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What is the Firecrawl Pricing Structure and How Much Does the API Cost?

Firecrawl offers a flexible, credit-based pricing model designed to accommodate everything from small experimental projects to enterprise-scale web scraping operations. Understanding the pricing structure is crucial for budgeting your web scraping project and choosing the right plan for your needs. This comprehensive guide breaks down Firecrawl's pricing tiers, credit consumption rates, and strategies for optimizing costs.

Firecrawl Pricing Overview

Firecrawl uses a credit-based system where each API operation consumes a specific number of credits. This approach provides transparency and predictability, allowing you to control costs by monitoring credit usage.

Free Trial and Testing

Firecrawl offers a free tier that's perfect for testing the service and building proof-of-concept applications:

  • 500 free credits per month
  • No credit card required to start
  • Access to all core features
  • Rate limits apply
  • Ideal for development and testing

The free tier allows you to scrape hundreds of pages per month, making it suitable for small projects, learning the API, or evaluating Firecrawl before committing to a paid plan.

Paid Pricing Tiers

Firecrawl offers several pricing tiers to match different usage patterns and business requirements.

Hobby Plan

Price: $20/month

The Hobby plan is designed for individual developers and small projects:

  • 20,000 credits per month
  • Supports scraping approximately 20,000 pages
  • Standard API rate limits
  • Community support
  • Access to all scraping features
  • No commitment required (month-to-month)

Best for: Personal projects, side projects, small-scale content monitoring, prototype applications

Growth Plan

Price: $100/month

The Growth plan targets growing startups and businesses with moderate scraping needs:

  • 100,000 credits per month
  • Supports scraping approximately 100,000 pages
  • Higher API rate limits
  • Priority email support
  • Advanced features access
  • Volume discounts available

Best for: Growing startups, data analytics companies, content aggregation platforms, market research

Scale Plan

Price: $500/month

The Scale plan is designed for high-volume scraping operations:

  • 600,000 credits per month
  • Supports scraping approximately 600,000 pages
  • Premium API rate limits
  • Priority support with SLA
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Custom integration assistance

Best for: Large-scale data operations, enterprise applications, high-frequency monitoring, data-as-a-service platforms

Enterprise Plan

Price: Custom pricing

For organizations with specialized requirements:

  • Custom credit allocations (millions of credits)
  • Unlimited scraping capabilities
  • Custom rate limits
  • Dedicated infrastructure options
  • White-glove support and onboarding
  • Custom contract terms
  • Advanced security features
  • Self-hosting options available

Best for: Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, large data providers, organizations with compliance requirements

Contact Firecrawl's sales team for enterprise pricing quotes tailored to your specific needs.

Credit Consumption Rates

Understanding how credits are consumed helps you estimate costs and optimize usage.

Scrape Endpoint

The /scrape endpoint extracts data from a single URL:

  • 1 credit per page (standard scraping)
  • +0.5 credits for screenshot capture
  • +1 credit for AI-powered extraction
  • No additional charge for markdown/HTML output

Example calculation:

from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp
import os

app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY'))

# Basic scrape: 1 credit
result = app.scrape_url('https://example.com', {
    'formats': ['markdown']
})

# Scrape with screenshot: 1.5 credits
result = app.scrape_url('https://example.com', {
    'formats': ['markdown', 'screenshot']
})

# Scrape with AI extraction: 2 credits
schema = {
    'type': 'object',
    'properties': {
        'title': {'type': 'string'},
        'price': {'type': 'number'}
    }
}

result = app.scrape_url('https://example.com', {
    'formats': ['extract'],
    'extract': {'schema': schema}
})

Crawl Endpoint

The /crawl endpoint recursively discovers and scrapes multiple pages:

  • 1 credit per page crawled
  • Same additional costs for screenshots and extraction
  • No fixed cost for the crawl operation itself

Example calculation:

If you crawl a website and Firecrawl discovers and scrapes 50 pages, you'll consume 50 credits (1 credit × 50 pages).

