Bright Data is built for enterprise data at massive scale. WebScraping.AI is the self-serve alternative: transparent per-request pricing, no KYC or sales calls, AI extraction, and 2,000 free credits — start in minutes.
2,000 free API credits · No credit card required
An honest, side-by-side comparison. Verify the numbers — this is a market where you should.
| WebScraping.AI | Bright Data | |
|---|---|---|
| Signup | Self-serve, no KYC for any usage | Restricted immediate access, or KYC for full residential/mobile |
| Entry price | $29/mo (250k credits) | Pay-as-you-go, or committed plans from $499/mo |
| Pricing model | Fixed credits per request (published) | Per GB, per IP, and per 1k requests (varies by product) |
| Pay only for success | Yes | Yes (Web Unlocker / SERP bill successful requests) |
| JS (Chromium) rendering | Yes (5 credits) | Yes (Scraping Browser / Web Unlocker) |
| Proxy network | Datacenter, residential, stealth | Residential, datacenter, ISP, mobile |
| AI extraction | Yes (/ai/question, /ai/fields) |
Yes |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes | Yes (Web MCP) |
| Managed datasets / marketplace | — | Yes (dataset marketplace) |
| Compliance certs (SOC 2 / ISO) | — | Yes (SOC 2, ISO 27001) |
Pricing and credit costs last checked July 2026. Sources: Bright Data pricing · WebScraping.AI pricing.
No tool is right for everyone. Bright Data is a capable product, and these are the areas where it genuinely shines — worth weighing before you switch.
The most common reasons teams evaluate a switch.
Bright Data offers a restricted immediate-access mode, but full residential and mobile access requires KYC — company verification, and sometimes a review call, plus SSL-certificate setup for some flows. WebScraping.AI needs no KYC for any usage: sign up and scrape in minutes with 2,000 free credits.
Costs are spread across per-GB proxies, per-IP add-ons, and per-1,000-request products, each with its own plans and promos. WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed credit cost per request type so you can predict a job's cost before you run it.
With per-GB proxy pricing, your bill depends on how heavy each page is — something you don't control. WebScraping.AI charges per request, so a heavy page and a light page cost the same.
Committed plans start around $499/mo and the platform is oriented toward large data teams. For a single developer or a small team that just needs an API, that's a lot of surface area. WebScraping.AI starts at $29/mo.
Every request type has a fixed, published credit cost — no surprises, and you only pay for successful requests.
Plans from $29/mo (250k credits) · $99/mo (1M) · $249/mo (3M). Failed requests are always free. See full pricing.
Bright Data offers an immediate-access mode for many sites, but full residential and mobile access requires KYC — company verification, sometimes a review call, plus SSL-certificate setup for some flows. That's a reasonable compliance posture for an enterprise data vendor — but it's friction if you just want to test an idea this afternoon.
WebScraping.AI is self-serve end to end, with no KYC for any usage. Sign up, get 2,000 free credits, and make your first call in minutes — no verification queue, no company-email requirement.
Bright Data prices across several models at once: residential by the GB, datacenter and ISP by the IP, Web Unlocker and SERP by the thousand requests. Powerful, but your real cost depends on page weight, IP mix, and which product you're on.
WebScraping.AI uses one published table: 1 credit for a datacenter request, 5 with JS, 10–25 for residential, 50 for stealth, +5 for AI extraction — the same regardless of how large the page is. You can estimate a month's bill from your request count alone.
Point your requests at WebScraping.AI — here's the equivalent call in your language.
curl -G "https://api.webscraping.ai/text" \
--data-urlencode "api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/protected-page" \
--data-urlencode "text_format=plain"
# Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
# pip install webscraping_ai
# https://pypi.org/project/webscraping-ai/
from webscraping_ai import Client
client = Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
text = client.text("https://example.com/protected-page", text_format="plain")
print(text)
# Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
// npm install webscraping-ai
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/webscraping-ai
import { WebScrapingAI } from 'webscraping-ai';
const client = new WebScrapingAI({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
const text = await client.text({
url: 'https://example.com/protected-page',
text_format: 'plain',
});
console.log(text);
// Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
<?php
// composer require webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
// https://packagist.org/packages/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use WebScrapingAI\Client;
$client = new Client('YOUR_API_KEY');
$text = $client->text('https://example.com/protected-page', textFormat: 'plain');
echo is_string($text) ? $text : print_r($text, true);
// Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
# gem install webscraping_ai
# https://rubygems.org/gems/webscraping_ai
require 'webscraping_ai'
client = WebScrapingAI::Client.new(api_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY')
text = client.text('https://example.com/protected-page', text_format: 'plain')
puts text.inspect
# Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
// go get github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
webscrapingai "github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4"
)
func main() {
client, _ := webscrapingai.NewClient(&webscrapingai.Config{APIKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"})
text, _ := client.Text(context.Background(), &webscrapingai.TextOptions{
URL: "https://example.com/protected-page",
TextFormat: "plain",
})
fmt.Println(text)
}
// Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
// Maven: ai.webscraping:webscraping-ai:4.0.0
// https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/ai.webscraping/webscraping-ai
import ai.webscraping.Client;
import ai.webscraping.Config;
import ai.webscraping.option.TextOptions;
Client client = new Client(Config.builder().apiKey("YOUR_API_KEY").build());
String text = client.text(TextOptions.builder()
.url("https://example.com/protected-page")
.textFormat("plain")
.build());
System.out.println(text);
// Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
// dotnet add package WebScrapingAI
// https://www.nuget.org/packages/WebScrapingAI
using WebScrapingAI;
var client = new WebScrapingAIClient(new WebScrapingAIClientOptions { ApiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY" });
var text = await client.TextAsync(new TextRequest {
Url = "https://example.com/protected-page",
TextFormat = "plain",
});
Console.WriteLine(text);
// Response: clean page text, fetched through rotating proxies.
Is WebScraping.AI a good Bright Data alternative?
It is for developers and small-to-mid teams who want a self-serve scraping API with transparent per-request pricing, AI extraction, and an MCP server — without KYC or sales calls. Bright Data is the better fit for enterprise-scale proxy needs, managed datasets, and formal compliance requirements.
How is WebScraping.AI's pricing different from Bright Data's?
WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed credit cost per request type (1 datacenter, 5 with JS, 10–25 residential, 50 stealth, +5 AI) and bills only for successful requests, from $29/mo. Bright Data spreads cost across per-GB proxies, per-IP add-ons, and per-1,000-request products, with committed plans from $499/mo.
Do I need KYC or a sales call to use WebScraping.AI?
No. WebScraping.AI is fully self-serve — sign up, get 2,000 free credits, and start scraping in minutes. There's no company-email requirement, identity verification, or sales process.
Does WebScraping.AI have residential and stealth proxies like Bright Data?
Yes — datacenter, residential, and stealth proxies with geotargeting. Bright Data's network is larger and also offers ISP and mobile IPs, so for the very hardest targets at massive scale its pool is broader.
Can WebScraping.AI replace Bright Data's datasets?
No. Bright Data sells pre-collected, managed datasets. WebScraping.AI scrapes URLs you supply in real time, with AI extraction for structured fields. If you need ready-made datasets rather than to run your own scrapes, Bright Data is purpose-built for that.
Get started with 2,000 free API credits. No credit card required.