Crawlbase vs ScraperAPI (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, Crawlbase grades higher than ScraperAPI: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
Crawlbase grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Crawlbase
Crawling API with built-in scrapers, Google SERP to JSON included
ScraperAPI
Web scraping API with Google search endpoints, priced in API credits
Which one is for you
Pick Crawlbase if
- Fits if your workload is uneven and suits pay as you go with a hard spending cap
- Works for developers who want Google, Bing and other sites as JSON from one API
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: heavily defended sites cost 1.5 to 20 times a standard request, applied automatically
- Watch out: JavaScript rendering doubles any request, screenshots cost 2 credits and stored pages 0.5 credits a month
- Pricey if you want a subscription, which starts at $99 a month for 200,000 credits
- Tight if your usage swings, since a subscription's credits reset monthly and use past them is billed as you go unless you turn it off
Pick ScraperAPI if
- Fits if you scrape Google alongside Amazon, Walmart or eBay on one key
- Works for large batches that need retries and scheduling, through the async API or DataPipeline
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: a Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, so Hobby's 100,000 credits is about 4,000 searches
- Skip it if you need rankings outside the US and EU below Business at $269.10 a month
- Pricey if you need rendering, premium proxies or screenshots, which add 10 credits each
- Tight if you run out mid-month, as credits don't roll over and pay-as-you-go starts at Scaling, $427.50
- Tight if you're on Free, with 1,000 credits a month, about 40 Google searches
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACrawlbaseFair | 2.2GPAScraperAPIFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPay as you go has no monthly fee and is billed per 1,000 requests, from $3.00 for the first 1,000 down to $0.02 at high volume. Subscriptions start at $99 a month for 200,000 credits, about $0.50 per 1,000, well above this category's $29.99 middle as a monthly bill. | CHobby is $44.10 a month on yearly billing ($49 monthly), at the dear end of this category's usual range. A Google or Bing request is 25 credits, so 100,000 credits is about 4,000 searches, around $11 per 1,000. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan: 1,000 credits on sign-up with no card, rising to 5,000 after some setup steps. They're a one-off, not a monthly allowance. | CA 7-day trial of 5,000 credits with no card, then a free plan of 1,000 credits a month. At 25 credits a search, that's 40 Google searches. |
| Features | BGoogle results as JSON with organic results, ads, People Also Ask, the local pack and related searches, 100+ scrapers including Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yandex, JavaScript rendering, screenshots and an asynchronous crawler. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. | CGoogle Search, Shopping, Maps, News and Jobs endpoints, Bing, rendering, async jobs and a no-code DataPipeline. The gap is in the listing: Hobby and Startup geotarget only the US and EU, and country targeting starts at Business, $269.10. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one API with built-in scrapers, and hard spending caps per account or workspace. No rating on record, and a request's cost changes with how defended the site is. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: SDKs, a CLI and ready Google endpoints that need no rendering turned on. No rating on record, and credit costs stack up by site and option. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API and a Web MCP server, plus Claude, Cursor, LangChain, Zapier and n8n. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, plus LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n and Zapier. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | Google results and other sites as JSON, pay as you go | Google results alongside shop and site scraping |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Crawlbase and ScraperAPI. How we grade
Price against what you get
Crawlbase starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ScraperAPI starts at $44.10 a month and scores 2.3.
Crawlbase scores higher, and starts $54.90 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Crawlbase for less, and 8 score higher than ScraperAPI for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
At a glance
| Crawlbase | ScraperAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $99 per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly | $44.10 per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Free plan after the trial: 1,000 API credits a month and 5 concurrent threads, no credit card needed. A Google or Bing request costs 25 credits. |
| Free trial | 1,000 free credits on sign-up, up to 5,000 after setup steps, no card needed | 7-day free trial with 5,000 API credits, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Crawlbase LLC | ScraperAPI |
| Price read from | crawlbase.com | scraperapi.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Crawlbase
- Without a subscription, pay as you go has no monthly fee and is billed in arrears per 1,000 requests, falling from $3.00 for the first 1,000 to $0.02 at high volume.
- Heavily defended sites cost 1.5 to 20 times a standard request, applied automatically, and JavaScript rendering doubles any request.
- A subscription's credits reset each month; use past them is billed as pay as you go unless you turn that off.
- Screenshots cost 2 credits each and stored pages 0.5 credits a month.
ScraperAPI
- A Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, so Hobby's 100,000 credits cover about 4,000 Google searches.
