ScrapingBee vs Tavily (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ScrapingBee and Tavily share a 2.4 GPA, and only Tavily has a free plan.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
ScrapingBee grades higher on value for money. Tavily grades higher on features. They get the same grade on 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.
ScrapingBee
Web scraping API with a Google search endpoint, priced by credits
Tavily
Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick ScrapingBee if
- Fits if you need to scrape the pages behind the results as well as Google itself
- Works for feeding web pages to AI agents as Markdown or JSON
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: JavaScript rendering is on by default and makes a request cost 5 credits instead of 1
- Watch out: a Google search costs 10 to 15 credits, so Hobby's 75,000 credits is 5,000 to 7,500 searches
- Skip it if you need Bing or other engines, as Google is the only search engine it lists
- Tight if your usage swings, since credits last a month and don't roll over
- Pricey if you need priority support or team management, which start at $249 a month
Pick Tavily if
- Fits if an agent needs web search results it can read
- Works for people who prefer pay as you go to a monthly bill
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 1,000 credits, and requests stop until the month resets
- Watch out: an advanced search takes 2 credits, so 4,000 credits may mean 2,000 searches
- Pricey if you scale: 100,000 credits is $500 a month on the slider
- Watch out: it is a developer API only, with no desktop or mobile app
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAScrapingBeeFair | 2.4GPATavilyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BHobby is $19 a month for 75,000 credits, inside this category's cheaper quarter. A Google search costs 10 to 15 credits, so that's 5,000 to 7,500 searches, about $2.50 to $3.80 per 1,000. | C$30 a month for 4,000 credits, or $0.008 a credit pay as you go, in the middle of this category ($19 to $44.10). |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan: 1,000 API credits on sign-up with no card, around 70 to 100 Google searches. | C1,000 API credits a month with no card, resetting monthly. Requests stop when they run out. |
| Features | CHeadless Chrome, rotating proxies in more than 200 countries, CSS and AI extraction, and endpoints for Amazon, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini. For search data, though, Google is the only engine it lists. | BSearch, extract, crawl, map and a research endpoint, with request safeguards. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: Python and Node.js SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server. No rating on record, and what a request costs changes with its options, with JavaScript rendering on by default. | CNo store rating on record. It is an API key and code, or an agent connector. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, a CLI, SDKs and an MCP server, plus Make, n8n, Zapier and coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb only, but it lists LangChain, Claude and Databricks. |
| Best for | scraping pages and Google results on one key | web search and extraction for AI agents |
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: ScrapingBee and Tavily. How we grade
Price against what you get
ScrapingBee starts at $19 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Tavily starts at $30 a month and scores 2.7.
Tavily scores higher, and starts $11 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, 2 score higher than ScrapingBee for less, and none scores higher than Tavily 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
- Tavily also covers AI search, AI agents and research.
At a glance
| ScrapingBee | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per month for 75,000 API credits | $30 per month for 4,000 API credits |
| Free plan | None | Researcher plan: 1,000 API credits a month, no credit card required. Credits reset on the first of each month. |
| Free trial | 1,000 free API credits on sign-up, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | VostokInc | Tavily |
| Price read from | scrapingbee.com | tavily.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
ScrapingBee
- A request costs 1 credit at its simplest, 5 with JavaScript rendering (on by default), and 10 or 25 with premium proxies.
- A Google search costs 10 credits with Light Request enabled and 15 otherwise.
- Credits last one month and do not roll over; only successful requests are charged.
- Priority support, an account manager and team management start at the $249 Business plan.
Tavily
- Cost depends on the call: advanced search takes 2 credits, so the entry plan's 4,000 credits may mean only 2,000 advanced searches.
- On the free plan, requests stop when the month's credits run out until they reset or you upgrade.
- It is a developer API with no desktop or mobile apps; use is through the dashboard, SDKs and HTTP calls.
- It is a general web search API, not an SEO tool: it has no rank tracking or keyword metrics.
Key features
ScrapingBee
- Headless browser rendering
- Pages load in headless Chrome, with waits for selectors, set viewports and headers, and scripted clicks, scrolls and form fills before the scrape.
- Proxy rotation and geotargeting
- Proxies rotate on every request, with premium and stealth proxies for harder sites and routing through more than 200 countries and territories.
- Google Search API
- A dedicated endpoint returns Google results as JSON, with organic results, ads, local results, related questions and related searches.
- AI and rule-based extraction
- Pull fields out with CSS or XPath rules, describe them in plain language with an AI query, or get any page back as clean Markdown.
- Ready-made scraper APIs
- Separate endpoints for Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini answers, a sub-second search API and an employee search API.
- CLI, MCP server and SDKs
- A command-line tool, an MCP server and Python and Node.js SDKs connect the API to coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.
Tavily
- Search
- Returns web results for a query. A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search costs 2 credits.
- Extract
- Pulls page content from given URLs. Every 5 successful basic extractions cost 1 credit, and failed extractions are not charged.
- Crawl and map
- Crawl extracts content across a whole site, and map lists the URLs a site contains without extracting them.
- Research endpoint
- An agent endpoint for in-depth web research, listed beside search and extract in the product menu.
- Request safeguards
- The homepage says requests pass through layers that block PII leakage, prompt injection and malicious sources.
- Agent connectors
- Docs cover an MCP server, a command-line tool and a plugin for Claude Code, plus Python and JavaScript SDKs.
Plans
ScrapingBee
Hobby$19
per month for 75,000 API credits
25 concurrent requests, with JavaScript rendering, premium proxies, geotargeting, screenshots and the dedicated scraper APIs included.
Freelance$49
per month for 250,000 API credits
50 concurrent requests and the same features as Hobby.
Startup$99
per month for 1,000,000 API credits
100 concurrent requests and the same features as Hobby.
Business$249
per month for 3,000,000 API credits
200 concurrent requests, and adds priority email support, a dedicated account manager and team management.
Business +$599
per month for 8,000,000 API credits
400 concurrent requests with everything in Business.
Enterprise 14$999
per month for 14,000,000 API credits
500 concurrent requests. Larger Enterprise tiers run up to $5,799 a month for 120 million credits and 900 concurrent requests.
Tavily
Researcher$0
1,000 API credits a month, email support, no card needed. Requests stop when credits run out.
Pay As You Go$0.008
per credit, billed as used
No monthly fee; pay per credit used and cancel anytime. Docs say it also covers usage past a plan's credit limit.
Project$30
per month for 4,000 API credits
Higher rate limits. The slider also offers 15,000 credits for $100, 38,000 for $220 and 100,000 for $500.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and rate limits, enterprise support with SLAs, and enterprise security and privacy.
Ways to pay less
ScrapingBee
No public discounts listed.
Tavily
- Startups
100k free API credits for startups
The pricing page says startups in the program get 100,000 free API credits plus hands-on support from the team.
- Education
Free for students
The pricing page says Tavily offers its service at no cost to students.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ScrapingBee or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ScrapingBee is cheaper to start with: $19 a month, against $30 a month for Tavily. ScrapingBee starts at $19 per month for 75,000 API credits, and Tavily starts at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, ScrapingBee or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Tavily has a free plan. ScrapingBee 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.