# Crawl4AI vs ScrapingBee

Both fetch web pages through proxies and real browsers. ScrapingBee prices each call by the switches you set, with JavaScript on by default. Crawl4AI picks the effort for each page, charges for what it needed, never charges a failed call, and comes from the team that wrote the open-source crawler.
Facts last checked 12 Nov 2026

Crawl4AI vs ScrapingBee: the short answer
Crawl4AI picks the effort for each page and charges for what it needed: $0.10 per 1,000 plain pages, $0.50 browser, $2.00 hard. A ScrapingBee call renders JavaScript by default for 5 credits, and hard sites cost 25 credits with residential proxies or 75 with stealth. Crawl4AI charges nothing for a failed call, a blocked page or a 404; ScrapingBee bills 404 and 410 pages. Crawl4AI's extra credits never expire and it refunds within 14 days; ScrapingBee credits last one month and payments are non-refundable. One Crawl4AI key also crawls whole sites, returns Google results for 1 credit and runs 93 named-site recipes, and agents set it up from one message.

## Which one fits

Different tools fit different jobs. Here is when each one is the better choice.

### Choose ScrapingBee if

- You need screenshots of a page, viewport, one element or the full page, 5 credits each.
- You want scripted browser steps before the scrape: click, fill, scroll, wait. A scenario must finish within 40 seconds.
- Your tool only speaks proxy: ScrapingBee also runs as a proxy endpoint.
- You build in Make, n8n or Zapier and want a ready no-code node.

### Choose Crawl4AI if

- You build with AI agents: one message sets Crawl4AI up in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini CLI or OpenCode, and 17 MCP tools let the agent run recipes, price a call first and manage its budget.
- You want to pay for the work a page needed: the level is picked for each page, and a failed call, a blocked page or a 404 costs nothing. ScrapingBee bills 404 and 410 pages.
- You need whole sites from the API: /site crawls a site and /scan lists up to 50,000 URLs. ScrapingBee crawls from its CLI.
- You need named sites as rows: 93 recipes, 7 of them for LinkedIn, a profile for 1 credit.
- You want money that stays yours: 14-day refunds and extra credits that never expire. ScrapingBee credits are valid for one month.
- You need data in the EU, Singapore or the US, a team with an audit log from Builder, and a version inside your network on the same engine, Apache 2.0.

For enterprise teams

## The controls your security team asks for

Crawl4AI's Enterprise plan next to ScrapingBee's. ScrapingBee's side restates its own pages; click a line to see the quote.

| Control | Crawl4AI Enterprise | ScrapingBee Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| SSO (SAML, OIDC) | **✓ Yes** | Not published |
| SCIM user sync | **✓ Yes** | Not published |
| Teams, roles and audit log | **✓ From Builder ($99), no seat limit** | Teams from Business ($249); audit log not published |
| Zero data retention | **✓ Yes** | No page content logged; logs kept 14 days |
| IP allowlist and key limits | **✓ Yes** | Not published |
| Static exit IPs | **✓ Yes** | Not published |
| Where data is processed | EU, Singapore or US, your choice | Primarily the EU |
| Deployment | Cloud, dedicated fleet, inside your network, managed pipeline; one engine | Managed API; self-host not published |
| DPA and invoice billing | **✓ Every Enterprise plan** | Public DPA; invoices due in 30 days |
| Refunds | 14 days, if no credits were used | None |
| Status page | Hourly uptime per service, public | 8 components; 6 incidents, Aug to Nov 2026 |
| Uptime and response SLA | Typical: 99.9% a month; service down: first answer within 1 hour, 24/7; part broken: 4 business hours; a question: 1 business day; 5% of the month's fee back if missed, 10% under 99% | No availability commitment in the terms |
| Support | A named engineer | Account manager from Business ($249) |
| Security assurance | Controls monitored every day in Drata, with the evidence kept; dependencies watched for known vulnerabilities; SOC 2 audit by Sensiba under way, report target January 2027. Security pack on request: policies, audit status, DPA, questionnaire answers. | SOC 2 Type II, April 2026 |

## Same job, two calls

6 jobs an agent does every day. The call on each side, and the price of 1,000 of them at list. The label marks the side that costs less for that job.
**01 · One page to Markdown**a plain page
**Crawl4AI costs less$0.10/ 1,000

```
curl https://api.crawl4ai.com/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -d '{"url":"https://example.com","format":"md"}'
```

0.1 credit. $0.08 per 1,000 on Builder. A browser is used only when the page needs one.

