# Bright Data Pricing Explained: What 1,000 Results Really Cost in Three Live Tests

> Bright Data pricing by product, tier and billing unit, with three live tests: Amazon, TikTok and Google, priced per 1,000 results. Plus 4 alternatives.

- Canonical page: https://everyinfra.com/en/blog/bright-data-pricing-explained
- Published: 2026-11-09T03:06:00+08:00 · Fact-checked: 2026-11-09T01:30:00+08:00

Bright Data charges $1.50 per 1,000 records for its Web Scraper API on pay as you go. On November 9, 2026 (SGT), we pulled the same three kinds of data through EveryInfra. For a single Amazon product page, we charge $1.389 per 1,000 products. That is only 7.4% below Bright Data's pay-as-you-go rate, and it is above its Scale overage rate of $1.30.

An Amazon search list cost $0.0447 per 1,000 products, and a TikTok keyword search cost $0.0111 per 1,000 posts. That is 33.5 times and 135 times lower. But these two numbers compare different things. On the Bright Data side, we compare the Amazon products and TikTok - Posts scrapers with keyword search. Its docs say that these scrapers open each search result and collect the full page, and each result is one record. On our side, one result is one row of the search result page.

For Google search, we charge $0.694 per 1,000 requests. Bright Data's pay-as-you-go rate is 2.2 times ours, and its $1,999 monthly tier is only 1.44 times ours.

> **Key points**
>
> - The "starts from" price in the Bright Data menu is 1.5 to 3.2 times lower than the pay-as-you-go price. Web Scraper API: $0.75 vs $1.50 per 1,000 records. Residential proxies: $2.5 vs $8 per GB list price.
> - Single Amazon product pages differ by only 7.4% ($1.50 vs $1.389). A search for 50 products plus 50 product pages costs $1.434 per 1,000 products on our side. That is only 4.4% lower.
> - Some jobs need only the fields on the search result page. For these jobs, compare per 1,000 results. Amazon search list: $1.50 vs $0.0447 (33.5x). TikTok posts: $1.50 vs $0.0111 (135x). Instagram posts: $1.50 vs $0.00278 (540x). On the Bright Data side, each record is a full page. On our side, each result is one row of a list.
> - For Google top 100 results, Bright Data costs $0.015 per 1,000 results and we cost $0.0694.
> - The Scale plan costs $499 per month for 384,000 records. Below about 333,000 records per month, it costs more than pay as you go. Unused commitment does not roll over.
> - We sent 22 requests. 12 were charged, for a total of $0.012112. The other 10 requests (9 errors and 1 async result fetch) cost nothing.

This article is the long version of our [Bright Data alternative page](/alternatives/brightdata). That page gives the short facts: $1.50 per 1,000 records, a $499 Scale plan and 5,000 free credits each month. It has no live tests. Here, we break the Bright Data bill down by product and by tier. We use the pricing pages and docs that we read on the test day. Then we convert 22 live EveryInfra calls from the same day into US dollars per 1,000 results.

If you are looking for a Bright Data alternative, you probably want two answers. How much can you save? And when should you not switch at all? Each section below gives the formula and the source. For general web scraping, read our [Firecrawl alternatives price comparison](/blog/firecrawl-alternatives) first. That article puts Bright Data's Web Unlocker next to six other scraping services.

![Isometric illustration of two meters side by side on a table. The left meter is a large gray machine with three dials and a paper receipt. An hourglass and a measuring jug stand next to it, for billing by traffic, by time and by count. The right meter is a small box with one dial, one short receipt and a teal light. Between the two machines lies the same small stack of white cards, ready to go out.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/img-explain.webp)

Bright Data uses five billing units: per record, per request, per GB, per IP and per page load. We bill per request, and the catalog shows how many results each request returns.

## Bright Data pricing at a glance: eight products, five billing units

The most common question about Bright Data prices is simple: what does it charge for? The answer is different for each product. On November 9, 2026, between 00:20 and 00:40 SGT, we read the [main pricing page](https://brightdata.com/pricing) and each product pricing page. The table below shows only public numbers. For monthly plans, we use the three tiers in each page's slider.

The "starts from" column is the number after "Starts from" in the pricing menu. The "pay as you go" column is the Pay as you go box on each product page. These two numbers are often different. The next section explains the gap.

| Product | Billing unit | Free tier | Pay as you go | Monthly tiers (fee / included / overage) | Menu "starts from" |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Web Scraper API](https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-scraper) | Per 1,000 records | 5,000 records per month | $1.50 | $499 / 384,000 records / $1.30 | $1 struck out, $0.75 |
| [SERP API](https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp) | Per 1,000 successful requests | 5,000 requests per month | $1.50 | $499 / 380,000 / $1.30; $999 / 900,000 / $1.10; $1,999 / 2,000,000 / $1.00 | $1 |
| [Web Unlocker](https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker) | Per 1,000 successful requests | 5,000 requests per month | $1.50 | $499 / 383,000 / $1.30; $999 / 908,000; $1,999 / 2,000,000 | $1 |
| [Browser API](https://brightdata.com/pricing/scraping-browser) | Per GB | About 1 GB per month | $8/GB | $499 / 71 GB / $7; $999 / 166 GB / $6; $1,999 / 399 GB / $5 | $5/GB |
| [Residential proxies](https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/residential-proxies) | Per GB | Not in the monthly free tier | $8/GB list ($4 with a 50% coupon) | $499 / 141 GB / $7; $999 / 332 GB / $6; $1,999 / 798 GB / $5 | $5 struck out, $2.5 |
| [Datacenter proxies](https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/datacenter-proxies) | Per IP per month | None | — | 10 IPs for $14 ($1.4/IP) up to 1,000 IPs for $900 ($0.9/IP) | $0.9/IP |
| [ISP proxies](https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/isp-proxies) | Per IP per month | None | — | 10 IPs for $18 ($1.8/IP) up to 1,000 IPs for $1,300 ($1.3/IP) | $1.3/IP |
| [Datasets](https://brightdata.com/pricing/datasets) | From 100,000 records | Free samples | $250 one time for 100,000 records | Save 25%, 50% or 80% with half-yearly, quarterly or monthly updates | $250 per 100,000 |

Three points in this table change the bill directly. First, the billing units are not the same. Web Scraper API bills per delivered record. SERP API and Web Unlocker bill per successful request.

Browser API and residential proxies bill per GB. Datacenter and ISP proxies bill per IP. [Scraper Studio](https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-scraper/studio) bills per page load, at $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go.

A project that uses ready-made scrapers and its own scraping code can see three or four units on one bill. You must convert them yourself into "dollars per 1,000 usable results".

Second, every Scale tier starts at $499, but each product has its own monthly fee. It is not one fee per account.

Third, the [MCP server](https://brightdata.com/pricing/mcp-server) has its own price list. It gives 5,000 free requests per month, then $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go. The hosted browser costs $8/GB on top.

![Horizontal bar chart of the ratio between the Bright Data menu "starts from" price and the pay-as-you-go price for five products. Web Scraper API 2.0 times ($0.75 to $1.50 per 1,000). SERP API 1.5 times ($1.00 to $1.50). Web Unlocker 1.5 times ($1.00 to $1.50). Browser API 1.6 times ($5 to $8 per GB), residential proxies 3.2 times ($2.5 to $8 per GB, the longest teal bar). The subtitle notes a 50% coupon on the residential page that brings pay as you go to $4 per GB.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/fig-01-headline-vs-payg-bar.en.light.svg)

## "Starts from" vs what you pay in month one: a gap of 1.5 to 3.2 times

The five bars in the chart above compare the menu price with the pay-as-you-go price. For Web Scraper API, the menu shows "$1 struck out, $0.75 per 1,000". The price that you can buy directly on the pricing page is $1.50. The Scale overage price is $1.30. The public [llms.txt file](https://brightdata.com/llms.txt) also says "From $0.75/1K records" and notes that the prices are starting prices.

We found the slider data in the HTML of three pricing pages. SERP API and Web Unlocker each have tiers at $499, $999 and $1,999. Their overage prices are $1.30, $1.10 and $1.00.

