ScraperAPI vs ZenRows (2026): which should you pick?

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

Pick ZenRows if

• Fits if you scrape protected sites and want Google results from the same credits
• Works for AI agents that need web pages as Markdown or JSON

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a fixed SERP format, as the result groups vary with what Google or Bing shows
• Watch out: a page costs 1 credit plain, 5 rendered, 10 on premium proxies and 25 with both
• Watch out: residential bandwidth draws 25,000 credits per GB and the Browser 5 credits a minute
• Tight if you're on Free, which stops at 5,000 credits with no top-ups until the next month
• Pricey if your volume grows, as each plan's price steps up with its credit allowance

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.

ZenRows

• A standard page costs 1 credit, 5 with JavaScript rendering, 10 with premium proxies and 25 with both; residential bandwidth is 25,000 credits per GB.
• Search results come from fetching a Google or Bing results address and parsing the page, so the groups returned vary with what the page shows.
• The free plan stops at 5,000 credits until the next month; paid plans can buy top-ups up to ten times a billing period.
• Each paid plan's price rises with its credit allowance, in three steps (five for Scale).

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.

ZenRows

Fetch

Returns any page as HTML, Markdown, JSON or a screenshot, getting past anti-bot walls, CAPTCHAs and fingerprint checks on protected sites.

Extract

Detects the data on a page and returns it as JSON with no selectors or schema to write. It currently costs nothing on top of the Fetch it uses.

Search results as JSON

Send a Google or Bing results address with a country and get organic results, related questions, videos and other groups back with their positions.

Crawl and Batch

Crawl collects every page behind a starting address, each billed as a Fetch; Batch runs large queued jobs with retries, webhooks and status tracking.

Browser

Drives a real browser for pages that need clicks, forms, logins or a session kept across a long job, billed at 5 credits a minute plus bandwidth.

MCP server, CLI and SDKs

An MCP server for Claude, Cursor and Codex, a command-line tool, and Python, Node and Go SDKs, all published as open source under MIT.

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.

ZenRows

• Free$0

  5,000 credits a month, refreshed monthly with no rollover or top-ups, 5 concurrent requests and community support.

• Build$16

  per month for 45,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)

  20 concurrent requests, email support and top-ups. Rises to $33 a month for 120,000 credits ($39 billed monthly).

• Launch$58

  per month for 250,000 credits, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)

  50 concurrent requests and chat support. Rises to $108 a month for 700,000 credits ($129 billed monthly).

• Growth$166

  per month for 1.2M credits, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)

  100 concurrent requests, priority support and the residential network at scale. Rises to $333 a month for 3M credits ($399 monthly).

• Scale$458

  per month for 5M credits, billed annually ($549 billed monthly)

  200 to 400 concurrent requests and committed capacity options. Rises to $2,499 a month for 45M credits ($2,999 monthly).

• EnterpriseCustom

  Committed volume, 500 to 1,000+ concurrent requests, an SLA, a DPA and a dedicated account manager. Through sales.

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.

ZenRows

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  Zenrows says paying yearly gives two months free (pay for 10, get 12), shown as a 17% saving, with the year's credits up front.