Bright Data Pricing 2026: All Plans, Rates, and Cost Optimization
Bright Data charges by bandwidth (GB) for proxies and by request for managed APIs — no single subscription unlocks everything. Residential proxies start at ~$8.40/GB pay-as-you-go and fall to ~$3.00/GB on a committed plan. Web Unlocker runs ~$3 per 1,000 successful responses. The SERP API starts at ~$0.75–$1.50 per 1,000 queries.
This guide covers every product's 2026 pricing, when volume discounts kick in, and which tier to pick for your budget.
⚠️ Pricing last verified March 2026. Check the official Bright Data pricing page before making decisions — rates and plan structures change frequently.
Bright Data pricing at a glance
| Product | Pay-as-you-go | Committed plan | Billing unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Datacenter proxies | ~$0.90/GB | From $0.60/GB | Per GB |
| ISP proxies | ~$1.30/GB | From $0.90/GB | Per GB |
| Residential proxies | ~$8.40/GB | From $3.00/GB | Per GB |
| Mobile (4G/5G) proxies | ~$20.00/GB | From $7.00/GB | Per GB |
| Scraping Browser | ~$8/1,000 sessions | Custom | Per session |
| Web Unlocker | ~$3/1,000 successes | Custom | Per success |
| SERP API | ~$0.75–$1.50/1K queries | From $0.55/1K queries | Per query |
| Datasets | From $0 (free samples) | Custom | Per record / GB |
All prices are approximate. Verify current rates on brightdata.com/pricing before committing.
Proxy pricing: residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile
Bright Data's core business is selling proxy bandwidth. Every proxy type bills per gigabyte consumed, with significant volume discounts available on committed monthly plans.
Residential proxies
Residential proxies route your traffic through real consumer devices — laptops, phones, smart TVs — in 195 countries. This makes them the hardest proxy type for anti-bot systems to detect.
| Tier | Rate per GB | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$8.40/GB | One-off jobs, testing |
| Low commitment ($200–$500/mo) | ~$5.50–$6.50/GB | Growing teams |
| High commitment ($500+/mo) | From $3.00/GB | Sustained pipelines |
City- and ZIP-level targeting adds a pricing multiplier. If you only need country-level geo-targeting, stick to the base rates above. Granular ZIP-code targeting can push costs 20–40% higher.
Datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies offer the highest throughput at the lowest cost. IPs come from hosting providers (AWS, OVH, etc.) and are trivially detectable by aggressive WAFs — but perfectly fine for unprotected APIs, internal tooling, and ad verification.
| Tier | Rate per GB | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$0.90/GB | High-volume, low-risk targets |
| Committed plan | From $0.60/GB | Production data pipelines |
Shared vs. dedicated datacenter IPs: Bright Data sells both. Dedicated IPs give you a static address (useful for whitelisted API access) and are priced per IP per month rather than per GB.
ISP proxies
ISP proxies are static IPs assigned by real internet service providers, combining the residential trust signal with the stability of a dedicated IP. They suit multi-step authenticated workflows — login sequences, checkout flows, account management.
| Tier | Rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$1.30/IP/month | Session-heavy scrapers |
| Committed plan | From $0.90/IP/month | Long-running authenticated sessions |
ISP proxies are billed per IP per month, not per GB — a different cost model. Budget based on the number of concurrent authenticated sessions you need to maintain.
Mobile (4G/5G) proxies
Mobile proxies route traffic through real smartphones on cellular networks. They carry the highest reputation score of any proxy type and are required for scraping mobile-first platforms that fingerprint carrier ASNs.
| Tier | Rate per GB | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$20.00/GB | TikTok, Instagram, carrier-sensitive APIs |
| Committed plan | From $7.00/GB | High-frequency mobile scraping |
Mobile proxies are expensive. Use them only for targets that actively block datacenter and residential IPs.
Scraping Browser pricing
The Scraping Browser is a cloud-hosted Chromium instance pre-configured with Bright Data's residential proxy network, anti-bot fingerprinting, and automatic CAPTCHA resolution. You connect via Playwright, Puppeteer, or Selenium using their CDP endpoint — no local browser needed.
| Tier | Rate | Billing unit |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$8/1,000 sessions | Per session |
| Committed plan | Custom (contact sales) | Volume-based |
A "session" is one browser instance from open to close. For pages requiring multiple navigations within a single session, you only pay once per open/close cycle.
