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What it costs to scrape past each bot protection
100,000 pages a month cost from $99.00 behind Cloudflare and DataDome to $142.50 behind AWS WAF, HUMAN (PerimeterX), Imperva, Kasada and reCAPTCHA, each on the cheapest API that names that protection.
Every protection here has at least one API that prices getting past it by name: 10 APIs in all. Each bill is the cheapest of that API's current plans, worked out from its own pricing page.
| Protection | 100,000 pages | Cheapest API | APIs that price it by name | How hard | Look for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | $99.00 | Decodo Web Scraping API, JavaScript rendering, standard proxies, $99 plan | 10 APIs | Very hard | __cf_bm, cf_clearance |
| DataDome | $99.00 | Scrape.do, residential proxies, Pro | 8 APIs | Very hard | datadome, js.datadome.co/tags.js |
| Akamai | $119.00 | HasData, JavaScript rendering, datacenter proxy, Basic | 6 APIs | Very hard | bm_sv, _abck, bm_sz |
| AWS WAF | $142.50 | Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go | 1 API | Very hard | aws-waf-token |
| HUMAN (PerimeterX) | $142.50 | Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go | 7 APIs | Very hard | _px, _px2, _px3, _pxvid, _pxhd |
| Imperva | $142.50 | Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go | 3 APIs | Very hard | Pardon Our Interruption |
| Kasada | $142.50 | Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go | 3 APIs | Very hard | see its page |
| reCAPTCHA | $142.50 | Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go | 1 API | Hard | www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js, _GRECAPTCHA |
What the levels mean: Easy means no protection is recorded; moderate, rate limits or fingerprinting without CAPTCHAs; hard, CAPTCHAs and IP checks that usually call for residential proxies; very hard, all of that plus measures such as TLS fingerprinting, a login wall in front of most data or honeypot links.
What each API charges, protection by protection
The rate each API's own pages give for a request to a site behind that protection. "Not named" means the API's pages do not price that protection by name; it may still fetch the site at its general protected rate.
| API | Cloudflare | DataDome | Akamai | HUMAN (PerimeterX) | Imperva | Kasada | AWS WAF | reCAPTCHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 |
| HasData | 10 credits JavaScript rendering, datacenter proxy | 10 credits JavaScript rendering, datacenter proxy | 10 credits JavaScript rendering, datacenter proxy | 15 credits JavaScript rendering, residential proxy | not named | not named | not named | not named |
| Scrape.do | 5 credits headless browser 25 credits | 10 credits residential proxies | 25 credits residential proxies and headless browser | 25 credits residential proxies and headless browser | not named | not named | not named | not named |
| ScrapeOps | 10 credits Cloudflare level 1, low security 25 credits Cloudflare level 2, medium security 40 credits Cloudflare level 3, high security | 40 credits DataDome bypass | not named | 25 credits PerimeterX bypass | 25 credits Incapsula bypass | not named | not named | not named |
| ScraperAPI | 10 credits Cloudflare Bypass 10 credits Cloudflare Turnstile Bypass | 10 credits DataDome Bypass | 10 credits Akamai Bypass | 10 credits PerimeterX/Human Bypass | not named | not named | not named | not named |
| WebScraping.AI | 50 credits stealth proxy 25 credits residential proxy and JavaScript | 50 credits stealth proxy | 50 credits stealth proxy | 50 credits stealth proxy | not named | not named | not named | not named |
| ZenRows | 25× its standard page rate JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | 25× its standard page rate JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | not named | not named | 25× its standard page rate JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | 25× its standard page rate JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | not named | not named |
| ScrapingBee | 75 credits stealth proxy | 75 credits stealth proxy | not named | 25 credits premium proxy with JavaScript rendering | not named | not named | not named | not named |
| Decodo Web Scraping API | $0.75 per 1,000 JavaScript rendering, standard proxies $1.50 per 1,000 JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | not named | not named | not named | not named | $1.50 per 1,000 JavaScript rendering and premium proxies | not named | not named |
| ScrapingAnt | 125 credits headless browser and residential proxy 10 credits headless browser, datacenter proxy | not named | 125 credits headless browser and residential proxy | not named | not named | not named | not named | not named |
Before you pay to get past one
- Check which protection it is. Each protection's page lists what its maker's own documentation says it leaves on a page, such as a cookie name, so you can confirm it in your browser's developer tools before choosing a rate.
- Check what a block costs you. Most APIs bill only successful requests, but not all, and some count a 403 or a CAPTCHA page as delivered. Each API's own rule, quoted.
- A rate is not permission. An API that can get past a protection does not make scraping the site behind it allowed; the site's own terms still apply.