ScrapingBee Review
Web scraping API that handles proxies, headless browsers, and anti-bot blocks for you
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Looking for a ScrapingBee alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is ScrapingBee?
ScrapingBee is a web scraping API. You send it a URL and some options, it handles the headless browser, proxy rotation, and CAPTCHA/anti-bot evasion, and hands back the page HTML or extracted data. It also offers dedicated endpoints for Google Search results and a general extraction-rules feature so you can pull structured fields (price, title, etc.) without writing your own parser.
Cost is credit-based rather than per-request. A plain HTTP request costs 1 credit, JavaScript rendering costs 5, premium proxies cost 10 to 25, and stealth proxies cost 75. JavaScript rendering is on by default, so most jobs cost at least 5 credits per request unless you turn it off. The plan you pick on price alone can run out fast once you turn on the features most real scraping jobs need.
In January 2026, ScrapingBee was acquired by Oxylabs' group of companies. It continues to run as a separate product with its original founders, but now sits inside a larger scraping infrastructure business.
ScrapingBee screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Developers who want a single API call instead of running their own headless browser and proxy pool
- ✓ Small to mid-size teams scraping mostly non-adversarial sites where a plain request or basic JS rendering is enough
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Teams scraping heavily-protected sites like LinkedIn, Amazon, or major retailers at volume, where stealth-proxy credit costs add up fast
- ✗ Anyone who needs predictable flat pricing rather than a credit multiplier that changes with every feature you flip on
Pros
- + One API call replaces your own proxy rotation, headless browser, and CAPTCHA handling
- + Free 1,000-credit trial with no credit card, enough to test real workloads before paying
- + Support is consistently rated responsive, and the team doubled after the Oxylabs acquisition
- + Built-in extraction rules and a dedicated Google Search endpoint save you writing custom parsers
Cons
- – Credit pricing is easy to misjudge. JavaScript rendering costs 5x a plain request, premium proxies 10 to 25x, and stealth proxies 75x, and JS rendering is on by default, so the advertised credit count on each plan overstates real capacity
- – Credits don't roll over month to month, and a request the target site blocks that still returns a 200 costs credits even though you got no usable data
- – Independent benchmarks show low success rates against heavily-protected sites, with some major targets at or near 0% success
- – No annual pricing discount is published, unlike some competitors
ScrapingBee pricing
At about $49/month to start, it sits mid-pack on price in Web Scraping & Data Extraction.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance | $49/mo | 250,000 API credits · 50 concurrent requests |
| Startup | $99/mo | 1,000,000 API credits · 100 concurrent requests · Screenshots, extraction rules, Google Search API |
| Business | $249/mo | 3,000,000 API credits · 200 concurrent requests · Dedicated scraping APIs, priority email support |
| Business + | $599/mo | 8,000,000 API credits · 400 concurrent requests · Dedicated account manager, team management |
| Custom | Custom | Custom credit volume and concurrency · Dedicated account manager |
Prices are for monthly billing. The pricing page shows no annual discount. Credits, not requests, are the real unit of cost. A plain request is 1 credit, JavaScript rendering makes it 5, premium proxies are 10 credits or 25 with JS rendering, and stealth proxies are 75. JS rendering is on by default, so most requests cost at least 5 credits unless you turn it off. That means the $49 plan covers far fewer JS-rendered or stealth requests than the headline 250,000-credit count suggests. Credits do not roll over month to month. ScrapingBee only charges for successful requests, but a request that returns a 200 while the target served a block or CAPTCHA page still costs credits. Prices exclude VAT.
Pricing verified July 17, 2026 · source
How ScrapingBee's pricing compares
ScrapingBee next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapingBee | $49/mo | usage-based | Trial (1,000 API credits, no credit card required) | Partly public |
| Apify | $29/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Bright Data | Usage-based | usage-based | Yes | Partly public |
| Zyte | Usage-based | usage-based | Yes | Partly public |
| Firecrawl | $19/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Octoparse | $69/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Browse AI | $19/mo | tiered | Yes | Public |
Is ScrapingBee still actively developed?
Last significant update: January 2026. ScrapingBee was acquired by Oxylabs' group. Existing plan prices stayed the same, the Google Search API credit cost dropped from 25 to 15 credits per call, and the support team more than doubled with wider timezone coverage. A first wave of infrastructure performance improvements was slated to roll out through June 2026.
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ScrapingBee FAQ
Is ScrapingBee free?+
There's no permanent free plan. New accounts get 1,000 free API credits with no credit card required, then the cheapest paid plan is $49/month for 250,000 credits.
Why do people say ScrapingBee's pricing is misleading?+
The credit count on each plan looks large, but a plain request is 1 credit while JavaScript rendering is 5, premium proxies are 10 to 25, and stealth proxies are 75. JavaScript rendering is on by default and most real scraping jobs need it, so the effective number of requests you get is far below the headline credit figure.
Did the Oxylabs acquisition change ScrapingBee's prices?+
No. ScrapingBee said existing subscription prices stayed the same after joining Oxylabs' group in January 2026, though the Google Search API's credit cost dropped from 25 to 15 credits per call.
How good is ScrapingBee at scraping heavily-protected sites?+
Independent benchmark testing found an overall success rate around 31% across 13 popular targets, with some well-known sites at close to 0% success, so treat it as strong for general sites and weaker for the most defended ones.