Web Unlocker pricing
Web Unlocker is a pass-through API that handles IP rotation, browser fingerprinting, and CAPTCHA resolution automatically. You send a URL, Bright Data returns the unblocked HTML. You only pay for successful responses.
| Volume | Rate per 1,000 successes |
|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | ~$3.00 |
| High volume | Custom (contact sales) |
The pay-for-success model is the main selling point: failed attempts don't cost you anything. That matters when targeting Cloudflare-protected or Datadome-protected sites where a raw proxy setup might fail 30–40% of requests.
Cost comparison — Web Unlocker vs. raw residential:
| Method | Cost per 1,000 pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Web Unlocker | ~$3.00 | Zero infra; success-only billing |
| Residential PAYG (~1 MB/page) | ~$8.40 | You manage rotation, retries, CAPTCHA |
| Residential committed | ~$3.00 | Same cost, but you handle all the logic |
At scale (50M+ pages/month), the cost of Web Unlocker becomes significant. At that point, building a custom scraping stack on Apify with your own residential proxy layer is typically more cost-effective.
SERP API pricing
The SERP API returns structured JSON for Google, Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, and Google Maps queries. You are billed per 1,000 successful results, not per GB.
| Plan | Monthly cost | Rate per 1,000 queries | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | $0 minimum | ~$0.75–$1.50 | Testing, sporadic audits |
| Growth | ~$499/mo | ~$0.65–$1.30 | Mid-market SEO agencies |
| Business | ~$999/mo | ~$0.55–$1.10 | Enterprise rank tracking |
Google queries are billed at the higher end of each tier due to the additional compute required to bypass Google's anti-scraping defenses. Bing and DuckDuckGo cost less.
At 1 million queries/month: Pay-as-you-go costs ~$750–$1,500. The Business plan at $999/mo covers 1M+ queries at ~$0.55/1K, breaking even around 670K queries/month.
Datasets pricing
Bright Data's Datasets Marketplace sells pre-collected, cleaned datasets for e-commerce, social media, jobs, finance, and real estate. Instead of scraping LinkedIn profiles yourself, you buy the dataset.
Pricing is not published publicly and varies by:
- Record count (price per 1,000 records)
- Data freshness (historical snapshots vs. real-time refresh)
- Domain (LinkedIn and Amazon data costs more than generic web data)
- Custom collection vs. off-the-shelf samples
Free samples are available for most datasets. Request a quote from brightdata.com for commercial use.
Is there a free trial?
Bright Data does not offer a traditional free tier. What they provide:
- Trial credits: New accounts receive a small credit allocation to test the platform (typically $5–$20 depending on the promotion).
- Free dataset samples: Most datasets have a downloadable free sample before purchase.
- MCP Server free tier: The Bright Data MCP Server for AI agent integrations has a free usage tier.
If you need to evaluate the platform seriously before committing, contact their sales team for a pilot program. Enterprise deals routinely include a structured trial period with a dedicated account manager.
Compared to Apify: Apify offers a genuinely free tier ($5/month in compute credits per month, no credit card required), making it better for low-volume testing and individual developers. Bright Data is primarily positioned for teams with existing infrastructure and a concrete bandwidth requirement.
Cost optimization: how to pay less
1. Start with datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies cost ~10× less than residential. Many targets that appear to require residential IPs can actually be scraped successfully with datacenter IPs — test this first before upgrading.
Decision rule: Use datacenter → escalate to residential only if you receive consistent 403 or 429 responses.
2. Match proxy type to target
| Target type | Recommended proxy | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Public REST APIs, unprotected sites | Datacenter | Cheapest; no risk of IP detection |
| E-commerce (Amazon, Walmart) | Residential | Anti-bot systems fingerprint datacenter ASNs |
| Authenticated sessions (login, checkout) | ISP | Static IPs avoid mid-session blocks |
| Mobile-first apps (TikTok, Instagram) | Mobile | Carrier-ASN validation |
| Cloudflare/Datadome-protected sites | Web Unlocker | CAPTCHA resolution included |
3. Choose committed plans over pay-as-you-go
If you reliably consume more than 50 GB/month in residential proxies, a committed plan cuts your effective rate roughly in half — from ~$8.40/GB to ~$3.00/GB. At 100 GB/month, that saves ~$540/month.
