Apify Free Tier Guide: What You Can Actually Do for $0 (2026)
Apify's free tier is genuinely useful — not a demo, not a trial, but a real plan with $5 monthly compute credit and access to all 4,000+ actors. For testing scraping workflows, running small one-off jobs and validating use cases before paying, it is more than enough. This guide covers exactly what you can do for $0 and how to maximize the free credit.
The key question: is the free tier enough for real marketing work, or just evaluation? The answer depends on your volume — but for many small teams, it covers weekly lead scraping and monthly competitor checks.
Quick answer: what is included in Apify free
- $5 monthly platform credit (compute time for running actors)
- All 4,000+ public actors available — no restrictions on which scrapers you can use
- Up to 10 concurrent actor runs
- Data storage for 7 days
- No scheduling (manual runs only)
- Community support
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
What $5 credit actually covers
Apify charges by compute time — the CPU-seconds your actors run. At $0.25-1.00 per hour, $5 covers roughly 5-20 hours of scraping. In practical terms:
- Google Maps scraper: 500 business listings = ~5 min compute = $0.02-0.08
- Amazon product scraper: 100 products = ~3 min compute = $0.01-0.05
- Instagram profile scraper: 200 posts = ~5 min compute = $0.02-0.08
- LinkedIn profile scraper: 100 profiles = ~10 min compute = $0.04-0.17
- TikTok hashtag scraper: 500 videos = ~5 min compute = $0.02-0.08
At these rates, $5 covers 50-250 small scraping jobs per month — enough for testing any workflow and running small-scale production jobs.
Marketing tasks you can complete on free tier
- Test lead scraping: scrape 500 Google Maps listings for your niche to validate the workflow
- One-off competitor check: scrape 50 competitor product prices from Amazon
- Content research: scrape 200 TikTok videos from a trending hashtag for format analysis
- Social audit: scrape 100 posts from 3 competitor Instagram profiles for engagement benchmarking
- Review mining: scrape 200 reviews from a competitor Amazon product for sentiment analysis
The free tier is perfect for proving ROI before upgrading. Scrape a test lead list, run a cold email campaign, measure the conversion rate. If the ROI justifies $49/mo Pro, upgrade. If not, you spent $0 to find out.
Free tier limitations that matter
The free tier has three real limitations:
- No scheduling: you cannot set actors to run automatically. Every run is manual. This means no daily price monitoring or weekly lead scraping automation.
- 7-day data storage: scraped data expires after 7 days. Export immediately or lose it. Pro extends this to 14 days.
- 10 concurrent runs: sufficient for testing, but limits throughput on larger jobs. Pro allows 50 concurrent runs.
How to maximize free tier credit
- Test with small runs first: run 10 results before 1,000 to verify the actor works for your use case
- Choose efficient actors: some actors are optimized for speed (lower compute cost). Check actor descriptions for performance notes.
- Avoid proxy-heavy actors: some actors require residential proxies ($2-8/GB) which burn through credit fast. Stick to actors that work with datacenter proxies or direct connections.
- Export data immediately: don't let scraped data expire. Export to CSV/JSON right after each run.
- Plan your runs: batch your scraping into fewer, larger runs instead of many small ones to minimize overhead
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
When to upgrade to Pro
Upgrade to Pro ($49/mo) when you need: scheduled runs (automation), more than $5/mo in compute, 14-day data storage, or more than 10 concurrent runs. For most marketing teams, the trigger is scheduling — once you want scraping to run automatically (daily price monitoring, weekly lead generation), Pro is necessary.
The upgrade math: if your free tier scraping produces leads, insights or competitive data worth more than $49/mo, upgrade. For most active marketing teams, this threshold is crossed within the first month.
Apify's free tier is one of the most generous in the scraping space — $5 real credit, all actors accessible, no time limits. Use it to test any scraping workflow, run small production jobs, and prove ROI before upgrading. When you need automation (scheduling) or higher volume, Pro at $49/mo is the natural next step.
FAQ
Is Apify free tier really free?
Yes. Apify's free tier includes $5 monthly compute credit, access to all 4,000+ public actors, 10 concurrent runs and 7-day data storage — with no time limit. It is a genuine free plan, not a trial. The credit resets monthly.
What can I scrape with Apify free tier?
With $5 monthly credit, you can scrape approximately 500-2,500 results across various actors (Google Maps listings, Amazon products, Instagram posts, TikTok videos, LinkedIn profiles). The exact number depends on the actor and target site. All 4,000+ public actors are available on the free tier.
How long does Apify free credit last?
The $5 monthly credit resets at the start of each billing cycle (monthly). Unused credit does not roll over. At $0.25-1.00/hour compute, $5 covers 5-20 hours of scraping — enough for 50-250 small scraping jobs per month.
When should I upgrade from Apify free to Pro?
Upgrade to Pro ($49/mo) when you need scheduled runs (automation), more than $5/mo in compute, 14-day data storage, or more than 10 concurrent runs. The most common trigger is scheduling — once you want scraping to run automatically (daily price monitoring, weekly lead generation), Pro is necessary.
Can I use Apify for commercial projects on the free tier?
Yes. Apify's free tier has no commercial use restrictions. You can scrape data for business purposes — lead generation, competitive intelligence, market research — within the $5 credit limit. The data you scrape is yours to use commercially, subject to the target website's terms of service.
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Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter