# Grabber vs ScrapingBee

> Grabber vs ScrapingBee: price per page, plans, free tiers, failed requests, formats and MCP, side by side. Checked October 2026.

ScrapingBee is a scraping API with rotating proxies and rendering on by default, on monthly plans from $19. Grabber has no plan: you pay $0.001 per page, only when you use it.

[Get API key](https://dashboard.grabber.sh/signup) · [All comparisons](https://grabber.sh/alternatives)

## At a glance

|  | Grabber | ScrapingBee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How you pay | Prepaid credit, from $5. No plans | Monthly plans: Hobby $19 for 75,000 credits, Freelance $49 for 250,000 |
| Pay without a subscription | Yes: it is the only way to pay | No |
| A static page | $0.001 | 1 credit with render_js=false: about $0.00025 on Hobby |
| A JavaScript page | $0.005 with js_render=true | 5 credits, the default: about $0.0013 on Hobby |
| Failed requests | Never charged. A page that loads with a 404 or 500 status is charged | Not charged. A page with a 404 or 410 status is charged |
| Unused credit | Valid for 365 days | Credits are valid for one month |
| Free tier | $1 at signup, about 1,000 pages, no card | 1,000 credits once, no card |
| Formats | Markdown, HTML, text, links, raw body, page metadata | HTML, Markdown, text, JSON, screenshots, CSS and AI extraction |
| MCP server | Yes, remote | Yes, remote |
| Rate limit | 60 requests a minute per key | 25 concurrent requests on Hobby |

Checked on October 27, 2026 against ScrapingBee's own pricing page and docs. Prices change, so check the sources below before you decide.

## What it costs

| Example | Grabber | ScrapingBee |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1,000 pages a month | $1 | $19: Hobby |
| 10,000 pages a month | $10 | $19: Hobby |
| 100,000 pages a month | $100 | $49: Freelance |

Static pages with render_js=false. With rendering, the default, each page uses 5 credits.

## When ScrapingBee is the better choice

- Sites you need block plain requests. Premium and stealth proxies, geotargeting and an auto mode are built for that, and Grabber has none of them.
- You fetch more than about 19,000 static pages every month: the Hobby plan then costs less per page.
- You need screenshots, clicks and scrolls, or ready-made APIs for Google and Amazon.

## When Grabber is the better choice

- You fetch fewer than about 19,000 pages a month, or your volume varies: you pay for what you fetch, and credit lasts 365 days instead of one month.
- You want no subscription to manage: no plan to pick, upgrade or renew.
- You want a short price list: two prices, and no credit multipliers to work out.

## Switching from ScrapingBee

Both are GET APIs. Grabber reads the key from a header instead of the query.

| ScrapingBee | Grabber |
| --- | --- |
| `api_key=` in the query | `Authorization: Bearer gsh_…` header |
| `render_js=false` | The default: no parameter |
| `render_js=true`, the default | `js_render=true` |
| `return_page_markdown=true` | `formats=markdown&unwrap=true` |
| `return_page_text=true` | `formats=text&unwrap=true` |

## Questions

### Is Grabber cheaper than ScrapingBee?

Below about 19,000 static pages a month, yes, because ScrapingBee's cheapest plan is $19 a month and Grabber charges per page. Above that, a ScrapingBee plan you use in full costs less per page.

### Does Grabber use proxies or get past anti-bot systems?

No. Grabber loads public pages directly. It does not rotate proxies or solve CAPTCHAs. If the sites you need block automated requests, a scraping API with proxies is the better tool.

### Does ScrapingBee have an MCP server?

Yes, a remote one. Grabber has one too, at mcp.grabber.sh.

## Sources

- [ScrapingBee pricing](https://www.scrapingbee.com/pricing/)
- [ScrapingBee documentation](https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/)
- [ScrapingBee FAQ](https://www.scrapingbee.com/faq/)
- [ScrapingBee remote MCP](https://www.scrapingbee.com/documentation/remote-mcp/)

Grabber's prices are on the [pricing page](https://grabber.sh/pricing) and in the [docs](https://grabber.sh/docs/pricing-and-limits).

## Other comparisons

- [Grabber vs Firecrawl](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/firecrawl): Monthly plans
- [Grabber vs Jina Reader](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/jina-reader): Prepaid tokens
- [Grabber vs Tavily Extract](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/tavily-extract): Credits
- [Grabber vs Scrape.do](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/scrape-do): Monthly plans
- [Grabber vs Apify](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/apify): Compute time
- [Grabber vs ZenRows](https://grabber.sh/alternatives/zenrows): Monthly plans

## Give your agents the web

Sign up in a minute and fetch your first 1,000 pages for free.

[Get API key](https://dashboard.grabber.sh/signup) · [Read the docs](https://grabber.sh/docs)