Best APIs for Comparing Prices Across Singapore Online Stores (2026)

There is no single dominant API for comparing prices across Singapore online stores. The major platforms — Lazada, Shopee, Amazon SG — do not expose public price-comparison APIs. Developers building price comparison, deal-tracking, or AI shopping tools for Singapore must choose between merchant-specific APIs (limited coverage), scraping infrastructure (fragile), and aggregator APIs (best coverage). This guide compares every option as of 2026, with a clear recommendation.

Quick answer

API	SG merchant coverage	Pricing	Best for
BuyWhere	Lazada, Shopee, Amazon SG, Courts, Best Denki, Harvey Norman, brand stores	Free (1,000 queries/day)	Best overall — agent-native, structured, real-time
Lazada Open Platform	Lazada only	Free (affiliate)	Lazada-only affiliate apps
Shopee Open Platform	Shopee only	Free (affiliate)	Shopee-only affiliate apps
Amazon Product Advertising API	Amazon only	Free (associate)	Amazon-only product sites
Google Shopping Content API	Google Shopping feed	Free	Merchant-side feed management, not comparison
PriceSpy / PriceGrabber	None (US/EU focus)	Paid	Not viable for SG

Bottom line: For comparing prices across Singapore online stores (not just one merchant), BuyWhere is the only API that aggregates Lazada, Shopee, Amazon SG, and major SG retailers into a single endpoint. The merchant-specific APIs are free but only cover their own platform.

The problem with Singapore price comparison

Singapore's e-commerce landscape is fragmented across at least six channels:

1. Lazada SG — largest general marketplace, LazMall for brand-official stores
2. Shopee SG — fastest-growing marketplace, Shopee Mall for verified sellers
3. Amazon SG — Prime delivery, curated catalogue (smaller than US)
4. Courts — electronics and furniture, both online and 60+ retail stores
5. Best Denki — premium electronics, authorised dealer for major brands
6. Harvey Norman — electronics, furniture, appliances

Prices for the same product can vary 15-40% across these channels due to flash sales, voucher stacking, bundle deals, and clearance. No single merchant API gives you the full picture. You need an aggregator.

Option 1: BuyWhere API (recommended)

BuyWhere is a product data and price comparison API built specifically for Singapore and Southeast Asia. It aggregates live product data across all six channels above plus brand-direct stores.

Endpoints

# Search across all merchants
curl -X POST https://api.buywhere.ai/v1/products/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "Sony WH-1000XM5",
    "country": "sg",
    "currency": "SGD",
    "sort": "price_asc"
  }'

# Get the best price for a specific product
curl -X GET "https://api.buywhere.ai/v1/products/best-price?query=Sony+WH-1000XM5&country=sg" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# Compare two products
curl -X POST https://api.buywhere.ai/v1/products/compare \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"product_ids": ["p_12345", "p_67890"], "country": "sg"}'

# Find active deals
curl -X GET "https://api.buywhere.ai/v1/products/deals?country=sg&category=electronics" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response format

{
  "query": "Sony WH-1000XM5",
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "p_82341",
      "name": "Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones",
      "price": 449.00,
      "currency": "SGD",
      "merchant": "Shopee Mall",
      "url": "https://shopee.sg/...",
      "availability": "in_stock",
      "rating": 4.8,
      "shipping": "free"
    },
    {
      "id": "p_82341",
      "name": "Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones",
      "price": 469.00,
      "currency": "SGD",
      "merchant": "Lazada LazMall",
      "url": "https://lazada.sg/...",
      "availability": "in_stock",
      "rating": 4.8,
      "shipping": "free"
    }
  ]
}

Why it wins for Singapore

• Multi-merchant: One API call returns prices from Lazada, Shopee, Amazon SG, Courts, Best Denki, Harvey Norman, and brand stores
• Real-time: Prices refresh every 15-30 minutes from live merchant listings
• Structured: Consistent JSON schema across all merchants (no HTML parsing)
• Agent-native: Works as REST API or MCP server (npx -y @buywhere/mcp-server)
• Free tier: 1,000 queries/day free. No credit card for development keys.

Limitations

• Singapore/SEA focus — limited US/EU coverage
• Free tier rate-limited to 1,000 queries/day (sufficient for most apps and agents)
• No historical price API on free tier (paid plans include price history)

Option 2: Lazada Open Platform

Lazada offers an official API for affiliates and sellers. It covers Lazada SG only.

