Purpose

This document provides a comprehensive overview of human-powered CAPTCHA solving services, their pricing structures, and performance characteristics as of 2026. Human solvers offer high accuracy for complex or unusual CAPTCHAs that automated systems may struggle with.

Key Findings

  • Price Range: 5.00 per 1,000 CAPTCHAs depending on complexity
  • Standard Image CAPTCHAs: 1.00 per 1,000
  • reCAPTCHA v2/hCAPTCHA: 2.99 per 1,000
  • reCAPTCHA v3/Enterprise: $5.00+ per 1,000
  • Response Times: 7-46 seconds depending on service and CAPTCHA type
  • Success Rates: 95-99% for established services

Major Service Providers

2Captcha

Pricing:

  • Starting price: $1 per 1,000 CAPTCHAs
  • Normal/Image CAPTCHAs: 1.00 per 1,000
  • reCAPTCHA v2: 2.99 per 1,000
  • reCAPTCHA v3: €1.40 - €2.80 per 1,000
  • Average cost: ~$3 per 1,000 for typical CAPTCHAs

Performance:

  • Response time: 3-15 seconds (standard), up to 90 seconds (complex)
  • All CAPTCHAs solved by human workers
  • Can bypass all humanly readable types of CAPTCHAs

Billing: Rates shown per 1,000 but billed per individual CAPTCHA solved

Anti-Captcha (AntiGate)

Pricing:

  • reCAPTCHA v2: ~$2.99 per 1,000
  • Basic image CAPTCHAs: Lower than reCAPTCHA rates
  • General range: $1-3 per 1,000 reCAPTCHAs for human-based solving
  • Subscription plans starting at $2.99/month

Performance:

  • Response time: ~7 seconds (fastest in industry)
  • Speed range: 13-20 seconds (typical), 5 seconds (simple images), 10-20 seconds (reCAPTCHA v2)
  • Success rate: ~99%
  • Uptime: 99.99% since 2007

Features:

  • Operating since 2007
  • Primarily human-based workforce
  • Advanced scalable infrastructure
  • JSON task-based API
  • Unlimited thread handling
  • Browser plugins available
  • Official SDKs for Puppeteer, Selenium, iMacros

DeathByCaptcha (DBC)

Pricing:

  • $1.39 per 1,000 decoded CAPTCHAs (lowest advertised rate)
  • Dynamic surge pricing at peaks: $1-4 per 1,000
  • Covers both visual and audio CAPTCHAs

Performance:

  • Hybrid OCR + human model
  • OCR-first approach: ~9 seconds
  • Human fallback: 15-30 seconds
  • Success rate: 95-100%
  • 24/7 team availability

Features:

  • Over 17 years in business
  • Auto-solves simple CAPTCHAs via OCR
  • Routes complex CAPTCHAs to human solvers
  • Supports audio CAPTCHA solving (unique capability)

Best Captcha Solver

Pricing:

  • Standard images: $0.60 per 1,000
  • reCAPTCHAs: $2.00 per 1,000

Performance:

  • Response time: 14 seconds (standard), 46 seconds (complex reCAPTCHAs)
  • Competitive pricing for basic CAPTCHAs

Bypass Captcha

Performance:

  • Human-powered (not OCR)
  • Response time: ~10 seconds
  • High accuracy due to human verification

Pricing by CAPTCHA Type

CAPTCHA TypePrice Range (per 1,000)Typical Response Time
Standard Image1.007-15 seconds
reCAPTCHA v22.9910-20 seconds
hCAPTCHA2.5010-20 seconds
reCAPTCHA v3€1.40 - €2.8015-30 seconds
reCAPTCHA Enterprise$5.00+20-46 seconds
Audio CAPTCHA4.0015-30 seconds

Service Selection Factors

When to Choose Human Solvers

  • Complex or unusual image-based CAPTCHAs
  • New CAPTCHA types where AI struggles
  • High accuracy requirements (95-99% success rates)
  • Audio CAPTCHA requirements

Trade-offs

Advantages:

  • Higher accuracy than AI for complex CAPTCHAs
  • Can solve new/unusual CAPTCHA types
  • 24/7 availability from most providers
  • Success rates of 95-99%

Disadvantages:

  • Slower than AI-based solutions (7-90 seconds)
  • Variable response times during peak hours
  • Higher cost than automated solutions for simple CAPTCHAs
  • Ethical considerations around human labor

Cost Optimization Strategies

  1. Choose appropriate service level: Use cheaper image CAPTCHA rates for simple challenges
  2. Monitor surge pricing: DeathByCaptcha’s dynamic pricing can range $1-4
  3. Hybrid approach: Services like DeathByCaptcha use OCR first, humans as fallback
  4. Volume considerations: Most services bill per CAPTCHA but show rates per 1,000
  • Human-based services remain valuable for complex scenarios despite AI advances
  • Pricing has stabilized around $1-3 per 1,000 for standard challenges
  • Hybrid OCR + human models becoming more common
  • Response times improving with better infrastructure (Anti-Captcha at ~7 seconds)
  • Most providers maintain 99%+ uptime and 95-99% success rates

Why So Cheap? Labor Economics

The low prices are possible due to global labor arbitrage—services charge customers $1-3 per 1,000 CAPTCHAs while paying workers in developing countries a fraction of that amount.

