# ScrapingBee review (2026): is it worth $19 a month? > Web scraping API with a Google search endpoint, priced by credits Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. ScrapingBee is a web scraping API that runs headless Chrome and rotates proxies for you, returning a page's HTML, Markdown, a screenshot or fields pulled out by CSS rules or a plain-language AI query. Beside the general API it sells ready-made endpoints for Google search, a fast search API, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT and Gemini. Every plan is a monthly allowance of API credits, and each request costs credits by the options it uses. - **Category:** SERP & SEO Data APIs - **Made by:** VostokInc - **Website:** https://www.scrapingbee.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Watch out: JavaScript rendering is on by default and makes a request cost 5 credits instead of 1. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, ScrapingBee is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $19 per month for 75,000 API credits. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** 1,000 free API credits on sign-up, no credit card required. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | Read from https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/ on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with ScrapingBee before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers who want proxies and headless browsers handled for them - Teams that need Google results and general page scraping on one key - Feeding web pages into AI agents as Markdown or structured JSON ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. ScrapingBee is a web scraping API that runs headless Chrome and rotates proxies, with a Google search endpoint on the same credits. A Google search costs 10 to 15 credits, credits don't roll over, and it's a scraper first: Google is the only search engine it lists. - **Value for money: B.** Hobby 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. - **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan: 1,000 API credits on sign-up with no card, around 70 to 100 Google searches. - **Features: C.** Headless 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. - **Ease of use: C.** Judged 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. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, 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. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from ScrapingBee'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 - ScrapingBee's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 16 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade, and level with 14. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 21 of 38) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $19 a month, against a middle price of $29.49 for the category: 3 of the 25 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs 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 ScrapingBee 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. It costs $228 a year. - You could not: Search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Make, n8n and Zapier 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 Make, n8n, Zapier, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code, Gemini CLI **Tags:** SERP API, Public API, AI features ## Alternatives - [ScraperAPI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scraperapi): Web scraping API with Google search endpoints, priced in API 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/scrapingbee-vs-scrapingdog) - [ZenRows](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zenrows): Web scraping API for protected sites, priced by monthly credits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-zenrows) - [Scrapfly](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapfly): Web scraping API with anti-bot unblocking, browsers and AI extraction. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scrapfly-vs-scrapingbee) - [SerpApi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpapi): Real-time search results API for Google and dozens of other engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-serpapi) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/ - https://www.scrapingbee.com/ - https://www.scrapingbee.com/features/google/ - https://www.scrapingbee.com/faq/ - https://www.scrapingbee.com/integrations/ - https://www.scrapingbee.com/legal-notices/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapingbee Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).