Looking up Bright Data pricing? You’re probably trying to figure out if the investment is worth it, or comparing it against other web scraping solutions.

Here’s the reality: Bright Data operates multiple product lines - proxies, web scraping APIs, datasets, and analytics - each with different pricing models. Pay-per-GB for proxies, pay-per-request for APIs, and enterprise minimums starting at $500-1,000+ create complexity where your actual costs depend on which products you combine.

This guide breaks down each product’s pricing, reveals hidden costs users discover mid-project, and explains when alternatives make more sense.

• Bright Data operates multiple pricing models: Pay-per-GB for proxies ($2.50-10.50/GB), pay-per-request for APIs ($0.75-2.50 per 1K), and subscription models for datasets (starting $250/100K records)
• Enterprise-focused pricing creates barriers: Most products require sales contact for custom pricing, with typical minimums starting at $500-1,000+ monthly before you can properly evaluate
• Web Scraper API uses flat-rate pricing: $1.50-$2.50 per 1,000 requests regardless of page complexity, meaning simple HTML pages cost the same as JavaScript-heavy protected sites
• Pay-per-GB proxy model creates unpredictability: A website serving 500KB pages costs dramatically different than one delivering 3MB files - you won’t know which until you’re already paying
• Customer support inconsistency frustrates users: Response times vary from 20 minutes to 9+ days based on G2 reviews, creating business risk for time-sensitive projects
• Not optimized for AI workflows: Returns HTML/JSON requiring extensive post-processing; lacks native markdown output that reduces LLM token consumption by 67%
• Performance lags competitors: 10.6-second average response time vs sub-5-second alternatives, with slow filtering on large datasets reported by users
• Alternatives like Firecrawl start at $20/month: Modern APIs eliminate pricing complexity with transparent 1-credit-per-page pricing, all features available at all tiers, and AI-ready markdown output

Bright Data (formerly Luminati Networks) is a web data platform. The company provides infrastructure for collecting publicly available web data at scale, targeting enterprises in AI development, eCommerce, financial services, and market research.

The platform operates across multiple product categories: proxy networks (150M+ IPs across residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile), web scraping APIs with pre-built scrapers for 120+ domains, ready-to-use datasets, and analytics tools. This breadth creates both power and complexity - you can solve almost any data collection challenge, but understanding which products you need and how they’re priced requires significant research.

Bright Data is usually less suitable for teams needing transparent pricing, quick setup without sales calls, or AI-optimized outputs like markdown for LLM workflows.

Most users turn to Bright Data for web scraping operations, so this breakdown focuses on scraping products first, then covers proxy infrastructure and analytics tools.

The Web Scraper API provides 120+ pre-built scrapers for platforms like LinkedIn, Amazon, Instagram, and Google Maps. Unlike tools that charge per page scraped, Bright Data uses flat-rate per-1,000-requests pricing regardless of page complexity.

Current pricing (with 25% promotional discount):

What this actually costs:

• Scraping 10K Amazon product pages: $15 (pay-as-you-go) vs $7.50 (Enterprise)
• Scraping 100K LinkedIn profiles: $150 (pay-as-you-go) vs $75 (Enterprise)
• Scraping 500K Instagram posts: $750 (pay-as-you-go) vs $375 (Enterprise)

The flat-rate problem: A static HTML page costs the same $1.50/1K as a JavaScript-heavy protected site requiring rendering and premium proxies. You subsidize complex operations even for simple scraping tasks. Competitors charge $0.10-$0.20/1K for basic pages and scale up only when needed.

What’s included (at all tiers):

• JavaScript rendering
• Residential proxies
• CAPTCHA solving
• Data validation
• Automated proxy management
• Data parsing (JSON/CSV)
• Unlimited concurrent requests

What’s not included:

• Free tier with meaningful testing capacity (pay-as-you-go requires payment upfront)
• Markdown output for AI workflows (returns HTML/JSON only)
• Transparent pricing calculator (contact sales for volume discounts)

Scraping Functions lets you write custom scrapers in JavaScript and deploy them as serverless functions. Unlike the pre-built Web Scraper API, this tool charges per-1,000-results plus compute time.

Pricing structure:

What this means in practice:

A “result” is each page rendered. If you scrape a product listing with 20 items, then click through to each product detail page, that’s 21 results total (1 listing + 20 detail pages). Compute time charges by the hour your scraper runs, though specific per-hour rates aren’t published on the pricing page.

