# Context.dev vs Crawl4AI (slim)

> Context.dev scores 75.7 (BB) to Crawl4AI's 43.9 (E) for scraping. Crawl4AI is cheaper for scraping, $0.50 against $0.79 per 1,000 pages. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-crawl4ai.md (~6,250 tokens) · this version ~3,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-crawl4ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-dev-vs-crawl4ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Context.dev scores 75.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Crawl4AI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do scraping. Crawl4AI is cheaper for scraping, $0.50 against $0.79 per 1,000 pages.

- Context.dev: BB 75.7, rank #56 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/context-dev.min.md
- Crawl4AI: E 43.9, rank #1224 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crawl4ai.min.md
- Context.dev, good for Agents that need one call for Markdown, screenshots and schema-shaped JSON from a page, plus batches, monitors and search on the same balance, and teams that also want brand data. Ahead on Reliability, 67 against 35; Schema & documentation, 96 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 90 against 67; Security & auth, 83 against 46; Payments & pricing, 50 against 45; Transparency & trust, 78 against 70. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.
- Crawl4AI, good for Agents that need cheap page-to-Markdown at volume, Google results and search in one key, or a free self-hosted Python crawler. Also Cheaper for scraping, $0.50 against $0.79 per 1,000 pages; Open source.

| Category | Context.dev | Crawl4AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 67 | 35 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 96 | 55 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 90 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 83 | 46 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 83 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 78 | 70 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Context.dev | Crawl4AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Context Dev Inc. | CONTEXT4AI PTE LTD |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.context.dev/v1` | `https://api.crawl4ai.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Price for scraping | $0.79 per 1,000 pages | $0.50 per 1,000 pages |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 42 | 16 |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-15 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 5 stars, 62k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk | 87k stars, 368k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Context.dev +41: Context.dev 96 (Public OpenAPI 3.1 at www.context.dev/openapi.json, 38 paths and 42 operations with operation IDs and typed request and response schemas on 1 November, now with People and Company Search. `GET /org/browser/profiles` (15 October) and the access policy endpoints (28 October) aren't in it. The MCP tool definitions are behind OAuth and weren't read (25). llms.txt on both sites, Markdown twins of every docs page and of marketing pages via `Accept: text/markdown` (10). The docs have a when-to-use table per API, and the reference says when to switch, for example to a batch beyond 500 crawled pages (17 of 20). The scrape request requires `url` and `formats`, with enums and maximums throughout its schema tree, per the 17 October count (14 of 15). Examples in TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, PHP and cURL, and an error table per output and per status, including the new 402 (15). `/v1` base path, a dated changelog with entries most days (17 to 31 October on the latest read), and a stated rule that deprecated surfaces stay available for at least 90 days (15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 14 + 15 + 15 = 96.); Crawl4AI 55 (No OpenAPI or similar contract for the cloud API, and the MCP tool schemas are only in the live tools/list, which needs a key. /v1/prices is machine-readable but covers prices, not calls (0). llms.txt of 304 lines written for agents (10). Each endpoint says what it is for and when to choose another, such as trying without a proxy first, using `browser` only when `auto` misses content and /scrape/jobs for slow lists (16 of 20). Parameters are listed with types, defaults, allowed values (`format` both, md or html; `proxy` none, isp or residential) and limits, in prose (10 of 15). Curl examples per endpoint and documented error strings per status with whether each is charged (14 of 15). No changelog for the cloud API, only dated notes such as /serp 'added 8 Oct 2026'. The library has a dated CHANGELOG (5 of 15). 0 + 10 + 16 + 10 + 14 + 5 = 55.)
