<!-- twin of https://specstream.ai/bright-data-pricing -->
# Bright Data pricing in 2026: every product's rate on one page

Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/bright-data-pricing

Bright Data prices each product on its own page. Residential proxies cost $8 per GB pay as you go. Web Unlocker, SERP API and Scraper API cost $1.50 per 1,000, and datasets $2.50 per 1,000 records.

SpecStream reads any page for $0.80 per 1,000 and searches for $1 per 1,000 with `speed=fast`, with no zone, proxy or plan to set up. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-bright-data-pricing&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=bright-data-pricing&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 12,500 pages or 10,000 fast searches.

## What each Bright Data product costs, and the same job on SpecStream

| | SpecStream | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|
| Free to start | $10 of credit once, no card: 12,500 pages or 10,000 fast searches | 5,000 free credits a month, no card, shared by Web Unlocker, SERP API, Scraper API, Scraper Studio and Browser API. Unused credits do not roll over. Proxies get a one-time $2 trial credit for 7 days |
| Reading a page | Extract API: $0.80 per 1,000 pages, up to 20 URLs a call, web pages, PDF, Word and Excel. A page that gives no text is not charged | Web Unlocker API: $1.50 per 1,000 requests pay as you go, or Scale at $499 a month with 383K requests and $1.30 per 1,000 more |
| A web search | $1 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results with `speed=fast`. The default search, with the answer, is $5 per 1,000 | SERP API: $1.50 per 1,000 requests pay as you go, or Scale at $499 a month with 380K requests and $1.30 per 1,000 more |
| Residential proxies | No proxy to buy. 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 | $8 per GB pay as you go. $499 a month for 141 GB ($7 per GB), $999 for 332 GB ($6) and $1,999 for 798 GB ($5). Full residential access needs a KYC check |
| Datacenter and ISP IPs | None to rent. Each page read and each search has one price per call | Datacenter: 10 shared IPs for $14 a month ($1.40 an IP), or $0.60 per GB. ISP: 10 shared IPs for $18 a month ($1.80 an IP) |
| A browser | Part of the page price: a page read in a real browser costs the same $0.0008 | Browser API: $8 per GB pay as you go, or Scale at $499 a month with 71 GB |
| Structured records | Deep Search: a request in plain words returns every match on the live web as structured rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone | Scraper API: $1.50 per 1,000 records pay as you go, or Scale at $499 a month with 384,000 records and $1.30 per 1,000 more. Datasets: $2.50 per 1,000 records, $250 per 100K |
| Failed work | Not charged. A page that is missing, blocked, empty or fails costs nothing, and a busy call gets `429` with `Retry-After`, also free | SERP API bills only successful requests, except in a zone set with custom headers or cookies, where every request is billed. Scraper API records that fail on a wrong input are billed |
| Monthly commitment | None. Pay from a balance topped up from $10, and credit you buy never expires | Each plan bills a minimum commitment at the start of every month, the first month prorated by the days the account was active |

## What Bright Data costs per page, per search and per GB

### 1,000 pages: $1.50 on Web Unlocker, $0.80 on SpecStream

Web Unlocker charges $1.50 per 1,000 requests pay as you go. Scale is $499 a month for 383K requests, which is $1.30 per 1,000 when every request is used. On SpecStream $499 reads 623,750 pages, and a page with no text is not charged.

### 1,000 searches: $1.50 on the SERP API, $1 on SpecStream

The SERP API charges $1.50 per 1,000 requests, or $499 a month for 380K. On SpecStream $499 buys 499,000 fast searches of up to 10 results, or 99,800 default searches that come back with the answer and the page it was read on.

### A proxy bills by the GB, a page read by the page

Residential proxies cost $8 per GB pay as you go and $5 per GB on the $1,999 plan, so what a page costs depends on its size and on every retry your code sends. SpecStream charges $0.0008 for each page read with text, whatever its size, and the retries are on our side.

### Monthly plans bill a minimum

Each Bright Data plan bills a minimum commitment at the start of every month, and the 5,000 free credits reset on the first of each month without rolling over. SpecStream has no minimum: a top-up starts at $10, credit you buy never expires, and a top-up of $1,000 or more adds 20% more credit.

### The call, before and after

```
# Before: Web Unlocker
curl https://api.brightdata.com/request \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"zone": "your_zone_name", "url": "https://example.com", "format": "raw"}'

# After: SpecStream Extract API
curl https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://example.com"], "format": "markdown"}'
```

The reply is the page's main text as Markdown, with `status` `ok`, `blocked`, `not_found`, `empty` or `failed` for each URL. Send up to 20 URLs in one call. More on the [Extract API](https://specstream.ai/extract-api?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=bright-data-pricing) page.

