Optimize FireCrawl costs through tier selection, sampling, and usage monitoring.
Use when analyzing FireCrawl billing, reducing API costs,
or implementing usage monitoring and budget alerts.
Trigger with phrases like "firecrawl cost", "firecrawl billing",
"reduce firecrawl costs", "firecrawl pricing", "firecrawl expensive", "firecrawl budget".
Firecrawl charges credits per operation: 1 credit per scrape, 1 per crawled page, 1 per map call, and variable credits for extract (LLM usage). An unbounded crawl on a large site can consume thousands of credits in minutes. This skill covers concrete techniques to reduce credit consumption by 50-80%.
Credit Cost Table
Operation
Credits
Notes
scrapeUrl
1
Per page, any format
crawlUrl
1 per page
Each discovered page costs 1 credit
mapUrl
1
Regardless of URLs returned
batchScrapeUrls
1 per URL
Same as individual scrape
extract
5+
LLM processing adds cost
Instructions
Step 1: Always Set Crawl Limits
import FirecrawlApp from "@mendable/firecrawl-js";
const firecrawl = new FirecrawlApp({
apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY!,
});
// BAD: no limit — could crawl 100K pages
await firecrawl.crawlUrl("https://docs.large-project.org");
// Cost: potentially 100,000+ credits
// GOOD: bounded crawl
await firecrawl.crawlUrl("https://docs.large-project.org", {
limit: 50, // max 50 pages
maxDepth: 2, // only 2 levels deep
includePaths: ["/api/*"], // only API docs
excludePaths: ["/blog/*", "/changelog/*"],
scrapeOptions: { formats: ["markdown"] },
});
// Cost: max 50 credits
Step 2: Use Scrape for Known URLs Instead of Crawl
// If you know which pages you need, don't crawl — scrape them directly
const targetUrls = [
"https://docs.example.com/api/auth",
"https://docs.example.com/api/users",
"https://docs.example.com/api/billing",
];
// Cost: 3 credits (one per page)
const results = await firecrawl.batchScrapeUrls(targetUrls, {
formats: ["markdown"],
});
// vs crawling the whole docs site: potentially 500+ credits
Step 3: Map First, Then Selective Scrape
// Map costs 1 credit and returns up to 30K URLs
const map = await firecrawl.mapUrl("https://docs.example.com");
// Cost: 1 credit
// Filter to only what you need
const apiDocs = (map.links || []).filter(url => url.includes("/api/"));
console.log(`${map.links?.length} total URLs, only ${apiDocs.length} are API docs`);
// Scrape only relevant pages
const results = await firecrawl.batchScrapeUrls(apiDocs.slice(0, 20), {
formats: ["markdown"],
});
// Cost: 1 (map) + 20 (scrape) = 21 credits
// vs blind crawl: could be 500+ credits
Step 4: Cache to Prevent Re-Scraping
import { createHash } from "crypto";
const cache = new Map<string, { content: string; timestamp: number }>();
const CACHE_TTL = 24 * 3600 * 1000; // 24 hours
async function cachedScrape(url: string): Promise<string> {
const key = createHash("md5").update(url).digest("hex");
const cached = cache.get(key);
if (cached && Date.now() - cached.timestamp < CACHE_TTL) {
return cached.content; // Free — no API call
}
const result = await firecrawl.scrapeUrl(url, { formats: ["markdown"] });
if (result.markdown) {
cache.set(key, { content: result.markdown, timestamp: Date.now() });
}
return result.markdown || "";
}
// Typical savings: 50-80% credit reduction for recurring scrapes
Step 5: Monitor Credit Consumption
set -euo pipefail
# Check current credit balance
curl -s https://api.firecrawl.dev/v1/team/credits \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" | jq .
// Daily credit tracker
class CreditBudget {
private dailyLimit: number;
private usage = new Map<string, number>();
constructor(dailyLimit = 1000) {
this.dailyLimit = dailyLimit;
}
canAfford(estimatedCredits: number): boolean {
const today = new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0];
const used = this.usage.get(today) || 0;
return used + estimatedCredits <= this.dailyLimit;
}
record(credits: number) {
const today = new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0];
this.usage.set(today, (this.usage.get(today) || 0) + credits);
}
remaining(): number {
const today = new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0];
return this.dailyLimit - (this.usage.get(today) || 0);
}
}
const budget = new CreditBudget(1000);
// Before each crawl
if (!budget.canAfford(50)) {
throw new Error(`Daily credit budget exceeded. ${budget.remaining()} credits left`);
}
await firecrawl.crawlUrl(url, { limit: 50 });
budget.record(50);
Step 6: Choose Minimal Formats
set -euo pipefail
# Cheapest: markdown only (1 credit, fastest)
curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v1/scrape \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url":"https://example.com","formats":["markdown"]}'
# Avoid requesting screenshots, rawHtml, or extract unless needed
# Extract uses LLM calls — significantly more credits
