Vet Alibaba.com suppliers before you request quotes
Search Alibaba.com for suppliers and get price range, minimum order, years on Alibaba, verification, ratings and delivery estimate as JSON.
An Alibaba.com search returns hundreds of suppliers, and the ones worth a quote request are those with a track record, verification and a minimum order you can meet. Checking each profile by hand does not scale. Lovely Router reads the results for you. Send keywords and filters, get one JSON object per result, pay per result from a prepaid balance. Call it from a script, a sourcing sheet or an AI agent with one API key.
Hand it to your AI agent
Copy this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any coding agent. It tells the agent where the docs are and how to use your API key.
Vet Alibaba.com suppliers before you request quotes. Use the Lovely Router data tools: each returns JSON and is billed per result.
- Docs (read first): https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/find.md and https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/run.md
- Plan first: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/suggest with `{"task": "<my task in plain words>"}` (free). It returns the tools to run in order, each with an example `input`, the `input_required` fields, an estimated cost and a ready-made `run` request. Replace the example values with my task's; if a field is unclear, read the tool with GET https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>. To browse instead, POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/discover searches the catalog.
- Show me the plan and its estimated cost (`total_est_cost_usd`) before running anything large.
- Run: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>/run with `{"input": {...}, "max_results": N}`. A 200 has the finished run with `items`; a 202 means it is still running, so poll the `poll` path until `status` is `succeeded`, `failed`, `timed_out` or `stopped`.
- Only delivered results are billed. Keep max_results small on the first run, check the output, then scale up.
- If you support MCP, connect https://lovelyrouter.com/mcp instead (Streamable HTTP, same key; https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/mcp.md) and use suggest_tools, get_tool and run_tool.
- Auth: read my API key from the LOVELY_API_KEY environment variable and send it as `Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY`. Never print or commit the key. If it is not set, ask me to create one at https://lovelyrouter.com/app/keys.
- Billing is prepaid: every call is charged to my balance, so test with a small request before running anything large.
- Every docs page is plain Markdown; the full index is https://lovelyrouter.com/llms.txt.
My task: <the inputs (links, keywords or accounts) and how many results you need>How it works
Set the filters
Choose keywords, the country to deliver to, a price range, a maximum minimum order and whether the supplier must be verified.
Run the tool with a cap
Send them to
POST /v1/tools/alibaba-products/runwithmaxResultsin the input andmax_resultson the request. The run holds its maximum cost from your balance and returns the results as JSON.Score the suppliers
Rank by years on Alibaba, verification and rating, then send quote requests to the top of the list.
Get a supplier shortlist with one request
Search Alibaba.com products and suppliers takes keywords, one search per entry. resultType chooses products, suppliers or category, and maxResults caps the number of results, up to 300 per run:
curl https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/alibaba-products/run \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"input": {
"resultType": "suppliers",
"keywords": [
"led lights"
],
"verifiedSupplier": true,
"maxResults": 5
},
"max_results": 5
}'Add shipToCountry for prices and delivery to your country, maxMOQ for the largest minimum order you accept, supplierCountries for supplier locations, and tradeAssurance or verifiedManufacturer to narrow further. A run still going after 60 seconds returns 202; Run a tool shows how to poll.
What each result holds
| Field group | What you get |
|---|---|
| Offer | Price range and minimum order |
| Supplier | Supplier name |
| Track record | Years on Alibaba |
| Trust | Verification and ratings |
| Delivery | Delivery estimate |
With resultType set to suppliers you read suppliers; with products you read listings together with their supplier.
Recipes
Set verifiedSupplier and tradeAssurance, keep maxMOQ at your first order size, and pick the top 20 by years on Alibaba.
Turn on verifiedManufacturer to only list verified factories, not trading companies.
Run the same keywords with shipToCountry set to your country and read the delivery estimate to rule out slow suppliers.
Set sortBy to sales_volume to find products that already sell the most units.
Give the shortlist to a model to write a short, specific quote request for each supplier, with your quantity and specs.
Prefer plain words? Connect the MCP server and tell Claude Code or Cursor: "Search Alibaba.com for 'led lights' suppliers, verified only, minimum order at most 500, deliver to DE. Give me the 20 with the most years on Alibaba. Set max_results to 20."
Pair it with other sourcing sources
Alibaba.com is export-facing. Domestic and retail prices show where the real margin sits:
Alibaba.com product listings or suppliers by keyword: price range, minimum order, supplier, years on Alibaba, verification, ratings, delivery estimate.
Wholesale products from 1688.com (Alibaba's China B2B market) by keyword: title, tiered price in CNY, minimum order, sales, repurchase rate, supplier and location.
AliExpress products for a search: price, orders, rating, store.
US customs import records from ImportYeti: importers and their overseas suppliers, shipment counts and dates, addresses, trademarks.
Crawl websites and extract emails, phone numbers and social profile links. One result = one website (up to 5 of its pages crawled, contacts merged).
1688-productssearches China's domestic wholesale market with tiered prices and minimum order.aliexpress-productsshows what similar products sell for in small quantities.importyeti-companieslooks up importing companies, to see who buys from a supplier.website-contactspulls public contact details from a supplier's own website.
Contact details are personal or business data in some jurisdictions; you are responsible for using them lawfully, including privacy and anti-spam rules. For more on outreach, see lead generation.
What you pay
You pay per result: starting a run holds its maximum cost, the per-call fee plus the per-result fee times max_results, and the run settles to what it returned. The rest of the hold goes back to your balance. A run that fails or times out pays only for the results it delivered, and a run refused at the start costs nothing.
Reading 100 results is billed as 100 results, whether they are products or suppliers. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: top up from $5, and one balance pays for tools and models. The card above shows today's price; pricing lists every tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I list suppliers instead of products?+
Yes. Set resultType to suppliers. With products you get listings with their supplier.
How do I limit it to verified suppliers?+
Use verifiedSupplier, verifiedManufacturer for actual factories, or tradeAssurance for suppliers offering order protection.
Can I get prices and delivery for my country?+
Yes. shipToCountry sets the buyer country for prices and delivery, with US as the default.
How many results can one run return?+
Up to 300 per run, set with maxResults and max_results.
Does it contact suppliers for me?+
No. It returns data. You or your own tools do the outreach.
Do I need a subscription?+
No. You add credit to a prepaid balance and each run draws it down. Failed runs pay only for the results they delivered, and nothing renews automatically.
Comparing with Chinese wholesale? See 1688 sourcing, e-commerce intelligence and the tool catalog.