Apify vs Firecrawl: web scraping API pricing compared
Updated 2026-11-06 · listed A to Z, not ranked
Apify and Firecrawl both turn websites into data for apps and AI agents, but they bill differently. Apify sells prepaid platform usage plus per-Actor pricing from its store; Firecrawl sells monthly credits where 1 credit is roughly one scraped page.
Listed A to Z, quoted from apify.com/pricing and firecrawl.dev/pricing on Nov 6, 2026. Not a ranking.
- Free tier
- Free $0 with $5/month to spend, no credit card
- Entry paid plan
- Starter $19/mo + pay as you go ($19 to spend)
- Mid plans
- Scale $199/mo; Business $999/mo; Enterprise custom
- Billing unit
- Compute unit $0.2 (Starter) to $0.13 (Business); store Actors priced per event and/or usage
- Pay without an account
- Yes: prepaid capped token via x402 or MPP at agi.apify.com
- Free tier
- 1,000 credits/month, no card
- Entry paid plan
- Hobby $19/mo ($16/mo yearly), 5,000 credits
- Mid plans
- Standard $99/mo ($83 yearly), 100k credits; Growth $399/mo ($333 yearly), 500k; Scale $749/mo ($599 yearly), 1M
- Billing unit
- 1 credit per page scraped or crawled; Search 2 credits per 10 results
- Pay without an account
- Not listed on the pricing page
How we checked: Quoted from each official pricing page on Nov 6, 2026 (monthly billing unless stated). The billing units differ (Apify: dollars of usage and compute units; Firecrawl: credits), so the rows are not like for like. Confirm on each site before you buy.
Measured by us: the x402 endpoints
We call these x402 endpoints daily without paying and read the HTTP 402 reply. Not a ranking.
How the two bill
- Apify plans are prepaid usage: Starter at $19 includes $19 to spend on Actors, then pay as you go. Each store Actor uses its own model, for example the Instagram Scraper at $2.30 per 1,000 results on Starter, per apify.com/pricing.
- Firecrawl plans are credit buckets shared across Scrape, Crawl, Map, Search and Interact. JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits per page. Extra credits are sold in $5 packs (1,000 per $5 on Hobby, 5,000 per $5 on Scale).
Need per-call scraping an agent can pay in USDC? See Firecrawl alternatives and best search and scraping APIs.
FAQ
Is Apify or Firecrawl cheaper?
We do not pick a winner: Apify bills prepaid usage and per-Actor fees, Firecrawl bills credits per page. Both list a $19 monthly entry plan on Nov 6, 2026 (Apify Starter; Firecrawl Hobby, $16/mo billed yearly).
Does Firecrawl have a free plan?
Yes, 1,000 credits a month with no card, which Firecrawl equates to 1,000 pages scraped or 500 searches.
Can an AI agent pay Apify in USDC?
Apify’s pricing FAQ describes paying through x402 or MPP at agi.apify.com for a prepaid, capped API token without an account.
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-06)
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