So "from $1" means the $1,999 monthly tier. The Web Scraper API slider shows only the Scale tier. The $0.75 price does not appear in the body of that pricing page. We think it belongs to a larger enterprise tier or a time-limited discount. The page does not say this, so we do not treat it as a price that you can buy.

Residential proxies show the largest gap. The menu says "$5 struck out, $2.5 per GB". The pay-as-you-go price on the residential pricing page is $8/GB. The page also shows the coupon code RESIGB50, which cuts the price by 50% to $4/GB. The three monthly tiers list $7, $6 and $5 per GB, for $499, $999 and $1,999 per month. They include 141, 332 and 798 GB.

On October 13, 2026, technology.org published a [residential proxy price comparison](https://www.technology.org/2026/10/13/best-residential-proxies-in-2026-what-six-providers-actually-charge/). It recorded the same list prices. It also noted that the 50% coupon applied for 3 months when the authors wrote the article. A small team that uses tens of GB per month will pay between $4 and $8 per GB. The final price depends on the coupon and on the renewal price after 3 months. It is not the $2.5 in the menu.

This does not mean that Bright Data shows a wrong price. A "starts from" price is the price of the cheapest tier. The risk is in your budget.

Suppose that you plan a year at $0.75 per 1,000 records, but you never reach the enterprise tier. Your real bill will be two times your budget. We suggest that you always plan with the pay-as-you-go price. Then use your monthly volume to decide on the Scale plan. The next section calculates that break-even point.

## When does the Scale plan pay off? About 333,000 records per month

The Web Scraper API Scale plan costs $499 per month. It includes 384,000 records, and each extra 1,000 records cost $1.30. At full use, the average is $499 ÷ 384 = $1.2995 per 1,000. That is 13.4% below the pay-as-you-go price of $1.50. But the $499 fee does not go down when you use less.

At $1.50 per 1,000 records, you reach $499 at 332,667 records. With the 5,000 free records, the point moves to 337,667. Below about 333,000 records per month, the Scale plan costs more than pay as you go.

The chart below shows the monthly bill for three ways to buy. Pay as you go already subtracts the free 5,000 records per month, which are worth $7.50. The chart also shows the Scale plan and two EveryInfra lines. One line is `amazon/profile`, which gets one product page per request. The other is `amazon/search`, which returns a list of 50 products per request.

![Line chart. The horizontal axis is records per month in thousands, from 0 to 600. The vertical axis is the monthly bill in US dollars. Bright Data pay as you go is a straight line from 0 that reaches about $892.50 at 600 thousand records. Bright Data Scale is a dashed line that stays at $499 up to 384 thousand records. Then it adds $1.30 per 1,000 and reaches $779.80 at 600 thousand. The chart marks 332.7 thousand records, the break-even point before the free tier. With the free tier, the lines cross a little later, at 337.7 thousand. EveryInfra product pages (amazon/profile) is a dotted line just below pay as you go, at $833.40 for 600 thousand. EveryInfra search list (amazon/search) stays near the axis, at $26.83 for 600 thousand.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/fig-04-scale-breakeven-line.en.light.svg)

| Records per month | Bright Data pay as you go (after free tier) | Bright Data Scale | EveryInfra `amazon/profile` | EveryInfra `amazon/search` |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 100,000 | $142.50 | $499.00 | $138.90 | $4.47 |
| 300,000 | $442.50 | $499.00 | $416.70 | $13.42 |
| 400,000 | $592.50 | $519.80 | $555.60 | $17.89 |
| 600,000 | $892.50 | $779.80 | $833.40 | $26.83 |

Look at the teal dotted line first. Suppose that you need single Amazon product pages, with one request for each ASIN. Our `amazon/profile` costs $0.001389 per request, or $1.389 per 1,000 products. That line stays very close to Bright Data's pay-as-you-go line. Above 384,000 records, it costs more than the Scale plan.

This is the only one of our three scenarios with no clear price advantage for us. The section "When Bright Data is the better choice" comes back to this point.

The search list is different. Suppose that you need the products on a search result page, with title, price, rating, rating count and ASIN. Then `amazon/search` returns 50 products per request and charges $0.002236. That is $0.0447 per 1,000 products, and its line stays almost flat on the axis.

Two more rules decide whether a monthly plan pays off. First, unused commitment does not roll over. The Bright Data [billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/billing) say that the minimum monthly commitment is charged on the 1st of each month. If the account is active for the full month, the unused part does not move to the next month.

The docs give an example: an account opens on June 25 with a $500 commitment. June costs 20%, or $100. On July 1, the balance goes back up to $500.

Second, the billing day follows UTC. If the bank decides that a card chargeback has no valid reason, Bright Data charges a fee of $150 for each chargeback. For projects with volume that goes up and down, pay as you go is often the safer choice.

| Scale tier | Monthly fee | Included | Per 1,000 at full use | Overage per 1,000 | Below $1.50 by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Web Scraper API Scale | $499 | 384,000 records | $1.30 | $1.30 | 13.4% |
| SERP API $499 tier | $499 | 380,000 requests | $1.313 | $1.30 | 12.5% |
| SERP API $999 tier | $999 | 900,000 requests | $1.11 | $1.10 | 26.0% |
| SERP API $1,999 tier | $1,999 | 2,000,000 requests | $1.00 | $1.00 | 33.4% |

## Bright Data proxy pricing per GB and per IP: three price lists

Bright Data started as a proxy network. Proxies are still the biggest difference between Bright Data and us. Residential proxies bill by traffic. The [billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/billing) and the proxy pricing FAQ say that traffic counts all bytes to and from the target site. This includes request headers, POST data, response headers and the response body. So the same page can cost several times more with images or without compression.

Datacenter and ISP proxies bill per IP per month:

| IPs per month | Datacenter | Datacenter per IP | ISP | ISP per IP |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 10 | $14 | $1.40 | $18 | $1.80 |
| 100 | $100 | $1.00 | $145 | $1.45 |
| 500 | $475 | $0.95 | $700 | $1.40 |
| 1,000 | $900 | $0.90 | $1,300 | $1.30 |

| Proxy type | Billing | Pay as you go / smallest tier | Largest self-serve tier | Account gate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Residential (rotating) | Per GB | $8/GB list, $4/GB with coupon | $1,999 per month for 798 GB ($5/GB list) | KYC review; not part of the 5,000 free monthly credits |
| Datacenter | Per IP per month | 10 IPs, $14 per month | 1,000 IPs, $900 per month | Shared pool can also bill per GB |
| ISP (static residential) | Per IP per month | 10 IPs, $18 per month | 1,000 IPs, $1,300 per month | Shared pool can also bill per GB |

Residential proxies have a gate that the price table does not show: KYC. The proxy pricing FAQ says that you must pass a compliance review before you use the residential or mobile network. The review can include a video call and checks on company or personal data. The [residential proxy docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/residential/introduction) also say that full residential access opens after KYC.

The [release notes](https://docs.brightdata.com/release-notes) of October 19, 2026 ended "instant access" to the residential network without a review. Residential proxies with no KYC and no use for 3 months were deleted. On October 24, a second note followed. The remaining instant-access residential and mobile proxies must move to ISP proxies or Web Unlocker. Bright Data removes them from accounts from November 9, 2026, which is our test day.

Proxies also do not use the 5,000 free monthly credits. The [free tier docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/free-tier) give a separate one-time $2 trial credit for proxies. You get $5 more when you add a payment method.

We must be clear about our side. We read our [proxy catalog](https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/proxy/catalog) at 00:14 SGT on November 9, 2026. It lists five proxy types: rotating residential, static residential, IP list, unlimited residential and cross-border relay. All five show `available: false`. That means customers cannot buy them today.

We sell requests, not traffic. You send one `amazon/search` call, and we return 50 structured results. Your bill does not include the exit IP, the number of retries or the traffic that we use. Suppose that your project needs a pool of residential IPs to run your own scraper. Then Bright Data has a ready product for this, and we have nothing to compare.

## Free tier and deposit match: what 5,000 credits are worth

The Bright Data [free tier docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/free-tier) say that each new account gets 5,000 credits per month. They are worth about $7.50. You do not need a card. The credits reset on the 1st of each month, and unused credits expire.

