> SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. This is the Markdown copy of https://specstream.ai/alternatives/scraperapi. Every page, with what SpecStream does and costs: https://specstream.ai/llms.txt # Best ScraperAPI alternatives in 2026 | SpecStream Compared on Nov 9, 2026. # ScraperAPI alternatives in 2026 **Finished rows at 5¢ to $1, search at $5 per 1,000.** ScraperAPI sells API credits by the month, from $49 for 100,000 on Hobby to $1,975 for 21,500,000 on Advanced. A standard page costs 1 credit, a Google or Bing request 25 and LinkedIn 30, and the balance resets when the plan renews. Each request returns one page, and your code turns the pages into records. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents, and the best ScraperAPI alternative when the job is a dataset. You ask for the data in plain words. SpecStream searches the live web, reads the pages and returns structured rows that meet every condition you wrote, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. The Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and the Extract API $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and you see the most a run can cost before it starts. [Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-scraperapi&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=scraperapi&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ## SpecStream and ScraperAPI side by side | | SpecStream | ScraperAPI | | --- | --- | --- | | What you send | The data you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet | A URL with your API key. The docs list six ways to send it: the API endpoint, the Async API, the proxy port, Structured Data Endpoints, DataPipeline and the SDKs | | What you get back | Structured rows, one record per company, place or filing, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every value | The HTML of that page. `output_format` turns it into Markdown or text, and `autoparse=true` returns JSON or CSV for Amazon, eBay, Google, Redfin and Walmart | | Search | The Search API answers a question from the live web in a few seconds: the answer, the page it was read from and the rows behind it. $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results | A Google or Bing request costs 25 credits and returns that results page. Hobby's 100,000 credits are 4,000 such requests a month | | Reading a page | The Extract API returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents a call (PDF, Word, Excel) as Markdown or plain text, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again in a real browser at the same price | 1 credit for a standard page. A request with `render=true` costs 10 credits, with `premium=true` 10, with both 25, and with `ultra_premium=true` 30 or 75 with rendering. A bot protection bypass adds 10. Amazon, Walmart and eBay cost 5 credits a request and LinkedIn 30 | | Structured data from any site | The facts you name in the request come back as columns on every row, whichever sites hold them | For a site outside the supported list you train an AI Parser. The first is free, each further parser costs 30,000 credits, adding or changing a field costs 30,000 more, and a paid plan holds up to 5 | | Data already held | Public databases read every morning at [specstream.ai/data](https://specstream.ai/data?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=scraperapi): 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](https://specstream.ai/signals?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=scraperapi). Ask for your own cut of any of them | Each request fetches the URL you send. Structured Data Endpoints cover a list of supported domains, such as Amazon, Google and Walmart, one request at a time | | A list you already have | Import a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base of up to 20,000 rows. SpecStream fills in or checks each row and matches it to one identity, with any namesakes shown alongside their evidence. Import is free. A row that matches pays its rate, and a row that does not costs 5¢ | DataPipeline runs up to 100,000 URLs, keywords, ASINs or Walmart IDs at once, and the Async API takes up to 50,000 URLs a batch. Results come back as HTML, JSON or CSV | | 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 credit, bought by the month: Hobby $49 for 100,000, Startup $149 for 1,000,000, Business $299 for 3,000,000, Scaling $475 for 5,000,000, Professional $975 for 10,500,000 and Advanced $1,975 for 21,500,000. The balance resets when the plan renews | | Starting free | $10 of credit on sign-up, no card. That is up to 200 rows at 5¢, or 2,000 searches | A 7-day trial with 5,000 credits, no card. After it, a free plan of 1,000 credits a month with 5 concurrent threads | | What failed or empty work costs | Nothing. A row left out, a retry and a run that finds nothing are not charged. On the Extract API a page that is blocked, missing or empty is not charged | A 200 and a 404 response are both charged, and so is a request you cancel before its 70 seconds of retries end. A request that fails after 70 seconds of retries is not charged | | The cost cap before a run | The most the whole job can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overages | `max_cost` caps a single request, and the Crawler stops at its credit budget. When the month's credits run out, scraping pauses, auto-upgrade moves the account to the next plan, or pay as you go (Scaling and above) keeps billing up to a monthly cap you set | | 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¢ | DataPipeline projects run on a schedule you set, and the Crawler reruns hourly, daily, weekly or monthly on paid plans. Every request in a run spends its credits. DataPipeline keeps results up to 30 days and the Async API up to 72 hours | | MCP and API | MCP server, REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. An agent can buy one request with no account, by