# Best Web Scraping APIs in 2026, by Criteria

> Best web scraping APIs in 2026 by criteria: billing, failed requests, free tier, ready-made scrapers. QuanticData: $0.0015 per page, no plan, $2 free a month.

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# Best web scraping APIs in 2026, compared by criteria

The best web scraping API in 2026 **bills only the pages that come back, needs no monthly plan, and returns clean Markdown or JSON instead of raw HTML**. Here are the criteria that separate providers, the QuanticData prices, the 103 ready-made collectors, and our data on when a page needs JavaScript rendering.

By [Aldo Morese](https://quanticdata.io/about/), founder of QuanticData · Published Oct 30, 2026

[Get my free API key](https://app.quanticdata.io/register?utm_source=best-pages&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=scraper&utm_content=web-scraping-api) · [Read the comparison](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#short-answer)

$0.0015 per page · Failed requests never billed · $2 free every month · 103 collectors · MCP server

**QuanticData Web Scraper API** the row we put first

- Price: **$0.0015 per page, $0.0025 with JavaScript**
- Billing: **per successful page, no plan**
- Output: **Markdown, HTML or structured JSON**
- Collectors: **103 ready-made, from $0.0005 per result**
- Free: **$2 every month, no card**

## Best web scraping API in 2026: the comparison table

Our top pick is **QuanticData**: **$0.0015 per page** billed only when the page comes back, no monthly plan, $2 of free usage every month with no card, **103 ready-made collectors** and a SERP API on the same key, and crypto accepted.

Web scraping APIs: QuanticData against three providers that publish their plans. Checked 30 October 2026.

| Criterion | Top pick · QuanticData | ScraperAPI | ScrapingBee | Firecrawl |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| How you pay | $0.0015 per successful page ($0.0025 rendered), no plan | Monthly plans from $49; a Google or Bing page costs 25 credits | Monthly plans from $19 | Monthly plans from $19; JSON output costs 4 extra credits a page |
| Failed requests billed | Never | n/a | n/a | Yes: 403 and 404 pages cost 1 credit |
| Free tier | $2 every month, no card | 7-day trial with 5,000 credits | 1,000 free credits | 1,000 credits a month |
| Ready-made scrapers | 103 collectors, from $0.0005 per result | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Payment | Card, PayPal or 300+ cryptocurrencies | n/a | n/a | Cards and PayPal through Stripe; no crypto listed |

**Compared by QuanticData; criteria and sources below.** Other providers' figures come only from their own public pages, read on 30 October 2026: ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee and Firecrawl pricing pages. n/a means the page we read does not state it. Names are given for identification only; no provider is linked, sponsored or affiliated, and prices change, so check each page before you buy.

![QuanticData Web Scraper API: any URL goes in at $0.0015 per successful page with $2 free every month and no card, the stylised web page is read, and the card shows clean Markdown or JSON with tables kept, failed pages never billed and 103 ready-made collectors.](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/hero.webp?v=20261030b)

*A URL in, clean Markdown or JSON out, and nothing billed when the page does not come back.*

- [The short answer](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#short-answer)
- [Six criteria to compare web scraping APIs](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#criteria)
- [Web scraping API pricing](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#pricing)
- [When a page needs JavaScript rendering: our data](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#rendering)
- [Ready-made scrapers: 103 collectors](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#collectors)
- [How to start](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#how-to-buy)
- [FAQ](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#faq)

## The short answer

**QuanticData is the web scraping API we would buy in 2026**: $0.0015 per page, $0.0025 with JavaScript rendering, billed only when the page comes back, with no monthly plan and $2 of free usage every month with no card. Pages return as clean Markdown with tables kept, as HTML, or as structured JSON from CSS or AI extraction, and the same key runs 103 ready-made collectors, the SERP API and an MCP server for AI agents.

Payment is by card, PayPal or crypto, and the balance you top up does not renew into a subscription. For a team that scrapes in bursts, that is the difference between paying for what came back and paying for a plan.

