# Crustdata Watcher API pricing: 0.5 to 150 credits a record Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/crustdata-watcher-api Crustdata's Watcher API bills credits for each record a watch delivers: 0.5 to 150 for a new person or job, 2 to 150 for a new company or post, 5 to 150 for a person who changed. A run with no change costs nothing. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Write what you watch for in plain words. A saved request reruns hourly to yearly and charges each new match as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, priced in dollars. [Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-crustdata-watcher-api&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 new matches. ## Crustdata Watcher and SpecStream schedules, row by row | | SpecStream | Crustdata Watcher | |---|---|---| | What you watch | One request in plain words: the conditions every match must meet and the facts to bring back. SpecStream reads it into parts you can edit and chooses the sources | Six watcher types on Crustdata's own database: a list of up to 10,000 people or companies per watch, or a saved search for new people, companies, jobs or posts | | A new match | Each new match delivered, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row by how much the row needs, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone | On the default 30-day SLA: 0.5 credits per new person or job, 2 per new company or post. On the 1-day SLA: 150 credits per new record of any kind | | A record that changed | A refresh rechecks each row you own and labels it changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed row costs half its rate and an unchanged row 1¢ | 5 credits per changed person or company on the 30-day SLA. A person watch costs 10 credits at 14 days, 20 at 7, 50 at 3 and 150 at 1 day. A company list watch runs at 30 days only | | How fresh the data is | Read from the live web when the run happens, with the source URL and read time on every value. The row rate is the same hourly or yearly | Set by the SLA you pay for, 30 days by default. The top of each range buys a 1-day refresh or a live web search on every run | | How often it runs | Hourly to yearly, in your timezone, with a maximum per run and a maximum per period | Hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, and checking more often does not change the price. A 1-day SLA discovery watch runs once a day at most | | A run that finds nothing | Costs nothing. Duplicates, rows you already own and rows a page contradicts are not charged | Costs nothing. The first run is a free baseline, up to 5 matches on a discovery watch | | What an alert holds | Only the new and changed records. Each value carries its source URL and the time it was read, and each record is labeled new, changed or no longer a match | The field that changed with its before and after values, and the record trimmed to the fields you asked for. A big run sends a link to the full file | | Where it arrives | A signed webhook (`monitor.found`), a Slack channel, the workspace, or a connected tool such as Google Sheets or HubSpot | A webhook, Slack, Google Chat or email | | What it can watch | Any record the live web holds, found and read during your run. Plus 1,695 ready lists with a feed of the rows their source adds each week | 1B+ people and 60M+ companies in its database, with 700+ fields to monitor | | The price before it runs | Each run is quoted like any other work, in dollars. When the balance or the permission is not there, that run is blocked and nothing is charged | List prices are in credits. The dashboard's watch builder quotes your price per record for the watcher and SLA you pick | | How you pay | A balance you top up from $10. Credit you buy never expires | Credit packs that last 12 months. Enterprise plans start at four figures a month, and the rate per credit drops as volume grows | | Free to start | $10 of credit on a new account, no card | $20 in free credits on a new account. A test alert uses no credits | ## Why teams run their watches on SpecStream ### On Watcher, fresh data is the expensive part Crustdata prices every watcher by its SLA: how fresh the data behind a notification is. The default is 30 days. A new person costs 0.5 credits at that level and 150 on the 1-day SLA, 300 times as much. A new company goes from 2 credits to 150, and a changed person from 5 to 150. SpecStream reads the live web when the run happens, so there is one level of freshness and one rate. A new match costs 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row whether the request runs every hour or one time a year. ### What a month of watching costs Take a saved search that finds 40 new companies in a month. On Crustdata that is 80 credits on the 30-day SLA and 6,000 credits on the 1-day SLA. A list of 2,000 people where 100 change jobs costs 500 credits at 30 days and 15,000 at 1 day. The dollar price of a credit depends on your pack and your plan. On SpecStream the same 40 new matches cost $2 at 5¢ a row, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing. A refresh of rows you own charges half the rate for a row that changed and 1¢ for a row that did not. You set a maximum per run and per period when you create the schedule. ### Watch any record the web states A Crustdata watch reads four datasets: people, companies, jobs and social posts. A SpecStream request is written in plain words, so the same schedule watches a new tender, a product launch, a price or a filing, and each match arrives as a row with the facts you asked for. For records we already hold, a ready list with a feed sends the rows its source adds each week. On Nov 10, 2026 the catalog held 38,142 lists in 9 families, 1,695 of them with a feed. They are on the [lists](https://specstream.ai/data/lists?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api) page, and funding rounds, layoffs and new executives are on the [signals](https://specstream.ai/signals?