Free trial limitations:

• Unlimited tests during development
• Publish up to 3 scrapers
• 100 records per scraper maximum (300 total)

After the trial, you pay the per-result rate plus compute costs. For teams building custom scrapers, compute charges add unpredictability to monthly bills since runtime varies by website complexity and scraper efficiency.

Scraping Browser provides headless browser instances for sites requiring full browser rendering. Pricing is $5/GB of bandwidth consumed, meaning your costs depend entirely on page sizes and data transfer.

Pricing: $5/GB bandwidth (pay-as-you-go or monthly plans starting at $500)

Cost examples:

• Average web page: 2-3MB = $0.01-$0.015 per page
• Image-heavy product page: 5-8MB = $0.025-$0.04 per page
• Video content page: 10-15MB = $0.05-$0.075 per page

The bandwidth model creates unpredictability: You won’t know actual costs until after scraping. A site serving 500KB pages costs dramatically different than one delivering 3MB files. When combined with other product charges, monthly bills can spike based on factors outside your control.

What’s included:

• Remote browser instances
• JavaScript rendering
• Stealth mode (anti-detection)
• Proxy management
• Session control

Web Unlocker handles proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and anti-bot bypass automatically. It charges $1 per 1,000 requests regardless of complexity.

Pricing: $1/1K requests (all plans)

What you get:

• Automatic proxy selection (datacenter or residential)
• CAPTCHA solving included
• Retry logic on failures
• Request success monitoring
• No separate proxy charges (bundled in the $1/1K rate)

When to use Web Unlocker instead of Web Scraper API: Web Unlocker works when you need custom scraping logic but want automatic unblocking. Web Scraper API works when pre-built scrapers match your target sites. The $1/1K vs $1.50/1K pricing difference reflects that Web Unlocker requires you to write extraction logic yourself.

The SERP API returns search engine results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex. Pricing is $1 per 1,000 requests.

Pricing: $1/1K requests (all plans)

What’s included:

• Multi-engine support (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex)
• Organic results + ads + featured snippets
• Location targeting
• Desktop/mobile results
• JSON delivery

Cost comparison: Similar to competitors like ScrapingBee SERP API ($1.50/1K) and SerpApi ($1-2/1K depending on volume). The $1/1K rate is competitive for high-volume usage but offers no free tier for testing.

Datasets provide pre-collected data from 100+ domains. Instead of scraping in real-time, you purchase historical data snapshots.

Pricing: Starting at $250 per 100K records

Available datasets:

• LinkedIn (profiles, companies, jobs, posts)
• eCommerce (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify)
• Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter)
• Real estate (Zillow, Airbnb, Booking.com)
• Business data (Crunchbase, PitchBook, ZoomInfo)

Dataset costs scale by volume and freshness:

• 100K records: $250 baseline
• 1M records: Custom pricing (typically $2,000-$4,000)
• 10M+ records: Enterprise pricing (contact sales)

When datasets make sense: If you need historical data or don’t require real-time updates, datasets cost less than equivalent Web Scraper API calls. For instance, 100K LinkedIn profiles via Web Scraper API costs $150 ($1.50/1K) but requires ongoing maintenance. The same data as a dataset costs $250 one-time with no scraping infrastructure needed.

Bright Insights provides AI-powered eCommerce analytics tracking pricing, availability, and market trends across retailers.

Pricing: Starting at $250/month

What’s included:

• Cross-retailer pricing intelligence
• Product availability monitoring
• Market trend analysis
• Competitive benchmarking
• Custom alerts and reports

How it differs from raw data: Instead of scraping product data yourself via Web Scraper API, Insights delivers analyzed intelligence. You’re paying for the analytics layer, not raw data collection. Monthly costs scale based on number of products tracked and update frequency.

If you need proxies for custom scraping infrastructure, Bright Data offers four proxy types. Most users building scrapers don’t need separate proxies since Web Scraper API and Web Unlocker include proxy management.

Residential proxies (50% promotional discount):

Regular pricing (when promo ends): $10.50/GB pay-as-you-go, scaling down to $5/GB at enterprise volumes.

Datacenter proxies:

Regular pricing: $0.90/IP monthly minimum.

ISP proxies:

Regular pricing: $1.30/IP monthly minimum.

