# Irmu Review Credit-based web scraping API for developers: fetch, render JavaScript, screenshot, and extract structured JSON through one REST endpoint ## Editor's Score: 64/100 Capability scores 17 because the single-endpoint model covering scraping, rendering, screenshots, AI extraction, and specialist endpoints like Booking.com and Google AI Overviews is genuinely broad, but two named product pages (Proxy API and Browser API) are not yet live, which is a concrete feature gap versus competitors like ScraperAPI that offer standalone proxy access today. Ease of use scores 19 because the credit cost table is specific and transparent, the free tier requires no card, and the MCP server lowers the integration barrier for AI tool users, though documentation depth could not be fully assessed. Value scores 16 because the $19 and $40 tiers lack residential IPs and AI extraction, making them limited for real anti-bot targets, while scheduling and webhooks only arrive at $200/month; a developer who needs those features pays a steep jump relative to what ScrapingBee offers at $49/month with 250,000 credits. Delivery scores 12 because two advertised product pages describe features that do not yet exist in the live API, which is a meaningful gap between what the site implies and what ships today; no user sentiment or third-party reviews were found to offset this concern. ## Pros - Single credit pool covers scraping, JavaScript rendering, screenshots, AI extraction, Google SERP, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT answers, and Booking.com data, with no separate keys or quotas per API. - Geotargeting by country, region, and city is free on every request and every plan, including the free tier, which is uncommon among comparable scraping APIs. - MCP server with OAuth 2.1 or API key auth lets developers connect Irmu directly to Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT without writing REST integration code. ## Cons - Both the Proxy API (standalone IP pool endpoint) and the Browser API (multi-step scripted sessions) are listed as planned features but are not part of the live product, making the product page misleading for developers who need those capabilities now. - Premium residential IPs and AI extraction are locked behind the $90/month Standard plan; the $19 Starter and $40 Lite tiers only offer datacenter IPs, which limits their usefulness against sites with meaningful anti-bot protection. - Scheduling and webhooks, essential for any recurring crawl job, only appear at the $200/month Pro tier, forcing teams with modest volume but recurring needs to pay for 3,000,000 credits per month whether they use them or not. ## Pricing Freemium. A free tier is available. - Free: $0 - Starter: $19 - Lite: $40 - Standard: $90 - Pro: $200 - Enterprise: Custom (annual) Pricing reflects what we saw at the time of review (2026-11). Confirm current pricing on the official site. Category: AI Coding & Dev Tools (https://aitoolseekers.com/category/ai-coding-dev-tools) Official site: https://irmu.com/ Last verified by a human: 2026-11-05 Reviewed by a human at AI Tool Seekers, a hand-reviewed AI tools directory. Every listed tool is verified by a person before publishing. Scores are editorial opinions from a fixed rubric (capability, ease of use, value, delivery on promise) and cannot be bought; there is no pay-to-rank. Directory: https://aitoolseekers.com This review: https://aitoolseekers.com/tools/irmu Methodology: https://aitoolseekers.com/how-verification-works ## Verdict Irmu suits developers who want a single API key covering scraping, JavaScript rendering, screenshots, and AI extraction without stitching together separate services. The credit model is transparent and geotargeting is free at every tier, but residential IPs and AI extraction only enable at the $90/month Standard plan, putting real production features out of reach for the $19 and $40 tiers. Teams that need multi-step browser automation or a dedicated proxy endpoint should look elsewhere: both are listed on the roadmap but not yet shipped. Best for: Solo developers and small teams building data pipelines who want one API key for scraping, rendering, and AI extraction. Not for: Teams needing multi-step browser automation or a standalone proxy endpoint today; those features are planned but not yet available. ## Overview Irmu is a web data API built around a single REST endpoint. Rather than running separate services for proxies, a headless browser, a CAPTCHA solver, and a data parser, a developer sends one authenticated GET request and gets back rendered HTML, a screenshot, or structured JSON. Every plan shares one credit pool across all APIs, and geotargeting by country, region, or city costs zero extra credits on any request. The product's clearest differentiator against competitors like ScrapingBee or ScraperAPI is the breadth of what that single endpoint covers: standard datacenter fetches (1 credit), JavaScript rendering in real Chrome (5 credits for datacenter, 25 for residential), full-page JPEG screenshots (30 credits flat), AI-powered JSON extraction via an ai_query parameter (5 credits on top of the fetch), and specialist endpoints for Google Search SERP data, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT answers, and Booking.com property and search data. An MCP server lets developers connect Irmu directly to Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor without writing REST calls. Two significant gaps are worth flagging before you commit. The Proxy API, which would let teams point their own crawler at Irmu's IP pool, is listed on the site as planned but not yet available. The Browser API for multi-step scripted sessions (click, type, scroll) is also planned but absent from the live product. Both are real limitations if your pipeline needs them today, not eventually. The credit cost structure rewards careful request design. A standard datacenter fetch with no JavaScript costs 1 credit; the same page fetched over a residential IP with JavaScript rendering costs 25 credits. On the $40/month Lite plan that is 200,000 credits, which translates to 200,000 simple fetches or 8,000 premium JavaScript renders. Developers who mix request types will want to model their actual workload against the credit table before picking a tier. ## Who should use it A solo developer building a price monitor or rank tracker who does not want to maintain a proxy pool, a headless Chrome instance, and a separate AI extraction layer will find Irmu's single-endpoint model genuinely useful. The free 200-credit tier is enough to validate the API against real target URLs before spending anything, and the credit cost table is specific enough to model costs accurately before committing to a plan. Developers who need multi-step browser automation today, such as logging into a site and navigating through several pages, should look elsewhere: Irmu's Browser API is on the roadmap but not shipped. Teams with very high volume and existing crawler infrastructure who only need clean IPs should also consider alternatives, since Irmu's Proxy API endpoint does not yet exist. For those use cases, ScraperAPI (which offers 100,000 credits at $49/month on its Hobby plan with a wider catalogue of structured e-commerce endpoints) is a closer fit for teams that need dedicated site scrapers alongside general-purpose access. ## FAQ Q: Does the free plan require a credit card? A: No. The free plan gives 200 credits per month with no credit card required and no expiry on the plan itself. Q: How much does a JavaScript-rendered page cost on a residential IP? A: A premium fetch with JavaScript rendering costs 25 credits per request. On the $40/month Lite plan with 200,000 credits, that works out to 8,000 such requests per month. Q: Is the Proxy API available yet? A: No. The Proxy API is listed as a planned feature. Today, residential IPs are accessible only through GET /crawl with the premium=true parameter, not through a standalone proxy endpoint. Q: When do scheduling and webhooks become available? A: Scheduling and webhooks are only included on the Pro plan at $200/month. No lower tier includes them. Q: Can I buy extra credits without upgrading my plan? A: Yes. One-off credit packs are available: 100,000 credits for $25, 500,000 for $100, and 2,000,000 for $350. These credits never expire and stack on top of your monthly plan allowance. Q: Does geotargeting cost extra credits? A: No. Country, region, and city targeting is free on every request across all plans, including the free tier.