## TL;DR

Two ScraperAPI URL details that break scrapers silently.

## Fix

1. Two ScraperAPI URL details that break scrapers silently.
   Expected: you can confirm this matches your situation.

## When to use

- You are setting up or using this ScraperAPI feature.
- The symptom matches: params must come before the url param, and sticky sessions expire after 15 idle minutes.

## When NOT to use

- Unrelated ScraperAPI issues (different feature, different failure).
- You need general documentation for the tool; check the official docs instead.

## Compatibility

Reported against ScraperAPI.

## Variant phrasings

### params must come before the url param, and sticky sessions expire after 15 idle minutes

## Why it happens

ScraperAPI docs (via omhqcx/scraperapi-php-integration and qxinmmcc/scraperapi-python-integration README summaries): always put ScraperAPI parameters BEFORE the url parameter in the query string - parameters after the target URL can collide with the target site's own query strings and produce a malformed request. Also: sticky sessions via session_number expire 15 minutes after last use, and any integer is a valid session ID (e.g. session_number=42 keeps the same proxy IP across paginated requests).

## Edge cases

- If your error message differs even slightly, this is probably a different issue; search the exact text.
- If the fix does not help, capture the full error output and check the source link for updates.

## Matched source
Source: Source: https://github.com/omhqcx/scraperapi-php-integration/blob/HEAD/README.md
Original query: "ScraperAPI: params must come before the url param, and sticky sessions expire after 15 idle minutes"
Key terms: after, before, come, expire, idle, minutes, must, param, params, scraperapi, sessions, sticky