# MediaCrawler keeps breaking for me. Is a paid API worth it instead?

> When MediaCrawler's QR login expires or Xiaohongshu comment pulls fail: what the same Xiaohongshu and Douyin jobs cost per call, and when to keep MediaCrawler.

Canonical page: https://okdata.online/answers/mediacrawler-alternative-paid-api/

**Short answer: **It is worth it once your time costs more than the data. The jobs people run with MediaCrawler need no login on okdata: 1,000 Xiaohongshu notes from search cost $1.00, 1,000 Xiaohongshu comments $2.00, and 1,000 Douyin comments $0.10. Keep MediaCrawler for platforms this catalog does not cover, or when you are happy to maintain it.

MediaCrawler is a good project, and its issue tracker is an honest record of what browser-based crawling costs: [Xiaohongshu QR logins that stop working](https://github.com/NanmiCoder/MediaCrawler/issues/530), [comment pulls that end in RetryError a few seconds after login](https://github.com/NanmiCoder/MediaCrawler/issues/830), risk-control warnings on the account. Each of those is an afternoon lost. The question is whether paying per call is cheaper than those afternoons.

## The same jobs, priced

MediaCrawler's main modes map onto endpoints like this:

| MediaCrawler mode | Endpoint | Price | 1,000 items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xiaohongshu keyword search | [Xiaohongshu note search](/apis/xiaohongshu/notes/search/) | $0.02 / 20 notes | $1.00 |
| Xiaohongshu comments | [Xiaohongshu note comments](/apis/xiaohongshu/notes/comments/list/) | $0.02 / 10 comments | $2.00 |
| Douyin keyword search | [Douyin video search](/apis/douyin/videos/search/) | $0.02 / 20 videos | $1.00 |
| Douyin comments | [Douyin video comments](/apis/douyin/videos/comments/list/) | $0.002 / 20 comments | $0.10 |
| Creator mode | [Xiaohongshu account notes](/apis/xiaohongshu/users/notes/list/), [Douyin account videos](/apis/douyin/users/videos/list/) | per page | see the endpoint pages |

A typical run, five keywords with ten pages of Xiaohongshu search each and three comment pages on 50 notes, costs $4.00.

## The same pipeline without a browser

```python
import json, os, requests

API = "https://api.okdata.online"
H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['OKDATA_API_KEY']}"}

def get(path, **params):
    body = requests.get(API + path, headers=H, params=params, timeout=60).json()
    if body["code"] != "ok":
        raise RuntimeError(f"{body['code']}: {body['message']}")
    return body

notes = get("/v1/xiaohongshu/notes/search", query="露营 装备", sort="popular")["data"]["items"]
with open("xhs_comments.jsonl", "w", encoding="utf-8") as out:
    for note in notes[:10]:
        for c in get("/v1/xiaohongshu/notes/comments/list", id=note["id"])["data"]["items"]:
            out.write(json.dumps({"note_id": note["id"], **c}, ensure_ascii=False) + "\n")
```

No QR code, no cookie, no Playwright, and a call that fails is not charged.

## Differences to know before switching

- MediaCrawler can fetch second-level replies; these endpoints return top-level comments with a reply count.
- MediaCrawler also covers Kuaishou, Tieba and Zhihu, which are not in this catalog.
- Anything visible only when logged in is out of scope here. okdata returns public data only.

## When to stay

Stay with MediaCrawler if you need one of those extra platforms, if the volume is so large that per-call pricing adds up to more than your maintenance time, or if learning how the crawler works is the point. Otherwise the [content research guide](/solutions/content-research/) shows a full Xiaohongshu workflow on the API.

## Endpoints used

- [Xiaohongshu note search](https://okdata.online/apis/xiaohongshu/notes/search/) `xiaohongshu.notes.search`: $0.02 per call · about 20 notes per page
- [Xiaohongshu note comments](https://okdata.online/apis/xiaohongshu/notes/comments/list/) `xiaohongshu.notes.comments.list`: $0.02 per call · about 10 comments per page
- [Douyin video search](https://okdata.online/apis/douyin/videos/search/) `douyin.videos.search`: $0.02 per call · about 20 videos per page
- [Douyin video comments](https://okdata.online/apis/douyin/videos/comments/list/) `douyin.videos.comments.list`: $0.002 per call · about 20 comments per page

Updated 2026-11-12