What 100,000 ScraperAPI credits actually buy: 100,000 pages or 1,333

Sanjaya Maharjan — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:42:28 +0000

Scraping API plans are sold in credits, not pages, and that gap is where budgets go wrong. ScraperAPI's Hobby plan is a good example: $49 a month for 100,000 API credits.

That is 100,000 pages only if every request costs 1 credit. Here is what the same plan buys at the credit costs ScraperAPI publishes.

Request type	Credits each	Requests on 100,000 credits	Cost per 1,000 requests
Standard page	1	100,000	$0.49
Amazon	5	20,000	$2.45
`render=true`	10	10,000	$4.90
`premium=true`	10	10,000	$4.90
Google or Bing	25	4,000	$12.25
`premium=true` + `render=true`	25	4,000	$12.25
LinkedIn	30	3,333	$14.70
`ultra_premium=true`	30	3,333	$14.70
`ultra_premium=true` + `render=true`	75	1,333	$36.75

The last column is the plan price divided by the requests it buys, so the same $49 ranges from $0.49 to $36.75 per 1,000 requests. That is a 75x spread, set by the kind of request and not by how many you send.

How do you find your real cost before paying?

Measure it. ScraperAPI returns an sa-credit-cost response header showing what each request cost, and there is a 7-day trial with 5,000 API credits and no credit card.

Send a sample of your real URLs, not the vendor's demo URL.
Log sa-credit-cost for each request.
Average it, multiply by your monthly volume, and pick the plan from that number.

Even at 25 credits a request, the trial covers 200 requests, which is enough to see your average.

What else changes the bill?

Only 200 and 404 responses are charged, according to the docs, so other failures do not burn credits.
Costs can move. The docs warn that domains may switch protection measures, which changes what a request costs. Re-check the header now and then instead of trusting one test.
Running out stops the job. By default, scraping pauses until your credits renew, so leave headroom.

If you would rather not do the math by hand, this ScraperAPI credit calculator turns a monthly volume and request type into credits and the smallest plan that covers them.

Sources, checked Nov 5, 2026: ScraperAPI's pricing page and credit cost docs. The per-1,000 figures are my own arithmetic from those numbers. Prices change, so confirm them before you buy.

Disclosure: I run ScrapeTools, the site with that calculator, and it carries a ScraperAPI affiliate link. This post was drafted with AI, and I have not benchmarked these request types myself.

DEV Community: Sanjaya Maharjan

What 100,000 ScraperAPI credits actually buy: 100,000 pages or 1,333

How do you find your real cost before paying?

What else changes the bill?