CAPTCHA Handling for Pharmacy Price Comparison

Building a pharmacy price comparison tool means collecting pricing data from multiple pharmacy portals, drug pricing databases, and insurance formularies. Many of these sources protect their pricing pages with CAPTCHAs — particularly reCAPTCHA v2 on search forms and results pages. Here's how to handle them.

Where CAPTCHAs Appear in Pharmacy Portals

Basic Workflow

import requests
import time

session = requests.Session()
session.headers.update({
    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36"
})

def solve_recaptcha(site_key, page_url):
    resp = requests.post("https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php", data={
        "key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "method": "userrecaptcha",
        "googlekey": site_key,
        "pageurl": page_url,
        "json": 1
    })
    task_id = resp.json()["request"]

    for _ in range(60):
        time.sleep(3)
        result = requests.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
            "key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
            "action": "get",
            "id": task_id,
            "json": 1
        })
        data = result.json()
        if data["status"] == 1:
            return data["request"]
    raise TimeoutError("Solve timed out")

def search_drug_prices(drug_name, zipcode):
    search_url = "https://pharmacy.example.com/search"

    # Load the search page to get the site key
    page = session.get(search_url)

    # Extract reCAPTCHA site key
    import re
    match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', page.text)
    site_key = match.group(1)

    # Solve the CAPTCHA
    token = solve_recaptcha(site_key, search_url)

    # Submit the search with token
    results = session.post(search_url, data={
        "drug": drug_name,
        "zip": zipcode,
        "g-recaptcha-response": token
    })

    return parse_prices(results.text)

Multi-Pharmacy Comparison

Compare prices across multiple sources:

PHARMACY_SOURCES = [
    {
        "name": "PharmacyA",
        "url": "https://pharmacya.example.com/pricing",
        "captcha_type": "recaptcha_v2"
    },
    {
        "name": "PharmacyB",
        "url": "https://pharmacyb.example.com/drugs",
        "captcha_type": "turnstile"
    },
    {
        "name": "PharmacyC",
        "url": "https://pharmacyc.example.com/search",
        "captcha_type": "image"
    }
]

def compare_drug_price(drug_name, zipcode):
    results = []

    for source in PHARMACY_SOURCES:
        try:
            prices = fetch_prices(
                source["url"],
                source["captcha_type"],
                drug_name,
                zipcode
            )
            results.append({
                "source": source["name"],
                "prices": prices,
                "status": "success"
            })
        except Exception as e:
            results.append({
                "source": source["name"],
                "error": str(e),
                "status": "failed"
            })

    return sorted(results, key=lambda r: r.get("prices", {}).get("lowest", float("inf")))

Handling Different CAPTCHA Types

Pharmacy portals use various CAPTCHA providers:

def fetch_prices(url, captcha_type, drug_name, zipcode):
    page = session.get(url)

    if captcha_type == "recaptcha_v2":
        import re
        match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', page.text)
        token = solve_recaptcha(match.group(1), url)
        field_name = "g-recaptcha-response"

    elif captcha_type == "turnstile":
        import re
        match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="(0x[^"]+)"', page.text)
        token = solve_turnstile(match.group(1), url)
        field_name = "cf-turnstile-response"

    elif captcha_type == "image":
        img_data = extract_captcha_image(page.text)
        token = solve_image_captcha(img_data)
        field_name = "captcha"

    return session.post(url, data={
        "drug": drug_name,
        "zip": zipcode,
        field_name: token
    })

Session Management for Repeated Searches

Drug price comparison requires multiple searches. Manage sessions to minimize CAPTCHA encounters:

class PharmacySession:
    def __init__(self, base_url):
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.base_url = base_url
        self.searches_since_captcha = 0

    def search(self, drug_name, zipcode):
        result = self.session.post(f"{self.base_url}/search", data={
            "drug": drug_name,
            "zip": zipcode
        })

        if self.is_captcha_page(result.text):
            token = self.solve_page_captcha(result.text)
            result = self.session.post(f"{self.base_url}/search", data={
                "drug": drug_name,
                "zip": zipcode,
                "g-recaptcha-response": token
            })
            self.searches_since_captcha = 0
        else:
            self.searches_since_captcha += 1

        return result

    def is_captcha_page(self, html):
        return "g-recaptcha" in html or "cf-turnstile" in html

    def solve_page_captcha(self, html):
        import re
        match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', html)
        return solve_recaptcha(match.group(1), self.base_url)

JavaScript Implementation

async function comparePharmacyPrices(drugName, zipCode, sources) {
  const results = await Promise.all(
    sources.map(async (source) => {
      try {
        const price = await fetchDrugPrice(source, drugName, zipCode);
        return { source: source.name, price, status: 'success' };
      } catch (error) {
        return { source: source.name, error: error.message, status: 'failed' };
      }
    })
  );

  return results
    .filter(r => r.status === 'success')
    .sort((a, b) => a.price - b.price);
}

async function fetchDrugPrice(source, drugName, zipCode) {
  // Solve CAPTCHA for this source
  const token = await solveCaptcha(source.siteKey, source.url);

  const response = await fetch(source.url, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' },
    body: new URLSearchParams({
      drug: drugName,
      zip: zipCode,
      'g-recaptcha-response': token
    })
  });

  return parsePrice(await response.text());
}

Rate Limiting Considerations

Pharmacy portals monitor access patterns closely:

Troubleshooting

FAQ

How many pharmacy sources can I compare simultaneously?

CaptchaAI handles parallel solving. You can solve CAPTCHAs for multiple pharmacy portals concurrently. The practical limit depends on your CaptchaAI balance and each portal's rate limits.

Do pharmacy portals change their CAPTCHA types frequently?

Some portals update their CAPTCHA implementation periodically. Monitor for changes by checking if your extraction still finds the site key. CaptchaAI supports all major CAPTCHA types, so switching providers doesn't require changing your solving approach.

Is there a difference between brand-name and generic drug pricing portals?

The CAPTCHA handling is similar. Generic drug databases may use simpler Image CAPTCHAs, while brand-name pharmacy portals tend to use reCAPTCHA v2 or Turnstile.

Related Articles

• How To Solve Recaptcha V2 Callback Using Api
• Recaptcha V2 Turnstile Same Site Handling
• Recaptcha V2 Callback Mechanism

Next Steps

Build your pharmacy price comparison tool — get your CaptchaAI API key and handle CAPTCHAs across all pharmacy sources.