Bright Data Web Unlocker vs FourA: the price of 1,000 requests
You've got a list of protected pages and a Bright Data quote open in another tab. The Web Unlocker API lists $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests on pay as you go, while FourA's $99 Startup plan runs the same 1,000 for $0.11 through Single with a browser profile, or $0.55 if every one needs a Browser that completes a verification step. We read both pricing pages on 24 September 2026; prices are in US dollars.
What does FourA charge per request?
FourA prices a request by the engine that ran it, never by the site. Single is 1 credit, or 2 with a browser profile (it's on by default). Proxy Finder is 2, or 4 with a browser profile. Browser is 5 credits, or 10 when it completed a verification step. That credit table is the same for every URL, and each response carries an X-FourA-Credits header with what the call spent.
Startup is $99 a month for 1,800,000 credits on foura.ai/prices, as of 24 September 2026. And only a success is billed: a request that failed on the target's side, on yours or on ours costs nothing.
What does Bright Data's Web Unlocker API charge?
One price per 1,000 successful requests, rendered or not: its pricing page puts full browser rendering and challenge solving in every plan. Pay as you go is $1.50. The Scale plans bring it down with a commitment: $499 a month includes 383,000 requests and $1.30 per 1,000 after that, $999 includes 908,000 at $1.10, and $1,999 includes 2 million at $1.00. (Its Browser API is sold by the gigabyte instead, which we covered in per GB vs per page.)
Two lines in the Web Unlocker API feature docs move that bill. Sites on its Premium Domains list, updated quarterly, cost more per request, and the docs send you to the pricing page for the rate, which didn't show it on 24 September 2026. And once you turn on custom headers or cookies, Bright Data bills every request, successful or failed.
| Per 1,000 | FourA, $99 | Bright Data, PAYG |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP, plain | $0.055 | $1.50 |
| HTTP, protected | $0.11 | $1.50 |
| Rendered | $0.275 | $1.50 |
| Rendered, check solved | $0.55 | $1.50 |
Why FourA comes out ahead here
Take the 383,000 requests in Bright Data's $499 Scale plan. As Single requests with a browser profile they use 766,000 of Startup's 1,800,000 credits, so $99 covers them. If every one needs a Browser and a completed verification step, that's 3,830,000 credits, inside the 9,000,000 of the $249 Business plan. Per 1,000, that priciest FourA request is $0.55 on Startup and $0.28 on Business, against $1.00 at Bright Data's $1,999 tier, the lowest rate its page lists.
Bright Data deserves credit for how much it folds into one number. Rendering, challenge solving and retries sit inside the request price, no plan caps concurrency, and its docs spell out which settings change the billing.
Run the same request on FourA
Pull last month's Web Unlocker usage and split it into requests that used render and requests that didn't. Price the first group at 10 credits and the second at 2, then set the total against the plans on the pricing page. If your zone had custom headers or cookies on, add the failed requests to Bright Data's side: it billed those too.
Frequently asked
Does a hard site cost more on FourA? No. The credit cost depends on the engine and on whether the Browser met an interactive page, not on the domain, so a new target costs what the last one did.
Can I send my own headers and cookies to FourA? Yes. Single takes custom headers and Browser takes headers and cookies, per the endpoint reference. Billing doesn't change: only a success costs credits.
How many Browser requests a day does a plan allow? Startup allows 5,000 a day and Business 20,000, as of 24 September 2026. Single and Proxy Finder have no daily count; they run on credits, a per-minute rate and a concurrency limit.
So test it on your own list: create a free account at auth.foura.ai/signup, send ten of the URLs you pay Bright Data for through Single on the free plan's 3,000 credits, and read the X-FourA-Credits header on each answer.