- JavaScript rendering, premium proxies and screenshots each add 10 credits, and bypassing bot protection adds 10 more.
- Credits reset each billing cycle with no rollover; pay-as-you-go past the allowance starts at the Scaling plan.
- Hobby and Startup can only geotarget the US and EU; country-level targeting starts at Business.
Key features
Crawlbase
- Crawling API
- Fetches any page with rotating residential proxies, CAPTCHA and block handling included, optional JavaScript rendering in a real browser, and full-page screenshots.
- Google SERP Scraper
- Turns a Google search address into JSON with organic results, ads, People Also Ask, the local pack and related searches, at the same price as raw HTML.
- Built-in scrapers
- More than 100 scrapers return structured JSON from sites such as Amazon, Walmart, LinkedIn, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex and Tripadvisor.
- Enterprise Crawler
- Crawls asynchronously at scale and delivers the results to storage, for jobs too large to run request by request.
- Smart AI Proxy and Cloud Storage
- A single proxy endpoint that rotates residential IPs, and storage that keeps crawled pages for 0.5 credits a page a month.
- Spend caps and MCP server
- Set a hard spending cap on the account or a workspace, and give AI agents live web data through the Web MCP server.
ScraperAPI
- Google structured data endpoints
- Ready-made endpoints return Google Search, Shopping, Maps, News and Jobs results as JSON, without needing JavaScript rendering turned on.
- Proxy rotation and anti-bot handling
- Rotating proxy pools, premium residential and mobile IPs, CAPTCHA handling and automatic retries, with geotargeting by country on Business and up.
- JavaScript rendering and screenshots
- Load dynamic pages in a headless browser, follow a rendering instruction set, and capture screenshots of the result.
- Asynchronous API and DataPipeline
- Submit up to 50,000 jobs that retry until they succeed, or schedule large scraping jobs in DataPipeline without writing code.
- AI Parser and LLM-ready output
- Train a custom parser to get clean JSON from any source, or ask for pages as text or Markdown for language model pipelines.
- MCP server and integrations
- An MCP server, a CLI and SDKs, with LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n and Zapier integrations.
Plans
Crawlbase
Starter$99
per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.50 per 1,000 credits, or $1,089 a year with yearly billing. Use past the block continues as pay as you go.
Scale 500K$199
per month for 500,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.40 per 1,000 credits, or $2,189 a year with yearly billing.
Scale 1M$349
per month for 1,000,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.35 per 1,000 credits, or $3,839 a year with yearly billing.
Growth$599
per month for 2,000,000 credits, billed monthly
About $0.30 per 1,000 credits, or $6,589 a year with yearly billing.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom volume above 2 million credits a month, with SLAs and invoicing. Through sales.
ScraperAPI
Free$0
1,000 API credits a month and 5 concurrent threads, to keep scraping after the trial ends.
Hobby$44.10
per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
20 concurrent threads, geotargeting in the US and EU only, and 30 days of analytics history.
Startup$134.10
per month for 1M API credits, billed annually ($149 billed monthly)
50 concurrent threads, with US and EU geotargeting only.
Business$269.10
per month for 3M API credits, billed annually ($299 billed monthly)
100 concurrent threads, country-level geotargeting worldwide and unlimited analytics history.
Scaling$427.50
per month for 5M API credits, billed annually ($475 billed monthly)
200 concurrent threads, and the first plan with pay-as-you-go credits past the monthly allowance.
Professional$877.50
per month for 10.5M API credits, billed annually ($975 billed monthly)
300 threads and priority support. Advanced is $1,777.50 a month billed annually for 21.5M credits; Enterprise is custom above 22M.
Ways to pay less
Crawlbase
- Annual discount
One month free with yearly billing
Crawlbase's pricing page says yearly billing gives one month free, about 8% off: Starter is $1,089 a year instead of $99 a month.
ScraperAPI
- Annual discount
10% off with yearly billing
ScraperAPI's pricing page lists 10% off every self-serve plan when billed yearly: Hobby is $44.10 a month instead of $49.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Crawlbase or ScraperAPI?
As of Oct 23, 2026, ScraperAPI is cheaper to start with: $44.10 a month, against $99 a month for Crawlbase. Crawlbase starts at $99 per month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly, and ScraperAPI starts at $44.10 per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Crawlbase or ScraperAPI?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only ScraperAPI has a free plan. Crawlbase does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.