import FirecrawlApp from '@mendable/firecrawl-js';

const app = new FirecrawlApp({apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY});

// Crawl up to 50 pages: 50 credits
const result = await app.crawlUrl('https://example.com', {
  limit: 50,
  scrapeOptions: {
    formats: ['markdown']
  }
});

console.log(`Crawled ${result.data.length} pages`);
console.log(`Credits consumed: ${result.data.length}`);

Map Endpoint

The /map endpoint returns all URLs found on a website without scraping content:

  • 1 credit per website mapped
  • Fixed cost regardless of site size
  • Useful for discovery before full crawling

Example:

# Map a website: 1 credit
map_result = app.map_url('https://example.com')

print(f"Found {len(map_result['links'])} links for 1 credit")

This is significantly more cost-effective than crawling if you only need URL discovery.

Cost Optimization Strategies

Maximize the value of your credits with these optimization techniques.

1. Use the Map Endpoint First

Before crawling, use the map endpoint to understand the site structure and filter URLs:

from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp
import os

app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY'))

# Map the site first (1 credit)
map_result = app.map_url('https://example.com')

# Filter to only URLs you need
blog_urls = [url for url in map_result['links'] if '/blog/' in url]

# Now scrape only relevant pages
for url in blog_urls[:10]:  # Limit to 10 posts
    result = app.scrape_url(url, {'formats': ['markdown']})
    # Process result...

# Total cost: 1 (map) + 10 (scrapes) = 11 credits
# vs. blind crawling which might use 100+ credits

2. Set Appropriate Crawl Limits

Control costs by setting explicit page limits when crawling entire websites:

// Instead of unlimited crawling
const result = await app.crawlUrl('https://example.com', {
  limit: 100,  // Hard limit prevents runaway costs
  maxDepth: 2,  // Limit depth to stay focused
  includePaths: ['/products/*'],  // Only scrape product pages
  excludePaths: ['/admin/*', '/user/*']  // Skip unnecessary paths
});

3. Avoid Redundant Scraping

Implement caching to prevent re-scraping unchanged pages:

import json
import os
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import hashlib

def get_cache_key(url):
    return hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()

def is_cache_valid(cache_file, max_age_hours=24):
    if not os.path.exists(cache_file):
        return False

    file_time = datetime.fromtimestamp(os.path.getmtime(cache_file))
    age = datetime.now() - file_time
    return age < timedelta(hours=max_age_hours)

def scrape_with_cache(app, url, cache_dir='./cache'):
    os.makedirs(cache_dir, exist_ok=True)
    cache_key = get_cache_key(url)
    cache_file = f"{cache_dir}/{cache_key}.json"

    # Check cache first
    if is_cache_valid(cache_file, max_age_hours=24):
        with open(cache_file, 'r') as f:
            print(f"Using cached data for {url}")
            return json.load(f)

    # Scrape if cache is invalid
    print(f"Scraping {url} (costs 1 credit)")
    result = app.scrape_url(url, {'formats': ['markdown']})

    # Save to cache
    with open(cache_file, 'w') as f:
        json.dump(result, f)

    return result

# Usage
app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY'))

# First call: costs 1 credit
data1 = scrape_with_cache(app, 'https://example.com')

# Second call within 24 hours: costs 0 credits
data2 = scrape_with_cache(app, 'https://example.com')

4. Batch Operations Efficiently

When scraping multiple pages, organize your operations to minimize errors and retries:

async function batchScrape(app, urls, batchSize = 10) {
  const results = [];

  // Process in batches to control concurrency and costs
  for (let i = 0; i < urls.length; i += batchSize) {
    const batch = urls.slice(i, i + batchSize);

    console.log(`Processing batch ${i / batchSize + 1} (${batch.length} URLs)`);

    const batchResults = await Promise.allSettled(
      batch.map(url => app.scrapeUrl(url, {
        formats: ['markdown'],
        timeout: 30000
      }))
    );