card or in USDC | A remote MCP server at `https://mcp.scraperapi.com/mcp` or a local one, the API, SDKs, a LangChain integration and a community n8n node | | Where the data goes | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks | The API response, a webhook, or a zipped download from the DataPipeline project page | ## Why ScraperAPI buyers move to SpecStream ### One request does the search, the reading and the record On ScraperAPI you find the URLs, send each one, and parse what comes back. On SpecStream you write the job once, for companies, places, filings, tenders or products: "founder-owned machine shops in Ohio whose own site states ISO 9001, with the owner and a phone", or "open school HVAC tenders in Texas, with the agency and due date". SpecStream shows the request as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, before anything runs. Then it searches the live web, reads each page and joins what it finds into one record per match. ### A search costs $5 per 1,000 and comes back answered ScraperAPI charges 25 credits for a Google or Bing request, so the $49 Hobby plan covers 4,000 results pages a month, and your code reads them. One SpecStream search costs $0.005 and returns the answer, the page it was read from, the time it was read and the rows behind it. It is the most accurate web search API in the world: 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The runs are dated November 8, 2026 at [specstream.ai/benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=scraperapi). ### A protected page costs the same as a plain one On ScraperAPI the price of a page depends on what it takes to load. JavaScript rendering costs 10 credits, a bot protection bypass adds 10, and Ultra Premium with rendering costs 75. The Extract API charges $0.80 per 1,000 pages whatever the page needs. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again as a browser would ask for it, then in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture. A page that gives no text is not charged, and a 404 is not charged either. ScraperAPI charges for a 404. ### The price covers the whole job ScraperAPI caps one request with `max_cost`, and the monthly bill follows how many pages the job turned out to need. SpecStream quotes the most the whole dataset can cost, good for 30 minutes, and 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. Reading and pricing a request cost nothing. ### You pay for rows, and a top-up never expires ScraperAPI credits reset when the subscription renews, used or not. 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 searches and pages behind them cost nothing. A run that finds nothing costs nothing, and a top-up never expires. ### 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 HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Sheets, Slack or Teams with no code, or in your agent through the MCP server. Rows you already own are never charged again. ## Other ScraperAPI alternatives ### SpecStream The live web data engine for teams and agents. One request in plain words returns structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, the Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and the Extract API $0.80 per 1,000 pages. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card, and every run is priced before it starts. ### ScrapingBee A web scraping API billed in credits. Plans run from Hobby at $19 a month for 75,000 credits to Business at $249 a month for 3,000,000. A request with JavaScript rendering costs 5 credits, and credits are valid for one month. The Extract API charges $0.80 per 1,000 pages whether or not a page needs a browser. ### ZenRows A scraping API billed in credits, with a free plan of 5,000 credits a month and paid plans from $19 a month for 45,000. JavaScript rendering costs 5 credits, premium proxies 10 and both together 25, and a 404 response counts as a successful result. On SpecStream a page that is not found is not charged. ### Firecrawl Search, Scrape, Crawl and Agent endpoints billed in credits, with 1,000 free credits a month and paid plans from $19 a month for 5,000 credits to $749 a month for 1,000,000. A page that answers 403 or 404 costs 1 credit. On SpecStream the pages read to find a row are not billed. ### Apify A platform for cloud programs called Actors. Plans cost $0, $19, $199 or $999 a month, most Actors charge per event at a price listed on the Actor's page, compute units cost $0.2 on Starter, and unused usage credits expire at the end of the billing cycle. SpecStream has one rate card for every request, the same on every plan, and a top-up never expires. ## How SpecStream scores The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers. ResultsWideSearchCostSimpleQA Verified | | SpecStream | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/parallel.svg)Parallel | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/exa.svg)Exa | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/tavily.svg)Tavily | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/perplexity.svg)Perplexity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Web research**WideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 | ## How to switch from ScraperAPI Write the data you want in plain words, in place of the URLs and parameters you send 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": "B2B software companies in Europe whose pricing page shows a free plan, with the pricing page URL, the price of the lowest paid plan and the head of product", "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. For the pages you already fetch one by one, send up to 20 URLs a call to `POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract`. 