- Security & auth, Context.dev +37: Context.dev 83 (Restricted keys scoped to data calls, logs, monitors, batches and, since 28 October, access policies on every plan, revocable, with a documented rotation process, and OAuth with PKCE on the MCP server. The docs say never to put a key in a URL and no query-string option was found (30). Read-only scopes for logs, monitors and batches, and the MCP guide, re-read on 1 November, asks clients to keep approvals on for tools that start work or change state. Access policies (28 October) can limit which domains requests reach, per key or account, but are enabled per organisation on request. MCP tool annotations couldn't be checked (15 of 20). The MCP guide, agent quickstart and agent-context guide say to treat page content as untrusted data that can't authorise tool calls. No filter or classifier found (10 of 15). Request logs with retained input and response for up to a year, a Logs API, per-key usage and `X-Credits-Used` (15). SOC 2 Type II since 18 September 2026 per the changelog, and the trust centre on 1 November shows SOC 2 Type 2 and Type 1 as compliant, and a valid security.txt to 26 September 2027 that points to the support address. No disclosure policy or bug bounty found (13 of 20). 30 + 15 + 10 + 15 + 13 = 83.); Crawl4AI 46 (Bearer keys, shown once and regenerable, with 3 to 30 keys per plan. claude.ai and ChatGPT sign in through a flow that advertises one scope, `mcp`, and each app shows as a revocable key. No per-key scopes, and the docs don't offer the key in a URL (22 of 30). A key can call billing routes, and the MCP `topup` and `recharge` tools charge the saved card, though llms.txt tells agents to ask first and accounts can set a spend cap. No read-only key (6 of 20). Scraped pages are untrusted text and no prompt-injection guidance was found in llms.txt or the API docs (0). Per-call cost, balance and fetch path in response headers and fields, no access log documented (6 of 15). The security page (4 October 2026) gives a disclosure process with fix targets and says SOC 2 is in progress, and the library publishes GitHub advisories with reporter credits. security.txt redirects to a 404, and no bounty found (12 of 20). 22 + 6 + 0 + 6 + 12 = 46.)
- Reliability, Context.dev +32: Context.dev 67 (Better Stack status page at status.context.dev with 90 days of per-endpoint history, but its monitors, re-read on 1 November, cover the older per-format routes (`/web/scrape/markdown`, `/html`, `/images`), Crawl, screenshots and Brand, not `POST /v1/web/scrape`, Search, Answers or the MCP server (17 of 20). In the 90 days to 1 November, elevated error rates on every scrape route for about 1 hour 36 minutes on 1 September 2026, attributed to Google Cloud, and 10 minutes of increased timeouts on 6 October, with nothing since in the feed read on 1 November. One major (10). Concurrency per plan from 2 on Free to 500 on Scale and Scale 2.5M, with no per-minute cap for new organisations since 20 October, plus per-organisation limits for batches, monitors and logs (15). 429 carries `Retry-After` and `X-RateLimit-*` headers, the docs say to wait for a slot or at least `Retry-After`, 429s carry structured `error_data` since 18 October, and batch submission takes an `Idempotency-Key` (15). A 99.9% uptime SLA is listed only for Enterprise, with no terms published (0). The API is generally available (10). 17 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 67.); Crawl4AI 35 (Graded on the hosted lines, for Crawl4AI Cloud, which the README and llms.txt now lead with and which an agent calls through its MCP server; the library would read on the local lines. No status page is linked, and status.crawl4ai.com fails TLS (0). No incident history readable (5). Per-plan limits are published with numbers in /v1/prices, from 10 requests a minute and 2 at a time on Free to 1,500 and 50 on Scale (15). 429 carries X-RateLimit headers and a message, 503 busy says to resend after a few seconds, and MCP job submissions take an idempotency key, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance (10 of 15). No SLA found in the terms or pricing (0). Prices and the free credit are a soft launch, /serp is beta and /answer experimental, while scrape, extract and search carry no beta label (5 of 10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 5 = 35.)
