ScrapingBee review
Best SERP plus page scraping
ScrapingBee is a general-purpose scraping API with a Google Search endpoint attached, rather than a SERP specialist that also scrapes. That ordering matters: if your work is a mix of search results and arbitrary pages, this is one API key, one billing meter and one mental model for both, which most of this directory cannot offer.
Pricing is in credits, and the credit cost is set by how much machinery a request needs rather than by what you are fetching.
A plain request is cheap, the default headless browser with JavaScript is 5 credits, a premium proxy without JavaScript is 10, a premium proxy with JavaScript is 25, and the stealth proxy is 75. Search engines are named in the docs among the targets that need premium proxies, so budget a Google SERP at 10 or 25.
Auto-Mode is the part worth understanding before you compare anything. Rather than making you guess which configuration a target needs, ScrapingBee tries them in order and charges only for the one that succeeded, and charges nothing at all if every configuration fails. A max_cost parameter caps how expensive it is allowed to get. Nothing else in this directory turns that guess into a billing policy.
Our scorecard
Our editorial read across six dimensions, scored 1 to 5. This is our own assessment, not an aggregate of user reviews, and it is deliberately kept out of the page's structured data.
- Data coverage4/5
Any page on the web plus a dedicated Google Search endpoint. Broad by construction rather than by dataset.
- Pricing4/5
Transparent per configuration, and Auto-Mode plus free failures makes the effective rate better than the headline.
- Documentation5/5
Exceptionally clear on cost, which is rare. Every configuration's credit price is documented.
- Ease of integration5/5
One endpoint, an API key, and parameters that read like what they do. A CLI exists too.
- Reliability4/5
Concurrency from 25 to 400 by tier, with retries and proxy rotation handled for you.
- Support4/5
Priority email support on every paid plan, with an account manager from the $249 tier.
An editorial read, not an aggregate of user reviews, and deliberately kept out of this page's structured data.
What you can pull
HTML API
5 credits with JS rendering
The rendered page for any URL, with proxy rotation, retries and JavaScript execution handled. The core of the product
Google Search API
Premium proxy rates apply
Structured Google SERP results through a dedicated endpoint rather than by parsing the page yourself
Auto-Mode
1, 5, 10, 25 or 75 credits
Tries configurations in ascending cost and charges only for the one that worked. Zero credits if all of them fail
Premium and stealth proxies
10 without JS, 25 with, 75 stealth
Residential and stealth routing for targets that block datacentre traffic, which the docs name search engines among
Extraction rules
No extra credits
CSS or XPath rules applied server-side, so you get structured fields back rather than HTML to parse
Screenshots
Standard request cost
Full-page or viewport screenshots of any target, useful for visual monitoring and audit trails
Usage endpoint
Free
Your own credit consumption, so a pipeline can monitor its burn rate rather than discover it at renewal
Who ScrapingBee is for
Teams whose scraping is mixed: some search results, some arbitrary pages, some screenshots, all through one key and one meter. That is a common shape and most of this directory handles it badly, either by being a SERP specialist that cannot fetch a page or a platform that meters six products separately.
It is not the cheapest way to collect Google SERPs at scale. If SERPs are all you need, a specialist will be several times cheaper per result. What you are paying for here is not having to run two providers.
Strengths and limits
What it does well
- Auto-Mode charges only for the configuration that worked and nothing at all when every configuration fails, which is the most buyer-friendly billing model in this directory.
- max_cost puts a hard ceiling on what a single request may cost, so a difficult target fails cheaply rather than silently consuming 75 credits.
- Credit costs are documented per configuration, which makes the bill genuinely forecastable once you know your target mix.
- One API for SERPs, arbitrary pages, screenshots and server-side extraction rules, on one key and one meter.
- Only successful requests are charged, defined as those returning 200, 404 or 410.
- Every plan includes JavaScript rendering, premium proxies, geotargeting and the Google Search API rather than gating them behind tiers.
- 1,000 free credits with no card, which at 5 credits a rendered request is 200 real tests.
- A usage endpoint so a pipeline can watch its own consumption.
Where it falls short
- A Google SERP is not one credit. Search engines need premium proxies, so budget 10 credits without JavaScript rendering and 25 with it.
