# WaterCrawl, free: Web scraping API

> Precise Content Extraction: Extract exactly what you need with customizable selectors. Focus on main content while filtering out ads, footers, and unwanted elements.

WaterCrawl's web scraping API on its Free Plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 pages. It returns 4 of the 7 key fields we check: Screenshot, Markdown, HTML, Links.
In [our web scraping API benchmark](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-scraping-api.txt), WaterCrawl's best plan scores 60.7 out of 100.
This plan is free. We rank 1,855 plans for web scraping APIs by price. Half the plans cost $2.00 per 1,000 pages or less.
[PhantomJsCloud's $10 monthly plan](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/phantomjscloud/10-monthly/llms.txt) is the cheapest paid plan 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](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/spider-cloud/40-monthly/llms.txt) covers any number of pages. Spider Cloud's $40 monthly plan costs more up front than PhantomJsCloud's $10 monthly plan.
[WebScraping.AI](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/webscraping-ai/29-monthly-personal-get-html-get-page-html-datacenter-proxy-no-js-rendering/llms.txt), [ScraperAPI](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/scraperapi/299-monthly-business-get-sync-api/llms.txt) and [Scrappey](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/scrappey/top-up-pay-as-you-go-post-api-v1-direct-request/llms.txt) are the best web scraping API providers in our benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/free
- [Web scraping API: 70+ providers compared on price and data](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-scraping-api.txt)
- Get it: https://watercrawl.dev/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- Request: `POST https://app.watercrawl.dev/api/v1/core/crawl-requests/`
- API key: with the plan, on https://watercrawl.dev/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- Its API docs: https://docs.watercrawl.dev/api/documentation?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing#tag/Crawl-Requests/operation/core_crawl_requests_create
- Sold by: WaterCrawl (https://watercrawl.dev?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-11-01

## In the answer

- Completeness: 57%
- Screenshot: ✓
- Markdown: ✓
- HTML: ✓
- Links: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 pages: $0.00
- Per: call
- Billing: free

## Charges

- Also pays for: from the same budget: Batch create crawl requests

## Overage

- Units cap: hard

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Precise Content Extraction: Extract exactly what you need with customizable selectors. Focus on main content while filtering out ads, footers, and unwanted elements.

## Data

- Freshness: live
- Keep data: no limit
- Use data: You agree to use our services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must: Respect website terms of service and robots.txt [...] Maintain reasonable crawling speeds [...] Not attempt to bypass security measures [...] Not use our service for any illegal activities [...] The following activities are strictly prohibited: Scraping personal or sensitive information [...] Denial of service attacks or excessive requests [...] Distribution of malware or harmful code [...] Unauthorized access to protected content

## Plan

- Pay: €0
- You get: 1,000 credits a month
- Enough for: 1,000 calls a month

## Rate limit

- Per day: 100
- Concurrent: 1
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: by polling
- Median: 7.47 s

## The call

- You send: url, options.spider_options, options.page_options. Optional: options.spider_options.max_depth, options.spider_options.page_limit, options.spider_options.concurrent_requests, options.spider_options.allowed_domains, options.spider_options.exclude_paths, options.spider_options.include_paths, options.spider_options.proxy_server, options.page_options.exclude_tags, options.page_options.include_tags, options.page_options.wait_time, options.page_options.include_html, options.page_options.only_main_content, options.page_options.include_links, options.page_options.timeout, options.page_options.accept_cookies_selector, options.page_options.locale, options.page_options.extra_headers, options.page_options.actions, options.page_options.ignore_rendering, options.plugin_options
- Method: POST
- Path: /api/v1/core/crawl-requests/

## About the plan

- Plan: Free Plan
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 9 fields the plan's answer can hold

page URL, page markdown, HTML, links, screenshot, PDF, result ID, created at, updated at

## WaterCrawl's plans (6)

- [WaterCrawl, free](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 57% complete, live
- [WaterCrawl, €9 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/9-monthly/llms.txt): $1.013 per 1,000, 57% complete, live
- [WaterCrawl, €19 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/19-monthly/llms.txt): $0.713 per 1,000, 57% complete, live
- [WaterCrawl, €57.60 yearly](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/57-60-yearly/llms.txt): $0.54 per 1,000, 57% complete, live
- [WaterCrawl, €117.60 yearly](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/117-60-yearly/llms.txt): $0.368 per 1,000, 57% complete, live
- [WaterCrawl, contact us](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/contact-us/llms.txt): 57% complete, live

## WaterCrawl's calls for this API (1)

- `POST /api/v1/core/crawl-requests/`: [WaterCrawl, free](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/free/llms.txt)

## WaterCrawl's APIs (2)

- [WaterCrawl: web scraping API pricing, 6 plans](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/watercrawl/free/llms.txt)
- [WaterCrawl: web search API pricing, 6 plans](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/watercrawl/free/llms.txt)

## WaterCrawl: web scraping API alternatives

- [ZenRows, $29 monthly, Build B2, GET /v1/, Fetch a page](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/zenrows/29-monthly-build-b2-get-v1-fetch-a-page/llms.txt): $0.362 per 1,000, 43% complete, live
- [Crawlbase, $2,189 yearly, Scale 500K, GET /, Crawling API](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/crawlbase/2189-yearly-scale-500k-get-crawling-api/llms.txt): $0.365 per 1,000, 29% complete, live
- [Scrapingdog, $40,000 yearly, Enterprise Starter, GET /scrape, Web Scraping API, premium proxy without JavaScript rendering](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/scrapingdog/40000-yearly-enterprise-starter-get-scrape-web-scraping-api-premium-proxy-without-javascript-rendering/llms.txt): $0.37 per 1,000, 14% complete, live
- [ScrapingBee, $599 monthly, Business +, GET /api/v1/, HTML API](https://datacircle.dev/web-scraping-apis/scrapingbee/599-monthly-business-get-api-v1-html-api/llms.txt): $0.374 per 1,000, 57% complete, live

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-11-01.

- https://app.watercrawl.dev/api/schema/team/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://app.watercrawl.dev/api/v1/plan/plans/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://docs.watercrawl.dev/api/documentation?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://docs.watercrawl.dev/clients/php?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://docs.watercrawl.dev/clients/python?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://watercrawl.dev?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://watercrawl.dev/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing
- https://watercrawl.dev/terms?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-scraping-api-pricing