specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
provider: Crawlee
providerId: crawlee
publisherName: Crawlee
serviceCategory: Open Source Library
generated: '2026-09-07'
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-09-07'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://crawlee.dev/ (200), https://github.com/apify/crawlee/blob/master/LICENSE.md (200),
  https://registry.npmjs.org/crawlee (200, Apache-2.0), https://pypi.org/pypi/crawlee/json (200)
tags:
  - Apache 2.0
  - Apify
  - Open Source
  - FinOps
  - Cost Management
description: >-
  Crawlee is billable to nobody. It is an Apache-2.0 library distributed free from npm and
  PyPI; there is no invoice, no meter, no billing currency and no chargeable unit, because
  no service runs on the consumer's behalf. The FinOps question that IS real for a Crawlee
  adopter is the cost of the infrastructure THEY run it on — that cost belongs to their own
  cloud provider, not to Crawlee, and is recorded here as guidance rather than as a
  Crawlee charge model.
billable: false
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: None — free and open source
  billingFrequency: null
  billingCurrency: null
  chargeCategories: []
  note: Apache-2.0. No charge of any kind is levied by the provider.
meters: []
unitEconomics: []
consumer_side_cost_drivers:
  note: >-
    Not charges from Crawlee. These are the consumer's own infrastructure costs, listed
    because they are what a FinOps practice would actually track for a Crawlee workload.
  drivers:
    - name: compute
      detail: >-
        Browser-based crawlers (PlaywrightCrawler, PuppeteerCrawler) are materially more
        expensive per page than HTTP crawlers (HttpCrawler, CheerioCrawler, ParselCrawler).
        AdaptivePlaywrightCrawler exists specifically to detect when a browser is not
        needed, which is a cost lever the library gives the consumer.
    - name: memory
      detail: >-
        AutoscaledPool scales concurrency against max_used_cpu_ratio and
        max_used_memory_ratio, so instance sizing determines throughput directly.
    - name: proxy bandwidth
      detail: >-
        ProxyConfiguration rotates third-party proxies. Proxy spend is billed by whichever
        proxy vendor the consumer chooses and is usually the largest line item in a
        production crawl.
    - name: storage
      detail: >-
        Dataset, KeyValueStore and RequestQueue persist through a storage client the
        consumer selects — filesystem, memory, Redis, or SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite).
        Cost follows that choice.
note: >-
  SUPERSEDES A FABRICATED ARTIFACT. Until this pass, this file declared a Usage-Based
  pricing category, monthly billing in USD, an invoice issuer named "Crawlee", a "request"
  pricing unit and three meters (api_requests, data_egress, compute_seconds) with
  cost-per-1K-request unit economics — written by the 2026-05-04 bulk sweep. Crawlee bills
  nothing and issues no invoice; the whole billing model was scaffold. Apify's hosted
  platform does have a real FinOps profile, and it belongs to the Apify provider record.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com