Use it when

• You are building a Lazada-specific affiliate site or app
• You need Lazada product catalogue, price, and inventory data
• You are a Lazada seller managing your own listings

Limitations for price comparison

• Lazada only — no Shopee, Amazon, or retailer prices
• Requires affiliate or seller account approval
• Rate limits are strict for new affiliates
• Not useful for cross-merchant comparison without a second data source

# Lazada API example (requires affiliate credentials)
curl -X GET "https://api.lazada.sg/rest/product/item/get" \
  -d "app_key=YOUR_APP_KEY&sign=COMPUTED_SIGN&product_id=12345"

Option 3: Shopee Open Platform

Shopee offers an open API for sellers and affiliates. Covers Shopee SG only.

Use it when

• You need Shopee-specific product, order, or shop data
• You are building Shopee affiliate tools
• You manage a Shopee shop programmatically

Limitations for price comparison

• Shopee only — same single-merchant problem as Lazada
• Affiliate API has limited product search (designed for deep-link generation, not catalogue search)
• Requires Shopee affiliate/seller account

Option 4: Amazon Product Advertising API (PA-API 5)

Amazon's official product API. Covers Amazon SG (and global Amazon stores).

Use it when

• You are building an Amazon affiliate site
• You need Amazon product data, pricing, and availability
• Your audience shops primarily on Amazon

Limitations for price comparison

• Amazon only — no Lazada or Shopee coverage
• Requires Amazon Associates account with qualifying sales (not available to new accounts immediately)
• Rate-limited based on affiliate revenue tier
• Amazon SG catalogue is smaller than Amazon US

Option 5: Google Shopping Content API

This is for merchants managing their own product feeds on Google Shopping, not for comparison shopping. It lets you upload and manage your product inventory in Google's system.

Not useful for

• Building a price comparison tool (it does not return competitor prices)
• Consumer-facing price lookup (it is seller-side only)

Useful for

• E-commerce merchants who want their products in Google Shopping ads
• Managing product feed data, availability, and pricing on Google

Option 6: Scraping (not recommended)

Some developers build scrapers for Lazada, Shopee, and retailer websites. This is technically possible but has severe drawbacks:

• Fragile: Merchant websites change HTML structure frequently; scrapers break weekly
• Rate-limited / blocked: All major merchants employ bot detection (Cloudflare, PerimeterX)
• Legal risk: Scraping may violate merchant Terms of Service
• Maintenance cost: High — requires continuous monitoring and fixing

If you go this route, use a headless browser service (Playwright, Selenium) with residential proxies. But the engineering cost usually exceeds the cost of an aggregator API.

Recommendation by use case

Building an AI shopping agent or chatbot: BuyWhere API or MCP server. It is the only option that gives your agent live, structured multi-merchant data in a single call.

Building a deal-tracker / price-drop alert app: BuyWhere API (deals endpoint + best-price endpoint for historical tracking). Add merchant-specific affiliate APIs if you want deep-link revenue.

Building a Lazada-only affiliate site: Lazada Open Platform directly. Cheapest path for a single-merchant app.

Building a price comparison website (consumer-facing): BuyWhere API for data + your own frontend. This is what powers the comparison pages on buywhere.ai.

Academic / research project needing raw data: BuyWhere free tier (1,000 queries/day) covers most research needs. Contact them for higher limits.

FAQ

Is there a free API for comparing Singapore prices across stores?
Yes — BuyWhere offers 1,000 queries/day free on its developer tier. It is the only free API that covers multiple Singapore merchants (Lazada, Shopee, Amazon SG, Courts, etc.) in a single endpoint.

Can I get Lazada and Shopee prices from one API?
Only via BuyWhere. The Lazada and Shopee official APIs each cover only their own platform. BuyWhere aggregates both (plus Amazon SG and major retailers) into a unified response.

How do I get a BuyWhere API key?
Go to buywhere.ai/api-keys, enter your email, and receive your key immediately. No waitlist or approval. Free tier: 1,000 queries/day.

What is the difference between the BuyWhere REST API and MCP server?
The REST API is a standard HTTP JSON API — use it from any language. The MCP server wraps the same data as tools callable by AI agents (Claude Desktop, Cursor, custom agents). Same data, different integration pattern.

Are the prices real-time?
BuyWhere refreshes prices every 15-30 minutes from live merchant listings. Not training-data estimates. The response includes the timestamp of the last price check.

Can I use BuyWhere for other Southeast Asian countries?
BuyWhere is expanding to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Singapore is the most mature market. Check buywhere.ai/docs for current country support.

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Compare prices across Singapore stores with a free API key at buywhere.ai/api-keys. Full API docs: buywhere.ai/docs. MCP server: npx -y @buywhere/mcp-server.