ScrapeUnblocker vs. Bright Data: Pricing, Billing and Features Compared (2026)
ScrapeUnblocker and Bright Data’s Web Unlocker API do the same core job: you send a URL to an API, and it returns the page, with proxies, browser fingerprints and CAPTCHAs handled for you. Both charge per request rather than per credit or per gigabyte, which makes them easier to compare than most scraping APIs. The differences are in the plan sizes, the price per 1,000 requests, what each one does beyond a plain page fetch, and the size of the platform around it.
A note before we start: we make ScrapeUnblocker, so we are not a neutral party. To keep this comparison fair and checkable, every Bright Data figure below comes from Bright Data’s own public Web Unlocker pricing page, product page and documentation, as we viewed them on 24 September 2026. Every ScrapeUnblocker figure comes from our pricing page and documentation. Where we do not know something, we say so. Prices and features change, so please check both sites before you decide.
Bright Data sells many products besides the Web Unlocker API, including proxy networks, a SERP API, a Browser API, Scraper APIs and datasets. This article compares ScrapeUnblocker with the Web Unlocker API, the product closest to ours, and mentions the others only where they cover something ScrapeUnblocker does in the same API.
At a glance
| ScrapeUnblocker | Bright Data Web Unlocker API | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | 1 request = 1 credit | Per 1,000 requests |
| Pay as you go | €1.00 per 1,000 requests | $1.50 per 1,000 requests |
| Monthly plans | From €29 per month (34,000 requests) | From $499 per month (383,000 requests) |
| Largest self-serve plan | €1,000 per month, 1,818,000 requests | $1,999 per month, 2,000,000 requests |
| JavaScript rendering | Always on, in a real browser | Built in; a render=true parameter forces browser rendering |
| Concurrency | 2 to 10 requests per second on Pay as you go, Starter and Pro; up to 400 on Business, Scale and Ultimate | Unlimited concurrency on Pay as you go and Scale plans |
| Free usage | 500 requests on signup, no card needed | 5,000 free credits per month, no credit card required |
| Currency | EUR | USD |
How Bright Data Web Unlocker pricing works
The Web Unlocker pricing page lists a free tier, pay as you go, a Scale plan with three sizes, and a custom Enterprise option:
| Plan | Price | Requests included | Price per 1,000 included requests | Additional requests per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 | 5,000 per month | - | - |
| Pay as you go | $1.50 per 1,000 requests | - | $1.50 | - |
| Scale | $499 per month | 383,000 | about $1.30 | $1.30 |
| Scale | $999 per month | 908,000 | about $1.10 | $1.10 |
| Scale | $1,999 per month | 2,000,000 | about $1.00 | $1.00 |
| Enterprise | Custom | - | - | - |
According to the same page, pay as you go includes “pay only for success”, monthly spend limits and unlimited concurrency, and the Scale plans include unlimited concurrency and can be cancelled at any time. Enterprise adds volume discounts, an account manager, a premium SLA, priority support and SSO. The page also lists automated proxy management, full browser rendering and CAPTCHA solving for every plan. Charges are billed in US dollars. On the day we checked, the page also advertised a sign-up offer to match your first deposit up to $500.
A few more details come from Bright Data’s documentation. The free tier is 5,000 credits per month, shared across the Web Unlocker API, SERP API, Web Scraper API, Scraper Studio and Browser API, and renews on the first of each month. Bright Data describes its billing as a pre-paid wallet model. Its documentation also describes a premium pricing tier for a list of harder domains, and says that this option was deprecated for customers who signed up after 20 May 2026.
How ScrapeUnblocker pricing works
ScrapeUnblocker has a pay-as-you-go option and monthly plans. Our pricing page states that one request always equals one credit.
| Plan | Price | Requests included | Effective price per 1,000 | Additional usage per 1,000 | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | €1.00 per 1,000 requests | - | €1.00 | - | 2 requests/second |
| Starter | €29 per month | 34,000 | about €0.85 | €0.95 | 5 requests/second |
| Pro | €99 per month | 132,000 | about €0.75 | €0.85 | 10 requests/second |
| Business | €299 per month | 440,000 | about €0.68 | €0.75 | Up to 400 requests/second |
| Scale | €599 per month | 966,000 | about €0.62 | €0.68 | Up to 400 requests/second |
| Ultimate | €1,000 per month | 1,818,000 | about €0.55 | €0.60 | Up to 400 requests/second |
There is also a custom Enterprise option. Pay as you go has no monthly commitment. Our plan cards list JavaScript rendering, CAPTCHA bypass and a real browser, and none of these is charged separately: a rendered page costs the same one credit as any other request.
