An r/Rag post asked which web scraper to use for ~10M tokens of tech articles, docs, blogs, and PDFs. Five approaches ranked for the cleanest 2026 path.
Top Pick
Scavio search-as-source (200-500 seed queries → SERP → /extract top URLs) at $50-90 for 10M tokens beats scraping for cost and reliability when content is indexed and public.
Full Ranking
#1Our Pick
Scavio search-as-source + /extract
Tech articles, docs, blogs, indexed public content
Pros
- Avoids most scraper pain
- Typed JSON throughout
- Predictable per-topic cost
- Multi-platform extension if needed (Reddit, YouTube)
Cons
- Not for behind-auth or JS-heavy targets
#2
Firecrawl crawl mode
URL-list-driven scraping with managed infra
Pros
- Hosted infra, no Cloudflare fights for you
- Markdown output
Cons
- 1 credit per page becomes 5+ with AI extraction
- Per-page cost adds up at 10M tokens
#3
Crawl4AI / DIY Playwright
Engineering-heavy teams with strong scraping infrastructure
Pros
- Free OSS
Cons
- Cloudflare arms race, JS-heavy infra cost
#4
Apify actor marketplace
Many distinct sources, marketplace-fit actors
Pros
- 1,500+ pre-built actors
Cons
- Compute units add up; per-actor authoring overhead
#5
Common Crawl + filter
Massive corpora where freshness doesn't matter
Pros
- Petabyte-scale free
Cons
- Stale; many months behind
- Filtering pipeline cost
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10M tokens cost | $50-90 | Variable (Firecrawl tier) | Free + compute (Crawl4AI) |
| Cloudflare/anti-bot pain | Avoided (search-as-source) | Hosted handles it | On you |
| Best for indexed public | Yes | Yes | Yes (with infra) |
| Best for behind-auth | No | Limited | Yes (with auth glue) |
Why Scavio Wins
- Most of what RAG builders try to scrape is indexed public content (tech articles, docs, blogs). For these, search-as-source (Scavio Google → /extract top URLs) returns clean Markdown without the scraper arms race.
- Cost per 10M tokens at Scavio is predictable: 200 seeds × ~5 SERP credits + 2K extracts ≈ 11K credits ≈ ~$50-90 within Project tier credit usage.
- Reserve actual scraping for behind-auth (LinkedIn, paywalled academic) and JS-heavy targets that survive content evaluation. Most ' I need a scraper for RAG' projects don't need them.
- Multi-platform bonus: same Scavio key handles Reddit threads (community signal), YouTube transcripts (educational content), Amazon descriptions (commerce content). Scraper pipelines need separate parsers per platform.
- Honest case for Firecrawl: when you have a URL list (not seed queries) and want a hosted Markdown converter, Firecrawl Standard tier handles it well. The choice is shape, not 'better' vs 'worse'.