Browse AI alternative free options, in two minutes
What each free tier gives you, from Browse AI's 50 monthly credits to a self-hosted install, and which to pick.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom · Editorial team
· 3 min read
Looking for a Browse AI alternative free of charge, or at least free to try? Here are the free tiers that matter, what each one actually gives you, and which to pick. Our first choice is AyeWatch for anyone who mostly wanted alerts.
Is Browse AI free?
Partly. Browse AI has a free plan with 50 credits a month, 2 websites, 3 users and unlimited robots, and it needs no card. One credit pulls 10 rows or takes one screenshot, so 50 credits go quickly. Free monitors run hourly at most. The first paid plan, Personal, is $19 a month billed annually.
The free options at a glance
| Tool | What is free | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| AyeWatch | Free Preview: three runs, no card | Alerts on pages, topics and social media |
| Apify | $5 of usage every month, no card | Scraping with ready-made Actors |
| Octoparse | 10 tasks, 1 device, up to 50,000 exported rows a month | Larger free exports of rows |
| changedetection.io | Free to self-host | Developers who run their own server |
| Distill | 25 monitors; cloud checks every 6 hours | Element checks from your browser |
| Visualping | 5 pages, 150 checks a month | Visual alerts on a few pages |
1. AyeWatch
AyeWatch lets you paste a link or name a topic, then write in a sentence what you want to hear about. When something matches, you get a short summary on your phone, by email, or in Slack or Discord. It also watches X, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
The free part is a preview, not a forever plan: three runs in total. That is enough to see if the alerts are useful. After that, Pro is $9 a month for 50 monitors, which is less than any paid scraper plan on this list.
2. Apify
Apify gives every free account $5 of usage a month to spend on Actors, its ready-made scrapers. Good if you want data and do not mind some setup.
3. Octoparse
Octoparse's free plan is generous on rows but limited to local extraction on one device and 10 tasks. It is a scraper, so it is for data, not alerts.
4. changedetection.io
Fully free if you host it yourself, and open source. You look after the server.
5. Distill
A free plan with 25 monitors. Local checks need your browser open, and free cloud checks happen every six hours.
6. Visualping
Free for 5 pages and 150 checks a month, which is roughly one check a day per page.
What to check before you rely on a free plan
Free tiers are designed to show you the product, so read the limits before you build on one:
- How often it checks. Distill's free cloud checks run every six hours, and Browse AI's free monitors run hourly at most.
- Whether it renews. Apify's $5 and Browse AI's 50 credits come back every month. AyeWatch's three preview runs do not.
- Who looks after it. A self-hosted changedetection.io install is free, but updates and uptime are on you.
How we would test them
Give each free tier one real job you care about, like a product page you check by hand every week, and leave it running for a few days. The one that tells you something useful without extra work is the one to keep.
Which free option to pick
- You want to know when something changes: AyeWatch.
- You want rows of data: Apify or Octoparse.
- You want free forever and can run a server: changedetection.io.
One honest note: if your Browse AI robots fill a spreadsheet that people actually use, AyeWatch will not replace them. It sends alerts, not tables. You can try AyeWatch free to check whether alerts are all you needed.