Where does Arkose's flat minimum beat per-assessment billing?
reCAPTCHA Enterprise and hCaptcha Pro compared across verification volume at your current rates β Turnstile isn't shown because it's free at every volume on the self-serve plan, so it always wins on price alone. Watch where the flat Arkose minimum you entered above starts beating both metered options.
| Verifications/mo | reCAPTCHA Ent. | hCaptcha Pro | Arkose (flat) | Cheapest metered |
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Why free, metered and flat-minimum billing shapes matter for bot protection
Anti-bot verification services don't compete on a single price β they compete on which dimension they choose to meter, and one of them doesn't meter usage at all. Cloudflare Turnstile's self-serve plan is free with no per-verification charge whatsoever; its only limit is 20 widgets per account, not checks per month, so a site running millions of monthly verifications pays the same $0 as a site running a hundred. Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise instead meters the actual risk-assessment call: 10,000 free assessments per month, then roughly $1 per 1,000 beyond that, so cost scales directly with traffic once you clear the free tier. hCaptcha Pro takes a subscription-plus-overage shape β a flat ~$99/mo (billed annually) bundles 100,000 evaluations, then extra checks bill at about $0.99 per 1,000, which tracks reCAPTCHA's per-assessment rate closely once you're past both included allowances. hCaptcha's Basic tier, like Turnstile, is also free for unlimited challenges, but without the passive-mode risk scoring and analytics dashboard Pro adds.
Arkose Labs is the outlier in the other direction: it publishes no self-serve pricing at all and sells only enterprise contracts, commonly cited with minimums around $2,000+/month regardless of actual verification volume. That flat-floor shape looks expensive next to a free tier at low volume, but it stops scaling once volume gets high β enter your own quoted minimum above and watch the crossover table to see the exact verification count where a flat enterprise price beats paying per assessment on reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha. There is no vendor whose headline price represents your bill without knowing whether your usage sits under a free tier, inside a bundled allowance, or past the point where a flat floor wins.
How this calculator works
The reCAPTCHA vs Turnstile vs hCaptcha Cost Calculator compares four anti-bot vendor pricing shapes β reCAPTCHA Enterprise (free tier + per-assessment metering), Cloudflare Turnstile (free regardless of volume on the self-serve plan), hCaptcha Pro (flat subscription + overage) and Arkose Labs (enterprise-only flat minimum) β at your monthly verification volume. reCAPTCHA's cost is max(0, assessments β free tier) / 1,000 Γ rate; Turnstile is always $0 on the self-serve plan; hCaptcha Pro is flat fee + max(0, assessments β included) / 1,000 Γ overage rate; and Arkose is whatever flat minimum your account team quoted, independent of volume. The calculator shows all four totals side by side, then a separate table isolates reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha Pro against your entered Arkose minimum across a range of verification volumes, so you can see the exact point where a flat enterprise floor starts beating per-assessment billing.
These are representative pricing shapes based on typical published ranges, not live vendor quotes β reCAPTCHA Enterprise, Turnstile, hCaptcha and Arkose Labs pricing varies by plan tier, contract term and negotiated enterprise terms, and reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha and Arkose all offer custom enterprise pricing above or instead of their published self-serve rates. Always confirm current pricing directly with the vendor before budgeting.
Frequently asked questions
How much does bot-protection / CAPTCHA verification cost in 2026?
It depends entirely on which billing shape the vendor uses. Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise gives 10,000 free assessments per month, then bills roughly $1 per 1,000 assessments beyond that. Cloudflare Turnstile is free on its self-serve plan regardless of volume (limited only by widget count, not checks). hCaptcha's Pro plan is a flat $99/mo (billed annually) that includes 100,000 evaluations, then about $0.99 per 1,000 beyond that β though hCaptcha's Basic tier is also free for unlimited challenges. Arkose Labs publishes no self-serve pricing at all; it's sold as an enterprise contract with a minimum commitment often cited around $2,000+/month. These are representative published ranges, not live quotes β always confirm current pricing with the vendor before budgeting.
Why is Cloudflare Turnstile free while reCAPTCHA Enterprise and hCaptcha charge per verification?
Turnstile's free plan doesn't meter verification volume at all β it caps you at 20 widgets per account, not checks per month, so a site can run millions of monthly verifications at $0 as long as it stays within that widget limit. reCAPTCHA Enterprise and hCaptcha Pro instead meter the thing that actually costs Google and hCaptcha money to run: fraud-signal scoring, device fingerprinting and risk analytics behind each assessment, bundled with dashboards and SLAs that Turnstile's free tier doesn't include. That's why Turnstile wins on pure sticker price but reCAPTCHA Enterprise and hCaptcha Pro are the ones site owners reach for when they need detailed risk scores, enterprise support or compliance reporting on top of the block/allow decision.
Is Arkose Labs worth it if it has no public pricing?
Arkose Labs only sells enterprise contracts, so there's no self-serve rate to compare β you have to get a quote, and reports put typical minimums around $2,000+/month regardless of how many verifications you actually run. That flat-minimum shape means it looks expensive at low volume compared to reCAPTCHA's free tier or Turnstile's free plan, but it can become the cheaper option once your verification volume climbs into the millions per month, where reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha's per-assessment billing keeps compounding and a flat enterprise floor stops scaling. Enter your own quoted minimum in the calculator above to see your personal break-even point.
Which anti-bot service is cheapest for a growing site β reCAPTCHA, Turnstile, hCaptcha or Arkose?
There's no universal winner β it depends on volume and which features you need. Turnstile is essentially always cheapest on pure price since its free plan doesn't meter verification volume, so it wins by default unless you specifically need reCAPTCHA's or hCaptcha's risk-scoring and analytics. Between the two paid, usage-metered options, reCAPTCHA Enterprise and hCaptcha Pro track each other closely dollar-for-dollar at most volumes because both give roughly 100x more free/included assessments before their per-1,000 rate kicks in. Arkose Labs' flat enterprise minimum only wins once metered volume gets high enough that a fixed monthly floor beats a per-assessment rate β typically somewhere in the low millions of checks per month, depending on the minimum you're quoted. Run your own numbers through the calculator rather than assuming a vendor's headline free tier represents your bill.