder, DataDriven.io

The AI-powered features in Automatio are incredible. It understands context and adapts to changes in websites automatically. No more broken scrapers!

Emily Rodriguez

Marketing Director, GrowthMetrics

Automatio transformed our lead generation process. What used to take our team days now happens automatically in minutes. The ROI is incredible.

Related Web Scraping

Frequently Asked Questions About IQAir

Find answers to common questions about IQAir

How to Scrape IQAir Air Quality Data

About IQAir

Global Air Quality Monitoring

Comprehensive Environmental Data

Value for Data Science and Research

Why Scrape IQAir?

Scraping Challenges

Scrape IQAir with AI

How It Works

Why Use AI for Scraping

No-Code Web Scrapers for IQAir

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools

Common Challenges

Code Examples

What You Can Do With IQAir Data

Real Estate Health Scoring

Smart City IoT Integration

Healthcare Patient Monitoring

E-commerce Market Intelligence

Supercharge your workflow with AI Automation

Pro Tips for Scraping IQAir

What Our Users Say

Related Web Scraping

How to Scrape GitHub | The Ultimate 2025 Technical Guide

How to Scrape Wikipedia: The Ultimate Web Scraping Guide

How to Scrape Britannica: Educational Data Web Scraper

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How to Scrape Worldometers for Real-Time Global Statistics

How to Scrape American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

Frequently Asked Questions About IQAir

Is it legal to scrape data from IQAir?

Does IQAir have an official API?

How do I bypass the Cloudflare protection on IQAir?

What is the best way to handle dynamic content on IQAir city pages?

How often does IQAir update its air quality data?

Can I scrape historical air quality data from IQAir?

What data format is best for storing AQI data?

How to Scrape IQAir Air Quality Data

About IQAir

Global Air Quality Monitoring

Comprehensive Environmental Data

Value for Data Science and Research

Why Scrape IQAir?

Scraping Challenges

Scrape IQAir with AI

How It Works

Why Use AI for Scraping

How to scrape with AI:

Why use AI for scraping:

No-Code Web Scrapers for IQAir

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools

Common Challenges

No-Code Web Scrapers for IQAir

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools

Common Challenges

Code Examples

How to Scrape IQAir with Code

Python + Requests

Python + Playwright

Python + Scrapy

Node.js + Puppeteer

What You Can Do With IQAir Data

Real Estate Health Scoring

Smart City IoT Integration

Healthcare Patient Monitoring

E-commerce Market Intelligence

What You Can Do With IQAir Data

Supercharge your workflow with AI Automation

Pro Tips for Scraping IQAir

What Our Users Say

Related Web Scraping

How to Scrape GitHub | The Ultimate 2025 Technical Guide

How to Scrape Wikipedia: The Ultimate Web Scraping Guide

How to Scrape Britannica: Educational Data Web Scraper

How to Scrape Pollen.com: Local Allergy Data Extraction Guide

How to Scrape Weather.com: A Guide to Weather Data Extraction

How to Scrape RethinkEd: A Technical Data Extraction Guide

How to Scrape Worldometers for Real-Time Global Statistics

How to Scrape American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

Frequently Asked Questions About IQAir

Is it legal to scrape data from IQAir?

Does IQAir have an official API?

How do I bypass the Cloudflare protection on IQAir?

What is the best way to handle dynamic content on IQAir city pages?

How often does IQAir update its air quality data?

Can I scrape historical air quality data from IQAir?

What data format is best for storing AQI data?