The free tier docs give a credit cost for each product:

| Product | Credits | What 5,000 credits buy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Web Scraper API | 1 per record | 5,000 records |
| SERP API | 1 per request | 5,000 requests |
| Web Unlocker | 1 per request | 5,000 requests |
| Scraper Studio | 1 per page load | 5,000 page loads |
| Browser API | 5 per MB | Almost 1 GB |
| Proxies | Not included | Separate $2 trial credit, plus $5 with a payment method |

This free tier started with the June 2026 release notes. The [quickstart for coding agents](https://docs.brightdata.com/quickstart-coding-agent) says that Browser API joined the free tier on September 1, 2026. Accounts on a monthly plan do not get this free tier.

The second source of free money is the deposit match. The [billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/billing) say that Bright Data matches your first deposit 1:1, up to $500. You must use the bonus within 90 days. You must also spend at least $5 per month, or Bright Data can take back the rest of the bonus.

At the Web Scraper API pay-as-you-go price, a $500 bonus buys 333,333 records. If you use only half of it in 90 days, you lose the other half. Each pricing page shows the line "first deposit matched, up to $500" at the top. The Web Scraper API page also shows a time-limited code: 40% off Scraper API for the first 3 months (code API60). The [promo code docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/promo-codes) explain the order. The free tier comes first, and then the discounted pay-as-you-go price applies.

We compared Bright Data's own public files line by line. Two statements do not agree, so check the real price in your account before you plan. First, [brightdata.com/llms.txt](https://brightdata.com/llms.txt) says that the free tier does not include proxies or Browser API. The free tier docs and the quickstart say that Browser API is included.

Second, llms.txt calls the MCP server "Free". The [MCP pricing page](https://brightdata.com/pricing/mcp-server) shows 5,000 free requests per month, then $1.50 per 1,000. The [MCP docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/mcp-server/overview) also say that MCP shares the same 5,000 credits with other products. Our reading is this: MCP has no separate access fee, but each call is billed as usual.

| Topic | One Bright Data source says | Another Bright Data source says |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Browser API in the free tier | llms.txt: not included | Free tier docs and quickstart: included since September 1, 2026 |
| MCP price | llms.txt: "Free" | MCP pricing page: 5,000 free per month, then $1.50 per 1,000 |
| SERP async polling | SERP billing docs: only the request is billed | Sync vs async page: each poll is metered |

Our trial works in a different way, and the [pricing page](/pricing) explains it. Star two GitHub repositories, and you can claim a $1 trial credit in the console. It is valid for 24 hours. After you top up, your balance does not expire.

At our measured prices, $1 buys about 22,400 Amazon search list products (447 `amazon/search` calls). It also buys about 1,440 Google searches with 10 results each. For the same kind of data, the two free tiers are of a similar size. The difference comes from the unit price after the free tier.

## When you still pay: bad input, custom headers and SERP polling

![Screenshot of the "Billing and plans" part of the Bright Data Scraper API FAQ. The first question, "Is there a free trial?", says that each new account gets 5,000 free credits per month. The answer to the second question, "How is the Scraper API priced?", has a teal box. It says that billing is per delivered record, and that records that fail because of bad input are still billed because the request used resources. It also gives the prices as of September 2026. Pay as you go is $1.50 per 1,000 records. The Scale plan is $1.30 per 1,000 above the included volume.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/img-brightdata-billing.webp)

The Bright Data docs say that records with bad input are still billed. We added the teal box. Screenshot taken on November 9, 2026, SGT. [Screenshot of the Bright Data Scraper API FAQs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/faqs)

"Pay only for success" is the most common line on the Bright Data pricing pages. But the docs show three exceptions.

The first exception is in the screenshot above. The [Scraper API FAQ](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/faqs) says that billing is per delivered record. Records that fail because of bad input are still billed, because "the request used resources". The same page says that an empty snapshot usually contains error records. The cause can be bad input, blocked access or a page that no longer exists.

The second exception is custom headers and cookies. The [Web Unlocker configuration docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/web-unlocker/configuration) and the [SERP billing docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/pricing-and-billing) both say this. When you turn on this option, Bright Data bills 100% of requests, both successful and failed.

The third exception is SERP async polling, and here two docs disagree. The SERP billing docs and the pricing FAQ say that async mode bills only the request that you send. Getting the result is free. But the [sync vs async page](https://docs.brightdata.com/concepts/sync-vs-async) has a warning box. It says that each SERP API poll is metered, and it tells you to use a webhook or to poll at most once per minute.

We have no Bright Data account, so we cannot test which page is correct. The safe choice is a webhook.

Our rules are on the [pricing page](/pricing) and in the `billing` field of each response. Authentication errors and parameter errors cost nothing. Failed requests and empty results get an automatic refund. The table below lists every request in our November 9, 2026 run that cost nothing. There are 10: one 401, one 422, three 429, four 503 and one async result fetch. Each response shows `charged_usd` as 0, shows `charged` as false, or says "Nothing was charged" in the error text.

| Time (SGT) | Capability | What happened | HTTP | Charge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 00:15:39 | `web` | No API key | 401 | $0 |
| 00:18:49 | `web` | Test key over its limit of 10 requests per minute, retry after 11 seconds | 429 | $0 |
| 00:19:36 | `amazon/profile` | Same key over its limit, retry after 24 seconds | 429 | $0 |
| 00:21:12 | `amazon/search` | Parameter `keyword` typed as `keywrd` | 422 | $0 |
| 00:21:24 | `google_shopping/search` | Service temporarily unavailable, retry after 60 seconds | 503 | $0 |
| 00:21:41 | `instagram/user_posts` result fetch | Async job done with 200 posts; the charge was made at submit, and the fetch is free | 200 | $0 |
| 00:21:42 | `amazon/profile` | ASIN B0ZZZZZZZ9 does not exist, failed after 19.2 seconds | 503 | $0 (automatic refund) |
| 00:22:51 | `tiktok/search` | Same key over its limit, retry after 9 seconds | 429 | $0 |
| 00:24:49 | `amazon/reviews` | Service temporarily unavailable | 503 | $0 |
| 00:25:26 | `google_shopping/search` | Second failure of the same request, "failure 2 of 3", retry after 60 seconds | 503 | $0 |

All three 429 responses came from the limit of 10 requests per minute on our test key, not from the default account limit of 60. Each response gives a `retry_after` value in seconds and a maximum number of retries. The two `google_shopping/search` 503 responses count the failures in a row. At failure 3, the response tells you what to check.

Compare this with the Bright Data [async requests docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/async-requests). There, a 429 means more than 5,000 running jobs. If one IP gets 25 responses with 429 in 5 minutes, Bright Data blocks that IP for 1 hour. The docs tell you to read `Retry-After` first, or else to wait 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 seconds. On both sides, a 429 costs nothing. The trigger and the result of many 429 responses are different.

![Screenshot of three real EveryInfra API responses as code cards. The first card is amazon/search for wireless earbuds with limit 50, at 00:15:51 SGT on 2026-11-09. It shows HTTP 200, and a teal box marks count 50 and charged_usd 0.002236. Only the first two products are shown. The second card is google_shopping/search with HTTP 503 and error code unavailable, with a hint to retry after 60 seconds. A teal box marks charged false and charged_usd 0. The third card is HTTP 422 for the misspelled parameter keywrd, with error code missing_param. A teal box marks the line "Nothing was charged." in next_steps.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/img-api-response.webp)

One success, one service failure and one misspelled parameter, with the charge fields in each response. Screenshot taken on November 9, 2026, SGT. [Screenshot of real EveryInfra API responses](https://api.everyinfra.com/openapi.json)

One call looked like an error but was not an error. At 00:20:05 SGT, we called `amazon/profile` with the ASIN `B000000000`, which has only zeros. We wanted to test a product that does not exist. The call returned 200 and charged $0.001389. On Amazon, this number really opens a product page. The title is a snack, the category is pens and refills, and the item is out of stock.

At 00:22:13 SGT, we used `read` to open the same URL, for $0.000694 more. The page exists, and the item is out of stock. This shows two things. First, input that looks wrong is not always missing on the platform, and the charge follows what the platform returns. Second, check your ASINs before a large batch. The same advice applies to Bright Data, which bills records with bad input.

