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

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"],   
  : ,   
});