### Scored on the official benchmarks

The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks, and the Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Every score and its method is on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=bright-data-pricing) page.

## What other scraping and proxy APIs cost

### Apify

Plans at $0, $19, $199 and $999 a month, each paid back as usage that expires at the end of the cycle. Residential proxy is $8 per GB and Unblocker $1.5 per 1,000 requests on Starter. SpecStream reads a page for $0.0008 with no plan.

### Firecrawl

Hobby at $19 a month for 5,000 credits, and 1 credit is 1 page on a basic scrape. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's scrape call at `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl` for $0.80 per 1,000 pages.

### ZenRows

Build at $19 a month for 45,000 credits, and a page rendered with JavaScript costs 5 credits. SpecStream answers ZenRows' call at `https://api.specstream.ai/zenrows/v1/` for $0.80 per 1,000 pages.

## How to pay $0.80 per 1,000 pages and $1 per 1,000 searches

1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 12,500 pages.

2. Send the URLs your code sends to Web Unlocker today to `POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract`, with the key as a Bearer token. There is no zone to create. In Python:

```
import requests

reply = requests.post(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract",  # was https://api.brightdata.com/request
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
    json={"urls": ["https://example.com"], "format": "markdown"},
    timeout=60,
).json()["data"]

for page in reply["results"]:
    print(page["url"], page["status"], (page.get("text") or "")[:300])
```

3. Send the queries your code sends to the SERP API to `GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search` with `q` and `speed=fast`, at $1 per 1,000 searches:

```
reply = requests.get(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
    params={"q": "web scraping api pricing", "num": 10, "speed": "fast"},
).json()["data"]

for source in reply["sources"]:
    print(source["url"], source["title"], source["snippet"])
```

4. Read `429` as a call to send again after `Retry-After`. It is not charged. An agent connects through the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` and spends from the same balance.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does Bright Data cost?

Each product has its own rate: residential proxies $8 per GB pay as you go, Web Unlocker, SERP API and Scraper API $1.50 per 1,000, Browser API $8 per GB and datasets $2.50 per 1,000 records. Monthly plans run from $14 for 10 datacenter IPs to $1,999 for 798 GB of residential traffic.

### Does Bright Data have a free tier?

Yes. Every new account gets 5,000 free credits a month, no card, across Web Unlocker, SERP API, Scraper API, Scraper Studio and Browser API. Unused credits do not roll over, and proxies are not included. A new SpecStream account gets $10 of credit once, no card.

### How much are Bright Data residential proxies?

$8 per GB pay as you go, $7 per GB on the $499 plan, $6 on the $999 plan and $5 on the $1,999 plan. The page showed 50% off these rates when Dupple read it on Oct 14, 2026.

### How much does the Bright Data Web Unlocker cost?

$1.50 per 1,000 requests pay as you go, or $499 a month for 383K requests and $1.30 per 1,000 more. SpecStream reads a page for $0.80 per 1,000, and a page with no text is not charged.

### Does Bright Data charge for failed requests?

Not by default on the SERP API. In a zone set with custom headers or cookies every request is billed, failed ones included, and Scraper API records that fail on a wrong input are billed. SpecStream charges nothing for a page that is missing, blocked, empty or fails.

### Is there a cheaper alternative to Bright Data?

SpecStream reads any page for $0.80 per 1,000 and searches for $1 per 1,000 with `speed=fast`, with no plan, zone or proxy. Deep Search returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

## Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Bright Data's figures come from its documentation, read on the date shown, and from its pricing pages as Dupple and UsagePricing recorded them, because brightdata.com refused our reader on Nov 12, 2026. Each other provider's figures come from its own page.

- [Bright Data free tier docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/free-tier.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Bright Data SERP API billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/pricing-and-billing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Bright Data Scraper API FAQs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/faqs.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Bright Data billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Bright Data residential proxies docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/residential/introduction.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Bright Data Web Unlocker docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/web-unlocker/introduction.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Dupple, Bright Data pricing read on brightdata.com](https://dupple.com/pricing/bright-data), read Oct 14, 2026
- [UsagePricing, Bright Data pricing](https://usagepricing.com/blueprint/bright-data), read Aug 28, 2026
- [Bright Data pricing](https://brightdata.com/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Apify pricing](https://apify.com/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [ZenRows pricing docs](https://docs.zenrows.com/first-steps/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026