# Zhihu Scraper API

> Zhihu Scraper API is a paid API for AI agents from api.scrapeforagents.tech, paid per call via x402, $0.025/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-02).

Scrapes structured data from Zhihu (Chinese Q&A platform) including trending questions, keyword search results, question answers, article details, and column articles.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://api.scrapeforagents.tech/v1/zhihu?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.025/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-02
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/zhihu-scraper-api-3eeb2558
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_IuVbLGnDnbxTAmnTHgmh-

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability zhihu-scraper-api-3eeb2558 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Zhihu for '人工智能' (artificial intelligence), get up to 50 results across 3 pages using the search operation, and return me the titles and excerpts.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured, pay-per-call data from Zhihu — China's leading Q&A and knowledge-sharing platform — without managing your own scraping infrastructure. It is especially useful for researching Chinese-language topics, monitoring trending content, or extracting answers and articles at scale. Failed or empty runs are not billed, making it low-risk for exploratory queries.

## Known failure modes

- Site blocking: Zhihu may block scraping requests, returning empty or failed results (not charged)
- Invalid questionId or articleId: returns empty items array
- Invalid columnId: returns empty items array
- maxPages exceeds 50: request rejected by schema validation
- Network timeout: request may fail if Zhihu is slow to respond
- Empty keyword: search operation may return no results

## How this service works

Pay-per-call structured web data. Failed or empty runs are not charged.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with a count field, a product field set to 'zhihu', and an items array containing structured records with fields like title, excerpt, answerId, peopleId, articleId, operation, entityType, and questionId — specific fields populated depend on the operation chosen.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "keyword": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Search text for the search operation. Chinese and English text are accepted."
  },
  "columnId": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Slug from a column URL, required for column articles."
  },
  "maxItems": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 100,
   "minimum": 0,
   "description": "Maximum rows in the dataset; 0 means no row cap."
  },
  "maxPages": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 5,
   "maximum": 50,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "Page limit for search, question answers, and column articles. Article detail uses one request."
  },
  "articleId": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Numeric ID from an article URL, required for article detail."
  },
  "operation": {
   "enum": [
    "search",
    "answerList",
    "articleDetail",
    "columnArticleList",
    "hotList"
   ],
   "type": "string",
   "default": "hotList",
   "description": "Choose trending questions, keyword search, question answers, article detail, or column articles. Trending questions are public; the other operations may be blocked by the site."
  },
  "questionId": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Numeric ID from a question URL, required for question answers."
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 1,
  "items": [
   {
    "title": null,
    "excerpt": null,
    "answerId": null,
    "peopleId": null,
    "articleId": null,
    "operation": null,
    "entityType": null,
    "questionId": null
   }
  ],
  "product": "zhihu"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/zhihu-scraper-api-3eeb2558/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.scrapeforagents.tech](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.scrapeforagents.tech/llms.txt)