Apify Actor Cost Estimator

Estimate what an Apify Actor will cost before you run it, across its pricing model and your workload.

What it does

• Reads the live pricing for each Actor from the Apify API.
• Computes an estimate from the pricing model and your workload (results per run, number of runs, events per run).
• Handles FREE, PRICE_PER_DATASET_ITEM, PAY_PER_EVENT, and FLAT_PRICE_PER_MONTH.
• States its assumptions on every item, and flags any Actor it cannot estimate.
• Returns an aggregate summary: total estimated cost, plus the cheapest and most expensive Actor.

Example input

{
  "actors": [
    "apify/instagram-scraper",
    "compass/crawler-google-places"
  ],
  "resultsCount": 1000,
  "runs": 1
}

For a PAY_PER_EVENT Actor you can set exact event counts per run:

{
  "actors": [
    "compass/crawler-google-places"
  ],
  "resultsCount": 500,
  "runs": 4,
  "eventsPerRun": {
    "place-scraped": 500,
    "filter-applied": 500
  }
}

Input

Output

Each dataset item is one Actor:

{
  "fullName": "apify/instagram-scraper",
  "title": "Instagram Scraper",
  "pricingModel": "PAY_PER_EVENT",
  "unitLabel": "per Result",
  "unitPriceUsd": 0.0027,
  "estimatedCostPerRunUsd": 2.7,
  "estimatedTotalUsd": 2.7,
  "assumptions": "Charged events per run: result x1000 (results per run). Add-on events not listed are assumed unused. Prices use the FREE plan tier across 1 run(s). Provide eventsPerRun to override counts. Paid plans get lower tiers. Platform compute is billed separately.",
  "pricingDetail": {
    "pricingModel": "PAY_PER_EVENT",
    "minimalMaxTotalChargeUsd": 0.0027,
    "events": {
      "result": {
        "unitPriceUsd": 0.0027,
        "isPrimary": true,
        "isOneTime": false
      }
    }
  }
}

When a model cannot be estimated from the inputs, estimatedTotalUsd is null and assumptions explains why.

Run summary (OUTPUT)

The run's default key-value store record OUTPUT holds an aggregate:

{
  "workload": {
    "resultsCount": 1000,
    "runs": 1,
    "planTier": "FREE"
  },
  "actorsRequested": 2,
  "actorsEstimated": 2,
  "actorsNotEstimated": 0,
  "totalEstimatedUsd": 6.7,
  "cheapest": {
    "fullName": "apify/instagram-scraper",
    "estimatedTotalUsd": 2.7
  },
  "mostExpensive": {
    "fullName": "compass/crawler-google-places",
    "estimatedTotalUsd": 4.0
  },
  "pricingBreakdown": {
    "PAY_PER_EVENT": 2
  }
}

How it works

For each Actor the Actor calls https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<username~name> and reads currentPricingInfo, falling back to the most recent entry in pricingInfos. It then applies the pricing model:

• FREE: no charge for the Actor.
• PRICE_PER_DATASET_ITEM: price per result times results per run, across runs.
• PAY_PER_EVENT: per-event prices; the primary per-result event defaults to your results per run, one-time events count once, add-ons are assumed unused unless set in eventsPerRun.
• FLAT_PRICE_PER_MONTH: a fixed monthly rental, independent of runs.

When an Actor uses tiered pricing, the estimate uses the FREE plan tier, which is the highest per-unit price and therefore a conservative upper bound. Paid plans get lower tiers. A per-run minimum charge is applied where the Actor defines one. Apify platform compute (memory and CPU time) is billed separately and is not included.

This Actor uses the run's APIFY_TOKEN automatically for the pricing lookups.

MIT licensed.