What is an overage rate?
An overage rate is the rule for charging usage after a plan’s included allowance has been consumed. It may be a fixed amount per extra unit, a separate credit purchase, an automatic plan renewal, or no overage at all. (Browserbase pricing, Scrapfly pricing, and ScraperAPI pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)
Overage rate across the APIs we track
| API | Plan | Past the allowance | Inside the allowance | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AgentQL | Professional | $15.00 per 1,000 requests | $9.90 per 1,000 requests inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Anchor Browser | Starter | $1.00 per credit | $1.00 per credit inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Bright Data SERP API | Scale | $1.30 per 1,000 requests | $1.31 per 1,000 requests inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Bright Data Web Unlocker and Web Scraper API | Web Unlocker Scale | $1.30 per 1,000 requests | $1.30 per 1,000 requests inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Browsable | Starter | $4.00 per 1,000 credits | $3.80 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Browse AI | Personal 2k | $30.00 per 1,000 credits | $24.00 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Browserbase | Developer | $0.12 per browser hour | $0.20 per browser hour inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Browserless | Prototyping | $2.00 per 1,000 credits | $1.75 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Diffbot | Startup | $1.00 per 1,000 credits | $1.20 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Firecrawl | Hobby | $5.00 per 1,000 credits | $3.80 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Hyperbrowser | Startup | $1.00 per 1,000 credits | $1.00 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 5, 2026 |
| Lightpanda Cloud | Builder | $0.08 per browser hour | $0.0633 per browser hour inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| ScrapeNinja | Pro | $1.00 per 1,000 requests | $0.25 per 1,000 requests inside the plan | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Scrapfly | Pro | $0.35 per 1,000 credits | $0.10 per 1,000 credits inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| serpstack | Basic | $23.99 per 1,000 searches | $6.00 per 1,000 searches inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Valyu | Ridiculously Cheap | $1.00 per credit | $0.81 per credit inside the plan | Oct 9, 2026 |
32 more APIs with a monthly plan publish no overage price: at the limit they stop, sell a top-up pack or move you to the next plan.
In more detail
The vendor examples below were read on the dates given in the text; the table above holds each vendor's current figure.
Overage matters because the cheapest plan inside its allowance may not be the cheapest plan for a workload that crosses the boundary. It also determines whether production continues, stops, or buys more usage automatically. A forecast that divides the subscription by its allowance but ignores the excess-use rule can miss both the invoice tail and the risk of a hard stop. (Scrapfly pricing, ScraperAPI pricing, and Firecrawl pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)
Browserbase publishes separate included allowances and additional-usage meters for browser hours, Search, Fetch, Extract, and residential proxy traffic. Developer and Startup apply different browser-hour and proxy-traffic overage rules, and Fetch or Extract pricing also changes when proxies are used. There is no single Browserbase overage rate that represents every workload. (Browserbase pricing, checked 2026-07-25.)
Scrapfly publishes no pay-as-you-go overage on its entry paid plan, while higher plans publish additional credit purchases at plan-specific rates. Its pay-as-you-go setting defaults to a cap of 125 percent of the monthly quota. Unused monthly credits do not roll over, so buying excess near renewal does not create a permanent balance. (Scrapfly pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)
ScraperAPI says Hobby, Startup, and Business stop at the plan credit limit unless the account upgrades. Pay-as-you-go is limited to Scaling and higher plans, but the public pricing page does not state a fixed unit rate for it. Treat that future unit cost as unknown rather than carrying forward the plan’s average credit cost. (ScraperAPI pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)
Firecrawl Standard publishes 2,000 extra credits per $5, bought in whole packs, while Scale directs higher-volume buyers to contact the vendor. Plan credits generally do not roll over, with stated exceptions for auto-recharge and some custom annual credits. (Firecrawl pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)
Before signing up, check the overage unit, rate, rounding, cap, and billing term for every meter you will use. Confirm whether overage is automatic, opt-in, or unavailable; whether alerts can fire before exhaustion; and whether a top-up expires or rolls over. Compare a higher plan with the full base-plus-overage total at your peak month, not just the typical month. (Browserbase pricing, Scrapfly pricing, ScraperAPI pricing, and Firecrawl pricing, checked 2026-07-26.)