Price per 1,000 requests at similar volumes
Because both services charge per request, the comparison is simpler than with credit-based APIs: the price of a request does not change with the options you turn on. The two services price in different currencies, though: Bright Data in US dollars and ScrapeUnblocker in euros. We have not converted between them, because exchange rates move. Keep that in mind when you read this table.
| Monthly volume | ScrapeUnblocker | Bright Data Web Unlocker API |
|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | €1.00 per 1,000 | $1.50 per 1,000 |
| Around 400,000 requests | Business: €299 for 440,000 (about €0.68 per 1,000) | Scale: $499 for 383,000 (about $1.30 per 1,000) |
| Around 900,000 to 1,000,000 requests | Scale: €599 for 966,000 (about €0.62 per 1,000) | Scale: $999 for 908,000 (about $1.10 per 1,000) |
| Around 2,000,000 requests | Ultimate: €1,000 for 1,818,000 (about €0.55 per 1,000) | Scale: $1,999 for 2,000,000 (about $1.00 per 1,000) |
| Under 300,000 requests | Starter (€29, 34,000) or Pro (€99, 132,000) | Pay as you go or the free tier; the smallest monthly plan is $499 |
At the listed prices, and as long as one euro costs less than $1.50, ScrapeUnblocker’s price per 1,000 requests is lower in every row of this table. Its monthly plans also start at a lower amount. Bright Data’s free tier is larger (5,000 credits every month against our 500 requests once), and its Enterprise plan may offer volume discounts that are not public. We do not know what Bright Data offers under a custom contract.
What you pay for when a request fails
Both services say they do not charge for failed requests. Here is what each one’s documentation says.
Bright Data. Its documentation says that with the Web Unlocker API “you are charged only for successful requests to your target domain”. There is one documented exception: if you enable the Custom Headers & Cookies feature on a zone, you are charged for 100% of requests, successful and failed. The documentation also describes auto-throttling: if the success rate for a target site drops below a threshold, set by default to 70%, the system begins throttling requests to that site. In the pages we checked, we did not find a status-code-level definition of a successful request, for example how a target’s own 404 page is treated.
ScrapeUnblocker. Per our errors documentation, a delivered page (200) is billed. When the target itself answers 404 or 410, or its origin returns its own 5xx error page, we return a 200 with an X-Origin-Status header carrying the target’s status, and that is billed too. A domain that does not exist (400 Hostname cannot be resolved) is billed, and so is a browser steps action that fails after the page has rendered (422 step_failed). A 403 (blocked by the target’s bot protection on every bypass path we have), timeouts, 523 Origin unreachable and all errors on our side are not billed.
| Outcome | ScrapeUnblocker | Bright Data Web Unlocker API |
|---|---|---|
| Page delivered | Billed | Billed |
| Blocked or failed request | Not billed | Not billed (by default) |
| Target answers 404 or 410 | Billed (200 with X-Origin-Status) | Not stated in the pages we checked |
| Custom headers and cookies | Not offered as a request option | Every request billed once the feature is enabled |
One caveat applies to both. Each service decides for itself whether a response counts as a success. If a challenge page comes back looking like a normal page, whether it is caught depends on that service’s own checks. We have not tested how Bright Data handles this.