- Agent ergonomics, Context.dev +23: Context.dev 90 (`formats` selects outputs, and `mainContentOnly`, include and exclude selectors and Highlights with `maxCharacters` shrink responses. The MCP server registers 42 tools by the vendor's count with no toolsets found, and caps responses at 40,000 characters with a truncation flag, re-read on 1 November (20 of 25). Map and Crawl filter by path, subdomain, count and, since 19 October, an exclude pattern, crawls take page, depth and time limits, and logs, batches, news and People Search paginate (20). Every failed output returns an `error_code` and a message with the next step, 403 names the missing permission, and since 18 October credit exhaustion returns 402 with `error_data` saying how to refill (20). Batch submission is idempotent, reads are safe to retry and unbilled on 408, 429 and 5xx. MCP readOnly and destructive hints couldn't be checked (15 of 20). Two required fields, and SDKs in five languages (15). 20 + 20 + 20 + 15 + 15 = 90.); Crawl4AI 67 (16 MCP tools, six of them for billing and support (15 of 25). `format` md or html, `parse` opt-in blocks, batch limits and job results paged 500 at a time over HTTP and 50 over MCP (16 of 20). String error codes an agent can branch on (blocked, login-wall, no-answer, busy, no_credit, plan_cap, spend_cap), each with whether it is charged (18 of 20). Failed and cancelled calls aren't charged and `jobs_submit` takes an idempotency key, but no tool annotations are documented and two tools can charge the saved card (10 of 20). Only `url` or `q` is required. There is no official SDK for the cloud API; the docs give curl and standard-library Python and Node examples (8 of 15). 15 + 16 + 18 + 10 + 8 = 67.)
- Transparency & trust, Context.dev +8: Context.dev 78 (Closed service. SDKs and CLI are Apache-2.0, the MCP server is closed. Terms last updated 26 October 2026 under Delaware law now say automated access is expected, that software calling the API is never by itself a violation, and that benchmarking is allowed, so the bar on bots and scripts that cost 2 points on 17 October is gone (15 of 30, up from 13). Privacy policy (31 October 2026) and terms agree that requests and results may be used to train models unless a request uses zero data retention or another agreement applies. The docs keep request logs up to a year and batch results 180 days, the DPA (29 October 2026) returns or deletes data within 10 business days of the end of service, but the privacy policy keeps API request logs as long as needed and gives no fixed periods (18 of 30). A stated 90-day minimum for deprecated surfaces and dated changelog notices (20). The website sub-processor list, last updated 31 October 2026, names 15 with each location and purpose and promises 14 days' notice of changes, and it now agrees with the trust centre, which also lists 15 and names Cloudflare among them, where on 17 October the two lists disagreed (20, up from 14). 15 + 18 + 20 + 20 = 73.); Crawl4AI 70 (The library is Apache-2.0 and the cloud is closed under terms that name CONTEXT4AI PTE LTD (22 of 30). The privacy policy gives retention periods (account plus 90 days, usage records 13 months, logs 90 days), but none for crawled content, and llms.txt says repeated URLs are served from a shared archive while the security page says fetched pages are used only to answer the request (18 of 30). The legacy cloud API closed on 6 November 2026 with a migration guide but no dated notice found, and the terms promise notice of material changes only 'where reasonable' (8 of 20). Subprocessors named with their locations on the security page, with EU storage of account records (18 of 20). 22 + 18 + 8 + 18 = 66.)
- Payments & pricing, Context.dev +5: Context.dev 50 (No x402, MPP or L402 in llms.txt, the pricing page or the OpenAPI file on 1 November (0). Credit costs per operation and overage per 1,000 credits are public (20). Free plan of 1,000 credits a month, "no credit card required" (20). auth.md, re-read on 1 November, lets an agent start registration and poll for a key, but the person completes the claim in a browser, and the docs MCP route also needs a browser sign-in (10 of 20). 0 + 20 + 20 + 10 = 50.); Crawl4AI 45 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-endpoint credit costs, effort multipliers and plan rates are public at /v1/prices without a login, with 1 credit = $0.001 (20). 1,000 free credits a month, no card (20). A 7-day pass key comes from a click on api.crawl4ai.com without an account, which is still a person in a browser, and a permanent key needs email verification (5 of 20). 0 + 20 + 20 + 5 = 45.)