## Scenario 1: Amazon products, $0.0447 per 1,000 list items and $1.389 per 1,000 product pages

On November 9, 2026, Bright Data's [scrapers.json](https://docs.brightdata.com/scrapers.json) listed 5 ready-made scrapers for amazon.com. They are Amazon Reviews, Amazon products, Amazon products global dataset, Amazon products search and Amazon sellers info. All of them bill per record at the Web Scraper API price, with one record per product. The [Amazon price monitor tutorial](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/tutorials/amazon-price-monitor) sends daily price, rating and stock data for a set of SKUs to S3. In that output, the price field is `final_price`, and it can be empty when the item is out of stock.

On our side, two capabilities on the [Amazon platform page](/amazon-api) match this job. [`amazon/search`](/amazon-api/search) returns the products on a keyword search page. The catalog says that it returns 10 results by default and 50 at most, for $0.002236 per request.

At 00:15:51 SGT on November 9, 2026, we searched for "wireless earbuds" with limit 50. The call took 47.5 seconds, returned 50 products and charged $0.002236. At 00:25:40 SGT, we searched for "standing desk". The call took 45.1 seconds, returned 50 products and charged the same $0.002236. Both calls work out to $0.0447 per 1,000 products. That is 33.5 times below Bright Data's pay-as-you-go price and 29 times below its Scale overage price of $1.30.

| Time (SGT) | Capability | Input | Time | Results | `charged_usd` | Per 1,000 results |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 00:15:51 | `amazon/search` | wireless earbuds, limit 50 | 47.5 s | 50 | 0.002236 | $0.0447 |
| 00:25:40 | `amazon/search` | standing desk, limit 50 | 45.1 s | 50 | 0.002236 | $0.0447 |
| 00:16:50 | `amazon/profile` | B0BDHWDR12 | 70.6 s | 1 | 0.001389 | $1.389 |
| 00:20:05 | `amazon/profile` | B000000000 | 21.4 s | 1 | 0.001389 | $1.389 |
| 00:24:49 | `amazon/reviews` | B0BDHWDR12 | 24.7 s | 0 (503) | 0 | — |

[`amazon/profile`](/amazon-api/profile) gets one product page from a product URL. At 00:16:50 SGT, we requested the AirPods Pro 2nd generation (B0BDHWDR12). The call took 70.6 seconds. It returned a price of $234.46, a 4.7 rating, 57,992 ratings and "in stock". It charged $0.001389.

The word "record" does not mean the same thing on both sides. The Bright Data [Scraper API FAQ](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/faqs) has two kinds of scrapers. A collect scraper takes URLs and gets the detail page behind each URL. A discover scraper takes a search input, such as a keyword or a category URL. It finds the results, then opens each result and collects its data.

In scrapers.json, Amazon products and TikTok - Posts both have `discover_by_keyword`. The Web Scraper API pricing page defines a record as "one extracted item, shown as a row in the table".

So a Bright Data keyword search for the top 50 Amazon products delivers 50 full product records. On pay as you go, that costs $0.075. The [async requests docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/async-requests) have `limit_per_input`, which sets a maximum number of records for each keyword. This is the most direct way to control this bill. The FAQ also describes a discover mode that returns only URLs and does not open each page. The docs do not say how Bright Data bills that mode.

One `amazon/search` result is one product on a search result page. The catalog field notes say this: when the main data source is unavailable, the call uses a backup source with at most 20 results. In that case, brand, stock, category, description, seller, features, images and best-seller rank can be missing. What did we get on the test day? We counted the 100 products from our two `amazon/search` calls. The table shows how many products had a value in each field.

| Field | 00:15:51 "wireless earbuds", 50 products | 00:25:40 "standing desk", 50 products | Total (of 100) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| asin, title, url, brand, features, images, in_stock | 50 | 50 | 100 |
| rating, rating_count | 49 | 49 | 98 |
| seller_name | 47 | 50 | 97 |
| price | 45 | 50 | 95 |
| category | 46 | 49 | 95 |
| bestseller_ranks | 47 | 48 | 95 |
| list_price (price before discount) | 21 | 28 | 49 |
| description | 10 | 2 | 12 |

Neither call used the backup source. Brand, features, seller and best-seller rank, which the notes say can be missing, had values for 95 or more of 100 products. The fields that were most often empty were description (12 of 100) and list price (49 of 100). A product with no discount has no list price. The `amazon/profile` call at 00:16:50 SGT returned 16 fields. It had no seller, best-seller rank, description or list price, and its category was empty.

The sample record in the Bright Data [Amazon price monitor tutorial](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/tutorials/amazon-price-monitor) has `title`, `asin`, `brand`, `final_price`, `rating`, `reviews_count`, `availability` and more. The tutorial says "Your values will differ", and it shows only part of the output. We have no account, so we cannot confirm how many fields one full record has.

So pick by job. Suppose that you track price and rating for the top 50 products of 1,000 keywords each day. Then the list is enough, at $0.0447 per 1,000 products.

Now suppose that you track full product pages for 1,000 chosen ASINs each day. Then you need `amazon/profile`, at $1.389 per 1,000 products. That is only 7.4% below Bright Data's pay-as-you-go price.

Maybe you want the same flow as a Bright Data discover scraper: search first, then get each product page. On our side, that is one `amazon/search` call and 50 `amazon/profile` calls. The cost is $0.002236 + 50 × $0.001389 = $0.071686, or $1.434 per 1,000 products. That is only 4.4% below Bright Data's $0.075, and it is above the Scale overage price of $1.30. In these cases, other factors decide the choice.

![Grouped horizontal bar chart on a log scale with five groups. In each group, the gray top bar is the Bright Data pay-as-you-go price and the teal bottom bar is the EveryInfra measured price. Amazon search list $1.50 vs $0.0447. Amazon single product page $1.50 vs $1.39. TikTok keyword search $1.50 vs $0.0111. Instagram account posts $1.50 vs $0.00278. Google search per 1,000 requests $1.50 vs $0.694. The subtitle says that the gap goes from 1.1 times to 540 times.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/fig-02-per1k-scenarios-bar.en.light.svg)

We must also report a problem with Amazon reviews. At 00:24:49 SGT, we called `amazon/reviews`. After 24.7 seconds, it returned 503 "service temporarily unavailable" and charged nothing. One day earlier, for our Firecrawl article, four `amazon/reviews` calls also failed.

Bright Data's Amazon Reviews scraper is in scrapers.json. If you need Amazon reviews this week, Bright Data is the safer choice. When our capability is back, the [Amazon platform page](/amazon-api) will show it.

## Scenario 2: TikTok and Instagram posts, $0.0111 and $0.00278 per 1,000

Social media shows the largest price gap. Bright Data's scrapers.json lists 8 scrapers for tiktok.com. They cover posts, comments, profiles and a fast version that gets posts from a search URL. It lists 4 scrapers for instagram.com: comments, posts, profiles and Reels. All of them cost $1.50 per 1,000 records.

On our side, [`tiktok/search`](/tiktok-api/search) costs $0.000556 per request, and the catalog lists a maximum of 200 results. At 00:18:13 SGT on November 9, 2026, we searched for "skincare routine" with limit 200. The call took 23.8 seconds and returned 50 posts. At 00:23:05 SGT, we searched for "protein snacks". The call took 32.4 seconds and also returned 50 posts. Each call charged $0.000556.

Based on the 50 posts that came back, the price is $0.0111 per 1,000 posts. That is 135 times below Bright Data's pay-as-you-go price. Note the divisor. We use the 50 posts that came back, not the limit of 200 in the request. With 200 as the divisor, our price would look 4 times lower than it is.

[`tiktok/user_videos`](/tiktok-api/user_videos) gets the video list of one account. At 00:20:39 SGT, we requested the Duolingo account with limit 50. The call took 20.8 seconds, returned 50 videos and charged $0.000556. That is also $0.0111 per 1,000.

[`tiktok/comments`](/tiktok-api/comments) gets the comments under one video. At 00:26:37 SGT, we requested one Duolingo video with limit 200. The call took 53.7 seconds, returned 200 comments and charged $0.000556. That is $0.00278 per 1,000. Bright Data has a ready TikTok - Comments scraper at $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go, so the gap is 540 times. Our [TikTok comment scraping guide](/blog/how-to-scrape-tiktok-comments) explains how to get all pages of comments and how to expand replies.

