Datacircle

Steel pricing and alternatives: web scraping API

Steel's sitellms.txtBest web scraping API in 2026: pricing comparedSteel: web scraping API alternatives

Is Steel yours? Write to us about this page. We invite selected tool providers to our WhatsApp group.

57% complete: 4 of the 7 key fields we checkSee the 7 fields
$0.00per 1,000 pagesWe rank 1,257 plans by price. PhantomJsCloud's $10 monthly plan costs the least per 1,000 pages: as little as $0.022. PhantomJsCloud's $10 monthly plan covers up to 15,000 pages a day.Spider Cloud's $40 monthly plan covers any number of pages. Spider Cloud's $40 monthly plan costs more to start than PhantomJsCloud's $10 monthly plan.WebScraping.AI, Scrappey and ScraperAPI are the best web scraping API providers in our benchmark.
Plan: Launch one of Steel's 4 plans
Call: POST /v1/scrape Steel's only call
API: Web scraping API Steel's only API

About this item

  • Live. Steel fetches the web page you ask for when you call the API.
  • 4 of the 7 key fields we check. Screenshot, Markdown, HTML, Links.
  • Nothing to pay. You get $30 of credit once, enough for 6,000 calls. Unused credit expires after 90 days.
  • One call. You send url to POST /v1/scrape. You set the Content-Type header to "application/json". You can also send format, delay, pdf, projectId, region, screenshot and useProxy. The call returns the page's content.
  • Who can get it: anyone at least 18 years old. Keep data: no limit. Use data: with conditions.

Steel: web scraping API alternatives

The table starts with Steel's cheapest paid plan. Next come plans from other providers with the price per 1,000 pages closest to Steel's. Each plan in the table gives live data.

Steel, top-up from $10WebScraping.AI, top-up from $20, Pay as you go, GET /text, Get Page Text, residential proxy, JS renderingGeekflare, $50 pack, Blaze, POST /webscraping, Web Scraping with Premium ProxyAnchor Browser, $50 monthlyZenRows, top-up from $5, Pay-as-you-go (agent storefront), GET /v1/, Fetch a page, premium proxies
$ per 1,000 pages$5.00$5.00$5.00$5.00$5.00
Completeness57%29%43%14%43%
Billingpay firstpay firstpay firstmonthlypay first
Pay$10$20$50$50$5
Enough for2,000 calls4,000 calls10,000 calls10,000 calls a month1,000 calls
Freshnesslivelivelivelivelive
Who can get itanyone at least 18 years oldanyone 18 or olderanyonea Customer, a person or an organization with authority to bind it, using the Service for its internal business purposesAI agents, with no Zenrows account or API key needed

Every web scraping API provider we score, ranked

Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-10-29.

  1. docs.steel.dev/overview/browser-tools/overview.md
  2. docs.steel.dev/overview/pricinglimits
  3. docs.steel.dev/steel-go-sdk
  4. steel.dev/pricing
  5. steel.dev/terms

Product details

The key fields this plan's answer can hold, then each filled column in its row on the sheet.

  • Screenshot
  • Markdown
  • HTML
  • Text, not in the answer
  • Summary, not in the answer
  • Links
  • Images, not in the answer
Price
$ per 1,000 pages$0.00
Percall
Billingfree
Charges
Also pays forfrom the same budget: Screenshot · PDF
Overage
$ per 1,000 pages$5.00
Not found
$ per 1,000$0.00
In their words
Their pitchBrowser Tools are stateless, single-call endpoints that spin up a managed browser, perform one action against a URL, and return the result. They are the fastest way to pull content off a page when you do not need to drive a long-running session.
Data
Freshnesslive
Keep datano limit
Use dataYou may not access or use the Services for any purpose other than that for which we make the Services available. The Services may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by us. As a user of the Services, you agree not to: Systematically retrieve data or other content from the Services to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database, or directory without written permission from us. [...] Use any information obtained from the Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person. [...] Use the Services in a manner inconsistent with any applicable laws or regulations. [...] Engage in any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to send comments or messages, or using any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. [...] Attempt to bypass any measures of the Services designed to prevent or restrict access to the Services, or any portion of the Services. [...] Except as may be the result of standard search engine or Internet browser usage, use, launch, develop, or distribute any automated system, including without limitation, any spider, robot, cheat utility, scraper, or offline reader that accesses the Services, or use or launch any unauthorized script or other software. [...] Use the Services as part of any effort to compete with us or otherwise use the Services and/or the Content for any revenue-generating endeavor or commercial enterprise. [...] Engage in web scraping or data collection that violates applicable laws or regulations Use the Services to bypass security measures, access controls, or authentication systems without authorization [...] Use the Services to collect personal data without proper consent or legal basis [...] Use the Services to infringe upon intellectual property rights or copyrighted content Use the Services to violate any website's terms of service, robots.txt, or similar access restrictions Use the Services to circumvent paywalls, subscription services, or other paid access controls [...]
Plan
Pay$0
You get$30
Enough for6,000 calls, once
Expires90 days
Rate limit
Concurrent10
Batch1
Speed
Answerin the call
Median6.47 s
The call
You sendurl, Content-Type header "application/json". Optional: format, delay, pdf, projectId, region, screenshot, useProxy
MethodPOST
Path/v1/scrape
About the plan
PlanLaunch
Who can get itanyone at least 18 years old
The 26 fields the plan's answer can hold

URL, HTTP status, HTML, cleaned HTML, Markdown, readability, page links, page title, description, keywords, author, article author, canonical URL, favicon URL, language, published time, modified time, JSON-LD data, Open Graph title, Open Graph description, Open Graph image, Open Graph site name, Open Graph URL, scrape time, screenshot URL, PDF URL

Best GTM APIs