Mobile proxies:

When you actually need separate proxies: Only if you’re building custom scraping infrastructure outside Bright Data’s APIs. The Web Scraper API, Web Unlocker, SERP API, and Scraping Browser all include proxy management. Buying separate proxies makes sense for teams with existing scrapers who only need IP rotation.

Here’s what a typical scraping operation costs across products:

Scenario: Scraping 100K product pages monthly from Amazon, requiring JavaScript rendering and CAPTCHA solving.

Option 1: Web Scraper API

• 100K requests × $1.50/1K = $150/month (pay-as-you-go)
• 100K requests × $0.75/1K = $75/month (Enterprise)
• Includes proxies, CAPTCHA, rendering

Option 2: Web Unlocker + custom scraper

• 100K requests × $1.00/1K = $100/month
• Includes proxies, CAPTCHA
• Requires writing extraction logic

Option 3: Scraping Browser + Residential proxies

• 100K pages × 2MB avg = 200GB bandwidth
• Browser: 200GB × $5/GB = $1,000
• Residential proxies: Already included in bandwidth
• Total: $1,000/month

Option 4: Web Scraper API + Scraping Functions hybrid

• Pre-built scrapers: 50K × $1.50/1K = $75
• Custom scrapers: 50K × $1.50/1K + compute = $75 + compute costs
• Total: $150+ per month

The cost multiplication trap: Combining products for complex workflows (Web Scraper API + Residential proxies + SERP API) quickly escalates monthly bills to $500-$2,000+ before enterprise minimums. Each product charges separately, and costs stack when workflows require multiple tools.

Beyond the base rates, users consistently report pricing-related pain points that impact budgeting and total cost of ownership.

Pay-per-GB creates budget uncertainty. Bright Data charges $10.50/GB for residential proxies (currently $2.50/GB with 50% promotional discount). A website serving 500KB pages costs $0.001 per page, while 3MB pages cost $0.03 - a 30x difference for identical scraping tasks.

You won’t know which until bills arrive. Page sizes vary by:

• JavaScript rendering (adds 500KB-2MB per page)
• Image loading (product pages average 2-3MB)
• Dynamic content injection (social feeds, infinite scroll)

The Web Scraper API uses flat-rate pricing that penalizes simple tasks. At $1.50-$2.50 per 1,000 requests, a static HTML blog post (which competitors scrape for $0.10-$0.20/1K) costs the same as a JavaScript-heavy protected checkout flow. You’re subsidizing complex scraping operations even when you don’t need them.

Most pricing isn’t self-service. Product pages show per-unit costs ($1/1K for SERP API, $5/GB for Browser API) but hide the real entry point: minimum monthly commitments typically starting at $500-1,000+ after contacting sales.

Smaller teams face a catch-22:

• Can’t properly test without committing $500+/month
• Can’t justify the commitment without testing first
• Free trials are limited to basic features or tiny quotas

Compare this to alternatives offering:

• $20-50/month starting tiers with full feature access
• 500-1,000 free credits monthly for ongoing testing
• Pay-as-you-grow with no minimums
• Transparent pricing without sales calls

Multiple product charges stack quickly. Common workflows require combining products:

• Web Scraper API: $1.50-$2.50/1K requests
• Residential proxies: $2.50-$10.50/GB bandwidth
• CAPTCHA solving: Included but impacts success rate pricing
• Premium features: Often require higher-tier plans

A team scraping 100K product pages monthly could face:

• Web Scraper API: $150-$250
• Proxy bandwidth (assuming 2MB avg): $50-$210
• Total: $200-$460/month before enterprise minimums

Current rates show aggressive discounts (50% off residential proxies, 25% off Web Scraper API). These promotional periods create planning uncertainty:

• Your current $2.50/GB rate could jump to $10.50/GB when promos end
• No guarantee of pricing stability for budget forecasting
• Renewal pricing often differs from acquisition pricing

Bright Data excels at enterprise-scale operations with 150M+ proxies and comprehensive infrastructure. However, several scenarios make Bright Data alternatives worth evaluating:

Pricing concerns:

• Promotional instability: Current 50% off proxies ($2.50/GB) revert to $10.50/GB regular pricing, potentially doubling costs
• High minimums: Most plans start at $500-$1,000 monthly vs $20-50 alternatives
• Cost multiplication: Combining products (API + proxies + compute) quickly reaches $500-$2,000+
• Pay-per-GB unpredictability: 500KB pages cost $0.001 while 3MB pages cost $0.03 - a 30x variance