Worker Pay Rates

Task TypeWorker Earnings (per 1,000)Customer Price (per 1,000)Margin
Basic CAPTCHAs0.601.00~50%
reCAPTCHA v21.012.99~66%

Realistic Worker Earnings

  • Hourly rate: 3/hour (far below minimum wage in developed countries)
  • Daily potential: At 1.20/day for basic CAPTCHAs
  • Speed requirements: Workers who are too slow or make errors get removed from the system
  • Performance incentives: Tiny pay raises for faster keystroke times, not just volume

Geographic Distribution

Workers are primarily located in countries where $1-3/hour exceeds or competes with local wages:

CountryMonthly Minimum Wage (USD)Hourly EquivalentCAPTCHA Work Attractive?
Venezuela~$1-3/month (official)$0.006/hrExtremely
Nigeria~$45-48/month$0.19/hrVery
India~2.13/day)$0.27/hrYes
Pakistan~$114/month$0.47/hrYes
Bangladesh~$95/month$0.40/hrYes
Philippines~$143-200/month$0.60-0.83/hrCompetitive

Primary worker countries:

  • India, Bangladesh, Pakistan: Large English-speaking populations, high internet penetration, low wages
  • Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka: Similar economic conditions
  • Venezuela: Hyperinflation makes any USD income valuable (official minimum wage < $3/month)
  • Nigeria, Kenya: Growing online workforce
  • China: Workers handling Chinese-character CAPTCHAs
  • Russia: Workers handling Cyrillic-based CAPTCHAs

Why these countries?

  • Dollar conversion rates make small USD amounts meaningful
  • PayPal alternatives available (2Captcha specifically supports countries without PayPal like Bangladesh)
  • Large populations with typing skills and internet access
  • Limited formal employment opportunities

Economic Analysis

UC San Diego researchers concluded that CAPTCHAs should be viewed as an economic barrier, not a technological one. The technology works, but cheap global labor markets have transformed its utility into a vulnerability.

Key insight: Initially workers earned ~0.75-$2 per 1,000—a race to the bottom enabled by global wage disparities.

The Business Model

  1. Services recruit workers from developing countries via online platforms
  2. Workers solve CAPTCHAs through web interfaces, often 24/7 in shifts
  3. APIs deliver solutions to customers in seconds
  4. The margin between customer price and worker pay funds infrastructure and profit

This is essentially digital piecework in the informal economy—workers are independent contractors with no benefits, job security, or labor protections.

Ethical Considerations

All major human CAPTCHA solving services rely on human workers who manually solve CAPTCHAs. This raises questions about:

Labor Exploitation Concerns

  • Workers earn far below living wages in developed countries
  • No employment benefits, protections, or job security
  • Precarious “gig economy” work targeting economically vulnerable populations
  • Critics argue platforms exploit individuals who feel compelled to accept any payment

Use Case Ethics

  • Legitimate uses: Accessibility, research, authorized automation
  • Problematic uses: Spam, fraud, credential stuffing, bot networks
  • Services don’t (and can’t) verify customer intent

Legal/ToS Considerations

  • Violates terms of service on most websites
  • Enables circumvention of anti-bot protections
  • Gray area legally in most jurisdictions

Sources

  1. 2Captcha - Captcha Solving Service
  2. 2Captcha Pricing
  3. 6 Best CAPTCHA Solving Services for Web Scraping [2026]
  4. Top 10 CAPTCHA Solvers of 2026
  5. Comparing CAPTCHA-Solving Services: Beyond Pricing, Inside the Tech
  6. Death By Captcha
  7. Top 7 CAPTCHA Solvers for Web Scraping in 2026 | Octoparse
  8. Best CAPTCHA Solvers for 2026: Top 14 Tools Ranked
  9. 2Captcha Review – How Much Can You Earn With It
  10. I Was a Human CAPTCHA Solver | F5 Labs
  11. Re: CAPTCHAs – Understanding CAPTCHA-Solving Services in an Economic Context (UC San Diego)
  12. CAPTCHA Economics - Marginal Revolution
  13. Is CAPTCHA Vulnerable to Economics? - The Scholarly Kitchen