Instagram runs as an async job. The catalog marks [`instagram/user_posts`](/instagram-api/user_posts) as async. At 00:19:19 SGT, we submitted the National Geographic account with limit 200. After 4.9 seconds, the call returned 202 and a `poll_url`, and it charged $0.000556. At 00:21:41 SGT, we polled the job. It had succeeded with 200 posts, and `billing_state` showed charged.

| Time (SGT) | Capability | Input | Results | `charged_usd` | Per 1,000 results | Bright Data pay as you go |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 00:18:13 | `tiktok/search` | skincare routine, limit 200 | 50 | 0.000556 | $0.0111 | $1.50 |
| 00:23:05 | `tiktok/search` | protein snacks, limit 200 | 50 | 0.000556 | $0.0111 | $1.50 |
| 00:20:39 | `tiktok/user_videos` | duolingo, limit 50 | 50 | 0.000556 | $0.0111 | $1.50 |
| 00:26:37 | `tiktok/comments` | one Duolingo video, limit 200 | 200 | 0.000556 | $0.00278 | $1.50 |
| 00:19:19 | `instagram/user_posts` | natgeo, limit 200 | 200 | 0.000556 | $0.00278 | $1.50 |

For 200 posts, the price is $0.00278 per 1,000. That is 540 times below Bright Data's pay-as-you-go price. Polling itself costs nothing. This is the opposite of the Bright Data SERP warning that "each poll is metered".

As with Amazon, these multiples compare records of different depth. A TikTok - Posts keyword search on Bright Data is also a discover scraper that opens each post. You can count what one of our results holds.

The 100 posts from our two `tiktok/search` calls have 28 fields each. Views, likes, comments, shares, saves and author follower count have values in all 100 posts, and hashtags in 92. The 200 Instagram posts have 15 fields each. Likes, comments and post time have values in all 200, and a video URL in 108 (the others are photo posts). The 200 TikTok comments have 12 fields each, and 24 of them are replies with the ID of the parent comment.

If these counts and text are what you need, the list is enough, and the 135x and 540x figures apply to you. If you need fields that are not in the list, or you must save the video and image files, those figures do not apply. First list the fields that you need. Then count how many calls each side needs and how many records each side bills.

The Bright Data FAQ also lists two limits for social data. They do not change the price, but they change what you get. Media links in Instagram output expire after 24 hours, so you must download images and videos in that window. TikTok media opens only with a token from the same session, so store the records and not the media URLs.

These two rules also apply to our links, because they are platform rules. Any archive project must save media files on the day that it gets the data. The vendor does not change this.

## Scenario 3: Google search results, $0.694 per 1,000 requests, but Bright Data is cheaper per result for the top 100

Google search shows the smallest gap of our three scenarios. It is also the easiest one to calculate wrong. Bright Data's SERP API bills per 1,000 successful requests. Pay as you go costs $1.50. The three monthly tiers work out to $1.313, $1.11 and $1.00 per 1,000.

In our [search tools catalog](https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/search/tools), the `web` tool costs $0.000694 per call. Each call returns at most 10 results. For more results, you ask for the next page. At 00:19:05 SGT on November 9, 2026, we searched for "bright data pricing" and set the count to 100. The call took 1.9 seconds and returned 10 results, because values above 10 return 10. It charged $0.000694.

At 00:22:37 SGT, we searched for "bright data alternatives". The call took 1.6 seconds, returned 10 results and charged the same $0.000694. Per 1,000 requests, that is $0.694. Bright Data's pay-as-you-go price is 2.2 times ours. Its $1,999 monthly tier is 1.44 times ours.

![Horizontal bar chart on a log scale of the price per 1,000 Google search requests, from low to high. EveryInfra web $0.69 (teal). Bright Data $1,999 monthly tier $1.00. $999 monthly tier $1.11. $499 monthly tier $1.31. Bright Data pay as you go $1.50. Firecrawl Hobby search (2 credits per 10 results) $7.60. ScraperAPI Hobby (25 credits per Google request) $12.25.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/fig-03-serp-per1k-bar.en.light.svg)

The answer flips when you need the top 100 rankings and count per result. The Bright Data [Top 100 Google Results docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/get-top-100-google-results) say that one successful call counts as one billed request, at any depth. At $1.50 per 1,000 requests, 100 results per call costs $0.015 per 1,000 results.

| Job | Bright Data SERP API, pay as you go | EveryInfra `web` | Lower price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Top 10, per 1,000 searches | $1.50 | $0.694 | EveryInfra, 2.2x |
| Top 10, per 1,000 searches, $1,999 tier | $1.00 | $0.694 | EveryInfra, 1.44x |
| Top 100, per 1,000 results | $0.015 | $0.0694 | Bright Data, 4.6x |

We return 10 results per call. For the top 100, you need 10 pages and 10 charges. That is $0.0694 per 1,000 results, or 4.6 times the Bright Data price. For SEO rank tracking that needs the top 100 for each keyword, Bright Data is the better deal. For the top 10 only, or for search inside an AI agent, we cost less per request. This top-100 feature went offline for a short time in June 2026 and came back on June 11, according to the [release notes](https://docs.brightdata.com/release-notes).

Bright Data also has a [Google Scraper API](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/google/introduction) that bills per record. It covers Maps, Shopping, search results, AI Mode, flights and hotels. The docs say that it returns up to 100 organic results per call. They also say that the 5,000 free monthly credits get "up to 5,000 Google records".

The docs do not say whether one keyword search counts as one record or one hundred records. Before you set up rank tracking, run one search with your free credits in the control panel. Check how many records it billed. Then choose between SERP API and Google Scraper API.

For speed, the [SERP API introduction](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/introduction) gives less than 1 second per request. Our two `web` calls took 1.9 and 1.6 seconds. Those times include the network round trip from Singapore, so the two services are in the same range.

SERP has two more conditions beyond the price. The first is the rate limit. The Bright Data [SERP rate limit docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/usage-monitoring/serp-rate-limit) say that SERP has a rate limit since January 2026. An account with no deposit gets 1,000 requests per minute and gets 429 above that. A deposit or a talk with sales can raise the limit.

Each EveryInfra account gets 60 requests per minute by default. A 30-day speed pack or a higher total top-up raises the limit (see the [pricing page](/pricing)). For thousands of searches per minute, Bright Data's default limit is much higher.

The second condition is the price of other services. The [ScraperAPI credit docs](https://docs.scraperapi.com/credits-and-requests) say that Google and Bing cost 25 credits per request. On the Hobby plan, $49 buys 100,000 credits, so the price is $12.25 per 1,000. Firecrawl's [billing docs](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/billing) charge 2 credits per 10 search results. On the [Hobby plan](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), $19 buys 5,000 credits, so the price is $7.60 per 1,000. Our [search API comparison for AI agents](/blog/best-web-search-api-for-ai-agents) compares more vendors and more factors.

## Speed, payment and account gates: three things outside the price table

Price is only half of the bill. The other half is wait time, payment and reviews. Start with speed. The Bright Data [Scraper API limits page](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/limits) says that a sync request waits up to 1 minute. After that, the job becomes an async snapshot, and you use the snapshot ID to get the result. If one source IP gets 25 responses with 429 in 5 minutes, Bright Data blocks that IP for 1 hour.

The table below gives our measured times on the test day.

| Capability | Calls | Time per call | Results per call |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `amazon/search` | 2 | 47.5 s and 45.1 s | 50 |
| `amazon/profile` | 1 | 70.6 s | 1 |
| `tiktok/search` | 2 | 23.8 s and 32.4 s | 50 |
| `tiktok/user_videos` | 1 | 20.8 s | 50 |
| `tiktok/comments` | 1 | 53.7 s | 200 |
| `instagram/user_posts` (async) | 1 | About 2 min 20 s from submit to a successful poll | 200 |
| `web` | 2 | 1.9 s and 1.6 s | 10 |

E-commerce and social sites are slow targets. Neither service answers them in one second. Only search needs answers in seconds, and the previous section compared it.

