> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.firecrawl.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# PHP

> Get started with Firecrawl in PHP. Scrape, search, and interact with web data using the REST API.

## Prerequisites

* PHP 8.0+ with cURL extension
* A Firecrawl API key — [get one free](https://www.firecrawl.dev/app/api-keys)

## Search the web

Firecrawl works with PHP through the REST API using cURL.

```php theme={null}
<?php
$apiKey = getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY');

$ch = curl_init('https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'query' => 'firecrawl web scraping',
        'limit' => 5,
    ]),
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$results = json_decode($response, true);
foreach ($results['data']['web'] as $result) {
    echo $result['title'] . ' - ' . $result['url'] . "\n";
}
```

<Accordion title="Example response">
  ```json theme={null}
  {
    "success": true,
    "data": {
      "web": [
        {
          "url": "https://docs.firecrawl.dev",
          "title": "Firecrawl Documentation",
          "markdown": "# Firecrawl\n\nFirecrawl is a web scraping API..."
        }
      ]
    }
  }
  ```
</Accordion>

## Scrape a page

```php theme={null}
<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'url' => 'https://example.com',
    ]),
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);
echo $data['data']['markdown'];
```

<Accordion title="Example response">
  ```json theme={null}
  {
    "success": true,
    "data": {
      "markdown": "# Example Domain\n\nThis domain is for use in illustrative examples...",
      "metadata": {
        "title": "Example Domain",
        "sourceURL": "https://example.com"
      }
    }
  }
  ```
</Accordion>

## Interact with a page

Start a browser session, interact with the page using natural-language prompts, then close the session.

### Step 1 — Scrape to start a session

```php theme={null}
<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'url' => 'https://www.amazon.com',
        'formats' => ['markdown'],
    ]),
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$scrapeResult = json_decode($response, true);
$scrapeId = $scrapeResult['data']['metadata']['scrapeId'];
echo "scrapeId: $scrapeId\n";
```

### Step 2 — Send interactions

```php theme={null}
<?php
$interactUrl = "https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape/$scrapeId/interact";
$headers = [
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
    'Content-Type: application/json',
];

// Search for a product
$ch = curl_init($interactUrl);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => $headers,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'prompt' => 'Search for iPhone 16 Pro Max',
    ]),
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $response . "\n";

// Click on the first result
$ch = curl_init($interactUrl);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => $headers,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'prompt' => 'Click on the first result and tell me the price',
    ]),
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $response . "\n";
```

### Step 3 — Stop the session

```php theme={null}
<?php
$ch = curl_init($interactUrl);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'DELETE',
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
    ],
]);

curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

echo "Session stopped\n";
```

## Reusable helper class

For repeated use, wrap the API in a class:

```php theme={null}
<?php
class Firecrawl
{
    private string $apiKey;
    private string $baseUrl = 'https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2';

    public function __construct(string $apiKey)
    {
        $this->apiKey = $apiKey;
    }

    private function post(string $endpoint, array $payload): array
    {
        $ch = curl_init($this->baseUrl . $endpoint);
        curl_setopt_array($ch, [
            CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
            CURLOPT_POST => true,
            CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
                'Authorization: Bearer ' . $this->apiKey,
                'Content-Type: application/json',
            ],
            CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($payload),
        ]);

        $response = curl_exec($ch);
        $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);

        if ($httpCode >= 400) {
            throw new \RuntimeException("Firecrawl API error: HTTP $httpCode");
        }

        return json_decode($response, true);
    }

    public function scrape(string $url, array $options = []): array
    {
        return $this->post('/scrape', array_merge(['url' => $url], $options));
    }

    public function search(string $query, int $limit = 5): array
    {
        return $this->post('/search', ['query' => $query, 'limit' => $limit]);
    }
}

// Usage
$app = new Firecrawl(getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY'));
$result = $app->scrape('https://example.com');
echo $result['data']['markdown'];
```

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Search docs" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/features/search">
    Search the web and get full page content
  </Card>

  <Card title="Scrape docs" icon="file-lines" href="/features/scrape">
    All scrape options including formats, actions, and proxies
  </Card>

  <Card title="Interact docs" icon="hand-pointer" href="/features/interact">
    Click, fill forms, and extract dynamic content
  </Card>

  <Card title="API Reference" icon="code" href="/api-reference/v2-introduction">
    Complete REST API documentation
  </Card>
</CardGroup>