Residential and web-scraping proxies
ScraperAPI review
ScraperAPI is not a proxy seller, it is a managed scraping API: send it a URL, it handles proxies, retries and unblocking, and returns the page. That makes it genuinely easy to start with. The catches are that the credit costs multiply quickly, and an independent test put it well behind on the hardest targets.
| Starting price | request-based pricing |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | per-request / credits |
| Pool size | 5M+ residential |
| Free trial | Free plan, 1000 credits; 7-day trial of 5000 requests |
| Best for | web-scraping, managed-api |
Pricing checked 2026-06-21 from the official pricing page.
Model and pricing
You buy a monthly pool of API credits, from $49/mo for 100,000 credits. A plain request is one credit, but JavaScript rendering adds 10, premium residential adds 10, ultra-premium adds 30, and these stack, so real costs run well above the headline. Credits do not roll over, and you are charged even for blocked requests. Budget for the multipliers, not the sticker price.
What you get
A single endpoint with auto-retries, CAPTCHA and anti-bot handling, structured-data endpoints, and an async option. You write your own parsing. For standard scraping it removes a lot of infrastructure work, which is the whole appeal.
Performance on hard targets
Be careful here. In Scrapeway's June 2026 test on 12 hard anti-bot targets, ScraperAPI managed about 34% overall and failed outright on a few sites like Instagram and booking.com. That is a hard-target test, not the easy-endpoint number proxy networks quote, so it is not directly comparable, but it is a real warning: on the nastiest sites it can stall.
Geo and limits
Geotargeting is paywalled. The cheaper tiers are US and EU only; full country targeting needs the $299 Business plan, and it is country-level with no city or state. If precise geo matters, this is a limitation.
Getting in
Self-serve, no KYC. The free trial is 5,000 credits over 7 days, separate from a permanent 1,000-credits-a-month free plan. Easy to evaluate before you pay.
Where it fits
web-scrapingmanaged-api
The verdict
ScraperAPI is the easy on-ramp: $49 a month, one endpoint, no infrastructure. It is a fine choice for standard scraping where convenience beats control.
Go in clear-eyed about two things: the credit multipliers can make it pricier than it looks, and on the hardest anti-bot targets it underperformed badly in independent testing. For those targets, a strong proxy network with dedicated unblocking is the safer foundation.
FAQ
How much does ScraperAPI cost?
From $49/mo for 100,000 credits. But rendering, premium and ultra-premium requests multiply credit use and stack, so the real cost is usually higher than the headline.
Is ScraperAPI good for hard sites?
Inconsistently. An independent June 2026 test put it around 34% on 12 hard anti-bot targets, with outright failures on some. For those, a dedicated proxy network is more dependable.
Is ScraperAPI a proxy provider?
Not exactly. It is a managed scraping API that handles proxies and unblocking behind one endpoint, rather than selling raw proxy access.