ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee: What One Credit Actually Buys
Last fact-checked: November 8, 2026
ScraperAPI and ScrapingBee both sell a scraping API that you pay for in "credits". The credit is the unit on the price list, but the two vendors charge different numbers of credits for the same kind of request, so comparing plan sizes alone is misleading. This page lines up the published credit costs, the plan prices and the free trials, then does the arithmetic for a few request types.
Note on experience: we have not measured success rates, speed or result quality for either service. This is a pricing comparison only. Prices and credit costs were read on November 8, 2026 and can change.
1. Credits per request, as documented
† marks a referral link (see the disclosure above). "Not stated" means the page we read did not say.
| Request type | ScraperAPI † | ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|
| Plain request, no JavaScript rendering | 1 credit | Pricing page: requests "start at 1 credit"; the API docs section we read did not give a figure for render_js=false |
| JavaScript rendering | Listed as +10 extra per request (no combined total printed on the page) | 5 credits; rendering is on by default (render_js defaults to true) |
| Premium proxy, no rendering | +10 extra (listed as extra cost) | 10 credits |
| Premium proxy + rendering | 25 credits | 25 credits |
| Hardest-site option | ultra_premium: 30 credits, or 75 with rendering; paid plans only | stealth_proxy: 75 credits per successful call |
| Marketplace sites (Amazon, Walmart, eBay) | 5 credits per request | Not stated in the sections we read |
| Search engines (Google, Bing) | 25 credits per request | Not stated in the sections we read |
| Social media (LinkedIn) | 30 credits per request | Not stated in the sections we read |
| Bot-protected sites (Cloudflare, Datadome, PerimeterX, Akamai) | +10 credits per scrape when bypassed | Not stated in the sections we read |
| Failed requests | Charged for successful requests (status 200 and 404) and requests cancelled before 70 seconds; other failures not stated as charged | Not stated in general; in Auto-Mode, a request that fails every configuration costs 0 credits |
Two things stand out. First, the default differs: a ScrapingBee request is a 5-credit request unless you turn rendering off, while a ScraperAPI request is 1 credit unless you turn rendering on. Second, ScraperAPI documents a domain-based cost table (marketplaces, search engines, social media) and a bot-protection surcharge; for ScrapingBee we did not find equivalent entries in the parts of the docs we read, so do not assume they are the same.
2. Plans and prices
| Entry-level plans | Price per month | Credits | Concurrency |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScraperAPI Hobby | $49 ($44.10 billed yearly) | 100,000 | 20 threads |
| ScraperAPI Startup | $149 ($134.10 billed yearly) | 1,000,000 | 50 threads |
| ScraperAPI Business | $299 ($269.10 billed yearly) | 3,000,000 | 100 threads |
| ScrapingBee Hobby | $19 | 75,000 | 25 concurrent |
| ScrapingBee Freelance | $49 | 250,000 | 50 concurrent |
| ScrapingBee Startup | $99 | 1,000,000 | 100 concurrent |
| ScrapingBee Business | $249 | 3,000,000 | 200 concurrent |
Notes from the pages: ScrapingBee prices exclude VAT, and its credits are valid for one month and do not roll over. ScraperAPI's page lists larger plans (up to Advanced at $1,975 per month) and says pay-as-you-go is available from the Scaling plan; the page we read did not state a credit-rollover rule or whether prices include tax. The ScraperAPI page also says geotargeting on the two smallest plans is limited to the US and EU.
3. Price per 1,000 requests, from the published numbers
The figures below are our arithmetic, not vendor claims. We take the plan price, divide by the credit allowance, then multiply by the credit cost of the request type. They compare the roughly $49 plans (ScraperAPI Hobby, ScrapingBee Freelance) and ignore any tax, overage or discount.
| Request type | ScraperAPI Hobby ($49 / 100,000 credits) | ScrapingBee Freelance ($49 / 250,000 credits) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of one credit | $0.00049 | $0.000196 |
| ScraperAPI-style plain request (1 credit) | $0.49 per 1,000 | Not comparable: ScrapingBee's default is 5 credits |
| ScrapingBee default request (5 credits) | Not the same product; ScraperAPI lists rendering as an extra cost | $0.98 per 1,000 (50,000 requests per month) |
| Premium proxy, no rendering (10 credits) | $4.90 per 1,000 (if the +10 is read as the full cost; see the note below) | $1.96 per 1,000 (25,000 requests per month) |
| Premium proxy + rendering (25 credits) | $12.25 per 1,000 (4,000 requests per month) | $4.90 per 1,000 (10,000 requests per month) |
Note: ScraperAPI's page lists premium as "+10 extra" on top of the 1-credit base, so a premium request without rendering could be 10 or 11 credits. We show 10 and mark the reading; the 25-credit combination is stated explicitly. The same ambiguity applies to rendering alone, which is why we do not put a price on it.
On the one row where both vendors print the same total (premium proxy with rendering, 25 credits), the arithmetic above gives ScrapingBee Freelance a lower price per request at the roughly $49 tier. That is a pricing statement only. It says nothing about which service gets through a given site more reliably, and the cheaper credit may not stay cheaper if your target needs a more expensive option such as stealth or ultra-premium.
4. Free trials
- ScraperAPI †: the pricing page advertises a 7-day trial with 5,000 API credits and no credit card. Its FAQ separately mentions a free plan of 1,000 credits with at most 5 concurrent connections; the page does not explain how the two relate.
- ScrapingBee: 1,000 free API credits, no credit card required.
At the default costs above, 1,000 ScrapingBee credits is 200 default requests (5 credits each), while 1,000 ScraperAPI credits is 1,000 plain requests. For a trial, count requests, not credits.
5. A neutral way to choose
- Your targets are mostly static pages: compare the plain-request rows. ScraperAPI's 1-credit plain request is the cheapest unit in this article, but ScrapingBee lets you turn rendering off too (its plain cost is not printed in the docs we read).
- Your targets need JavaScript rendering or premium proxies: use the 25-credit row, where both vendors print the same total, and compare plan sizes from there.
- You scrape marketplaces or search engines: ScraperAPI documents fixed credit costs for them (5 and 25). Check ScrapingBee's dedicated endpoints before you compare.
- You want to test before paying: both have a no-card trial. Run your own target URLs and read the credit cost from the response; ScraperAPI documents an
sa-credit-costresponse header and a cost-check endpoint.
If you are choosing between platforms rather than scraping APIs, see Free Tiers of Web-Data Tools Compared, Web-Data MCP Servers Compared and Make vs Apify.
6. What we could not confirm
- ScrapingBee's credit cost for
render_js=false, whether failed requests are billed, and any Google-search endpoint cost: not found in the sections of the docs we read. - Whether ScraperAPI's render-only and premium-only costs are the extra amount alone or the extra amount plus the 1-credit base.
- ScraperAPI credit rollover and tax treatment, and how its 5,000-credit trial relates to the 1,000-credit free plan.
- Success rates, speed, and data quality of either service. We have not measured them.
- These pages were read through a web-fetch tool that summarises pages, not a manual read of the rendered pages; check the live pricing pages before you buy.