# ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI: what an AI agent can replace ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI, checked 2026-11-03: plan prices, credits, concurrency, free trials and what a JavaScript, premium proxy or Google request really costs in credits, with sources. ## ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI, the short answer Pick ScrapingBee if you scrape ordinary sites in volume and want the lower entry price and more concurrency per plan. Pick ScraperAPI if you scrape hard targets like Google, Amazon or LinkedIn and want per-domain credit rates and charges only on 200 and 404 answers. ## ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI: plans, free tier and API - Entry paid plan: ScrapingBee Hobby $19 a month: 75,000 credits, 25 concurrent requests; Freelance $49: 250,000 credits, 50 concurrent (https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/); ScraperAPI Hobby $49 a month ($44.10 billed annually): 100,000 credits, 20 concurrent threads (https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/). Checked 2026-11-03. - Mid plans: ScrapingBee Startup $99: 1,000,000 credits, 100 concurrent; Business $249: 3,000,000 credits, 200 concurrent (https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/); ScraperAPI Startup $149 ($134.10 billed annually): 1,000,000 credits, 50 threads; Business $299 ($269.10): 3,000,000 credits, 100 threads (https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/). Checked 2026-11-03. - Free tier or trial: ScrapingBee 1,000 free API credits, no credit card (https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/); ScraperAPI 7-day trial with 5,000 API credits, no credit card (https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/). Checked 2026-11-03. - A JavaScript page: ScrapingBee JavaScript rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits; a plain request is 1 (https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/); ScraperAPI A plain request is 1 credit; render=true adds 10 (https://docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs). Checked 2026-11-03. - Premium proxies: ScrapingBee Premium proxy 10 credits, or 25 with JavaScript; stealth proxy 75 (https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/); ScraperAPI Premium 10 extra, premium with rendering 25; ultra premium 30 extra, or 75 with rendering, on paid plans (https://docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs). Checked 2026-11-03. - Hard domains: ScrapingBee No per-domain rate on the pricing page (https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/); ScraperAPI Amazon 5 credits, Google and Bing 25, LinkedIn 30; plus 10 when bot protection is bypassed (https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/). Checked 2026-11-03. - Failed requests: ScrapingBee Auto mode charges 0 credits when every setup fails; stealth proxy bills successful calls only (https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/); ScraperAPI Charged only for 200 and 404 answers (https://docs.scraperapi.com/getting-started/quick-start/credits-and-requests-costs). Checked 2026-11-03. - API access: ScrapingBee Every plan is the API; credits last one month and do not roll over (https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/); ScraperAPI Every plan is the API; Ultra Premium included on all plans (https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/). Checked 2026-11-03. ## Which one to pick Pick ScrapingBee if most of your pages are ordinary sites and you want more parallel requests for the money: at the same 1,000,000 credits its Startup plan lists a lower price and twice the concurrency of ScraperAPI's. Turn JavaScript off when a page does not need it, because rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits. Pick ScraperAPI if your targets are Google, Amazon or LinkedIn. It publishes a credit rate per domain, so you can price a job before you run it, and it charges only for 200 and 404 answers. Do the credit math on your own mix. A request that needs premium proxies and rendering costs 25 credits on both, which turns a million credits into 40,000 pages. ## Where looot fits An agent with one looot key gets pages without a monthly plan: a page as markdown, a page through a real browser, and a Google results page, each paid per call with no credits to expire. The live price of each is listed below. ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI are both in the catalog as coming soon and will need your own key. Until then the agent uses the providers below; for sites with heavy bot protection, test a few URLs first and keep a fallback. ## Endpoints priced live on the page - Read a web page as markdown (Jina Reader): jina-reader - Scrape a web page to markdown (Context.dev): context-dev-web-scrape-markdown - Scrape a page with a real browser (Olostep): olostep-scrape - Scrape a page to markdown or HTML (Steel): steel-scrape - Scrape a web page (Serper): serper-webpage - A Google results page (Serper): serper-search - Live prices: https://looot.ai/compare/scrapingbee-vs-scraperapi ## The honest note looot is not ScrapingBee and not ScraperAPI. Each product does things looot does not, and the lists below name them. Use this page to decide which jobs an agent can take over, not which tool to choose. ## Verdicts - ScrapingBee (/can-i-replace/scrapingbee): yes. - ScraperAPI (/can-i-replace/scraperapi): yes. ## Job by job - Fetch a page through proxies: ScrapingBee Fetch a page through proxies (covered); ScraperAPI Fetch a page through proxies (covered). - Render JavaScript pages: ScrapingBee Render JavaScript pages (covered); ScraperAPI Render JavaScript pages (covered). - Extract a page into fields: ScrapingBee Extract a page into fields (covered); ScraperAPI Extract a page into fields (covered). - Research and scrape the web: ScrapingBee Scrape search results (covered); ScraperAPI Scrape search results (covered). - Control a browser session: ScrapingBee Control a browser session (partly covered); ScraperAPI no matching job. ## Jobs both do that an agent can take over - Fetch a page through proxies. Providers: zyte-api, brightdata, apify, firecrawl. - Render JavaScript pages. Providers: zyte-api, brightdata, apify, firecrawl, steel, tinyfish. - Extract a page into fields. Providers: diffbot, jina, firecrawl, zyte-api. - Research and scrape the web. Providers: searchapi-io, brave-search, dataforseo. ## What you keep ScrapingBee for - Control a browser session: partly covered. Sessions are billed and handled differently per provider. ## What you keep ScraperAPI for - Nothing on our list. That does not mean ScraperAPI has no other features. ## Agent prompt for ScrapingBee jobs Use looot to fetch the pages at the URLs I give you, render the JavaScript, and return the title, price and main text of each as a table. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table. ## Agent prompt for ScraperAPI jobs Use looot to fetch each URL I give you through a scraping proxy, render the page if needed, and return the main text and key fields. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table. ## ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI: which one should I pick? ScrapingBee, if you scrape ordinary sites in volume and want more concurrency per plan. ScraperAPI, if you scrape Google, Amazon or LinkedIn and want a published credit rate for each domain. Both offer free credits with no card, so run your real URLs through both trials. ## How much do ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI cost? Checked 2026-11-03: ScrapingBee starts at $19 a month for 75,000 credits, with Startup at $99 for 1,000,000 and Business at $249 for 3,000,000. ScraperAPI starts at $49 a month for 100,000 credits, with Startup at $149 for 1,000,000 and Business at $299 for 3,000,000. ## How many credits does a JavaScript page cost? On ScrapingBee, rendering is on by default and costs 5 credits a request; with premium proxies it is 25. On ScraperAPI, render=true adds 10 credits, and premium proxies with rendering cost 25. Turn rendering off when the page works without it. ## Which is cheaper for scraping Google? Checked 2026-11-03: ScraperAPI charges 25 credits for a Google or Bing request, so its $149 Startup plan covers about 40,000 Google pages. ScrapingBee sells a separate Google search endpoint; its credit cost is not on the pricing page, so check its documentation before you compare. ## Do ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI charge for failed requests? ScraperAPI charges only for 200 and 404 answers. ScrapingBee's auto mode costs nothing when every setup fails, and its stealth proxy bills successful calls only. Read each one's documentation for the cases in between, such as a request you cancel. ## Is there a free plan for ScrapingBee or ScraperAPI? Both give free credits with no card: ScrapingBee 1,000 API credits, and ScraperAPI a 7-day trial with 5,000 credits. ScraperAPI's FAQ also mentions a free plan with 1,000 credits. ## Can an AI agent scrape pages without either plan? Yes. With one looot key an agent reads a page as markdown, renders a page in a real browser, or fetches a Google results page, paid per call with the price shown before the run. ScrapingBee and ScraperAPI themselves will run there with your own key once they leave coming soon. ## More - /can-i-replace/scrapingbee - /can-i-replace/scraperapi - /alternatives/scrapingbee - /alternatives/scraperapi - /best/web-scraping-api - /best/serp-api - /compare ## Agent skill for this page https://looot.ai/compare/scrapingbee-vs-scraperapi/skill.md sets an agent up for exactly the jobs on this page, with the live price of each, and offers the page's starter task once the user has picked a job and seen the price. The line to give an agent is under "Give this to your agent" below. ## For agents ### Give this to your agent ```text set up looot for ScrapingBee vs ScraperAPI jobs - https://looot.ai/compare/scrapingbee-vs-scraperapi/skill.md ```