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ZenRows alternatives in 2026

Ask for the data and get rows, at 5¢ to $1 a row.

ZenRows costs $19 to $2,999 a month billed monthly, and its Free plan gives 5,000 credits a month. A standard page takes 1 credit, a JavaScript-rendered page 5 and a protected page 25, and plan credits you do not use expire at every renewal. Each request takes one URL you supply and returns that page as HTML, Markdown, plain text or JSON. Finding the pages and joining them into records stays in your code.

SpecStream is the best alternative to ZenRows for product and AI teams whose job is the data on the pages. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents: you ask in plain words, and it searches the live web, reads every page that holds the facts and returns structured rows that meet every condition you wrote. You see the most the run can cost before it starts, and you pay 5¢, 15¢ or $1 for each row delivered. When your code already holds the URLs, the Extract API reads 1,000 pages for $0.80.

Get an API key

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

SpecStream and ZenRows side by side

SpecStreamZenRows
What you sendThe data you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet. SpecStream finds the pagesThe URL of each page you want, with your API key. Options turn on JavaScript rendering and premium proxies
What you get backStructured rows, one record per company, place, job or filing, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every valueThat page's HTML, or the same page as Markdown, plain text or PDF. An extract mode returns JSON from the page
Reading a pageThe Extract API returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents (PDF, Word, Excel) a call, 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 price1 credit for a standard page, 5 with JavaScript rendering and 25 for a protected page, on every plan. 1,000 protected pages take 25,000 credits
The unit you pay forA 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. The searches and pages behind a row are not billedA credit, bought as a monthly plan: $19 to $2,999 a month billed monthly, and Enterprise by committed volume. The Free plan gives 5,000 credits a month, no card
What failed or empty work costsNothing. A row left out, a retry and a run that finds nothing are not charged. An Extract API page with no text is not chargedFailed and retried requests are not charged. A 404 or 410 response counts as successful and is billed
The cost cap before a runThe most the run can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overagesA monthly credit allowance, spent across every ZenRows product from one shared balance. A crawl takes 1 to 25 credits per page, depending on the site
Balance you do not useA top-up never expires. What a run does not use goes back to your balancePlan credits expire at every renewal. A paid plan can add up to 10 top-ups per billing period, and unused top-up credits roll over once, then expire. The Free plan has no top-ups
Time and limitsThe Extract API gives each URL up to 30 seconds, all URLs in a call at once. A Deep Search run keeps working until it reaches the count, up to four hours on the largest listsA Fetch request can take up to 3 minutes. Over your plan's concurrency limit a call returns 429 Too Many Requests, and a request you cancel holds its slot for up to 3 minutes
Agents, MCP and APIMCP 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, and pays for the rows foundAn API called with your key. Agents buy pay as you go credits at its agent storefront for $0.50 per 1,000, with a minimum purchase of 10,000 credits

Why ZenRows buyers move to SpecStream

You describe the data, and SpecStream finds the pages

A ZenRows request starts from a URL you already hold, and your code turns the pages into records. On SpecStream the request is the whole job. It can be companies, places, jobs, filings, tenders or products, written the way you would brief a colleague. SpecStream reads the request back 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 result.

You pay for rows, and the pages behind them are free

ZenRows bills every successful page, including a 404 and the pages that never become a record. 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, 200 rows cost $10, and the searches and pages behind them cost nothing. A run that finds nothing costs nothing.

Reading 1,000 pages costs $0.80

On ZenRows, 1,000 protected pages take 25,000 credits, which is $12.50 at its agent storefront rate of $0.50 per 1,000 credits. The SpecStream Extract API reads 1,000 pages for $0.80. 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, at the same price, and a page with no text is not charged. Each result carries the page's main text, its title, its published date and every email address the page holds.

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. An agent works inside the limits you set on its key: total, per run and monthly. Reading and pricing a request cost nothing.