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. [Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-scraperapi&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=scraperapi&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) ## Frequently asked questions Something we didn't answer? [Talk to a human](https://specstream.ai/talk-to-a-human.md) How much does ScraperAPI cost? ScraperAPI costs $49 to $1,975 a month on its published plans: Hobby $49 for 100,000 credits, Startup $149 for 1,000,000, Business $299 for 3,000,000, Scaling $475 for 5,000,000, Professional $975 for 10,500,000 and Advanced $1,975 for 21,500,000. Annual billing takes 10% off, Enterprise is priced by quote from 22,000,000 credits, and unused credits do not roll over. What is the best ScraperAPI alternative? SpecStream, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row. You describe the data in plain words with every condition, approve the most the run can cost, and get structured rows in your sheet, your CRM, Slack or your agent. For single calls, the Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and the Extract API $0.80 per 1,000 pages. How many credits does a ScraperAPI request use? A standard page uses 1 credit, Amazon, Walmart and eBay 5, Google and Bing 25, and LinkedIn 30. JavaScript rendering costs 10 credits, premium proxies 10, both together 25, Ultra Premium 30 and Ultra Premium with rendering 75, and a bot protection bypass adds 10. On SpecStream a page read costs $0.0008 and a delivered row 5¢, 15¢ or $1, on every site. Does ScraperAPI have a free plan? Yes: a 7-day trial with 5,000 credits and no card, then a free plan of 1,000 credits a month with 5 concurrent threads. SpecStream starts every new account with $10 of credit, no card, which is up to 200 rows or 2,000 searches. Does ScraperAPI charge for failed requests? ScraperAPI charges for responses with a 200 or a 404 status, and for a request you cancel before its 70 seconds of retries end. A request that still fails after 70 seconds is not charged. SpecStream charges for delivered rows and for pages that return text, so a missing page, a retry and a run that finds nothing cost $0. Does SpecStream have an API? Yes, three products on one key: the Search API at $5 per 1,000 searches, the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. There are Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI, and an MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` over Streamable HTTP with OAuth or an API key. What does SpecStream cover? SpecStream covers the whole job of getting data from the web, from 5¢ a row. It searches the live web, reads every page that holds the facts, and extracts them into rows. It draws on the public databases it already holds, fills in or checks a list you bring, reruns on a schedule with every change labeled, shows places on a map, and delivers the rows to your sheet, CRM, Slack or agent through MCP and the API. ScraperAPI covers the page step: it fetches the URLs you send and bills credits per request. ### Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page. 1. [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing)specstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 2. [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md)specstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026 3. [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks)specstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026 4. [SpecStream data](https://specstream.ai/data)specstream.ai/data, read Nov 9, 2026 5. [SpecStream signals](https://specstream.ai/signals)specstream.ai/signals, read Nov 9, 2026 6. [ScraperAPI pricing](https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/)scraperapi.com/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026 7. [ScraperAPI pricing, Markdown](https://scraperapi.com/pricing.md)scraperapi.com/pricing.md, read Nov 9, 2026 8. [ScraperAPI docs, welcome](https://docs.scraperapi.com/readme.md)docs.scraperapi.com/readme.md, read Nov 9, 2026 9. [ScraperAPI credits and request costs](https://docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs.md)docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs.md, read Nov 9, 2026 10. [ScraperAPI status codes](https://docs.scraperapi.com/responses-and-formats/api-status-codes.md)docs.scraperapi.com/responses-and-formats/api-status-codes.md, read Nov 9, 2026 11. [ScraperAPI output formats](https://docs.scraperapi.com/responses-and-formats/output-formats.md)docs.scraperapi.com/responses-and-formats/output-formats.md, read Nov 9, 2026 12. [ScraperAPI Async API](https://docs.scraperapi.com/asynchronous-api/overview.md)docs.scraperapi.com/asynchronous-api/overview.md, read Nov 9, 2026 13. [ScraperAPI DataPipeline](https://docs.scraperapi.com/data-pipeline/what-is-datapipeline.md)docs.scraperapi.com/data-pipeline/what-is-datapipeline.md, read Nov 9, 2026 14. [ScraperAPI DataPipeline results](https://docs.scraperapi.com/data-pipeline/creating-a-datapipeline-project/results-and-output-formats.md)docs.scraperapi.com/data-pipeline/creating-a-datapipeline-project/results-and-output-formats.md, read Nov 9, 2026 15. [ScraperAPI Crawler](https://docs.scraperapi.com/scraperapi-crawler-v2.0/introduction.md)docs.scraperapi.com/scraperapi-crawler-v2.0/introduction.md, read Nov 9, 2026 16. [ScraperAPI AI Parser pricing and limits](https://docs.scraperapi.com/ai-parser/pricing-and-limits.md)docs.scraperapi.com/ai-parser/pricing-and-limits.md, read Nov 9, 2026 17. [ScraperAPI MCP server](https://docs.scraperapi.com/integrations/llm-integrations/mcp-server.md)docs.scraperapi.com/integrations/llm-integrations/mcp-server.md, read Nov 9, 2026 18. [ScrapingBee pricing](https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/)scrapingbee.com/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026 19. [ZenRows pricing](https://www.zenrows.com/pricing.md)zenrows.com/pricing.md, read Nov 9, 2026 20. [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing.md)firecrawl.dev/pricing.md, read Nov 9, 2026 21. [Apify pricing](https://apify.com/pricing.md)apify.com/pricing.md, read Nov 9, 2026