Technical limitations:

• Performance: 10.6s average response vs sub-5s competitors for real-time applications
• AI workflows: Returns HTML/JSON instead of markdown (67% more tokens for LLMs)
• Platform complexity: 120+ scrapers and multiple proxy types create unnecessary overhead for simple workflows

Operational friction:

• Support inconsistency: 20-minute to 9-day resolution times per G2 reviews
• Enterprise barriers: Requires sales calls, KYC verification, and multi-day setup vs instant self-service
• Missing integrations: No native Zapier, n8n, LangChain, or LlamaIndex support

*TL;DR: Evaluate alternatives if you need transparent pricing, AI-ready outputs, faster performance, smaller budgets, or streamlined workflows without enterprise sales processes.*

Firecrawl’s pricing takes a fundamentally different approach than Bright Data. While ScrapingBee uses credit multipliers and feature-gating, Firecrawl offers transparent 1-credit-per-page pricing with all features available at all tiers.

Both platforms handle web scraping, but they optimize for fundamentally different use cases. Here’s how they compare across pricing, performance, and workflow integration.

Cost example: Scraping 100K pages monthly

• Bright Data: $150 (pay-as-you-go) or $75 (Enterprise $1,999+ plan)
• Firecrawl: $83/month (Standard plan, 100K credits)

Firecrawl delivers 2-3x faster responses, critical for real-time applications or high-volume operations where hours matter.

Example: Extracting product details

Bright Data requires CSS selectors or custom parsing:

{
  "title": "xpath://h1[@class='product-title']",
  "price": "xpath://span[@class='price']"
}

Firecrawl accepts natural language:

{
  "extract": {
    "schema": {
      "productName": "The main product title",
      "currentPrice": "The sale price if available, otherwise regular price"
    }
  }
}

For AI applications feeding data into GPT, Claude, or RAG systems, Firecrawl’s markdown output and natural language extraction eliminate post-processing.

Bright Data assumes you have DevOps resources for proxy configuration and scraper maintenance. Firecrawl handles infrastructure automatically.

Neither is universally “better” - they solve different problems. Choose based on your team size, budget, technical requirements, and whether you’re building AI applications or traditional data pipelines.

Bright Data excels at enterprise-scale scraping with 150M+ proxies and 120+ pre-built scrapers. However, its 10.6s average response time and lack of AI-optimized outputs make it less suitable than alternatives like Firecrawl for real-time applications or LLM workflows requiring markdown.

Bright Data’s pricing reflects enterprise-focused infrastructure: $500-$1,000+ monthly minimums, promotional rates that revert to 2x regular pricing, and multiple product charges stacking together. For teams needing transparent pricing under $100/month, alternatives like Firecrawl ($83/month for 100K pages) offer better value.

For pay-as-you-go, Bright Data costs $1.50/1K requests. Firecrawl’s Hobby plan ($16/month for 3K pages) offers transparent pricing without enterprise minimums. For high-volume scraping, Firecrawl’s Standard plan ($83/month, 100K pages) costs less than Bright Data’s pay-as-you-go equivalent ($150/month).

No. Bright Data’s free trial limits you to 100 records with no ongoing access. Firecrawl provides 500 credits one-time for testing, then scales from $16/month. For genuine free-tier testing before committing to paid plans, alternatives with monthly free credits offer better evaluation opportunities.

Pay-as-you-go charges $1.50/1K for Web Scraper API with no commitment but premium rates. Monthly plans start at $499 ($0.98/1K) with enterprise minimums. The cost difference only justifies monthly plans above 100K requests. Most alternatives offer transparent per-page pricing regardless of commitment level.

No. Bright Data returns HTML/JSON requiring manual parsing for LLMs, causing 67% more token consumption versus markdown. Firecrawl’s native markdown output, natural language extraction, and LangChain/LlamaIndex integrations make it purpose-built for AI workflows without the parsing overhead and token costs.

Pay-as-you-go plans allow self-service signup, but residential/mobile proxies require KYC verification (1-3 days). Enterprise minimums ($500-$1,000+) typically need sales discussions. For instant self-service access with credit card signup and no verification delays, alternatives like Firecrawl start scraping in minutes.