**ScrapingBee $0.37–$1.27/ 1,000

```
curl --get 'https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://example.com' \
  --data-urlencode 'return_page_markdown=true'
```

5 credits by default, from Business + to Hobby. With render_js=false, 1 credit: $0.075–$0.25.

**02 · A whole site**1,000 plain pages
**Crawl4AI costs less$0.10/ 1,000

```
curl https://api.crawl4ai.com/site \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -d '{"url":"https://docs.example.com"}'
```

/site: 0.5 credit for the call, then each page at its /scrape price. Up to 500 pages a call; /scan lists up to 50,000 URLs.

**ScrapingBee $0.37–$1.27/ 1,000

```
scrapingbee crawl https://docs.example.com \
  --max-pages 1000
```

A CLI command on your machine; each page is an HTML API call, 5 credits by default. --max-pages does not cap discovery fetches.

**03 · A site that blocks bots**proxies and a real browser
**Crawl4AI costs less$2.00/ 1,000

```
curl https://api.crawl4ai.com/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -d '{"url":"https://hard-site.example",
       "proxy":"extra"}'
```

2 credits for a hard page ($1.58 on Builder); 8 if a rented residential address served it. A page we cannot get costs nothing.

**ScrapingBee $1.87–$19.00/ 1,000

```
curl --get 'https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://hard-site.example' \
  --data-urlencode 'mode=auto' \
  --data-urlencode 'max_cost=75'
```

25 credits with residential proxies, 75 with stealth. On Startup ($99): $2.48 or $7.43. Auto mode works on GET only.

**04 · Google results with AI overview**one query
**Crawl4AI costs less$1.00/ 1,000

```
curl "https://api.crawl4ai.com/serp?q=best+crm+software" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY"
```

/serp: Google's own results page as data, organic, ads, maps and AI overview, 1 credit.

**ScrapingBee $1.12–$3.80/ 1,000

```
curl --get 'https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/google' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'search=best crm software' \
  --data-urlencode 'light_request=false'
```

15 credits with AI Overviews, 10 without ($0.75–$2.53).

**05 · People at a company as rows**name, headline, location, profile link
**Crawl4AI costs less$1.50/ 1,000

```
curl https://api.crawl4ai.com/recipes/linkedin-company-people \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -d '{"company":"microsoft","limit":25}'
```

A LinkedIn recipe: 2 units + 1 per 50 people, 0.5 credit a unit. One of 93 recipes.

**ScrapingBee $281–$950/ 1,000

```
curl "https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/agentic_search?prompt=senior+data+scientists+at+large+tech+companies+in+the+US" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY"
```

3,750 credits a call, up to 20 profiles. A named employer is not reliably supported in beta.

**06 · Structured JSON from a page**your fields, filled by a model
**Crawl4AI $1.87/ 1,000

```
curl https://api.crawl4ai.com/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -d '{"url":"https://news.ycombinator.com",
       "instruction":"the top stories"}'
```

Median of real calls this week: 0.5 credit for the page plus the model's tokens. $1.48 on Builder.

**ScrapingBee costs less$0.75–$2.53/ 1,000

```
curl --get 'https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://news.ycombinator.com' \
  --data-urlencode 'ai_extract_rules={"stories":{"description":"the top stories","type":"list"}}'
```

5 credits for the page + 5 for AI extraction. 30 credits with residential proxies.