- That makes it expensive for pure SERP volume: at 10 credits, the $19 Hobby plan is roughly 7,500 searches, against tens of thousands elsewhere for similar money.
- It is a subscription with a monthly credit allowance rather than pay as you go, so irregular volume wastes credits.
- Credit cost varies by configuration, so a target that starts needing stealth proxies can multiply your consumption fifteenfold without any change on your side.
- Prices are exclusive of VAT, which is not reflected in the plan cards.
- Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are not exposed as endpoints, which leaves answer-engine tracking to other tools.
- Beyond the SERP itself there is nothing: keyword volumes, backlink data and rank-tracking storage all need another vendor.
- Effectively no public practitioner discussion, because the main venue for it removes vendor threads.
ScrapingBee pricing
Monthly plans with a credit allowance: Free gives 1,000 credits, Hobby $19 gives 75,000 with 25 concurrent requests, Freelance $49 gives 250,000 with 50, Startup $99 gives a million with 100, Business $249 gives three million with 200, and Business+ $599 gives eight million with 400. Prices exclude VAT.
The number that decides your real cost is the credit price per request, and it depends on configuration rather than target. The default headless browser with JavaScript is 5 credits. A premium proxy without JavaScript is 10, with JavaScript 25, and the stealth proxy 75. Since ScrapingBee's own documentation names search engines among the sites requiring premium proxies, a Google SERP should be budgeted at 10 credits, or 25 if you need rendering.
That maths is worth doing before comparing headline plan prices. At 10 credits a search, the $19 Hobby plan is about 7,500 SERPs and the $99 Startup plan about 100,000. A SERP specialist will beat both comfortably on price per result.
What pulls the effective cost back down is Auto-Mode. It tries configurations in ascending order of cost, bills only for the one that worked, and bills nothing when none of them do.
Combined with max_cost, which caps how far it may climb, that removes both the guesswork and the tail risk of an expensive configuration being applied silently. On a mixed workload of unknown targets it is a materially better model than paying a flat premium rate on every request.
Free / Hobby
$0 / $19 per mo
1,000 and 75,000 credits
- Free tier needs no card and is enough to test properly
- Hobby allows 25 concurrent requests
- At 10 credits a SERP, Hobby is roughly 7,500 searches
- All plans include JS rendering, premium proxies and geotargeting
Freelance / Startup
$49 / $99 per mo
250,000 and 1,000,000 credits
- 50 and 100 concurrent requests respectively
- Startup is marked Recommended
- At 10 credits a SERP, Startup is around 100,000 searches
- Screenshots, extraction rules and the Google Search API throughout
Business / Business+
$249 / $599 per mo
3,000,000 and 8,000,000 credits
- 200 and 400 concurrent requests
- Adds a dedicated account manager and team management
- Prices are exclusive of VAT
- Higher volumes are a sales conversation
Request example
A minimal call against the live endpoint, with credentials read from the environment rather than pasted inline.
curl -s -G "https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/" \ --data-urlencode "api_key=$SCRAPINGBEE_API_KEY" \ --data-urlencode "url=https://www.google.com/search?q=best+crm" \ --data-urlencode "mode=auto" \ --data-urlencode "max_cost=25" # Auto-Mode climbs the ladder until something works and bills only # for the configuration that succeeded: 1, 5, 10, 25 or 75 credits. # If every configuration fails, the request costs 0. # # max_cost=25 permits premium-proxy-with-JavaScript but forbids the # 75-credit stealth proxy, so a hard target fails cheaply instead of # quietly costing 15x a normal request.
Rate limits and quotas
- Free: 1,000 API credits, no card required.
- Hobby $19/mo: 75,000 credits, 25 concurrent requests.
- Freelance $49/mo: 250,000 credits, 50 concurrent requests.
- Startup $99/mo: 1,000,000 credits, 100 concurrent requests.
- Business $249/mo: 3,000,000 credits, 200 concurrent requests.
- Business+ $599/mo: 8,000,000 credits, 400 concurrent requests.