For payment, the Bright Data [payment methods docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/payment-methods) list credit cards, PayPal, Alipay, Payoneer, Google Pay and Apple Pay. Large customers can also pay by wire transfer or buy through Amazon Marketplace. For US companies that already buy through AWS, the Marketplace option is a real benefit. The cost can go on the existing cloud bill.

The account gate is mainly for residential and mobile proxies. As we said above, they need KYC. Our test day was also the day when Bright Data removed instant-access proxies with no review. The docs do not say that accounts with only Web Scraper API, SERP API and Web Unlocker need KYC.

Our side has fewer gates, but its limits are harder. Each account gets 60 requests per minute by default. A 30-day speed pack or a higher total top-up raises it. There is no monthly commitment, so there is no unused commitment to lose. We do not sell proxies today.

Before a large batch, compare your concurrency needs with our limit. At 60 requests per minute and 50 results per request, one hour gives up to about 180,000 Amazon list items or TikTok posts. That is enough for most monitoring jobs. It is not enough for projects that need millions of records per hour. For those projects, Bright Data's concurrency limits fit better.

## One month of data: 100,000 Amazon products, 200,000 TikTok posts and 50,000 searches

Now combine the three scenarios into the monthly needs of a small team. The team needs 100,000 Amazon products, 200,000 TikTok posts and 50,000 Google searches each month. On Bright Data pay as you go, that is 100,000 × $1.50 + 200,000 × $1.50 + 50,000 × $1.50 per 1,000, or $525. After the 5,000 free credits ($7.50), the bill is $517.50.

Suppose that the team moves to the Web Scraper API Scale plan to save 13%. Its 300,000 records do not reach the 384,000 included in the plan. Scale costs $499, and SERP on pay as you go costs $75, so the total is $574. That is $56.50 more than full pay as you go. This is the real effect of the 333,000-record break-even point.

![Horizontal bar chart of one monthly bill. Bright Data full pay as you go $517.50. Bright Data Scale plus SERP pay as you go $574.00. EveryInfra with single Amazon product pages $175.82. EveryInfra with Amazon search lists $41.39. The last two bars are teal. The subtitle says that the Bright Data bars subtract the 5,000 free records. The EveryInfra bars scale up the November 9 tests with no retries.](https://everyinfra.com/articles/bright-data-pricing-explained/fig-05-monthly-bill-bar.en.light.svg)

For EveryInfra, we scale up the number of results per call that we measured on the test day. Amazon uses `amazon/search` with 50 results per call: 2,000 calls × $0.002236 = $4.47. TikTok uses `tiktok/search` with 50 results per call: 4,000 calls × $0.000556 = $2.22. Search costs 50,000 × $0.000694 = $34.70. The total is $41.39, or 8% of Bright Data's full pay-as-you-go bill.

Suppose that the 100,000 Amazon products must be full product pages. Then `amazon/profile` costs 100,000 × $0.001389 = $138.90, and the total becomes $175.82. That is 34% of the Bright Data bill.

This estimate has three conditions. First, each call returns the same number of results as on the test day. TikTok search returned 50 when we asked for 200. If it returns 200 on another day, the TikTok cost goes down again.

Second, it has no failed retries. Failures cost no money, but they cost time. Third, the Bright Data side has no coupons and no deposit match. With a $500 bonus in the first quarter, Bright Data costs much less for those 90 days.

| Monthly need | Bright Data pay as you go | Bright Data Scale + SERP pay as you go | EveryInfra (lists) | EveryInfra (product pages) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 100,000 Amazon products | $150.00 | Inside Scale $499 | $4.47 (2,000 calls) | $138.90 (100,000 calls) |
| 200,000 TikTok posts | $300.00 | Inside Scale $499 | $2.22 (4,000 calls) | $2.22 |
| 50,000 Google searches | $75.00 | $75.00 | $34.70 | $34.70 |
| Free tier | −$7.50 | Not applicable | Not counted | Not counted |
| Total | $517.50 | $574.00 | $41.39 | $175.82 |

## Bright Data alternatives: ScraperAPI, ZenRows and Firecrawl side by side

People who look for a Bright Data alternative usually compare a few general scraping services. The table below converts three public price lists into the same unit as Bright Data. We read all of them at about 00:30 SGT on November 9, 2026. All three services bill in credits. Different targets and options multiply the credit cost, so first find the multiplier, then calculate the price per 1,000.

| Service | Entry tier | Per 1,000 standard requests | Amazon page | Google search | Failed requests |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bright Data | Pay as you go, no monthly fee | Unlocker $1.50 | Ready scraper $1.50 per 1,000 records | SERP $1.50 per 1,000 | Success only by default; all requests with custom headers; bad-input records are billed |
| [ScraperAPI](https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/) | Hobby $49 per month, 100,000 credits | $0.49 | 5 credits per request, $2.45 | 25 credits per request, $12.25 | Both 200 and 404 are billed |
| [ZenRows](https://docs.zenrows.com/first-steps/pricing) | B1 $19 per month, 45,000 credits | $0.42 | 1 to 25 credits, by protection level | Not listed | Success only, but 404 and 410 count as success |
| [Firecrawl](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing) | Hobby $19 per month, 5,000 credits | $3.80 (1 credit per page) | 1 credit per page, extra for JSON extraction | 2 credits per 10 results, $7.60 | See its billing docs |
| EveryInfra | Per request, no monthly fee | `read` $0.694 | List $0.0447 per 1,000, product page $1.389 per 1,000 | $0.694 per 1,000 | Automatic refund for failures and empty results |

This table shows where Bright Data prices sit among similar services. For standard web requests, Bright Data is not the cheapest. ScraperAPI and ZenRows cost only $0.42 to $0.49 per 1,000 on their entry plans. But for well-protected targets such as Google, ScraperAPI multiplies the cost by 25. ZenRows protected requests also use 25 credits. So Bright Data SERP at $1.50 per 1,000 costs much less there.

The [ScraperAPI credit docs](https://docs.scraperapi.com/credits-and-requests) also say that both 200 and 404 responses are billed. The [ZenRows pricing docs](https://docs.zenrows.com/first-steps/pricing) say that only successful requests are billed, but 404 and 410 count as success. If you need structured data, note one more point. The three general scraping services return web pages, and you must write the parser. Bright Data and EveryInfra both return fields.

## Estimate your own Bright Data bill: four questions

Maybe you already chose Bright Data, or you want to compare it with other services. Answer the four questions in the table in order. Each question has its own section above.

| Question | Where to look | How it changes the bill |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Which billing unit? | Each product pricing page | The same job can cost many times more in another product |
| 2. Above the break-even point? | Scale tier tables | Below about 333,000 per month, Scale costs more |
| 3. Options that bill every call? | Unlocker and SERP configuration docs | Custom headers bill failed requests too |
| 4. When do free credits expire? | Free tier and billing docs | Plan with the list price from month 4 |

Put your four answers into the tables in this article. Then run the same set of jobs on our side, and divide `charged_usd` by the number of results. The gap between the two numbers is the real gap for your project. It can differ from our three scenarios.

## When Bright Data is the better choice

The most common error in a price comparison is to show only your own strengths. In the cases below, we think that Bright Data is the better choice. Each case links to its public material.

First, you need the proxies themselves. You can buy residential, datacenter and ISP proxies per GB or per IP without a sales call. The [datacenter proxy docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/data-center/introduction) and the [ISP proxy docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/isp/introduction) give setup examples. Our proxy catalog has nothing for sale today. If you already have your own scraper and need clean exit IPs, this is Bright Data's core product.

Second, the site that you need is not in our catalog. On November 9, 2026, scrapers.json listed 1,301 ready-made scrapers for 1,207 domains. Bright Data says that its [Web Unlocker](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/web-unlocker/introduction) can open any public URL. Scraper Studio can build a new scraper from a one-line description.

On the same day, our catalog had 106 platforms and 573 capabilities. For long-tail sites, Bright Data covers more. In the other direction, scrapers.json has no Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Weibo, Taobao, JD.com or Kuaishou, and all of them are in our catalog.

Third, you need large async deliveries into a data warehouse. The Bright Data [async request docs](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/async-requests) and [limits page](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/limits) give the numbers. One job takes up to 1 GB of input, and up to 5,000 jobs can run at the same time.