Features compared
| Feature | ScrapeUnblocker | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript rendering | Always on, in a real browser | Web Unlocker API: built in, with a render=true parameter to force browser rendering |
| Geotargeting | proxy_country, with a published list of supported countries | country parameter (ISO country code); the proxy-based access method also shows state-level targeting, for example a US state |
| Output | HTML, or structured JSON with parsed_data=true | Raw HTML or a JSON envelope; data_format can return Markdown or a screenshot |
| Page interaction (click, type, scroll) | steps in the same request, up to about 10 actions, plus list_elements to discover selectors | Not supported by the Web Unlocker API; Bright Data points to its Browser API, priced from $5 per GB |
| Screenshots | Not offered | data_format=screenshot |
| Asynchronous requests | Not offered | Available as an option |
| Search engines | /serpApi endpoint returning organic results, ads and Google’s AI overview as JSON | Separate SERP API product, priced from $1 per 1,000 requests |
| Site-specific scrapers | Plugin endpoints that return JSON, for example Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Target, Etsy, Indeed, TikTok, Booking.com, Airbnb and Skyscanner | Separate Scraper APIs product for 800+ websites, plus pre-collected datasets |
| Spending controls | Plan quota, with additional usage priced per plan | Daily or monthly usage limits per zone; pre-paid wallet |
| Official client libraries | Python, Node.js, Ruby and PHP | Python and JavaScript SDKs, plus a CLI |
| AI tooling | MCP server (Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients), Claude Code plugin | MCP server, CLI and agent skills |
| Other integrations | Scrapy middleware, n8n node, Apify actors | Integration guides in its documentation |
When Bright Data may be the better fit
- You need unlimited concurrency, asynchronous requests, Markdown output or screenshots from the same unblocking API.
- You want one vendor for several things at once: proxy networks, a browser automation product, ready-made scrapers and datasets.
- You need enterprise features listed on the Enterprise plan, such as SSO and a premium SLA.
- Your volume fits comfortably inside the monthly free tier of 5,000 credits.
- You already have a working Bright Data setup that meets your needs.
When ScrapeUnblocker may be the better fit
- You want a lower price per 1,000 requests at the listed prices, or a monthly plan below $499.
- You need to click, type or scroll on a page and want that inside the same request, at the same one-credit price.
- You want structured JSON for common sites from plugin endpoints under the same API key.
- You work in Ruby or PHP and want an official client library.
- You prefer to be billed in euros, on a monthly plan or pay as you go.
What this comparison does not tell you
- Success rates. We have not run ScrapeUnblocker and Bright Data against the same set of sites, so we make no claim about which one gets through more often on any particular site. Bright Data publishes a success-rate figure for its Web Unlocker API, and we have published a benchmark of our own API. Neither is a head-to-head test.
- Speed. Response times depend on the site, the options used and the load. We have not measured Bright Data’s.
- Enterprise terms. Both companies offer custom plans. We do not know what Bright Data offers beyond its public pricing page.
- The rest of Bright Data’s platform. Its proxy networks, Browser API, Scraper APIs and datasets are separate products with their own pricing, and we have compared them only where they overlap with a ScrapeUnblocker feature.
- Anything that changed after 24 September 2026. Both pricing pages can change at any time.
How to decide in an afternoon
- Pick 50 to 100 URLs that represent your real workload.
- Run them through Bright Data’s free monthly credits.
- Run the same URLs through ScrapeUnblocker’s 500 free requests.
- For each service, count the pages you actually received (check the content, not only the status code), then divide the monthly price you would pay by the number of good pages you would get.
The service with the lower cost per good page on your own URLs is the cheaper one for you. You can start with our 500 free requests on the pricing page.
Sources
- Bright Data Web Unlocker pricing: brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker, viewed 24 September 2026
- Bright Data pricing overview: brightdata.com/pricing, viewed 24 September 2026
- Bright Data Web Unlocker documentation (overview, configuration, API reference, free tier): docs.brightdata.com, viewed 24 September 2026
- ScrapeUnblocker pricing: scrapeunblocker.com/pricing
- ScrapeUnblocker errors and billing: docs.scrapeunblocker.com/errors
- ScrapeUnblocker documentation: docs.scrapeunblocker.com
Bright Data is a trademark of its respective owner. ScrapeUnblocker is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Bright Data. This article is published by ScrapeUnblocker and reflects information that was publicly available on 24 September 2026. If you believe anything here is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us and we will review and correct it.
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