    // Handle results and failures
    batchResults.forEach((result, idx) => {
      if (result.status === 'fulfilled') {
        results.push(result.value);
        console.log(`✓ Scraped: ${batch[idx]}`);
      } else {
        console.error(`✗ Failed: ${batch[idx]} - ${result.reason}`);
        // Failed requests don't consume credits
      }
    });

    // Add delay between batches to avoid rate limits
    if (i + batchSize < urls.length) {
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000));
    }
  }

  return results;
}

// Usage
const urls = [
  'https://example.com/page1',
  'https://example.com/page2',
  // ... more URLs
];

const results = await batchScrape(app, urls, 10);
console.log(`Successfully scraped ${results.length} pages`);

5. Use Selective Content Extraction

Extract only what you need to reduce processing complexity:

# Expensive: Get everything
result = app.scrape_url('https://example.com', {
    'formats': ['markdown', 'html', 'screenshot', 'extract']
    # Costs: 1 + 0.5 (screenshot) + 1 (extract) = 2.5 credits
})

# Optimized: Get only what you need
result = app.scrape_url('https://example.com', {
    'formats': ['markdown'],
    'onlyMainContent': True,
    'excludeTags': ['nav', 'footer', 'aside']
    # Costs: 1 credit
})

6. Monitor Credit Usage

Firecrawl provides API endpoints to check your credit balance:

# Check remaining credits
import requests

headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.getenv("FIRECRAWL_API_KEY")}'
}

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.firecrawl.dev/v0/account/credits',
    headers=headers
)

credit_info = response.json()
print(f"Remaining credits: {credit_info['credits']}")
print(f"Monthly limit: {credit_info['limit']}")
print(f"Usage: {(1 - credit_info['credits'] / credit_info['limit']) * 100:.1f}%")

Comparing Firecrawl to Traditional Web Scraping Costs

Understanding the cost comparison helps justify Firecrawl's pricing.

Traditional Scraping Infrastructure Costs

When building your own scraping infrastructure, consider these expenses:

Monthly Infrastructure Costs: - Proxy Services: $50-$500/month for residential proxies - Cloud Servers: $20-$200/month for VPS or EC2 instances - Browser Automation: Additional server resources for Puppeteer/Playwright - Database Storage: $10-$100/month - Monitoring Tools: $20-$100/month - Development Time: $2,000-$10,000 (one-time + ongoing maintenance)

Total Traditional Setup: $100-$1,000+/month plus significant development time

Firecrawl Equivalent: $20-$500/month with zero infrastructure management

Cost-Benefit Analysis

| Factor | Traditional Scraping | Firecrawl | |--------|---------------------|-----------| | Initial Setup | 40-80 hours | 15 minutes | | Monthly Maintenance | 10-20 hours | 0 hours | | Infrastructure Management | Required | Not required | | Proxy Management | Manual | Automatic | | Anti-Bot Bypass | Custom development | Built-in | | Scalability | Complex | Instant | | Cost for 100k pages/month | $200-$800 | $100 |

For most projects scraping under 500,000 pages monthly, Firecrawl is more cost-effective when factoring in development and maintenance time.

Pricing for Different Use Cases

Use Case 1: Daily Blog Monitoring

Scenario: Monitor 50 blogs daily for new content

Daily scrapes: 50 pages
Monthly total: 50 × 30 = 1,500 pages
Credits needed: 1,500
Recommended plan: Hobby ($20/month)
Cost per scrape: $0.013

Use Case 2: E-commerce Price Tracking

Scenario: Track prices for 5,000 products twice daily

Daily scrapes: 5,000 × 2 = 10,000 pages
Monthly total: 10,000 × 30 = 300,000 pages
Credits needed: 300,000
Recommended plan: Scale ($500/month)
Cost per scrape: $0.0017

Use Case 3: One-Time Website Migration

Scenario: Migrate content from old CMS (10,000 pages)

Total pages: 10,000
Credits needed: 10,000
Recommended approach: Hobby plan for one month ($20)
Cost per page: $0.002

