Best scraping API with a free tier in 2026

A free tier is a test, so size it to your test

You take a free tier to learn one thing: does this API read the sites you need. That takes your own URL list, in a browser, at once. On a credit plan the browser sets how far the free credits go: 1,000 ScrapingBee credits read 200 pages at its default of 5 credits, and ScraperAPI's 1,000 monthly credits read 100 pages with render=true at 10.

The SpecStream credit reads 12,500 pages on the first day, at one price for a plain page, a page in a browser and a protected page. You run the whole list now, not 100 pages a month.

What the first paid month costs

A free tier ends when your job grows. At 20,000 pages a month in a browser, the credit plans need 100,000 to 200,000 credits, and the plan that holds them costs $29 on Scrape.do, $30 on Scrapfly, $39 on ZenRows, $49 on ScrapingBee and $149 on ScraperAPI. Firecrawl needs 20,000 credits, which its $99 Standard plan holds. On SpecStream the same 20,000 pages cost $16.

Plan credits also end. ZenRows expires unused plan credits at every renewal, and ScrapingBee credits are valid for one month. Credit you buy on SpecStream never expires, and your $10 of free credit has no end date.

Blocked pages cost nothing, free or paid

The Extract API tries a page that refuses a plain read again as a browser would ask, then in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture. Each result says where it was read: read_from is live, site or archive.

A site that still refuses comes back as blocked and is not charged, and a 404 is not charged either. Your free credit pays only for pages that gave text.

Test it on your own URLs

This script reads urls.txt through the Extract API, 20 URLs a call, and prints how many pages came back, how many were blocked and what the run cost. 12,500 URLs fit in the free credit.

import collections
import os

import requests

KEY = os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]
urls = [line.strip() for line in open("urls.txt") if line.strip()]
status, cost = collections.Counter(), 0.0

for start in range(0, len(urls), 20):
    data = requests.post(
        "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
        json={"urls": urls[start:start + 20], "format": "markdown"},
        timeout=120,
    ).json()["data"]
    status.update(page["status"] for page in data["results"])
    cost += data.get("price_usd", 0)

print(dict(status), f"${cost:.4f} for {len(urls)} URLs")

Run the same list on the free tier you use today and set the two counts side by side. The URLs that come back blocked, empty or not_found are not in the cost line.

Search and rows on the same credit

The same key and the same $10 run the Search API, the most accurate web search API in the world: 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks (benchmarks). A search costs $5 per 1,000, or $1 per 1,000 on the fast tier. When you need records, not pages, Deep Search returns structured rows that meet every condition you wrote, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row.

1. SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card, with no end date. Its Extract API reads up to 20 URLs a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, browser included, so the credit reads 12,500 pages. A page that gives no text is not charged.

2. ZenRows

The Free plan gives 5,000 credits every month at 5 concurrent requests, with no top ups. A page in a browser takes 5 credits and a protected page 25, so a month reads 1,000 browser pages or 200 protected ones. SpecStream answers its GET /v1/ at one price per page (move from ZenRows).

3. Firecrawl

The Free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, reset each cycle with no rollover, at 2 concurrent browsers and 10 scrapes a minute. A scrape is 1 credit a page, and a 403 or 404 page still costs 1. SpecStream answers its /v2/scrape at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl (move from Firecrawl).

4. ScrapingAnt

The free plan gives 10,000 API credits every month, no card. Its default request, Chrome rendering with standard proxies, costs 10 credits, so a month reads 1,000 pages in a browser. SpecStream answers its API at /scrapingant/v2 (move from ScrapingAnt).

5. ScraperAPI

A 7 day trial with 5,000 credits, then a Free plan with 1,000 credits a month and 5 concurrent threads. render=true takes 10 credits, so the free month reads 100 pages in a browser. SpecStream answers its endpoint at /scraperapi, and a 404 there costs nothing (move from ScraperAPI).

6. Scrape.do

The free plan gives 1,000 successful API calls a month, with residential and mobile proxies and JavaScript rendering. A browser takes 5 credits, residential proxies 10, both together 25, and some domains get them by default. SpecStream answers its API at /scrapedo (move from Scrape.do).

7. Scrapfly

1,000 credits on signup, no card and no time limit. A datacenter page takes 1 credit, render_js 5 more and residential proxies 25. SpecStream answers its /scrape at /scrapfly/scrape and never bills a blocked page (move from Scrapfly).

8. ScrapingBee

1,000 free API credits, no card. JavaScript rendering is the default at 5 credits, so they read 200 pages, and premium proxies take 10 or 25. SpecStream answers its HTML API at /scrapingbee/api/v1 for $0.80 per 1,000 pages (move from ScrapingBee).

9. Zyte API

$5 of free credit for the first billing month. When it runs out, the account is suspended until you set a spending limit. On SpecStream every page is $0.80 per 1,000, whatever the site (Zyte alternatives).

10. Scrapingdog

The free plan is 100 request credits with 1 concurrent request, no card. SpecStream's $10 reads 12,500 pages, at 20 URLs a call.