## Crawl4AI vs ScrapingBee, side by side

Each ScrapingBee cell restates ScrapingBee's own pages, read on 12 Nov 2026. Click it to see the quote and the page. "Not published" means those pages say nothing about it, not that it is missing.

|  | Crawl4AI Cloud | ScrapingBee |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing |  |  |
| How you pay | Credits in every plan: Free, Starter $10, Builder $99, Scale $499 | Hobby $19 to Business + $599; Enterprise to $5,799 |
| 1,000 plain / browser / hard pages | $0.10 / $0.50 / $2.00 | 1 / 5 / 25–75 credits: $0.048 to $19 |
| A call with no options | Level picked for each page; plain 0.1 credit | 5 credits, JavaScript on |
| Failed calls | Free, blocked pages and 404s included | 404 and 410 pages are billed |
| A page already cached | Half price | Not published |
| Unused credits | Extra credits never expire | Lost at the end of each month |
| Refunds | 14 days, if no credits were used | None |
| Hard sites |  |  |
| Choosing the level | Automatic on every call; the answer names the level | Switches you set, or auto mode on GET only |
| Residential addresses | `extra` level: 4x only on a page a residential address served | 10 or 25 credits a call; stealth 75 |
| What you get back |  |  |
| Formats | Markdown, HTML, links, media, metadata, tables; engine and cache on every answer | HTML by default; Markdown, text, JSON, screenshots |
| Whole site | /site deep crawl (500 pages a call); /scan up to 50,000 URLs | A CLI command on your machine |
| Search | /search 1 credit; Google results as data with /serp, 1 credit | Google 10 credits, 15 with AI Overviews |
| Named sites | 93 recipes; a LinkedIn profile 1 credit | 8 dedicated APIs, none for LinkedIn |
| Documents | PDF, Word and Excel; a PDF costs one page | Files up to 2 MB, returned as base64 |
| Change monitoring | Watch (beta) | CLI schedules |
| Agents |  |  |
| MCP | Hosted, no install; key or OAuth; 17 tools | Hosted; the key goes in the URL |
| Setup | One message sets it up in 7 coding agents | Cursor and Claude Desktop need a Node.js bridge |
| Agent budget | Estimate, balance, spend cap and top-up as tools; cost on every answer | A usage tool; estimate and spend cap not published |
| Open source |  |  |
| License | Apache 2.0, 87,236 GitHub stars | Closed service; CLI under MIT |
| Self-host | The same engine as the Cloud | Not published |

Crawl4AI's prices come from its live price list, GET /v1/prices. Prices change; check each product's own pricing page before you decide.

The trade-off

## What each one does better

### Where ScrapingBee does best

1. **Screenshots.** Viewport, one element or the full page as an image, 5 credits each.
2. **Scripted browser steps.** Click, fill, scroll and wait before the page is read, within 40 seconds.
3. **Proxy mode.** The API also works as a proxy endpoint for tools that only speak proxy.
4. **No-code nodes.** Ready integrations for Make, n8n and Zapier.

### Where Crawl4AI is the better choice

1. **Pay for the work, not the switches.** The level is picked for each page: 0.1 credit plain, nothing for a failed call, a blocked page or a 404, half price for a page we already hold.
2. **Money that stays yours.** Extra credits never expire, and a first payment or an extra-credit purchase is refundable for 14 days.
3. **Made for agents.** One message sets it up; 17 MCP tools with key or OAuth sign-in cover recipes, jobs, cost estimates and the budget.
4. **Built for enterprise.** Three regions, teams and an audit log from Builder, SSO and SCIM, whole-site crawls and 93 recipes on one key.

Switch in one prompt

## Move your ScrapingBee calls in minutes

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor or Codex in your project. It finds your ScrapingBee calls and moves them to Crawl4AI, one endpoint at a time, and keeps both working until you check the results.
Move this project's ScrapingBee calls to Crawl4AI Cloud. Read https://crawl4ai.com/llms.txt first. 1. Find every call to the ScrapingBee API or SDK. 2. Map each one: GET /api/v1/?url= → POST /scrape · render_js, premium_proxy, stealth_proxy → proxy: standard or extra · extract_rules, ai_extract_rules → POST /extract · CLI crawl → POST /site · /scan · CLI batch → POST /scrape/jobs · /api/v1/google → GET /serp · /api/v1/fast_search → GET /search · Amazon, Walmart, YouTube APIs → POST /recipes/{name} · /api/v1/agentic_search → POST /recipes/linkedin-company-people. 3. Read the key from CRAWL4AI_API_KEY (YOUR_CRAWL4AI_API_KEY). 4. Keep the old path behind a flag; compare 20 real URLs on both; show me the diff.

