The cheapest scraping API at every volume, from 10,000 to 5 million pages a month
We priced seven managed scraping APIs at eight monthly volumes, from 10,000 to 5 million pages. For moderately protected pages the cheapest provider changes six times along the way, and at 5 million pages only one of the seven still sells a plan without a sales call.
Last updated Sep 26, 2026
Prices are the providers' published list prices, checked on Sep 26, 2026, run through the same cost engine as the calculator: the cheapest published plan that covers the month, including overage and top-ups, with the expected-case assumptions for retries and premium proxies. The 500,000-page comparison explains the method and shows the low and high cases. Each volume in the tables below opens that workload in the calculator.
We compare the seven managed APIs, where you send a URL and get the page back. Platforms where you run your own scraper (Apify, Browserless) are covered separately below.
Easy pages: static HTML, no bot protection
| Pages / month | Cheapest | Second | Third | Cheapest per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Zyte API$1.30 · Pay as you go | Bright Data Web Unlocker$15 · Pay as you go | ScrapingBee$19 · Hobby | $0.13 |
| 50,000 | Zyte API$6.50 · Pay as you go | ScrapingBee$19 · Hobby | ZenRows$25.50 · Build B1 | $0.13 |
| 100,000 | Zyte API$13 · Pay as you go | ZenRows$39 · Build B3 | ScraperAPI$49 · Hobby | $0.13 |
| 250,000 | Zyte API$32.50 · Pay as you go | ScrapingBee$49 · Freelance | ZenRows$69 · Launch L1 | $0.13 |
| 500,000 | Zyte API$65 · Pay as you go | ScrapingBee$99 · Startup | ZenRows$99 · Launch L2 | $0.13 |
| 1,000,000 | ScrapingBee$99 · Startup | Zyte API$100 · $100 monthly commitment | ScraperAPI$149 · Startup | $0.10 |
| 2,000,000 | Zyte API$200 · $100 monthly commitment | ScrapingBee$249 · Business | ZenRows$279 · Growth G2 | $0.10 |
| 5,000,000 | Zyte API$400 · $200 monthly commitment | ScraperAPI$475 · Scaling | ZenRows$549 · Scale S1 | $0.08 |
- Zyte is cheapest at almost every volume. Easy sites sit in its lowest difficulty tier, $0.13 per 1,000 pages on pay-as-you-go, and its commitment plans cut that to $0.08 at 5 million pages.
- The exception is 1 million pages, where ScrapingBee's $99 Startup plan has exactly 1 million credits and beats Zyte's $100 minimum commitment by a dollar. Plans are steps, so the ranking at one volume says little about the next.
- At 2 million pages Oxylabs Web Scraper API drops out: its Business plan plus the largest top-up doesn't buy that many results, and the next plan is priced on request.
Typical pages: 20% JavaScript, medium protection
One page in five needs a browser and the site has some bot protection, so a share of requests needs premium proxies. No country targeting here; requiring a specific country changes the result for some providers, as the 500,000-page comparison shows.
| Pages / month | Cheapest | Second | Third | Cheapest per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Zyte API$11.56 · Pay as you go | Bright Data Web Unlocker$15 · Pay as you go | ScrapingBee$19 · Hobby | $1.16 |
| 50,000 | Zyte API$57.80 · Pay as you go | Oxylabs Web Scraper API$59.50 · Micro | Bright Data Web Unlocker$75 · Pay as you go | $1.16 |
| 100,000 | ScrapingBee$99 · Startup | Zyte API$100 · $100 monthly commitment | Oxylabs Web Scraper API$114 · Starter | $0.99 |
| 250,000 | Zyte API$200 · $200 monthly commitment | ScrapingBee$249 · Business | ZenRows$251 · Growth G1 | $0.80 |
| 500,000 | ScrapingBee$249 · Business | Zyte API$344 · $200 monthly commitment | ZenRows$399 · Growth G3 | $0.50 |
| 1,000,000 | Zyte API$552 · $500 monthly commitment | ScrapingBee$599 · Business + | ZenRows$679 · Scale S1 | $0.55 |
| 2,000,000 | ZenRows$999 · Scale S3 | Zyte API$1,104 · $500 monthly commitment | ScraperAPI$1,975 · Advanced | $0.50 |
| 5,000,000 | Bright Data Web Unlocker$4,999 · Scale $1,999 | No other self-serve plan | No other self-serve plan | $1.00 |
- The leader goes Zyte, Zyte, ScrapingBee, Zyte, ScrapingBee, Zyte, ZenRows, Bright Data. Each change is a plan boundary: at 100,000 pages ScrapingBee's $99 plan still fits while Zyte bills its $100 minimum; at 250,000 ScrapingBee needs its $249 plan and Zyte's $200 commitment covers the month.
- The cheapest price per 1,000 pages falls from $1.16 at 10,000 pages to $0.50 at 2 million, mostly from commitment discounts and larger credit bundles.
- Self-serve plans run out quickly. At 2 million pages ScrapingBee and Oxylabs Web Scraper API have no plan large enough. At 5 million, only Bright Data does: its Scale plan at $1,999 plus overage at $1.00 per 1,000 comes to $4,999. Every other provider would be a negotiated contract.
Small volumes: minimums matter more than rates
Below about 50,000 pages, the monthly minimum decides more than the per-page rate. Pay-as-you-go products bill only what you use: 10,000 easy pages cost $1.30 on Zyte and $15 on Bright Data, while the cheapest ScrapingBee plan is $19 whether you use it or not. Free allowances matter too, and our estimates leave them out, except Apify's free plan:
- Bright Data: 5,000 requests a month, shared with its SERP API and Web Scraper API.
- ZenRows: a free plan with 5,000 credits a month.
- ScraperAPI: 5,000 credits for a 7-day trial, then 1,000 credits a month on its free plan.
- Apify: $5 of platform usage a month on the free plan.
- Browserless: 1,000 units a month on its free plan.
- One-off trials: Zyte gives $5 of credit for 30 days, ScrapingBee 1,000 credits, Oxylabs up to 2,000 results on Web Scraper API and 1 GB on Web Unblocker.
Each product page lists its free tier with the source it comes from. For a hobby project, the free monthly allowances can cover a few thousand pages without a card.
Running your own scraper instead
On Apify you run your own crawler and pay for compute (and proxies when you need them). For easy pages that is competitive at small volumes: 10,000 static pages fit in its free plan, and 500,000 cost about $82. It scales worse on harder pages, because every rendered page uses compute whether or not it succeeds: 1 million typical pages come to about $1,341, against $552 for the cheapest managed API. The trade is control: you write and maintain the scraper, and unblocking is your problem.
Find your own break-even
These tables use two fixed workloads and our default assumptions. Your page size, rendering share, success rate and country requirement move the plan boundaries. Put your numbers into the calculator to see which plan each provider would put you on, or ask an agent to do it through the MCP server.