Import.io alternatives in 2026
Rows from one request, at 5¢ a row.
Import.io bills successful queries: $199 a month for 50,000 on Standard up to $699 for 500,000 on Advanced, plus overage. You set up an extractor per site, and managed contracts are quoted. Vendr reports a $45,000 median.
SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Ask in plain words, and it searches the live web, reads every page that holds the facts and returns rows that meet every condition you wrote, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.
New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.
SpecStream and Import.io side by side
| SpecStream | Import.io | |
|---|---|---|
| What you send | The data you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet | Point-and-click and AI extractors you set up per site: up to 5 on Starter, unlimited from Standard |
| What you get back | Structured rows, one record per company, place, product or filing, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every value | The pages your extractors read, counted as queries. A category page with twelve pages of results is twelve queries |
| Setup before the first row | None. SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, and reading and pricing a request cost nothing | An extractor for each site, set up in Import.io |
| Data already held | Public databases read every morning at specstream.ai/data: every company that filed a Form D since 2023 with its filing history, nearly 2 million US nonprofits, every US bank failure since 1934, federal rules, open federal contracts and grants, and local businesses. Signals such as funding rounds, new executives and layoffs at specstream.ai/signals. Ask for your own cut of any of them | None. Each extractor reads the site it was set up for |
| Search and page APIs | Search API at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results. Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged | API access at Starter limits, rate limited on Standard, full API and webhooks on Professional and Advanced |
| The unit you pay for | A delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 by how much the row needs, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The same rate on every plan | A successful query. Starter is $9 a month billed annually for 5,000, Standard $199 for 50,000, Professional $399 for 200,000 and Advanced $699 for 500,000. Month to month they are $11, $249, $499 and $899 |
| When you need more | Add balance and keep the same rate. A top-up never expires, and the most a run can cost is quoted before it starts | Overage per 1,000 queries: $7 on Standard, $3.50 on Professional, $2.50 on Advanced. Starter stops at 5,000 |
| Managed and large volumes | The same row rates at any volume. Each run is quoted before it starts, and nothing runs until you approve it | Enterprise and managed contracts above 500,000 queries a month, by quote. Vendr reports a median of $45,000 a year, from $21,250 to $391,075 |
| The commitment | None. Your balance stays until you spend it | Annual plans are billed monthly on a twelve-month term and run to its end. Monthly plans cancel anytime |
| A larger team | Any number of teammates on one balance, at the same row rates, with no seats | Single account on every plan up to Professional. Multi-user access on Advanced |
| Reruns and change labels | Hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢ | Daily scheduling from Starter |
| Where the data goes | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks | CSV and JSON from Starter, S3 and SFTP from Professional |
| The free start | $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows | 30 days with 5,000 successful queries and no card |
Why Import.io buyers move to SpecStream
One request covers every site that holds the data
On Import.io each site needs an extractor, and every page it reads is a query: a category page with twelve pages of results is twelve. On SpecStream the request is the whole job: "every software company in the UK hiring a data engineer right now, with the job page, the salary range and the date posted". SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, then searches the live web, reads each page and joins what it finds into one record. When a site changes its layout, you have nothing to fix.
You pay for rows, and the pages behind them are free
Import.io bills each successful query, $3.98 per 1,000 inside Standard and $7 per 1,000 above it. SpecStream bills the rows that meet your request: 5¢ for a row with up to 5 facts, 15¢ for up to 15 facts and one set of related records, and $1 for a deep row with no limit. At 5¢ a row, 10,000 rows cost $500, and the pages read to find them cost nothing.
The price is set before the run
Every request gets a quote of the most it can cost, good for 30 minutes. Nothing runs until you approve it, the charge never goes past that amount, and whatever the run does not use goes back to your balance. A run that finds nothing costs nothing. An agent's key carries its own limits: total, per run and monthly.
The Search and Extract APIs are measured on public benchmarks
SpecStream's search API scores 97.9 F-score on SimpleQA Verified, on all 1,000 official questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on WideSearch, on all 200 official tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The scores and the method are on benchmarks. A search costs $5 per 1,000 and a page read $0.80 per 1,000, on the same balance as your rows.
Reruns label every row and land in your tools
Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢. New matches and changes land in Slack, email, a sheet, a CRM or a signed webhook with no code, or in your agent through the MCP server. Rows you already own are never charged again.
Other Import.io alternatives
SpecStream
The live web data engine for teams and agents. One request in plain words returns structured rows from the live web at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, under a maximum you approve before the run. The Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and the Extract API $0.80 per 1,000 pages.
Bright Data
Proxy networks, scraping APIs and datasets. Its Unlocker API starts from $1 per 1,000 requests, datasets from $250 per 100K records, and managed data acquisition from $1,500 a month. A SpecStream row joins the facts from many sites into one record that meets every condition you wrote.
Apify
A platform for cloud programs called Actors. Starter is $19 a month plus usage at $0.2 per compute unit, Scale $199 and Business $999, at lower unit rates. SpecStream has one rate card for every request, the same on every plan.
Browse AI
Robots that extract data from the sites you set up. Personal is $19 a month billed annually for 2 domains, and its fully managed extraction starts at $500 a month paid annually. A SpecStream request has no domain limit.
Octoparse
A desktop and cloud app where you build a task per site. It starts with a free plan of 10 tasks and 50,000 rows of export a month, then $69 a month on Standard and $249 on Professional, billed annually. A SpecStream request covers every site that holds the data.
How SpecStream scores
The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.
| SpecStream |  Parallel |  Exa |  Tavily |  Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 |
How to switch from Import.io
Write the data you want in plain words, in place of the extractors you set up and schedule today. Sign up and you get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows.
Or send the request from code. This call spends nothing: the 402 reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost.
curl -i https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"request": "Every software company in the UK hiring a data engineer right now, with the company, the job page, the salary range and the date posted", "count": 25}'Approve that maximum by card through Stripe's Link agent wallet, or in USDC on Base, Arbitrum or Polygon, and you pay for the rows found. On an account, your agent uses the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp and your team uses the workspace, from the same balance.
Frequently asked questions
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How much does Import.io cost?
What is the best Import.io alternative?
What does an Import.io managed contract cost?
What counts as a query on Import.io?
Does Import.io have a free trial?
Do I need to write code to use SpecStream?
Does SpecStream have an API?
https://api.specstream.ai/mcp. The scores are on benchmarks.Sources
SpecStream wrote this page. Import.io's plans and terms come from its own pages. Its managed contracts are quoted, so their figure is the one Vendr publishes. Each other tool's figure comes from its own pricing page.
- SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream signalsspecstream.ai/signals, read Nov 9, 2026
- Import.io pricingimport.io/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026
- Import.io terms and conditionsimport.io/legal/terms-conditions, read Nov 9, 2026
- Import.io on Vendrvendr.com/marketplace/import-io, read Nov 9, 2026
- Bright Data pricingbrightdata.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Apify pricingapify.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Browse AI pricingbrowse.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Octoparse pricingoctoparse.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026