Results can go directly to S3, Snowflake, Google Cloud, Azure, SFTP or a webhook. One delivery file can be up to 5 GB. Our async mode polls a `job_id` for each request. We do not have a "submit tens of thousands of URLs and push the results to your bucket" layer.

Fourth, you need ready historical datasets. The [dataset pricing page](https://brightdata.com/pricing/datasets) lists $250 one time for 100,000 records, and monthly updates save 80%. Formats include JSON, NDJSON, CSV, XLSX and Parquet. We sell only live requests, not datasets that we collected earlier.

Fifth, your procurement team needs compliance documents. The Bright Data [security and compliance page](https://docs.brightdata.com/general/security/security-overview) lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 and a SOC 3 report. The Deloitte network wrote the SOC 3 report, for June 2024 to May 2025. If your company needs these files to buy, Bright Data has them ready.

| Case | Bright Data has | EveryInfra today |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Proxies | Residential, datacenter and ISP, self-serve | Proxy catalog: all `available: false` |
| Long-tail sites | 1,301 ready scrapers for 1,207 domains, plus Web Unlocker | 106 platforms, 573 capabilities |
| Bulk delivery | Push to S3, Snowflake, Google Cloud, Azure, SFTP, webhook | Poll one `job_id` per request |
| Datasets | From $250 per 100,000 records | Live requests only |
| Compliance files | ISO 27001, SOC 2, SOC 3 | Not listed in this article |

## What videos and forums say about bright data pricing

On YouTube, a search for Bright Data prices shows Bright Data's own tutorials and short third-party price videos. Part 3 of Bright Data's [three-part tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pf07QiRWo0) goes to "APIs and Integrations" in the dashboard. It picks SERP API, then Google Maps, then shows a JSON preview. The pricing pages do not show these steps. Each of SERP, Unlocker and Browser API needs its own "zone" first. The [quickstart for coding agents](https://docs.brightdata.com/quickstart-coding-agent) also says that each of the three products needs a zone.

A [short price video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1Gh-TM6lI) from October 26, 2026 says that Bright Data costs "about $1.50 per thousand records", with monthly plans from $499 "just to get in the door". It adds $10 to $15 per GB for residential proxies at the pay-as-you-go entry tier. The pages that we read on the test day do not agree with either claim. Pay as you go has no monthly minimum. The pay-as-you-go list price for residential proxies is $8/GB, or $4/GB with the coupon. But the complaint is real: many people see "$499 per month" on their first look at Bright Data and stop there.

Reddit is more direct. A [post on r/smallbusiness](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1qnsa9o/waht_i_do_to_cut_bright_data_costs_for_my_clients/) starts by saying that Bright Data "gets very expensive very fast". The author says that they cut client spend on Bright Data by 70% to 95%. Their method is to handle unblocking themselves, send requests directly to the target site and switch to cheaper proxies.

An older [post on r/webscraping](https://www.reddit.com/r/webscraping/comments/pmzrjv/alternative_to_brightdata/) says that the author used Bright Data because it is "fast, unlimited concurrency". But it is "too expensive", and the unit cost ate the profit. Both posts share one point. The "too expensive" feeling comes from large, long-running jobs. During a small trial, the free tier and the deposit match hide most of the cost.

## What changed in the last 60 days

| Date | Change | What it means for you |
| --- | --- | --- |
| November 8, 2026 | The [release notes](https://docs.brightdata.com/release-notes) add proxy error code `peer_30060`, which returns HTTP 501 when the chosen exit peer cannot forward a request | Add this code to retry logic that reads error codes |
| November 5, 2026 | The default port of the browser extension changes to 44445, and port 22225 stops after November 25 | Change old scripts that use port 22225 before the end of the month |
| October 27, 2026 | Web Unlocker success rate data filters by date and URL pattern and shows P90 time; Web Scraper API adds success rate email alerts (see the [success rate page](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/success-rate)) | With billing per successful request, check the success rate of a domain first |
| October 24, 2026 | Remaining instant-access residential and mobile proxies must move to ISP proxies or Web Unlocker, with removal from November 9, 2026 | Move these proxies now |
| October 19, 2026 | Instant access to the residential network without a review ends | Plan time for KYC |
| October 13, 2026 | technology.org [compares residential proxy prices](https://www.technology.org/2026/10/13/best-residential-proxies-in-2026-what-six-providers-actually-charge/): $8/GB list, 141 GB tier at $7/GB, 50% coupon for 3 months | Plan with the list price after month 3 |

## Limits of this test: what our results do not show

All Bright Data prices in this article come from public pages. We did not sign up, sign in or call its API. So your account price, an enterprise contract price or a price with stacked coupons can differ from our numbers. The pricing page says that local currency prices are for reference only and that billing is in US dollars. We use US dollars only.

Our EveryInfra numbers come from 22 requests between 00:15 and 00:27 SGT on November 9, 2026. Each scenario has only 1 to 3 samples. TikTok search returned 50 posts twice, but it will not always return 50. Both Amazon searches took more than 45 seconds, and slow days can be slower.

In the three scenarios, a "record" holds different fields on each side. We compare only prices and billing rules. We do not claim that the fields are the same. The monthly bill scales up the test-day results and does not count the time cost of retries and failures.

The Bright Data docs disagree in three places. These are whether the free tier includes Browser API, whether MCP is free, and whether SERP polling is billed. We quote the docs and do not decide for them. Our own catalog prices can also change. Before you buy, read `price_usd` in the catalog again and use the price of that day.

## FAQ

### Is bright data pricing too expensive, according to Reddit?

Mostly large-volume users say that it is too expensive. On r/webscraping, one user chose it for "fast, unlimited concurrency" but found it "too expensive". On r/smallbusiness, one user says that the cost "gets very expensive very fast" (links in the "videos and forums" section above). By our numbers, 1,000 TikTok posts cost $1.50 on Bright Data pay as you go and $0.0111 on our side. For single Amazon product pages, the gap is only 7.4%. Source of the question: the search suggestion "bright data pricing reddit".

### How much does Bright Data proxy pricing cost per GB?

Residential proxies cost $8/GB on pay as you go at list price. The page shows the 50% coupon RESIGB50, which brings the price to $4/GB. Monthly plans at $499, $999 and $1,999 include 141, 332 and 798 GB, at $7, $6 and $5 per GB list price. Datacenter and ISP proxies bill per IP per month, from $0.9/IP and $1.3/IP when you buy 1,000. Residential proxies need KYC first. Source of the question: the suggestions "bright data proxy pricing" and "bright data proxy cost".

### What is Bright Data MCP pricing, and is the MCP server free?

Access is free, but calls are billed. The MCP pricing page shows 5,000 free requests per month, then $1.50 per 1,000 on pay as you go. Scale costs $499 per month for 383,000 requests, and the hosted browser costs $8/GB on pay as you go. These 5,000 requests share the free tier with the other products. When llms.txt says "Free", it means that there is no separate access fee. Source of the question: the suggestion "bright data mcp pricing".

### Is Bright Data free, and are there free bright data alternatives?

Each new Bright Data account gets 5,000 credits per month, worth about $7.50, with no card. Unused credits expire. Proxies are not included, and they get a one-time $2 credit plus $5 when you add a card. On EveryInfra, star two GitHub repositories to claim a $1 trial credit, valid for 24 hours. You can read the [capability catalog](https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social/catalog) and the MCP tool list without a key, for free. Source of the question: the suggestions "is bright data free" and "bright data alternatives free".

### Is Bright Data legal?

This is not legal advice. We report only the public record. On January 23, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of California gave summary judgment in Meta v. Bright Data.

The court found that Meta's terms do not prohibit logged-out scraping of public data. Bright Data posted a statement on its [blog](https://brightdata.com/blog/web-data/court-rules-in-favor-of-bright-data-in-meta-v-bright-data-case). Legality depends on what you collect, where you are and how you use it. For a real project, talk to a lawyer. Source of the question: the suggestion "is bright data legal".

### Bright Data vs Firecrawl: which one should I choose?

For structured platform data or proxies, look at Bright Data. To turn any web page into Markdown for a large language model, Firecrawl is easier. It costs 1 credit per page, or $3.80 per 1,000 pages on the Hobby plan. Both have an MCP server. Our [Firecrawl alternatives price comparison](/blog/firecrawl-alternatives) compares the two with several other services. Source of the question: the suggestion "bright data vs firecrawl".