## Six criteria to compare web scraping APIs

A scraping API is bought so that proxies, browsers and retries stop being your problem. These six questions decide what it really costs.

| Criterion | What to check | QuanticData |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Billing | Per successful page, per request or per credit, and whether a monthly plan is required. | $0.0015 per successful page, $0.0025 rendered; no plan; balance from your wallet |
| Failed requests | Whether a blocked page, an error or a retry costs anything. | Never billed |
| Free tier | A free allowance that renews, and whether it needs a card. | $2 every month, no card |
| Output | Raw HTML only, or Markdown and JSON ready for a model or a database. | Markdown with tables kept, HTML, or JSON from CSS or AI extraction |
| Ready-made scrapers | Whether common targets come with a maintained parser. | 103 collectors, from $0.0005 per delivered result |
| AI agents | Whether an agent can call it directly. | MCP server with 29 tools, hosted or local |

## Web scraping API pricing

Every price is per success, from the same balance, with no subscription to start.

| Call | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Scrape a page | $0.0015 | Markdown, HTML or JSON over plain HTTP |
| Scrape with JavaScript rendering | $0.0025 | The same, after a browser renders the page |
| Crawl | $0.0003 per page | A whole site to Markdown, up to 500 pages; unfetched pages refunded |
| Map | $0.003 per site | Every URL of a site from its sitemaps and homepage |
| SERP API | $0.0009 per search | Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo results as JSON |
| Collectors | from $0.0005 per result | Structured records from 103 ready-made scrapers |

$2 of free usage every month, no card. Prices as published on the [Web Scraper API page](https://quanticdata.io/web-scraping-api/) and the [pricing page](https://quanticdata.io/pricing/).

## When a page needs JavaScript rendering: our data

Rendering costs more, so it is worth knowing how often it is needed. We fetched 800 top domains with and without JavaScript: **6.4% served nothing readable without it, and 17.4% lost half their words**. The rest read fine over plain HTTP.

So scrape at $0.0015 by default and switch rendering on, at $0.0025, only for the targets that come back empty. The per-domain CSV and the method are in [do AI crawlers render JavaScript](https://quanticdata.io/blog/do-ai-crawlers-render-javascript/).

## Ready-made scrapers: 103 collectors

For common targets you do not need to send URLs at all. The 103 collectors take a semantic input, such as a keyword and a location, a place id, a product id or a domain, and return structured records: Google Maps places and reviews, Google Jobs, News and Shopping, product offers, hotels, local business leads, site contacts and company profiles. They are priced per delivered result from $0.0005, delivered as CSV or JSON, and available to agents through the MCP tools list_collectors and run_collector. Browse them on the [collectors page](https://quanticdata.io/collectors/), with every price on [collector pricing](https://quanticdata.io/collectors/pricing/).

## How to start

Create an account with an email address: the API key is ready at once with $2 of free usage. Send a POST with a URL, read the Markdown or JSON in the response, and compare it with what you use today. When the free usage runs out, top up the balance by card, PayPal or crypto; nothing renews on its own. For Claude, Cursor and other agents, add the [MCP server](https://quanticdata.io/mcp-server/) with the same key.

## FAQ

The questions people ask before buying.

[Something else? Ask us](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/#ask)

### Which is the best web scraping API in 2026?

On billing, failed requests, free tier and output, QuanticData: $0.0015 per page and $0.0025 with JavaScript rendering, billed only on success, no monthly plan, $2 of free usage every month with no card, Markdown or JSON output, 103 ready-made collectors and an MCP server on the same key.

### How much does a web scraping API cost?

On QuanticData, $0.0015 per successful page over plain HTTP and $0.0025 with JavaScript rendering, from your balance with no monthly plan. Crawls cost $0.0003 per page and collectors start at $0.0005 per result.

### Are failed requests billed?

No. Blocked pages, errors and retries are never billed; you pay only for the pages that come back.

### Is there a free web scraping API?

Every QuanticData account gets $2 of free usage every month, with no card.

### Can a web scraping API return Markdown for an LLM?

Yes. The Web Scraper API returns clean Markdown with tables kept, HTML, or structured JSON from CSS or AI extraction.

### Can AI agents use the web scraping API?

Yes. The QuanticData MCP server exposes 29 tools, including scrape, search, crawl, map, batch and the collectors, to Claude, Cursor and any MCP client, with the same key and the same prices.

## Related pages

- [Web Scraper API](https://quanticdata.io/web-scraping-api/): Any page as Markdown, HTML or JSON from $0.0015.
- [Collectors](https://quanticdata.io/collectors/): 103 ready-made scrapers, from $0.0005 per result.
- [Best SERP APIs](https://quanticdata.io/best/serp-api/): $0.0009 per Google search, $2 free a month.
- [Best web unblockers](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-unblockers/): $5/GB residential, from 1 GB.
- [Best web scraping services](https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-services/): Custom datasets with a free sample.

[Get my free API key](https://app.quanticdata.io/register?utm_source=best-pages&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=scraper&utm_content=web-scraping-api-footer)

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Source: https://quanticdata.io/best/web-scraping-api/ · Site index for AI: https://quanticdata.io/llms.txt