👉 Open a free Apify account - $5 of usage every month, no card →
🎯 The short answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is Apify free? | ✅ Yes, there's a free plan, forever, not a time-limited trial |
| What do you get? | $5 of usage every month, to spend on any Actor in the Apify Store or on your own |
| Credit card required? | ❌ No |
| What happens when the $5 runs out? | Your runs are blocked until the next monthly cycle. No bill, no surprise |
| Do unused credits roll over? | ❌ No, they expire at the end of each cycle |
| Main catch | Actors cost a bit more on Free (no Store discount), and some add-ons are priced to push you to a paid plan |
So yes, Apify is free to start. But "free" doesn't mean "unlimited", and the details matter if you want to use it for real work. I'll show you what $5 actually buys on the most popular scrapers, what my own account looked like when I hit the wall, and the exact point where paying $19 starts to make sense.
Disclosure: this page contains affiliate links. If you later move to a paid plan through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This site is independent and not operated by Apify.
🎁 What's included in the Apify free plan
The free plan isn't a stripped-down demo. You get the same platform paying users get, with smaller limits:
- $5 of prepaid usage every month, renewed at each monthly cycle.
- The whole Apify Store: Google Maps, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, Facebook Ads Library and thousands of other scrapers.
- Up to 16 GB of RAM and 5 concurrent runs, which is plenty for testing.
- API access, integrations and exports (CSV, Excel, JSON), so you can already plug it into n8n, Make or Google Sheets.
- Community support (no chat support on Free).
And no credit card at signup, which means there's no way to be charged by accident.
🧮 What $5 really buys (real prices)
Most Store Actors now charge per result. On the free plan you pay the full price (no Store discount), so here's what your monthly $5 gets you on the most popular scrapers:
| Actor | Price on Free | What $5 buys (approx.) | Price on Starter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps Scraper (compass) | $4.00 / 1,000 places | ~1,250 places | $3.00 / 1,000 |
| Google Maps Reviews Scraper (compass) | $0.60 / 1,000 reviews | ~8,300 reviews | $0.45 / 1,000 |
| Instagram Scraper (Apify) | $2.70 / 1,000 results | ~1,850 results | $2.30 / 1,000 |
| Facebook Ads Library Scraper (Apify) | $5.80 / 1,000 ads | ~860 ads | $5.00 / 1,000 |
| Amazon Reviews Scraper (junglee) | $6.00 / 1,000 reviews | ~830 reviews | $5.00 / 1,000 |
Prices from each Actor's official pricing page on September 29, 2026. Some Actors add a tiny start fee per run (a fraction of a cent) and optional add-ons.
In plain words: $5 is enough to test any scraper seriously and even to run a small one-off project, like pulling a thousand local businesses from Google Maps. It's not enough to run a daily automation.
⛔ What happens when your $5 runs out (my screenshots)
This is the part people worry about, so here's the honest version.
On the free plan: Apify simply blocks your runs until the next monthly cycle starts. No invoice, no card to charge, nothing. You wait, or you upgrade.
On a paid plan: by default, you can keep going and the extra is billed as overage. Unless you set a custom usage limit, which is exactly what I did.
I'm on Starter ($19/month) with my limit set at $19. This month my lead generation workflows used it all, and here's what my dashboard shows:
The message is clear: platform features are disabled until the next billing period. My n8n workflows that call Apify just stop getting results until then. Nothing breaks, nothing gets charged.
⚠️ Detail I noticed: the limit isn't cut to the cent. My usage stopped at $19.10 for a $19.00 limit, because a run that's already going finishes before the block. Keep a small margin in mind.
🕵️ The 3 catches nobody mentions
1. No Store discount on Free. Every Actor is a bit cheaper on paid plans. On Starter you get the "Bronze" discount, on Scale "Silver", on Business "Gold". The table above shows the gap: 14 to 25% on the popular scrapers.
2. Some add-ons are priced to push you to a paid plan. On Google Maps Scraper, the "business leads enrichment" and "email verification" add-ons cost $100 per 1,000 on Free, versus $5 and $4 on Starter. In practice, if you need enriched leads with verified emails, the free plan isn't the right place.
3. Credits don't roll over. If you only use $2 this month, the other $3 is gone. Don't "save" your credits, use them to test.