Use Case 4: Market Research Data Collection

Scenario: Weekly scraping of 200 competitor websites (1,000 pages each)

Weekly scrapes: 200 × 1,000 = 200,000 pages
Monthly total: 200,000 × 4 = 800,000 pages
Credits needed: 800,000
Recommended plan: Enterprise (custom pricing)
Estimated cost: $800-$1,200/month

Additional Costs and Considerations

Overages

If you exceed your monthly credit allocation:

  • Hobby/Growth Plans: Additional credits can be purchased at $1 per 1,000 credits
  • Scale/Enterprise Plans: Custom overage rates available
  • No surprise charges: You must explicitly purchase additional credits; API calls will fail gracefully when credits are exhausted

Rate Limits

Each plan has different rate limits:

  • Free Tier: 10 requests per minute
  • Hobby: 20 requests per minute
  • Growth: 50 requests per minute
  • Scale: 100 requests per minute
  • Enterprise: Custom rate limits

Rate limits ensure fair usage and platform stability. If you need higher throughput, upgrading to a higher tier provides better performance similar to optimizing how you monitor network requests in Puppeteer.

Support Costs

  • Free/Hobby: Community support only
  • Growth: Email support (24-hour response time)
  • Scale: Priority support (4-hour response time)
  • Enterprise: Dedicated support with custom SLA

When to Upgrade Your Plan

Consider upgrading when:

  1. Consistently hitting 80% of credit limit - Indicates steady growth
  2. Need faster rate limits - Your application requires higher throughput
  3. Require priority support - Business-critical applications need faster response
  4. Custom features needed - Enterprise features or dedicated infrastructure
  5. Compliance requirements - Need custom contracts or data handling agreements

Free Alternatives and Self-Hosting

Open Source Self-Hosting

Firecrawl is open source and can be self-hosted at no API cost:

Self-Hosting Costs: - Server: $20-$100/month (DigitalOcean, AWS, etc.) - Development time: 10-20 hours initial setup - Maintenance: 2-5 hours/month - No credit limits - Full control over infrastructure

Best for: Organizations with DevOps resources, high-volume needs (>1M pages/month), strict data privacy requirements

Community Edition Limitations

The self-hosted version includes core features but may lack: - Managed infrastructure and updates - Advanced anti-bot capabilities - Premium support - Latest features (may lag behind cloud version)

Making the Right Choice

Choose the Free Tier if:

  • Testing Firecrawl for the first time
  • Building a proof of concept
  • Scraping fewer than 500 pages/month
  • Learning web scraping techniques

Choose the Hobby Plan if:

  • Running personal projects
  • Scraping 1,000-20,000 pages/month
  • Need reliable access for side projects
  • Don't require priority support

Choose the Growth Plan if:

  • Running a growing business
  • Scraping 20,000-100,000 pages/month
  • Need faster rate limits
  • Want priority email support

Choose the Scale Plan if:

  • Operating at scale
  • Scraping 100,000-600,000 pages/month
  • Need dedicated account management
  • Require SLA guarantees

Choose Enterprise if:

  • Fortune 500 or government organization
  • Scraping millions of pages/month
  • Need custom contract terms
  • Require dedicated infrastructure or self-hosting support

Conclusion

Firecrawl's pricing structure offers flexibility for projects of all sizes, from hobby experiments to enterprise-scale operations. The credit-based system provides transparency and predictability, while the tiered plans ensure you only pay for what you need.

For most developers, the Hobby or Growth plans provide excellent value compared to building and maintaining custom scraping infrastructure. The key to cost optimization is understanding credit consumption, implementing caching strategies, and using Firecrawl's features efficiently.

Start with the free tier to test the service, monitor your usage patterns, and upgrade to a paid plan that matches your actual needs. By following the optimization strategies outlined in this guide, you can maximize the value of your credits and build cost-effective web scraping solutions.

Remember that pricing and plans may change over time, so always check the official Firecrawl documentation for the most current pricing information.

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Related Questions

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