firecrawl-performance-tuning

name	firecrawl-performance-tuning
description	Optimize Firecrawl scraping performance with caching, batch scraping, and format selection. Use when experiencing slow scrapes, optimizing credit usage per page, or building high-throughput scraping pipelines. Trigger with phrases like "firecrawl performance", "optimize firecrawl", "firecrawl latency", "firecrawl caching", "firecrawl slow", "firecrawl batch".
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit
version	1.11.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","firecrawl","api","performance"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw

Firecrawl Performance Tuning

Overview

Optimize Firecrawl API performance by choosing efficient scraping modes, caching results, using batch endpoints, and minimizing unnecessary rendering. Key levers: format selection (markdown vs HTML vs screenshot), waitFor tuning, onlyMainContent, and batch vs individual scraping.

Latency Benchmarks

Operation	Typical	With JS Wait	With Screenshot
scrapeUrl (markdown)	2-5s	5-10s	8-15s
scrapeUrl (extract)	3-8s	8-15s	N/A
crawlUrl (10 pages)	20-40s	40-80s	N/A
mapUrl	1-3s	N/A	N/A
batchScrapeUrls (10)	10-20s	20-40s	N/A

Instructions

Step 1: Minimize Formats (Biggest Win)

import FirecrawlApp from "@mendable/firecrawl-js";

const firecrawl = new FirecrawlApp({
  apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY!,
});

// SLOW: requesting everything
const slow = await firecrawl.scrapeUrl(url, {
  formats: ["markdown", "html", "links", "screenshot"],
  // screenshot + full HTML = 3-5x slower
});

// FAST: request only what you need
const fast = await firecrawl.scrapeUrl(url, {
  formats: ["markdown"],   
  : ,   
});