4. Use SERP API for SEO workflows
The SERP API is cheaper than the alternative: a residential proxy + headless browser for every Google query. At $0.55–$0.75 per 1,000 queries (committed), it undercuts the bandwidth cost of running your own infrastructure for SERP data at scale.
5. Cap bandwidth with zone limits
Bright Data's Control Panel lets you set hard bandwidth caps per proxy zone. Use this to prevent runaway costs from misconfigured scrapers or retry loops consuming unexpected bandwidth.
6. Use Web Unlocker only for hard targets
The Web Unlocker is powerful but expensive relative to raw proxies. Build a routing layer that attempts cheaper options first:
- Datacenter proxy — cheapest, fails on strict WAFs
- Residential proxy — mid-cost, handles most anti-bot
- Web Unlocker — highest cost, handles Cloudflare/Datadome
Bright Data pricing vs. alternatives
| Provider | Residential PAYG | Datacenter PAYG | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | ~$8.40/GB | ~$0.90/GB | Trial credits only | Enterprise scale, compliance |
| Apify | Included in platform | Included | $5/mo credits | Serverless scraping + proxies |
| IPRoyal | ~$3.00/GB | ~$0.38/GB | No | Budget residential proxies |
| Oxylabs | ~$8.00/GB | ~$1.80/GB | Trial credits | Enterprise, similar to Bright Data |
| Decodo | ~$1.50/GB | ~$0.50/GB | No | Budget, mid-market |
Bright Data is not the cheapest option. If your budget is under $200/month, IPRoyal or Decodo offer lower entry costs. If you want a fully managed platform that bundles proxies with code execution and scheduling, Apify is more cost-efficient for teams that write custom scrapers.
For a full platform comparison, see Best Residential Proxies 2026.
What is the cheapest Bright Data plan?
There is no fixed "plan" — Bright Data is usage-based. The cheapest way to get started:
- Use the trial credits to test the platform (~$5–$20 free).
- Start with datacenter proxies at ~$0.90/GB.
- Only upgrade to residential if you confirm you need them.
- Commit to a monthly spend once you establish a baseline — $200/month unlocks the first tier of volume discounts.
There is no fixed monthly plan. Bright Data charges by bandwidth for proxies (from ~$0.90/GB for datacenter to ~$8.40/GB for residential on pay-as-you-go) and by request for APIs (Web Unlocker at ~$3/1,000 successes; SERP API at ~$0.75–$1.50/1,000 queries). Most teams spend $200–$2,000/month depending on volume and proxy type.
Bright Data does not offer a permanent free tier. New accounts receive trial credits (typically $5–$20) to test the platform. Free dataset samples are available for download. If you need an extended evaluation period, contact their sales team for a pilot program.
Datacenter proxies at ~$0.90/GB pay-as-you-go are the cheapest proxy type. Residential proxies start at ~$8.40/GB on pay-as-you-go but fall to ~$3.00/GB on a high-commitment plan. If your target does not require residential IPs, datacenter proxies deliver a 9× cost reduction.
Yes. Committed monthly plans significantly reduce per-GB rates. Residential proxy costs can fall from ~$8.40/GB (PAYG) to ~$3.00/GB on a high-commitment plan. Volume discounts become meaningful above ~$200/month in committed spend.
Web Unlocker charges ~$3 per 1,000 successful responses. You are not billed for failed requests. This pay-for-success model makes it cost-predictable for high-difficulty targets like Cloudflare-protected sites, but expensive at scale (50M+ pages/month) compared to a self-managed residential proxy stack.
The SERP API starts at ~$0.75–$1.50 per 1,000 queries on pay-as-you-go. Growth plans (~$499/mo) bring costs to ~$0.65–$1.30/1K, and Business plans (~$999/mo) bring costs to ~$0.55–$1.10/1K. Google queries cost more than Bing or DuckDuckGo due to the higher compute required.
Probably not as a primary platform. Bright Data has no meaningful free tier, and the pay-as-you-go rates are high at low volumes. Small teams building scraping projects are typically better served by Apify (free tier + pay-per-compute) or budget proxy providers like IPRoyal. Bright Data becomes cost-competitive above ~$200/month in committed spend.