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Firecrawl Government Index in 2026

Price, limits and an alternative.

Firecrawl's Government & Legal Index searches 30 million US government pages: statutes, regulations, local codes and court opinions. Searches use no credits, up to 1,000 calls a day on the Free, Hobby and Standard plans. It returns ranked pages, and it covers the US.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Ask in plain words for every rule that meets your conditions, in the US or outside it. Each match is a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, and the request reruns hourly to yearly.

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is 200 rows.

SpecStream and the Firecrawl Government Index side by side

SpecStreamFirecrawl Government Index
What you sendThe rules you need in plain words, with the conditions every row must meetA question in plain words to /v2/search/gov, with k from 1 to 100 results and optional filters for jurisdiction, court, court type, cited law and site
What you get backStructured rows, one record per rule, ordinance, notice or filing, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every valueRanked pages, each with url, title, description and position. Reading the full text of a result uses standard scrape credits
What it coversThe live web, inside the US and outside it, read during your run. Plus the records we hold: 13,073 federal rules and proposed rules published since January 2024, and 31,428 open tenders in Europe and the UK (Nov 12, 2026)30 million pages from US federal, state, county and city government sources. US only for now
What it costsA delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 by how much the row needs. A ready list: 5¢ a row for the first 2,000 rows and 1¢ after. One question: $5 per 1,000 searches, or $1 per 1,000 with speed=fastSearches use no credits. The full text of a result is a scrape at 1 credit a page, on paid plans from $19 a month for 5,000 credits
How much one job can askYou approve the most a run can cost before it starts, and the quote is good for 30 minutes. A run keeps working until it reaches the count, for up to four hours on the largest requests300 calls a minute on every plan. 1,000 calls a day on Free, Hobby and Standard, 2,000 on Growth, and no daily limit on Scale and Enterprise
Is the rule in forceWrite the date and the jurisdiction as conditions. Each condition shows the page that states it, or that no page states it yet, and get_find_decisions returns each answer with its reason, value, source and timeRanked matches can include historical versions, bill text, agency guidance and third-party reproductions. The docs tell the agent to verify the issuer, jurisdiction, status and version before it answers
When a rule changesA saved request reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢. A ready list with a feed sends the rows its source adds each weekEach result carries updatedAt, the time the page entered the index. Firecrawl Monitor rechecks pages you name at 1 credit per page per check
Where the data goesGoogle Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooksThe API response, the Python and Node SDKs, firecrawl_gov_search in the MCP server, firecrawl gov in the CLI, and the Firecrawl plugins for Claude, ChatGPT and Grok Bot
MCP and APIMCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. Calls written for Firecrawl v2 search and scrape answer at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawlGET or POST /v2/search/gov. No API key is needed to start, and a key raises the rate limits

Why teams that search the Government Index choose SpecStream

Other Firecrawl Government Index alternatives

How SpecStream scores

The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.

How to switch from the Firecrawl Government Index

Write the question you send to /v2/search/gov as the set you want back, with the jurisdiction, the date and the facts for each row. Sign up and you get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows.

Or send it from code. The second call spends nothing: the 402 reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost.

# Before: one search of the Government Index
curl -s "https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search/gov?query=Austin%20mobile%20food%20vendor%20permit%20requirements&k=10"

# After: every matching rule as a row
curl -i https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"request": "Every Texas county and city that requires a mobile food vendor permit, with the permit fee, the issuing office and the ordinance section", "count": 25}'

For one question with one answer, call the Search API. A site: operator keeps every result on the publisher you name, and the reply holds the value as the page prints it and the page it was read from.

curl -s -G https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=California rent increase cap site:leginfo.legislature.ca.gov"

Code that calls Firecrawl's /v2/search or /v2/scrape keeps working with the base address https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl, at $1 per 1,000 searches and $0.80 per 1,000 pages. The steps are in Migrate from Firecrawl, and the whole of Alexandria is compared in Firecrawl Alexandria alternative.

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

What is the Firecrawl Government Index?
A search index of 30 million pages from US federal, state, county and city government sources, launched on October 22, 2026 as the Government & Legal Index. It covers statutes, regulations, local codes, permits and court opinions, and answers at /v2/search/gov, in the Firecrawl MCP server and CLI, and in the Firecrawl plugins for Claude, ChatGPT and Grok Bot.
How much does the Firecrawl Government Index cost?
Searches use no credits. Calls are limited to 300 a minute on every plan and to 1,000 a day on Free, Hobby and Standard, 2,000 a day on Growth, with no daily limit on Scale and Enterprise. Reading the full text of a result is a scrape at 1 credit a page, and paid plans start at $19 a month for 5,000 credits.
Does the Firecrawl Government Index cover law outside the US?
No. The index is US only for now, and Firecrawl's docs say to use general search for other jurisdictions. SpecStream reads the live web inside the US and outside it, and held 31,428 open tenders from Europe and the UK on Nov 12, 2026.
What is the best Firecrawl Government Index alternative?
SpecStream, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row. You describe the rules you need in plain words with every condition, approve the most the run can cost, and get one row per rule with its source URL and read time. The same request reruns hourly to yearly with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching.
Can I get a message when a regulation changes?
Yes, as often as every hour. A saved SpecStream request reruns hourly to yearly, a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢. The federal rules feed sends the rules the Federal Register adds each week for $19.25 a month.
Does a Government Index result show the law in force today?
Not by itself. Firecrawl's docs say ranked matches can include historical versions, bill text, agency guidance and third-party reproductions, and tell the agent to verify the issuer, jurisdiction, status and version. On SpecStream you write the date and the jurisdiction as conditions, and each condition shows the page that states it.
Does SpecStream have an API and an MCP server?
Yes. The Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, or $1 per 1,000 with speed=fast. The Extract API costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search returns rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 each. All three run through the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, the CLI and the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.

Sources

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

  1. SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  2. SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  3. SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 12, 2026
  4. SpecStream federal rulesspecstream.ai/data/federal-rules, read Nov 12, 2026
  5. SpecStream open tendersspecstream.ai/data/tenders, read Nov 12, 2026
  6. SpecStream federal contractsspecstream.ai/data/contracts, read Nov 12, 2026
  7. SpecStream federal grantsspecstream.ai/data/grants, read Nov 12, 2026
  8. Firecrawl Government Index docsdocs.firecrawl.dev/features/gov.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  9. Firecrawl Government & Legal Index announcementfirecrawl.dev/blog/government-legal-index.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  10. Firecrawl Government & Legal Index pagefirecrawl.dev/gov-index.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  11. Firecrawl changelog: Government & Legal Indexfirecrawl.dev/changelog/government-legal-index.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  12. Firecrawl rate limitsdocs.firecrawl.dev/rate-limits.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  13. Firecrawl pricingfirecrawl.dev/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  14. Introducing Alexandriafirecrawl.dev/blog/introducing-alexandria-series-b.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  15. Serperserper.dev/, read Nov 12, 2026
  16. Exa pricingexa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
  17. Tavily API creditsdocs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md, read Nov 12, 2026