Cost Planning Tools: Calculator, Plan Advisor & Proxy Analyzer
How to use ApifyForge's cost planning tools to estimate actor run costs, choose the right Apify subscription plan, and pick the most cost-effective proxy type for each scraper.
ApifyForge includes three tools that help you understand and minimize costs before you spend anything: the Cost Calculator, the Smart Plan Advisor, and the Proxy Cost Analyzer. Together they answer the three questions every Apify user asks: "How much will this run cost?", "Am I on the right plan?", and "Am I using the right proxies?"
Cost Calculator
The Cost Calculator at apifyforge.com/tools/cost-calculator estimates how much an actor run will cost before you execute it. It combines PPE (Pay Per Event) pricing with estimated compute costs.
How to use it
Select an actor from the dropdown — the calculator loads its PPE pricing events automatically. Enter your expected usage volume: how many results, pages, or searches you need. The calculator multiplies your volume by the per-event price and adds estimated platform compute costs based on the actor's typical memory allocation and runtime.
The output breaks down into two components:
- PPE charges — the per-event price multiplied by your expected event count. This is the revenue the actor developer earns.
- Compute charges — estimated CPU, memory, and proxy costs based on the actor's resource profile. This is what Apify charges for infrastructure.
When it matters most
The calculator is most valuable when comparing actors that do the same job. Two Google Maps scrapers might both extract business data, but one charges $0.02 per result with 256MB memory and the other charges $0.01 per result with 1GB memory. The cheaper per-result price might actually cost more overall because the higher memory consumption eats into your platform credits faster.
Cost-per-result vs total cost
Always look at total cost, not just PPE price. An actor that charges $0.05 per result but completes in 30 seconds uses far less compute than one that charges $0.01 per result but takes 5 minutes. The Cost Calculator factors both in so you get the true comparison.
Smart Plan Advisor
The Smart Plan Advisor at apifyforge.com/tools/plan-advisor recommends the best Apify subscription plan for your specific usage pattern.
How it works
Enter your expected monthly usage:
- Monthly actor runs — how many times you run actors per month
- Data storage needs — how much data you store in datasets and key-value stores
- Proxy requirements — whether you need residential proxies (required for sites like Amazon, LinkedIn, Google)
- Concurrent actors — how many actors you typically run at the same time
The advisor models your usage against every Apify plan — Free ($0/mo, $5 credits), Starter ($49/mo), Scale ($499/mo), and custom Enterprise — and shows the total monthly cost under each plan. It then recommends the plan where your total cost (subscription + overages) is lowest.
Common mistakes it catches
Staying on Free too long. If you consistently use more than $5 of credits per month, you are paying overage rates on the Free plan. The Starter plan at $49/mo includes $49 of credits at the standard rate, which is cheaper than $5 of credits plus $44 of overages.
Upgrading too early. If your usage is $30/mo, the $49 Starter plan wastes $19 of unused credits every month. The advisor tells you to stay on Free until your usage consistently exceeds the break-even point.
Ignoring proxy costs. Residential proxies are not included in every plan. If your scrapers need residential proxies but your current plan does not include them, you are paying per-GB proxy rates that can be expensive. The advisor factors proxy costs into each plan's total.
Proxy Cost Analyzer
The Proxy Cost Analyzer at apifyforge.com/tools/proxy-analyzer recommends the most cost-effective proxy type for each of your actors.
The three proxy types
- Datacenter proxies — cheapest, fastest, but blocked by sites with anti-bot protection. Good for APIs, government sites, and simple HTML pages.
- Residential proxies — 5-10x more expensive per request, but appear as real home internet connections. Required for Amazon, LinkedIn, Google, social media, and any site using Cloudflare or similar protection.
- SERP proxies — specialized for search engine scraping. Optimized cost-per-query for Google, Bing, and similar search pages.
How the analyzer works
The analyzer classifies each actor by what it scrapes. It checks the actor's name, description, and category to identify the target platform, then cross-references against known anti-bot protection levels:
- An actor targeting Amazon product pages gets a residential recommendation because Amazon blocks datacenter IPs aggressively.
- An actor calling a public REST API gets a no proxy recommendation because APIs authenticate by API key, not by IP.
- An actor scraping Google search results gets a SERP recommendation for the best price-per-query.
The cost impact
Using the wrong proxy type wastes money in two ways. Residential proxies on a site that accepts datacenter wastes 5-10x on proxy costs. Datacenter proxies on a site that blocks them causes failed runs — you pay for the compute but get no results. The analyzer eliminates both by matching each actor to its optimal proxy type.
All three tools run entirely in your browser with zero API calls and zero cost. They use pricing data from the Apify API to ensure accuracy.
Related guides
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