## Get started: check our numbers with your own data

The fastest way to check our numbers is to run your own keywords and accounts. Then divide `charged_usd` by the number of results that came back.

Step 1: read the [capability catalog](https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social/catalog) without a key. Check that your platform is there, and note `price_usd` and `max_limit`. If you have not chosen a platform yet, the [data market](/market) lists all capabilities and prices by platform. The [TikTok platform page](/tiktok-api) and the [Instagram platform page](/instagram-api) give field notes and examples.

Step 2: go to the [pricing page](/pricing) to claim the trial credit or to top up.

Step 3: follow the [quickstart](/docs#quickstart) to send a request. These are two requests from this article:

```bash
# Amazon search list: up to 50 results per call, charges $0.002236
curl -s https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERYINFRA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"platform":"amazon","action":"search","params":{"keyword":"wireless earbuds","limit":50}}'
# Returns results[]: asin, title, url, brand, price, list_price, currency, rating, rating_count, in_stock and more.
# billing.charged_usd is the real cost of this call. It is 0 for failures and empty results.
```

```bash
# Google search: 10 results per call, charges $0.000694
curl -s https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERYINFRA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"tool":"web","params":{"q":"bright data pricing"}}'
```

For AI tools, our remote MCP server is at `https://api.everyinfra.com/mcp`. At 00:24 SGT on November 9, 2026, we called `tools/list` without a key. In 0.11 seconds, it listed 12 tools. `everyinfra_call_api` covers the 573 platform capabilities, and `everyinfra_search` covers the search tools.

Bright Data's llms.txt gives the command `claude mcp add --transport sse brightdata "https://mcp.brightdata.com/sse?token=YOUR_API_KEY"`. [Its MCP repository](https://github.com/brightdata/brightdata-mcp) shows the setup for other clients. You can add both servers to the same client. For Claude Code, see the [Claude Code MCP docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp). For the protocol, see the [MCP specification](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25):

```text
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everyinfra": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.everyinfra.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${EVERYINFRA_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}
```

The two MCP servers use different tool designs, so they also bill in different ways. The Bright Data [MCP tools list](https://docs.brightdata.com/products/mcp-server/tools) has 30 tools, and all of them are on by default. You can use `&groups=` or `&tools=` to turn on only some of them. Its `search_engine` tool returns 10 results per page, like our `web` tool. `scrape_as_markdown` does not run JavaScript, and pages that take more than 45 seconds time out. Most other tools are ready-made scrapers for specific sites, and each call bills at the price of its product.

In our 12 tools, all platform data goes through one tool, `everyinfra_call_api`. You set the capability with `platform` and `action`. The model first calls `everyinfra_list_capabilities` to read the catalog, then picks the call. The tool list does not grow when we add platforms. For a model with a small context window, fewer tools and shorter tool notes mean fewer wrong tool choices.

| MCP item | Bright Data | EveryInfra |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Endpoint | `https://mcp.brightdata.com/sse?token=...` | `https://api.everyinfra.com/mcp` |
| Tools | 30, all on by default | 12 |
| Free use | 5,000 requests per month, shared with other products | Tool list and catalog are free; each data call is billed |
| Paid price | $1.50 per 1,000 requests, hosted browser $8/GB | `price_usd` of each capability |

Our [MCP server page](/mcp-server) has the full setup for each client. To try the full flow on TikTok first, start with the [TikTok comment scraping guide](/blog/how-to-scrape-tiktok-comments).

## References

1. Bright Data, Pricing (main pricing page), read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing
1. Bright Data, Web Scraper API Pricing Plans, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-scraper
1. Bright Data, SERP API pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp
1. Bright Data, Web Unlocker pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker
1. Bright Data, Browser API pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/scraping-browser
1. Bright Data, Residential proxies pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/residential-proxies
1. Bright Data, Datacenter proxies pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/datacenter-proxies
1. Bright Data, ISP proxies pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/proxy-network/isp-proxies
1. Bright Data, Datasets pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/datasets
1. Bright Data, Scraper Studio pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-scraper/studio
1. Bright Data, MCP server pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/pricing/mcp-server
1. Bright Data, llms.txt, read 2026-11-09, https://brightdata.com/llms.txt
1. Bright Data docs, Billing, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/billing
1. Bright Data docs, Free tier, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/free-tier
1. Bright Data docs, Promo codes, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/promo-codes
1. Bright Data docs, Scraper API FAQs, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/faqs
1. Bright Data docs, Web Unlocker configuration, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/web-unlocker/configuration
1. Bright Data docs, SERP API pricing and billing, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/pricing-and-billing
1. Bright Data docs, Sync vs async requests, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/concepts/sync-vs-async
1. Bright Data docs, scrapers.json, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/scrapers.json
1. Bright Data docs, Residential proxies introduction, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/residential/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, Release notes, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/release-notes
1. Bright Data docs, Datacenter proxies introduction, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/data-center/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, ISP proxies introduction, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/isp/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, Scraper API limits, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/limits
1. Bright Data docs, Async requests, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/async-requests
1. Bright Data docs, Get top 100 Google results, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/get-top-100-google-results
1. Bright Data docs, SERP rate limit, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/usage-monitoring/serp-rate-limit
1. Bright Data docs, Web Unlocker API introduction, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/web-unlocker/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, Build a daily Amazon price monitor, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/tutorials/amazon-price-monitor
1. Bright Data docs, Set up a coding agent, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/quickstart-coding-agent
1. Bright Data docs, MCP server overview, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/mcp-server/overview
1. Bright Data docs, Security and compliance, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/security/security-overview
1. Bright Data docs, Google Scraper API, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/google/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, Introduction to SERP API, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/introduction
1. Bright Data docs, Bright Data MCP tools, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/mcp-server/tools
1. Bright Data docs, Accepted payment methods, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/payment-methods
1. Bright Data docs, Success rate (Web Scraper API), read 2026-11-09, https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/scrapers-library/success-rate
1. Bright Data, brightdata-mcp (GitHub), read 2026-11-09, https://github.com/brightdata/brightdata-mcp
1. ScraperAPI, Pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://www.scraperapi.com/pricing/
1. ScraperAPI docs, Credits and requests costs, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.scraperapi.com/credits-and-requests
1. ZenRows docs, Pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.zenrows.com/first-steps/pricing
1. Firecrawl, Pricing, read 2026-11-09, https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing
1. Firecrawl docs, Billing, read 2026-11-09, https://docs.firecrawl.dev/billing
1. technology.org, Best Residential Proxies in 2026: What Six Providers Actually Charge, 2026-10-13, https://www.technology.org/2026/10/13/best-residential-proxies-in-2026-what-six-providers-actually-charge/
1. Reddit r/smallbusiness, Waht I do to cut Bright Data costs for my clients by 95%, read 2026-11-09, https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1qnsa9o/waht_i_do_to_cut_bright_data_costs_for_my_clients/
1. Reddit r/webscraping, Alternative to Brightdata?, read 2026-11-09, https://www.reddit.com/r/webscraping/comments/pmzrjv/alternative_to_brightdata/
1. YouTube, Crawl API vs Bright Data/Zyte/ScraperAPI: The Real Cost, 2026-10-26, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1Gh-TM6lI
1. YouTube (sponsored by Bright Data), How to Collect Web Data Part 3, 2023-01-26, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pf07QiRWo0
1. Bright Data blog, Court Rules in Favor of Bright Data in Meta v. Bright Data Case, 2024-01-23, https://brightdata.com/blog/web-data/court-rules-in-favor-of-bright-data-in-meta-v-bright-data-case
1. EveryInfra, Capability catalog (106 platforms, 573 capabilities), read 2026-11-09 00:14 SGT, https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social/catalog
1. EveryInfra, Search tools catalog, read 2026-11-09, https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/search/tools
1. EveryInfra, Proxy catalog, read 2026-11-09, https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/proxy/catalog
1. EveryInfra, OpenAPI, read 2026-11-09, https://api.everyinfra.com/openapi.json
1. Model Context Protocol, Specification 2025-11-25, read 2026-11-09, https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25
1. Anthropic, Claude Code MCP docs, read 2026-11-09, https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp