# PHP (/quickstarts/php)
Related: [Node.js](/quickstarts/nodejs.md), [Next.js](/quickstarts/nextjs.md), [Express](/quickstarts/express.md), [NestJS](/quickstarts/nestjs.md), [Fastify](/quickstarts/fastify.md), [Hono](/quickstarts/hono.md)
## Prerequisites [#prerequisites]
* PHP 8.0+ with cURL extension
* A Firecrawl API key — [get one free](https://www.firecrawl.dev/app/api-keys)
## Search the web [#search-the-web]
Firecrawl works with PHP through the REST API using cURL.
```php
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";
}
```
```json
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"web": [
{
"url": "https://docs.firecrawl.dev",
"title": "Firecrawl Documentation",
"markdown": "# Firecrawl\n\nFirecrawl is a web scraping API..."
}
]
}
}
```
## Scrape a page [#scrape-a-page]
```php
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'];
```
```json
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"markdown": "# Example Domain\n\nThis domain is for use in illustrative examples...",
"metadata": {
"title": "Example Domain",
"sourceURL": "https://example.com"
}
}
}
```
## Interact with a page [#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 [#step-1--scrape-to-start-a-session]
```php
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 [#step-2--send-interactions]
```php
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 [#step-3--stop-the-session]
```php
true,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'DELETE',
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
],
]);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo "Session stopped\n";
```
## Reusable helper class [#reusable-helper-class]
For repeated use, wrap the API in a class:
```php
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 [#next-steps]
Search the web and get full page content
All scrape options including formats, actions, and proxies
Click, fill forms, and extract dynamic content
Complete REST API documentation