The Search and Extract APIs are measured on public benchmarks

SpecStream's search API scores 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. Scores and method are at specstream.ai/benchmarks. A search costs $5 per 1,000 and a page read $0.80 per 1,000, on the same balance as your rows.

Some of the data is already held

SpecStream reads public databases every morning and publishes them 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 are at specstream.ai/signals. Ask for your own cut of any of them.

Reruns label every row and land in your tools and your agent

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¢, so rechecking 1,000 rows that did not change costs $10. New matches arrive in Slack, email, a sheet, a CRM or a signed webhook, and agents read the same rows through the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp. Rows you already own are never charged again.

Other ZenRows 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.

ScrapingBee

A scraping API billed in credits. Hobby costs $19 a month for 75,000 credits and 25 concurrent requests, Freelance $49 for 250,000 and Startup $99 for 1,000,000, and a new account gets 1,000 free credits. SpecStream bills the delivered row, and the pages read to find it are not billed.

ScraperAPI

A scraping API billed in credits. Hobby costs $49 a month for 100,000 credits and 20 concurrent threads, and Startup costs $149 a month for 1,000,000 credits and 50 threads. SpecStream names the most a run can cost before it starts, and the charge never goes past it.

Scrape.do

A scraping API billed in successful credits. The Free plan gives 1,000 credits, Hobby costs $29 a month for 250,000, Pro $99 for 1,250,000, Business $249 for 3,500,000 and Advanced $699 for 10,000,000. 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.

SpecStreamParallelExaTavilyPerplexity
Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna60.945.553.047.947.0
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna9694919494
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol9997919295

How to switch from ZenRows

Write the data you want in plain words, in place of the URLs you fetch and the parsing code you keep. 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 open senior backend engineer job at fintech companies in Germany, 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. Where your code already holds the URLs, send up to 20 a call to POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract with your API key. 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.

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Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

How much does ZenRows cost?
ZenRows costs $19 to $2,999 a month billed monthly, and Enterprise is priced on committed volume. The Free plan gives 5,000 credits a month with no card. A standard page takes 1 credit, a JavaScript-rendered page 5 and a protected page 25, and plan credits you do not use expire at every renewal.
What is the best ZenRows 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 that meet all of them in your sheet, your CRM, Slack or your agent. The same request reruns on your schedule, and the pages read to find a row are not billed.
Is there a cheaper alternative to ZenRows for reading pages?
The SpecStream Extract API reads 1,000 pages for $0.80, and a page with no text is not charged. On ZenRows, 1,000 protected pages take 25,000 credits, which is $12.50 at its agent storefront rate of $0.50 per 1,000 credits. SpecStream tries a page that refuses a plain read again in a real browser at the same price.
Do ZenRows credits roll over?
No. ZenRows plan credits expire at every renewal, and a top-up rolls into the next billing period once, then expires, with up to 10 top-ups per billing period. A SpecStream top-up never expires, and what a run does not use goes back to your balance.
Does ZenRows charge for failed requests?
ZenRows charges only successful requests, and it counts a 404 or 410 response as successful. SpecStream charges nothing for a row left out, a retry, a page with no text or a run that finds nothing.
Does SpecStream have an API?
Yes, three: 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 delivered row. They come with Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, and they spend from one balance.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page.

  1. SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
  2. SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026
  3. SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026
  4. SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 9, 2026
  5. SpecStream signalsspecstream.ai/signals, read Nov 9, 2026
  6. ZenRows pricingzenrows.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
  7. ZenRows docs, pricingdocs.zenrows.com/first-steps/pricing.md, read Nov 9, 2026
  8. ZenRows docs, pricing FAQdocs.zenrows.com/first-steps/faq/understanding-zenRows-pricing-system, read Nov 9, 2026
  9. ZenRows API referencedocs.zenrows.com/universal-scraper-api/api-reference, read Nov 9, 2026
  10. ScrapingBee pricingscrapingbee.com/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026
  11. ScraperAPI pricingscraperapi.com/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026
  12. Scrape.do pricingscrape.do/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026