📊 Would the free plan have been enough for me?
Here's my real usage for this billing period, straight from my billing page:
- Google Maps Scraper: 723 places for $2.60
- Facebook Ads Library Scraper: 3,216 ads for $16.48
- Total for the period: $19.10
At free-plan prices, the same volume would have cost about $21.50. My $5 would have covered less than a quarter of my month. The free plan was perfect to test the scrapers and build my workflows. Once they ran every week for real prospecting, Starter was the obvious move.
And a single one of my Google Maps runs (3 searches in Toulouse, 60 businesses) cost just $0.18. That's the kind of job the free plan handles easily:
🧠 How to make your $5 last
- Always test with a small limit first (50 to 100 results). It costs cents and shows you the real price per run.
- Compare Actors before running. For the same job, prices can vary a lot: for Amazon reviews, one popular Actor charges under $1 per 1,000 while another charges $5 to $6.
- Skip the add-ons you don't need (contacts, images, reviews). Each one adds to the price per result.
- Filter at the source: one city, one keyword, a max number of results per search.
- Export right away. Download your results or send them to Google Sheets so you don't need to re-run a job.
🚀 When to upgrade to Starter ($19/month)
| Free | Starter | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $19/month (about 10% less billed yearly) |
| Usage included | $5/month | $19/month |
| When usage runs out | Blocked until next cycle | Overage, or blocked if you set a limit |
| Store discount | None | Bronze (roughly 14 to 25% off popular Actors) |
| RAM / concurrent runs | 16 GB / 5 | 64 GB / 32 |
| Support | Community | Chat |
My rule of thumb: stay on Free as long as you're testing. Move to Starter when one of these is true:
- you run a scraper on a schedule (every day or every week);
- you regularly hit the $5 before the end of the month;
- you need add-ons like enriched leads or email verification.
And when you upgrade, set a custom usage limit on day one. It's the best protection against a surprise bill, as my own dashboard shows.
🔥 Start on the free plan, test your scraper on real data, then decide. Create your free Apify account →
❓ FAQ
Is Apify really free?
Yes. The free plan is permanent and gives you $5 of usage every month without a credit card.
Is there an Apify free trial?
There's no time-limited trial: the free plan itself plays that role, with no end date.
Does Apify ask for a credit card on the free plan?
No. You only add a card when you choose a paid plan.
What happens when I use up my $5?
Your runs are blocked until the start of the next monthly cycle. You're never charged on the free plan.
Do unused credits roll over to the next month?
No. Unused usage expires at the end of each billing cycle.
How many Google Maps results can I scrape for free?
About 1,250 places per month with the most popular Google Maps Scraper ($4 per 1,000 on Free), without add-ons.
Can I get charged by surprise on a paid plan?
Only if you let overage run. Set a custom usage limit in Billing and your runs stop when you reach it (give it a small margin).
Is there an Apify coupon code for more free credits?
Apify doesn't publish general coupon codes. The free $5 every month, yearly billing and the official startup and student discounts are the real ways to pay less.
🏁 My verdict
Apify's free plan is one of the most honest in the scraping world: real access to the whole platform, no card, and no way to get charged. $5 won't run your business, but it's more than enough to find the right scraper, test it on real data and build your first automation.
That's exactly how I started. I moved to Starter only once my workflows were running every week, and I set a limit so I'd never pay more than planned. 👇
Read next: My full Apify review · Apify pricing explained with my real bill · What 1,000 Google Maps leads really cost
This article reflects my own use of Apify. It contains affiliate links: if you subscribe to a paid plan through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This site is independent and not operated by Apify. Prices can change, always check the official pricing page.
Sources
- Apify - pricing and free plan: https://apify.com/pricing
- Apify - billing documentation (rollover, overage): https://docs.apify.com/platform/console/billing
- Google Maps Scraper pricing: https://apify.com/compass/crawler-google-places/pricing
- Google Maps Reviews Scraper pricing: https://apify.com/compass/google-maps-reviews-scraper/pricing
- Instagram Scraper pricing: https://apify.com/apify/instagram-scraper/pricing
- Facebook Ads Library Scraper pricing: https://apify.com/apify/facebook-ads-scraper/pricing
- Amazon Reviews Scraper pricing: https://apify.com/junglee/amazon-reviews-scraper/pricing