- Credit costs: 5 for the default headless browser with JavaScript, 10 for premium proxy without JavaScript, 25 for premium proxy with JavaScript, 75 for stealth proxy.
- Auto-Mode charges only the successful configuration, and 0 credits if all configurations fail.
- Only successful requests are billed, meaning those returning 200, 404 or 410.
- All prices are exclusive of VAT.
What practitioners say on Reddit
Searching the SEO and scraping subreddits for ScrapingBee turned up no usable practitioner discussion. As recorded on the Bright Data and Oxylabs pages in this directory, the reason is structural: r/webscraping has its moderators remove threads about paid scraping tools, freemium ones included, to stop vendors using the subreddit for promotion.
The practical effect is that the whole scraping-vendor category has far less public peer evidence than its size would suggest, and what survives is disproportionately vendor-adjacent. That is worth knowing when you research any provider in this part of the directory, not just this one.
Where ScrapingBee does appear is inside build posts in automation communities, as one component among several rather than as a subject in its own right. That is consistent with what it is, and it is not enough to characterise a sentiment from.
Verdict
Choose ScrapingBee when your scraping is mixed rather than pure SERP work. One key and one meter covering search results, arbitrary pages, screenshots and server-side extraction is genuinely convenient, and the documentation is the clearest in this directory about what anything actually costs.
Auto-Mode is the reason to prefer it over a flat-rate unblocker. Paying only for the configuration that succeeded, paying nothing when none does, and capping the ceiling with max_cost turns the central guess in scraping into a policy decision. On a workload of unfamiliar targets, that predictability beats a marginally lower headline rate.
Do the credit arithmetic before buying it for SERPs specifically. At 10 credits a search, the $19 plan is around 7,500 searches, and a specialist will be several times cheaper per result. This is the right tool when the SERP is one of several things you need, and the wrong one when it is the only thing.
ScrapingBee FAQ
How much does ScrapingBee cost?
Hobby is $19 a month for 75,000 credits, Freelance $49 for 250,000, Startup $99 for a million, Business $249 for three million and Business+ $599 for eight million, with concurrency rising from 25 to 400. There is a free tier of 1,000 credits and all prices exclude VAT.How many credits does a Google SERP cost?
Budget 10 credits without JavaScript rendering and 25 with it. ScrapingBee's documentation names search engines among the sites needing premium proxies, and premium proxy requests cost 10 credits without rendering and 25 with. A plain rendered page, by contrast, is 5.What is Auto-Mode?
ScrapingBee tries configurations in ascending order of cost until one succeeds, then charges only for that one: 1, 5, 10, 25 or 75 credits. If every configuration fails, the request costs zero. It removes the need to guess in advance how much machinery a target requires.What does max_cost do?
It caps how expensive Auto-Mode is allowed to get. Setting max_cost=25 lets it reach premium-proxy-with-JavaScript but forbids the 75-credit stealth proxy, so a very hard target fails cheaply rather than quietly consuming fifteen times a normal request's credits.Does ScrapingBee charge for failed requests?
No. Only successful requests are billed, defined as those returning a 200, 404 or 410 status. In Auto-Mode, a request where every configuration fails costs zero credits, which is the most buyer-friendly failure policy in this directory.Is ScrapingBee good value for SERP data?
Not compared with a specialist. At 10 credits a search, the $99 Startup plan is roughly 100,000 SERPs, where a dedicated SERP provider will do considerably more for the money. ScrapingBee earns its price when search results are one part of a mixed scraping workload.What concurrency do I get?
25 concurrent requests on Hobby, 50 on Freelance, 100 on Startup, 200 on Business and 400 on Business+. That scales predictably with tier, though it is a cap rather than the unlimited concurrency Bright Data offers at a comparable price point.ScrapingBee or a dedicated SERP API?
A dedicated SERP API if search results are all you need, on price alone. ScrapingBee if you also need arbitrary pages, screenshots or extraction rules, because running one provider with one meter and one failure model is worth real money in engineering time even when the per-result price is higher.
Other providers worth a look
This is an independent review. We have no affiliate relationship with ScrapingBee, earn nothing if you sign up, and no provider pays for placement in the directory. Prices were read from the vendor's own pages in September 2026 and change without notice.