[Answers](https://scrapfly.io/blog) / [css-selectors](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/css-selectors) / [What are devtools and how they're used in web scraping?](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/browser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) # What are devtools and how they're used in web scraping? by [Bernardas Alisauskas](https://scrapfly.io/blog/author/bernardas) Apr 03, 2023 1 min read [\#css-selectors](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/css-selectors) [\#data-parsing](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/data-parsing) [\#hidden-api](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/hidden-api) [\#http](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/http) [\#xpath](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/xpath) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping "Share on LinkedIn") [ ](https://x.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping&text=What%20are%20devtools%20and%20how%20they%27re%20used%20in%20web%20scraping%3F "Share on X") [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping "Share on Facebook") Summarize this article with [ ](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) [ ](https://claude.ai/new?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) [ ](https://x.com/i/grok?text=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) [ ](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/new?q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) [ ](https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&aep=11&q=Summarize%20this%20article%20and%20explain%20how%20Scrapfly%20helps%20me%20scrape%20any%20website%20at%20scale%20and%20bypass%20anti-bot%20systems%20for%20my%20use%20case%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fbrowser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) Every modern web browser comes with a special suite of tools for web developers called the Developer Tools (or devtools for short). This suite contains a lot of powerful tools used in web scraper development that can help to debug and understand how the target websites work. Devtools can be launched on any website using the `F12` key or by right-clicking anywhere on the page and selecting "inspect" option. To start, the "Elements" tab allows for inspecting the final HTML structure of the page. This can be used to create CSS and XPath selectors for scraping: The "Network" tab (aka the Network Inspector) can be used to inspect the network traffic of the page. This can be used to understand how the website works and discover its backend and hidden APIs: One of the most popular features of Network devtools is the ability to export the requests to [cURL commands](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/what-is-curl-and-how-is-it-used-in-web-scraping) (right click -> copy as curl) that can be converted to scraping code using the [cURL to Python tool](https://scrapfly.io/web-scraping-tools/curl-python). [ Add as a preferred source ](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=scrapfly.io) Join the Newsletter Get monthly web scraping insights Scale Your Web Scraping Anti-bot bypass, browser rendering, and rotating proxies, all in one API. Start with 1,000 free credits. No credit card required 1,000 free API credits Anti-bot bypass included [Start Free](https://scrapfly.io/register) [View Docs](https://scrapfly.io/docs/onboarding) Not ready? Get our newsletter instead. ## Related Articles [ blocking anti-bot ### What Is an Anti-Detect Browser? How They Work and When to Use One Anti-detect browsers spoof browser fingerprints and isolate profiles so sites see many separate users. Learn how they wo... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/what-is-an-anti-detect-browser) [ api headless-browser ### Best Browser Automation Tools in 2026 Explore the best browser automation tools of 2026. This complete guide compares Cloud APIs, Open-Source frameworks, AI A... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/best-browser-automation-tools) [ data-parsing ### JSON vs XML: Key Differences and Modern Uses JSON and XML are two major data formats encountered in web development — here's how they differ and which is one better ... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/json-vs-xml) ## Related Questions - [ Q How to edit cookies in Chrome devtools? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-edit-cookies-using-chrome-devtools) - [ Q How to edit Local Storage data using browser Devtools ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-edit-local-storage-using-devtools) - [ Q What are some BeautifulSoup alternatives in Python? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/what-are-some-beautifulsoup-alternatives) - [ Q How to use CSS selectors in NodeJS when web scraping? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-use-css-selectors-in-nodejs) Extract structured data with AI, **1,000 free credits** [Start Free](https://scrapfly.io/register)