Workload cost report
What 500,000 pages a month costs
We priced 10 scraping APIs, unlockers and browser services at 500,000 pages a month, under two workloads: 20% JavaScript and 100% JavaScript, both with medium bot protection, US targets, 40 concurrent requests, monthly billing. The cheapest is ScrapingBee Web Scraping API at $249/month at 20% JavaScript, and Firecrawl Firecrawl API at $399/month at 100% JavaScript. The ranking changes because each provider meters the page differently.
Pricing checked Nov 5, 2026 · 0.1.0 · list prices, excluding promotions and taxes
Cheapest at 20% JavaScript
ScrapingBee Web Scraping API
$249
Business · $0.498 per 1K pages
Cheapest at 100% JavaScript
Firecrawl Firecrawl API
$399
Growth · $0.798 per 1K pages
Cheapest self-managed option
Apify Apify Platform
$739
Scale · $1.48 per 1K pages
You run the crawler and browsers
500,000 pages / month
Cheapest fitting plan per product
| Product | Billing | 20% JavaScript | 100% JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapingBee Web Scraping API Scraping API | Credits | $249 Business | $599 Business + |
| Zyte Zyte API Scraping API | Per successful request | $344 $200 monthly commitment | $960 $500 monthly commitment |
| Firecrawl Firecrawl API Scraping API | Credits | $399 Growth | $399 Growth |
| ScraperAPI ScraperAPI Scraping API | Credits | $475 Scaling | $975 Professional |
| Oxylabs Web API /Scrape Scraping API | Per successful request | $500 Basic | $650 Flexible |
| Bright Data Web Unlocker API Web Unlocker | Per successful request | $651 Scale $499 | $651 Scale $499 |
| Apify Apify Platform Scraping platform Self-managed | Compute units | $739 Scale | $1,774 Business |
| ZenRows Fetch (Universal Scraper API) Scraping API | Credits | $749 Scale S2 | $999 Scale S3 |
| Oxylabs Web Unblocker Web Unlocker | Per GB of traffic | $1,152 Flexible | $2,880 Flexible |
| Browserless Browserless Cloud (BaaS, BrowserQL, REST APIs) Browser infrastructure Self-managed | Browser time | $2,298 Scale | $2,298 Scale |
“Can't be priced” means no published plan fits this workload (usually a concurrency or allowance limit), not that the product is unavailable. The provider's checkout is authoritative.
500,000 pages FAQ
What is the cheapest scraping API for 500,000 pages a month?
ScrapingBee Web Scraping API is the cheapest at $249/month on Business for 20% JavaScript, medium bot protection, US targets, 40 concurrent requests, monthly billing. At 100% JavaScript, Firecrawl Firecrawl API is cheapest at $399/month. Prices checked Nov 5, 2026.
How much does 500,000 pages a month cost?
The cheapest options are $249/month at 20% JavaScript and $399/month at 100% JavaScript. The full table shows the cheapest fitting plan for every product; the most expensive options are several times higher because their billing units charge more per rendered page.
Does JavaScript rendering change the cheapest option?
Yes in general, but not always here: ScrapingBee Web Scraping API is cheapest at 20% JavaScript and Firecrawl Firecrawl API at 100% JavaScript. Providers that bill per successful request, credit, browser minute or compute unit pass rendering costs through differently.
What about heavily protected targets?
This page assumes medium bot protection. High anti-bot protection can force premium proxies or larger plans and change the ranking; price it in the calculator with the protection level you actually need.
Other volumes
Provider alternatives
How this page is built
Each product is priced through the same cost engine as the calculator, using the provider's published plans and the cheapest plan that fits. The two columns are separate estimates: the JavaScript share changes the number of requests that need a browser. Prices are list prices; the methodology explains the assumptions.