| ScrapingBee |  | Crawl4AI |
|---|---|---|
| GET /api/v1/?url= | → | POST /scrape |
| render_js, premium_proxy, stealth_proxy | → | proxy: standard or extra |
| extract_rules, ai_extract_rules | → | POST /extract |
| CLI crawl | → | POST /site · /scan |
| CLI batch | → | POST /scrape/jobs |
| /api/v1/google | → | GET /serp |
| /api/v1/fast_search | → | GET /search |
| Amazon, Walmart, YouTube APIs | → | POST /recipes/{name} |
| /api/v1/agentic_search | → | POST /recipes/linkedin-company-people |

From both products' docs, 12 Nov 2026.

## Using both

Not either-or. Both speak MCP, so one agent can hold both. A team could keep ScrapingBee for screenshots and scripted browser steps and use Crawl4AI for whole-site crawls, recipes and Google results.

## Frequently asked questions
How much does ScrapingBee cost?

ScrapingBee plans run from Hobby $19 (75,000 credits) to Business + $599 (8,000,000), with Enterprise plans up to $5,799. A call costs 1 credit with JavaScript off, 5 with it (the default), 25 with residential proxies and 75 with stealth. So 1,000 default calls cost $0.37 to $1.27. Crawl4AI charges by what the page needed: $0.10 per 1,000 plain pages, $0.50 browser, $2.00 hard.
Does ScrapingBee charge for failed requests?

Not for errors on its side or for blocks, but its FAQ says it charges for "a 200, 404 or 410 status code", so a missing page is billed. With transparent_status_code, every request is billed. Crawl4AI charges nothing for a failed call, a blocked page or a site's 404.
Do ScrapingBee credits roll over?

No. Its pricing page says "API credits are valid for one month and don't roll over." When credits run out, you upgrade or renew early. On Crawl4AI, extra credits are sold at the plan's rate and never expire, and a first payment is refundable within 14 days if no credits were used.
Can ScrapingBee crawl a whole website?

Not through its API: crawling is a command in its local CLI, and its MCP server has "no general CLI/crawl/batch/export tool". Crawl4AI has /site for a deep crawl (0.5 credit plus each page) and /scan for a site's page list, on the same key.
Does ScrapingBee have an MCP server?

Yes, with the key in the URL: it "uses the `api_key` query parameter, not a Bearer header or OAuth flow". Crawl4AI's hosted MCP signs in by key or OAuth and has budget tools (estimate, spend cap, top-up), so the agent can run its own spend.
Which is cheaper for 50,000 pages a month?

With 20% browser pages, 5% hard sites, 5% blocked pages and 10% repeat pages: Crawl4AI $12.41 (Starter plus extra credits), ScrapingBee $49 (Freelance), with JavaScript turned off on plain pages. Move the sliders above for your own mix.
Is Crawl4AI a self-hosted library where you bring your own proxies?

No. A ScrapingBee blog post describes only the open-source library, and its star count is out of date. Crawl4AI Cloud is a managed API in three regions with its own addresses, rented residential addresses and real browsers, a public price list, and /extract with no model key of your own. It has a hosted MCP server, and the open-source engine has 87,236 GitHub stars (GitHub, 2026-11-12).

Sources and method

1. [ScrapingBee pricing ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/)
2. [ScrapingBee HTML API: costs and billed statuses ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/llms/html-api.txt)
3. [ScrapingBee FAQ ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/faq/)
4. [ScrapingBee terms ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/terms-and-conditions/)
5. [ScrapingBee data processing agreement ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/data-processing-agreement/)
6. [ScrapingBee remote MCP ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/llms/remote-mcp.txt)
7. [ScrapingBee CLI ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/llms/cli.txt)
8. [ScrapingBee Google Search API ↗](https://www.scrapingbee.com/llms/google-search-api.txt)
9. [ScrapingBee status ↗](https://status.scrapingbee.com)
10. [Crawl4AI prices ↗](https://crawl4ai.com/v1/prices)
11. [Crawl4AI legal ↗](https://crawl4ai.com/legal/)

We read these pages on 12 Nov 2026. Crawl4AI's facts come from its live price list, docs and terms. Something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@crawl4ai.com and we fix it.