switch402

Bright Data Credits Explained (2026): Pay-as-You-Go, Scale Plan and Free Tier

Short answer: Bright Data bills a USD balance per product, not credits. Per brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker and brightdata.com/pricing/serp (checked Nov 7, 2026), Web Unlocker and SERP API both have a free tier of 5,000 requests a month, pay-as-you-go at $1.50 per 1,000 requests (paid only for success, with monthly spend limits), and a Scale plan at $499 a month that includes 383,000 Web Unlocker requests or 380,000 SERP requests, then $1.30 per 1,000. New accounts get their first deposit matched up to $500. Per request, Bright Data pay-as-you-go ($0.0015) costs less than switch402 ($0.008, or $0.003 on lite); switch402's difference is no account or balance.

Does Bright Data use credits?

Not a single credit unit. You fund a USD balance, and each Bright Data product bills its own unit: Web Unlocker and SERP API bill per 1,000 requests, while proxies, Scraping Browser, Web Scraper API and Datasets have their own pricing pages.

Bright Data already offers a no-commitment pay-as-you-go option that charges only for successful requests, so the usual subscription problem of unused credits is smaller here. The trade-offs are an account, a funded balance and different units per product.

See also: Scraping API pricing compared · Credits vs pay per call

  • Pay-as-you-go: $1.50 per 1,000

    Web Unlocker and SERP API bill $1.50 per 1,000 requests with no monthly commitment, charge only for successful requests and let you set a monthly spend limit. In SERP API asynchronous mode only the send request is counted, not collecting the response.

  • Scale: $499 a month

    Includes 383,000 Web Unlocker requests or 380,000 SERP API requests, then $1.30 per 1,000. That is about $1.30 per 1,000 if you use the full allowance; with less usage the effective rate rises, because the $499 is billed either way.

  • Free tier and deposit match

    Both products list 5,000 free requests a month. Bright Data matches a new account first deposit dollar for dollar up to $500. Charges are in USD; local-currency prices on the site are estimates.

  • Other products, other units

    Proxy networks, Scraping Browser, Web Scraper API, Scraper Studio and Datasets are priced on their own pages in their own units. Check the page for the product you use rather than assuming a shared credit rate.

Bright Data Web Unlocker vs switch402, per successful request (Nov 7, 2026)

OptionCommitmentPer request10,000 requests/mo100,000 requests/mo
Bright Data Web Unlocker, pay-as-you-goNone (account and balance)$0.0015$15$150
Bright Data Web Unlocker, Scale$499/month (383K included)$0.0013 at full use$499$499
switch402 /v1/scrapeNone (no account)$0.008$80$800
switch402 /v1/scrape/liteNone (no account)$0.003$30$300

Bright Data pay-as-you-go costs less per request than switch402 at every volume shown, before counting its 5,000-request free tier. The Scale plan only pays off near its included volume (about 333,000 pay-as-you-go requests cost the same $499). switch402 is for agents that pay per call in USDC on Base over x402 without creating an account, funding a balance or managing API keys; it returns public pages as markdown and has no unblocking or CAPTCHA-solving tier.

Sources, checked Nov 7, 2026: brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker, brightdata.com/pricing/serp, brightdata.com/pricing. Prices can change; check the source before you decide.

Example: 10,000 Web Unlocker requests in a month cost $15 on Bright Data pay-as-you-go and $80 on switch402 ($30 on lite). If you already have a Bright Data account and balance, it is the cheaper option per request. switch402 makes sense when an agent needs to pay per call with no signup, key or deposit.

Code example

switch402: pay per call, no account (JavaScript)

// npm i @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem
import { wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.AGENT_KEY)
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig(fetch, {
  schemes: [{ network: 'eip155:8453', client: new ExactEvmScheme(account) }],
})

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://api.switch402.com/v1/scrape', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'User-Agent': 'my-agent/1.0' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://example.com' }),
})
const { markdown } = await res.json() // $0.008, charged only on success

FAQ

Is switch402 live?
Yes. POST https://api.switch402.com/v1/scrape with {"url": "..."} returns the page as markdown for $0.008 USDC on Base per call, paid over x402 and charged only on success. A lower-cost endpoint, /v1/scrape/lite, is $0.003 per call.
Does Bright Data have credits?
Not one shared credit. You fund a USD balance, and each product bills its own unit; Web Unlocker and SERP API bill per 1,000 requests. The first-deposit match (up to $500 for new accounts) adds balance, not a separate credit type.
How much does Bright Data Web Unlocker cost?
As of Nov 7, 2026, per brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker: free tier 5,000 requests a month; pay-as-you-go $1.50 per 1,000 requests; Scale $499 a month including 383,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,000; Enterprise custom.
How much does Bright Data SERP API cost?
As of Nov 7, 2026, per brightdata.com/pricing/serp: free tier 5,000 a month; pay-as-you-go $1.50 per 1,000 requests; Scale $499 a month including 380,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,000. In asynchronous mode only the send request is counted.
Do I need a monthly plan?
No. Pay-as-you-go has no monthly commitment and charges only for successful requests, with a monthly spend limit you set. Scale ($499/month) lowers the rate only if you use most of its included requests.
Is switch402 cheaper than Bright Data?
No, not per request: Bright Data pay-as-you-go is $0.0015 vs switch402 $0.008 ($0.003 on lite). switch402 differs in how you pay: no signup, account, balance or API key, with each successful call paid in USDC on Base over x402.
Where do these numbers come from?
Bright Data's Web Unlocker, SERP API and product pricing pages, fetched Nov 7, 2026, plus switch402's live payment terms. Prices can change; check the sources before you decide.

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