Parallel Extract API alternative in 2026

$0.80 per 1,000 pages, and empty pages are free

Parallel prices Extract at $1 per 1,000 URLs. SpecStream charges $0.0008 for each page that gives text, so 1 million pages cost $800 against $1,000, and a URL that comes back empty, blocked, not_found or failed costs nothing. The balance never expires.

The main text, not only excerpts

Parallel returns excerpts chosen for the objective you send, and the whole page only when full_content is on. SpecStream returns the main text of every page, without menus, footers and ads, as markdown with headings, lists and links, or as plain text. Your model picks the passages.

Each result also carries published and modified when the page states them, and emails: every address the page carries, including those only its markup shows. Every field is in the Extract API docs.

Pages that refuse a plain read

A page that blocks 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. read_from says live, site or archive, and captured_at gives the archive date. PDF, Word, Excel and EPUB files are read at the page price.

Moving a Parallel Extract call

Send the same urls list to /v1/extract with your SpecStream key as a Bearer token. Drop objective, and read data.results[].text in place of excerpts.

# Parallel Extract
curl https://api.parallel.ai/v1/extract -H "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un"], "objective": "When was the United Nations established?"}'

# SpecStream Extract API
curl https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un"], "format": "markdown"}'

Scores on the official boards

The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Search on the same key scores a 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 is on the benchmarks page.

When the job is a list, ask for rows

When you read pages to build a list, write the list in plain words. Deep Search reads it back as the conditions every row must meet, quotes the most it can cost, and after you approve delivers every match as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, with a source URL and read time on every value. Rows that fail a condition, duplicates and rows you already own are not billed.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Pages at $0.80 per 1,000 through the Extract API or the Exa Contents, Tavily Extract, Firecrawl and Jina Reader routes on the same key, search at $5 per 1,000 and $1 on the fast tier, and every match as rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

Exa Contents

$1 per 1,000 pages, billed per content type, so a page with text and highlights counts as two. SpecStream answers POST /exa/contents in Exa's shape at $0.0008 a page. Exa Contents compatible.

Tavily Extract

Every 5 successful URL extractions cost 1 credit on basic and 2 on advanced, at $0.008 a credit pay as you go: $1.60 or $3.20 per 1,000 URLs. SpecStream answers POST /tavily/extract in Tavily's shape at $0.80 per 1,000. Tavily Extract compatible.

Firecrawl

Hobby is $19 a month for 5,000 credits, and Scrape costs 1 credit a page: $3.80 per 1,000 pages. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's /v2/scrape at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl at $0.0008 a page. Firecrawl alternatives.

Jina Reader

Billed in tokens by page length, so the price of a page depends on how long it is. SpecStream answers Jina's call at https://api.specstream.ai/jina at one price a page. Jina Reader vs Parallel.