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api) page. ### The most accurate web search API The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Every score and its method are on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api) page. ## Other monitoring APIs next to Crustdata Watcher ### SpecStream The live web data engine for teams and agents. A saved request reruns hourly to yearly and sends only new and changed records, each value with its source URL and read time, to a signed webhook, Slack or a connected tool. New matches cost 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, and new accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ### TheirStack webhooks Sends new jobs and new companies from its own job and technology data to a webhook. An event uses 1 API credit for `job.new` or `job.closed` and 3 for `company.new` or `tech.new`, and monitoring pauses when credits run out. SpecStream watches any record on the live web and bills each new match in dollars. ### Parallel Monitor API Reruns a query on a frequency such as `1h`, `1d` or `1w` and sends new events by webhook, at $3 per 1,000 executions on `lite` and $10 on `base`. Each execution counts as one check. SpecStream charges for the matches it delivers, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing. ### Firecrawl /monitor Runs search queries on a schedule, every 5 minutes at the shortest. Every check costs 2 credits per 10 results, plus 1 credit per result judged, and Standard sells 100,000 credits for $99 a month. SpecStream sends each new match as a row with the facts you asked for, from 5¢. ### Exa Monitors Runs an Exa search on a recurring schedule and sends the results to a webhook, at $2 per 1,000 requests of up to 10 results and $1 per 1,000 results above 10. SpecStream sends each new match as a row, with a source URL and read time on every value. ## How to move a Crustdata watch to SpecStream 1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace, and register your endpoint for `monitor.found`. Each delivery is signed in the `Specstream-Signature` header with the secret the call returns. Webhooks cost nothing. ``` curl https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/webhooks \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "url": "https://example.com/webhooks/specstream", "events": ["find.completed", "monitor.found"] }' ``` 2. Write the watch's filters as one request in plain words, with the facts you want on each match. Run it once and read the rows, then choose Watch for new ones under the list's name and set the cadence, the timezone and a maximum per run and per period. 3. On the API, the same schedule is `POST /v1/capacity/schedules` with the request's `scope`, `cadence_seconds` from 3600 (hourly), `first_due_at`, `per_run_cents`, `period_cents`, `valid_until` and an `idempotency_key`. Every route and the delivery format are in the [webhooks](https://specstream.ai/docs/webhooks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api) and [schedules](https://specstream.ai/docs/schedules?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=crustdata-watcher-api) docs. Your handler receives only the new and changed records. Each value carries `source_url` and `observed_at`. On MCP, an agent does the same at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does the Crustdata Watcher API cost? 0.5 to 150 credits for each record a watch delivers. On the default 30-day SLA a new person or job costs 0.5 credits, a new company or post 2, and a changed person or company 5. On the 1-day SLA every record costs 150 credits. A run that finds no change costs nothing. ### What does a Crustdata person list watcher cost per changed person? 5 credits on the default 30-day SLA, 10 at 14 days, 20 at 7 days, 50 at 3 days and 150 at 1 day. The rate follows the SLA and does not depend on how often the watch runs. A company list watcher costs 5 credits per changed company and runs at 30 days only. ### How much is a Crustdata credit in dollars? Crustdata's list prices are in credits. New accounts start with $20 in free credits, packs last 12 months, and the rate per credit drops as volume grows. The dashboard's watch builder quotes your price per record. SpecStream prices every row in dollars: 5¢, 15¢ or $1. ### What is the best Crustdata Watcher alternative? SpecStream, when the watch has to cover more than people, companies, jobs and posts. Each new match on the live web arrives as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, read when the run happens, by signed webhook, Slack, Google Sheets or HubSpot. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ### Does SpecStream charge for a run that finds nothing? No. A run that finds nothing costs nothing. Each run spends inside the maximum per run and per period you set, and when the balance or the permission is not there, the run is blocked and nothing is charged. ### What does it cost to keep a list I own up to date on SpecStream? A refresh charges half the row rate for a row that changed and for a new row, and 1¢ for a row that comes back unchanged. At the 5¢ rate, a changed row costs 2.5¢. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. ### Does SpecStream have an API and an MCP server? Yes. Schedules are `POST /v1/capacity/schedules`, the Search API is `GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search` at $5 per 1,000 searches, or $1 with `speed=fast`, and the MCP server is at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` over Streamable HTTP, with OAuth or an API key. ## Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each Crustdata fact comes from Crustdata's own Watcher page, pricing page and pricing docs, read on Nov 12, 2026. - [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream schedules](https://specstream.ai/docs/schedules), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream webhooks](https://specstream.ai/docs/webhooks), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Crustdata Watcher API](https://crustdata.com/apis/watcher), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Crustdata pricing](https://crustdata.com/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Crustdata pricing docs](https://docs.crustdata.com/general/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [TheirStack webhooks](https://theirstack.com/en/docs/webhooks.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Parallel pricing](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Parallel Monitor quickstart](https://docs.parallel.ai/monitor-api/monitor-quickstart.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Firecrawl web-scale monitoring docs](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/monitoring-web-scale.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa pricing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa Monitors](https://exa.ai/docs/monitors/quickstart.md), read Nov 12, 2026