Social media scraping API pricing compared (2026)
How social media scraping APIs charge in 2026: credit packs, subscriptions, per-result marketplaces and sales-led plans. List prices for six providers (credits, units and records are not equal units) and how to estimate your real cost.
By the Scrape Everything team · · Updated · 5 min read
Comparing social media data APIs by price is harder than it should be. One provider sells credits, another sells monthly plans with daily units, a third charges per result through a marketplace and a fourth only quotes on a sales call. The headline price rarely tells you what your workload will cost.
This article explains the four pricing models, puts approximate numbers side by side, and shows how to estimate the cost of your own workload.
The four pricing models
1. Prepaid credit packs
You buy a pack of credits once and spend them per request. Different endpoints may cost different numbers of credits. Larger packs are cheaper per credit. This model suits bursty workloads well, especially when credits do not expire. ScrapeCreators, SociaVault and Scrape Everything use it.
2. Subscriptions with a usage allowance
You pay monthly and get a number of units per day or per month. Costs are predictable, but unused allowance usually does not roll over. This suits steady, continuous collection. EnsembleData is an example.
3. Platform plus per-result pricing
General scraping platforms like Apify combine a platform plan with per-Actor pricing, often per result. Prices vary by scraper because many are built and priced by third parties. Per-result prices can be low for large lists of results, and the platform covers far more than social media.
4. Monthly plans and enterprise contracts
Some providers, such as Data365, sell monthly plans with large credit allowances and custom contracts above that; large data companies such as Bright Data combine pay-as-you-go offers with monthly plans and ready-made datasets. You get custom terms and support, at a higher entry point.
List prices side by side (units differ by provider)
| Provider | Model | Entry (list price) | Volume (list price) | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scrape Everything | Credit packs, never expire | $39 for 25,000 credits ($1.56 per 1,000) | $449 for 500,000 ($0.90 per 1,000) | 100 credits |
| ScrapeCreators | Credit packs, never expire | $47 for 25,000 credits ($1.88 per 1,000 credits) | $497 for 500,000 credits ($0.99 per 1,000 credits) | 100 credits |
| SociaVault | Credit packs, never expire | $29 for 6,000 (~$4.83 per 1,000) | $399 for 200,000 (~$2.00 per 1,000) | 50 credits |
| EnsembleData | Monthly subscription, daily units | $100/month for 1,500 units/day | Up to $1,400/month for 50,000 units/day | 50 units/day |
| Apify | Platform plan + per-Actor pricing | Starter $19/month (usage included) | Scale $199/month; Actor prices vary | $5 usage/month |
| Bright Data | Pay as you go or monthly plans | $1.50 per 1,000 records | $499/month for 384,000 records ($1.30 per 1,000 additional) | 5,000 records/month |
| Data365 | Monthly plans with credit allowance | EUR 300/month (500,000 credits, 1 network) | EUR 850/month (1M credits, 3 networks) | 14-day trial |
Product names are trademarks of their owners; we are not affiliated with them. Per-1,000 figures are list prices and are not directly comparable across models: a "credit", a "unit" and a "result" are different things, and credits per call differ between vendors. A request that returns 50 posts may cost one or two credits with one provider and 50 results with another. Use the table to shortlist, then estimate with your own workload.
What the headline price does not tell you
- Failed requests. Social platforms block a share of automated requests. Are failures charged? On Scrape Everything failures on our side are refunded automatically. Of the six providers above, EnsembleData (internal errors) and Bright Data (failed deliveries) stated a failed-request policy on their pricing pages when we checked; for the others, check their docs.
- Repeat reads. If you refresh the same profiles regularly, a cache that makes repeat reads free (or cheap) can cut your bill substantially.
- Expiry. Credits that expire after a month or a year, or daily allowances that reset, turn into wasted spend for irregular workloads.
- Endpoint multipliers. Feed, search and comment endpoints often cost more than a profile lookup. Look at the cost of the endpoints you will actually use.
- Minimums. A monthly plan has a floor even in months you barely use it.
- Engineering time. Asynchronous job APIs, inconsistent schemas across scrapers and unclear error codes cost developer hours, which are usually more expensive than the API.
How to estimate your real cost
- List your calls. For example: 5,000 profiles per month, each with one feed request for recent posts.
- Apply endpoint costs. On Scrape Everything an Instagram profile costs 1 credit and an Instagram posts request 2, so that workload is 5,000 + 10,000 = 15,000 credits.
- Subtract cache hits. If 40% of lookups repeat within your cache window, they cost 0 credits. That brings the example to 9,000 credits.
- Add a margin for failures if your provider charges for them. With automatic refunds you can skip this step.
- Pick the pack or plan that covers a few months of usage, if credits do not expire.
In the example, 9,000 credits per month fit in a 25,000-credit Builder pack for almost three months, for $39. The same workload at a different provider might be cheaper or more expensive depending on how they count posts in feed responses, which is exactly why the estimate needs your own numbers.
Which model fits which team
| Your situation | Usually the best fit |
|---|---|
| Irregular or growing usage, small team | Credit packs that never expire |
| Steady, high daily volume with a fixed budget | Subscription with daily or monthly allowance |
| Many different websites, not only social media | General scraping platform (per-result pricing) |
| Enterprise procurement, custom contracts | Sales-led provider |
| Platforms we do not cover (for example LinkedIn or Reddit) | A provider that covers them; see our comparisons |
How Scrape Everything prices
- 100 free credits on sign-up, no payment details needed.
- One-time packs: Builder (25,000 credits, $39), Growth (100,000 credits, $119) and Scale (500,000 credits, $449). Enterprise volume on request.
- Most endpoints cost 1 credit; feed and search endpoints that return many results cost 2 or 3.
- Credits never expire. Failed requests are refunded. Cache hits are free.
- Purchases totaling $39 or more (any single pack) raise rate limits from 60 to 300 requests per minute.
- Payment in crypto (USDT, BTC, ETH and more) via 2328. Need an invoice? Email [email protected].
Current prices are always on the pricing page. For a provider-by-provider view, including when a competitor is the better choice, see our comparisons. To check costs for a specific endpoint, every scraper page lists its credit cost and what 1,000 requests cost on each pack.