# ScraperAPI review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Web scraping API with Google search endpoints, priced in API credits

Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA.

ScraperAPI fetches web pages through rotating proxies, renders JavaScript and handles CAPTCHAs, returning HTML, text, Markdown or parsed JSON. Its structured data endpoints cover Google Search, Shopping, Maps, News and Jobs alongside Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Redfin, and an asynchronous API and a no-code DataPipeline handle large batches. Plans are monthly allowances of API credits, and each request costs credits by the site and options used.

- **Category:** SERP & SEO Data APIs
- **Made by:** ScraperAPI
- **Website:** https://www.scraperapi.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Watch out: a Google or Bing request costs 25 credits, so Hobby's 100,000 credits is about 4,000 searches.
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026

## Pricing

As of Oct 23, 2026, ScraperAPI has a free plan, and paid plans start at $44.10 per month for 100K API credits, billed annually ($49 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** 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:** 7-day free trial with 5,000 API credits, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |

Read from https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/ on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with ScraperAPI before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **10% off with yearly billing** (Annual discount): ScraperAPI's pricing page lists 10% off every self-serve plan when billed yearly: Hobby is $44.10 a month instead of $49. Source: https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- Developers scraping Google alongside e-commerce and other sites on one key
- SEO teams building in-house rank and SERP tools on parsed results
- Large batch jobs that need retries and scheduling

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. ScraperAPI is a web scraping API with ready-made Google endpoints, rotating proxies and a no-code pipeline for big batches. A Google request costs 25 credits, so the $49 plan covers about 4,000 searches, and checking rankings outside the US and EU needs the $299 Business plan.

- **Value for money: C.** Hobby 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: C.** A 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: C.** Google 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: C.** Judged 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: B.** Web, 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from ScraperAPI's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among SERP and SEO data APIs

- ScraperAPI's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 7 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade, and level with 8.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 9 of 38) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $44.10 a month, against a middle price of $29.49 for the category: 18 of the 25 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 8 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo-data-apis

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace ScraperAPI you would be making search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 23 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs grade higher. It costs $529.20 a year.

- You could not: Search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, LangChain, LlamaIndex and n8n among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n, Zapier, MCP

**Tags:** SERP API, Public API, AI features

## Alternatives

- [ScrapingBee](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapingbee): Web scraping API with a Google search endpoint, priced by credits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingbee)
- [Scrapingdog](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapingdog): Web scraping and Google SERP APIs on one shared credit plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingdog)
- [ZenRows](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zenrows): Web scraping API for protected sites, priced by monthly credits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zenrows)
- [Scrapfly](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapfly): Web scraping API with anti-bot unblocking, browsers and AI extraction. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapfly)
- [SerpApi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpapi): Real-time search results API for Google and dozens of other engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-serpapi)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026:

- https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/
- https://scraperapi.com/pricing.md
- https://www.scraperapi.com/solutions/serp-api/
- https://www.scraperapi.com/solutions/structured-data/
- https://www.scraperapi.com/solutions/ai-data/
- https://docs.scraperapi.com/integrations/llm-integrations
- https://docs.scraperapi.com/integrations/automation-and-workflow-integrations

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/scraperapi
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).