TheCrawler: a Firecrawl alternative that doesn't meter AI extraction
TheCrawler runs the extraction LLM on its own GPU, so structured AI extraction costs the same as a plain scrape — unlike Firecrawl, which charges additional credits for AI extraction.
Firecrawl vs TheCrawler — at a glance
| Capability | Firecrawl | TheCrawler |
|---|---|---|
| Base page scrape → markdown | Yes | Yes |
| AI / structured extraction billing | Additional credits for AI extraction (their words) | Same as a plain scrape — no per-call AI surcharge |
| Validated extraction contracts | Freeform schema | Typed + required-field validated |
| Pre-flight readiness / cost guard (/diagnose) | None | Yes — scores extractability before you spend |
| Extract-once, emit-all (one call) | Per-format | One call → markdown + tables + structured + contacts |
| Charged for failed / empty extractions | Yes | No — credits refunded |
| Branding / design-system extraction | Richer (fonts + typography + spacing) | Palette + logo (no-LLM) |
| Async batch / crawl jobs + webhooks | Yes, mature | Yes — /v1/batch + signed completion webhooks |
| Web search → scrape + change-monitoring | /search; no native monitoring | /v1/search + /v1/monitoring (webhook on change) |
| MCP server | Official | stdio today (Claude / Cursor); remote on roadmap |
| Self-host the extraction LLM | Self-host option | Runs on our own GPU (multi-million-record scale); open engine |
We don't print a Firecrawl price here — their pricing changes and we won't assert a number we can't cite. Use the calculator below with your own figures.
The real difference: who pays for the GPU
Most web-data APIs meter the AI-extraction step because their marginal cost is a per-call OpenAI or Anthropic bill — so they have to pass it through. That's why structured extraction shows up as additional credits on top of the scrape.
TheCrawler runs the extraction model on a GPU we already own. The marginal cost of one more extraction is electricity, not an API invoice — so we don't add a per-call surcharge for it. That's not "AI is free" (there's real capex, power, and ops behind the box); it's that AI extraction is priced like a plain scrape instead of metered per call. It's a cost structure a metered provider can't match without changing their own.
On quality: extraction is page-grounded by default — every value must trace to the exact page text the model saw, or it comes back null. On our trap-field evals: 0 invented fields in the original 29-page run, and 1 in 34 on a harder extended run. That's an eval we keep expanding, not a proof — and failed or empty extractions are auto-refunded.
Estimate your AI-extraction surcharge
What does the AI-extraction surcharge cost you?
Enter your own numbers — we don't guess your provider's price. This shows only the per-call AI-extraction surcharge, the part TheCrawler doesn't charge because the extraction model runs on our own GPU.
Figures use the price youentered; TheCrawler still bills per page (AI included) and we don't charge for failed or empty extractions. This is a marginal-cost comparison of the AI surcharge, not total spend.
Where Firecrawl wins (honestly)
A comparison that only flatters itself isn't worth reading. Firecrawl is ahead on several things, and if they're your priority it's the better choice:
- A richer branding / design-system format (fonts, typography, spacing, components).
- Mature async batch & crawl job infrastructure with webhooks.
- Stealth and geo proxy tiers.
- A semantic index / cache layer and an agent endpoint.
- A bigger ecosystem and far more distribution today.
TheCrawler's edge is narrow and specific: cost-predictable, validated, cost-guarded structured extraction with no per-call AI surcharge.
Migrate in a few lines
One endpoint to scrape a page to markdown — swap the base URL and your key:
curl -X POST https://www.miaibot.ai/api/v1/scrape \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $CRAWLER_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "url": "https://example.com", "markdown": true, "metadata": true }'Structured extraction on our managed GPU is the async /v1/extract endpoint — same auth, AI included.
See also: Tavily alternative and Firecrawl vs Tavily vs TheCrawler.
FAQ
Is there a cheaper Firecrawl alternative for AI extraction?
TheCrawler doesn't add a per-call surcharge for AI extraction — it runs the model on our own GPU, so structured extraction is billed like a plain page fetch. Use the calculator above with your own numbers to see what the per-call surcharge currently costs you.
Does TheCrawler charge per credit for structured extraction?
No separate per-extraction charge. You pay per page; AI extraction is included on every page. We also don't charge for fetch failures, empty pages, or extractions our guards reject — those credits are returned.
Can I self-host the model like a self-hosted Firecrawl setup?
The extraction runs on our own on-prem GPU, and the crawl engine is open source. You can also bring your own OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint and run extraction synchronously against it.
Does TheCrawler have an MCP server?
Yes — a stdio MCP server that works in Claude Code and Cursor today. A hosted/remote MCP is on the roadmap, not shipped yet.
What does Firecrawl do better?
Firecrawl has a richer branding/design-system format (fonts, typography, spacing), mature async batch/crawl infrastructure with webhooks, stealth/geo proxy tiers, a semantic index cache, an agent endpoint, and a larger ecosystem and distribution today. If those are your priority, Firecrawl is the stronger pick.