ScrapingAnt alternatives in 2026

Your ScrapingAnt client keeps running

SpecStream answers /v2/general, /v2/extended and /v2/markdown at its own address, in ScrapingAnt's form, with its {"detail"} errors. In ScrapingAnt's Python client, scrapingant-client 2.1.0, the change is one line before you build the client: scrapingant_client.client.SCRAPINGANT_API_BASE_URL = "https://api.specstream.ai/scrapingant/v2". With requests:

import requests

reply = requests.get(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/scrapingant/v2/markdown",  # was https://api.scrapingant.com/v2/markdown
    params={"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"},
    headers={"x-api-key": SPECSTREAM_KEY},
    timeout=60,
)
print(reply.json()["markdown"][:500])

One price a page, whatever the page needs

On ScrapingAnt the browser is on by default, so a page takes 10 credits unless you turn it off for a 1 credit request. On SpecStream every page that gives text costs $0.0008. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture, at the same price.

A page with nothing on it is not charged

On SpecStream a page with no text is not charged, and a busy call gets 409, ScrapingAnt's status for too many requests at once, with Retry-After, and charges nothing. Your client's retry code reads it as it reads ScrapingAnt's.

A balance with no plan

ScrapingAnt sells credits by the month, from $19 on Enthusiast, about 10,000 pages with the default browser. On SpecStream $19 reads 23,750 pages, there is no plan to renew, and credit you buy never expires. Set spend_cap_cents on a key and that key never spends past it.

Scored on the official benchmarks

Every page goes through the SpecStream Extract API, which returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents (PDF, Word, Excel) a call. The Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 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 scores and the method are at specstream.ai/benchmarks.

Search, crawls and site maps on the same key

A ScrapingAnt call starts from a URL you already have. On SpecStream the same key finds the URLs: the Search API returns up to 100 results a call at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10, POST /v1/map returns a site's links for one page read, and POST /v1/crawl reads a whole site at $0.0008 a page with text.

Whole datasets as rows, kept up to date

When the job is a dataset in place of pages, the same key does that too. Deep Search takes a request in plain words, such as "the pricing page of every European project management software company, with each plan's name and monthly price", and returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is approved before it starts. Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly: a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row 1¢. Rows go to Sheets, a CRM, Slack, a signed webhook or your agent through the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.

Zero retention on any key

Set zero_retention when you create a key, or later. A call made with that key keeps no request text and no answer after the reply, and spend_cap_cents is the most the key can spend.

curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. The Extract API reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000 and scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB, the Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, and Deep Search returns every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. One key, one balance that never expires.

Scrape.do

A scraping API on monthly credits: Hobby is $29 billed monthly for 250,000, Pro $99 for 1,250,000, and a page with a headless browser takes 5 credits. SpecStream answers Scrape.do's ?token=&url= call at https://api.specstream.ai/scrapedo at $0.0008 a page.

ScrapingBee

A scraping API on monthly credits: Hobby is $19 for 75,000, and each successful request with JavaScript rendering costs 5 credits. SpecStream answers ScrapingBee's call at https://api.specstream.ai/scrapingbee/api/v1, from a balance that never expires.

ScraperAPI

A scraping API on monthly plans: Hobby is $49 a month for 100,000 API credits, and a standard page costs 1 credit. SpecStream answers ScraperAPI's call at https://api.specstream.ai/scraperapi, and a page with no text costs nothing.