Home / Cost to scrape / Bot protections / Site with reCAPTCHA
Cost to scrape a site with reCAPTCHA at 10K, 100K, and 1M
Scraping 100,000 pages with reCAPTCHA costs from $142.50 a month on Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API (Web Unlocker Pay as you go plan), which charges $0.0015 a page.
Check Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API's pricing
Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API checked Oct 12, 2026; each vendor's own page is linked with its rate.
- 10,000 a month
- $7.50Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go
- 100,000 a month
- $142.50Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Pay as you go
- 1,000,000 a month
- $1,100.20Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker Scale $999
How hard to scrape: Hard, with CAPTCHAs, bot fingerprinting and IP reputation checks in the way; JavaScript rendering not needed.
Target access and billing context
Access
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.
Protections in the way
Terms
No terms URL is recorded for this target.
What you scrape moves the bill more than who you buy from. A target that forces JavaScript rendering or a residential exit multiplies the meter before any plan is chosen.
What each API charges for a site with reCAPTCHA
1 API publishes a rate for a site with reCAPTCHA. Each figure is the cheapest of that API's current plans for the volume, from its own page.
| API | 10,000 a month | 100,000 a month | 1,000,000 a month | Costs | What you get | Choose a location | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper APIchecked Oct 12, 2026 | $7.50Web Unlocker Pay as you go | $142.50Web Unlocker Pay as you go | $1,100.20Web Unlocker Scale $999 | $0.0015 a page | HTML or parsed fields | Country | source |
How to tell a site uses reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA scores how likely a visitor is to be a bot; version 3 returns only a score for the site to act on, and version 2 passes the visitor or shows a picture challenge. hCaptcha works the same way from its own script. reCAPTCHA's own page, read Oct 11, 2026.
| Look for | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|
www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js script | reCAPTCHA's script for versions 2 and 3 (Enterprise loads enterprise.js); www.recaptcha.net serves the same. | source |
_GRECAPTCHA cookie | Set when reCAPTCHA runs, for its risk analysis. | source |
g-recaptcha-response form field | The form field that carries the token a passed check returns. | source |
js.hcaptcha.com/1/api.js script | hCaptcha's script, with an h-captcha-response field in the form. | source |
What a blocked request gets back: Nothing is blocked by reCAPTCHA itself: without a passing token the site decides what to do, usually refusing the form or showing a challenge.source
Whether a blocked request still costs credits depends on the API: most bill only successful requests, and each one's own rule for a 403, a 429 and a 5xx is quoted in the answer linked below.
Every way to get the data from a site with reCAPTCHA
No API documents an endpoint built for a site with reCAPTCHA; each one reaches it through its general scraping endpoint, at the rates above.
Official API: reCAPTCHA is a protection a site switches on, not a content platform; any official API belongs to the protected site.
Terms: There is no single terms document for sites behind reCAPTCHA; each protected site's operator sets its own content terms and access policy.
What the bill depends on
Getting past reCAPTCHA is bought as a mode, not as a separate product: a stealth or premium proxy, JavaScript rendering, or a named bypass, each with its own credits per request. The table prices the mode each API’s own pages name for reCAPTCHA. Most of these APIs bill only requests that come back with the page, so a failed attempt costs time rather than credits, but check the vendor’s rule before a large run.
Not in the table
Scrapfly sells a bypass for this protection, but its price is a floor rather than a rate: “Requests with the Unblocker start at 30 credits per call” (Scrapfly, read Oct 11, 2026). Cloud browsers price CAPTCHAs per solve rather than per page: Browserless charges 10 units for each successful solve and nothing for an attempt that fails (Browserless, read Oct 11, 2026), and Steel lists CAPTCHA solves at $3 per 1,000 on its Launch plan and $1 per 1,000 on Scale (Steel, read Oct 11, 2026), on top of the browser time each page takes.
Evidence to check before buying
- A mode that gets past reCAPTCHA on one site can fail on another, because each site sets its own rules; run a few hundred requests against your own target before you choose a plan.
- A price for getting past a protection is not permission to scrape the site behind it; the site’s own terms still apply.