Web scraping - what is HTTP 403 status code?

by scrapecrow Dec 16, 2022

Response status code 403 is a denial of content status code which means the client is forbidden from seeing this content.

In web scraping, this can be caused by invalid HTTP request parameters like:

Missing headers like X-Requested-With, X-CSRF-Token, Origin or even Referer. It's important to match the values and header ordering as seen on the website.
Missing cookies like session cookies or special tokens.

Alternatively, the scraper could be identified as a web scraper and 403 can mean the scraper is simply being blocked.

To prevent scrapers from being identified and blocked see our complete how to scrape without being blocked.

Repeated 403 status codes can lead to a complete scraper block, so these errors should be addressed ASAP.

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