GNews vs Diffbot: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
GNews (4.3/5) edges ahead of Diffbot (3.7/5) overall. GNews is the better choice for small commercial apps needing a cheap, simple news feed. Diffbot is the stronger option for developers collecting news from a fixed list of sites. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
GNews vs Diffbot: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | GNews | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | Not disclosed | 2008 |
| HQ | Not publicly disclosed | Menlo Park, California, USA |
| Team size | Not publicly disclosed | 11–50 |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 3.7 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month | Parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph |
| Pricing model | Monthly or yearly plans in euros | Monthly credit plans |
| Entry price | €49.99/mo | $299/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON | REST API, JSON, Python SDK |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services |
GNews vs Diffbot: overview
GNews
GNews keeps its surface small: one search endpoint, one top-headlines endpoint, and filters for country, language and category. That small surface is why developers like it, because the docs fit on one page and a working call takes a few minutes. The free tier allows 100 requests a day for non-commercial work with 30 days of history. Essential, at €49.99 a month, adds commercial rights, 1,000 requests a day and articles back to 2020, while Business and Enterprise raise the daily quota to 5,000 and 25,000. The weak spot is the company itself. The site credits a studio called Gigathink and gives only a contact email, so its size, founding year and support capacity are unknown.
Diffbot
Diffbot, founded by Mike Tung in 2008 and based in Menlo Park, California, has an estimated 30–40 staff. Point its Article API at any news URL and it returns title, author, date and clean text without a site-specific parser, and Crawlbot can follow a list of publishers you choose. Its Knowledge Graph links articles to companies, people and topics, so it can also be queried as a news source. The free plan includes 10,000 credits at five calls a minute, Startup costs $299 a month for 250,000 credits, and each exported Knowledge Graph entity costs 25 credits. It works best when you want to build your own news collection from chosen sites.
Features: GNews vs Diffbot
| Capability | GNews | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✗ | ✓ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: GNews vs Diffbot
| Format / SDK | GNews | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | N/A | ✓ |
| Node.js SDK | N/A | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | N/A | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: GNews vs Diffbot
| Criterion | GNews | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €49.99/mo | $299/mo |
| Pricing model | Monthly or yearly plans in euros | Monthly credit plans |
| Access models | Free tier, Monthly plans | Free tier, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Mid-market |
Who each API suits: GNews vs Diffbot
| Dimension | GNews | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | A news section in a small SaaS product. Headline widgets filtered by country. | Monitoring niche trade publications. Clean article text for an LLM from known URLs. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Free tier |
GNews vs Diffbot: pros and cons
| GNews | |
|---|---|
| + | The whole API can be learned in one sitting |
| + | One of the cheapest routes to commercial use, and yearly billing takes about 20% off |
| + | Paid plans return full article content |
| + | Up to 100 articles per request on the top tier |
| - | Nothing before 2020 |
| - | No entity, sentiment or clustering fields |
| - | An unnamed operator makes support and continuity hard to judge |
| Diffbot | |
|---|---|
| + | No custom scrapers to maintain when a site changes layout |
| + | 10,000 free credits with no card |
| + | Knowledge Graph links coverage to companies and people |
| + | Crawlbot handles crawling the publishers you pick |
| - | Five calls a minute on the free plan |
| - | Knowledge Graph exports cost 25 credits each |
| - | You assemble the feed yourself |
Who should choose GNews?
A typical fit: a news section in a small SaaS product.
Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month. Paid access starts at €49.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose Diffbot?
A typical fit: monitoring niche trade publications.
Parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph. Paid access starts at $299/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services.
Decision matrix: GNews vs Diffbot
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | GNews |
| You need full article text in the response | Both |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You want an official SDK | Diffbot |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both work through plain REST calls |
Use case fit: GNews vs Diffbot
| Use case | GNews fit | Diffbot fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| News & content apps | Strong | Limited | GNews |
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| Financial services | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
Verdict: GNews vs Diffbot
GNews (4.3/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month.
Diffbot (3.7/5) is worth a look if you need clean article text for an LLM from known URLs. If your situation matches that, Diffbot is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
GNews vs Diffbot FAQ
Is GNews better than Diffbot?
GNews (4.3/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. GNews's strongest advantage: the whole API can be learned in one sitting. Diffbot's strongest advantage: no custom scrapers to maintain when a site changes layout.
How do GNews and Diffbot differ in pricing?
GNews: monthly or yearly plans in euros, with paid access from €49.99/mo. Diffbot: monthly credit plans, with paid access from $299/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: GNews or Diffbot?
Diffbot sells enterprise contracts with negotiated volume and SLA terms. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between GNews and Diffbot?
What sets GNews apart: commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month. What sets Diffbot apart: parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph. They also differ on entry price (€49.99/mo vs $299/mo) and typical uses (News & content apps, AI & LLM apps vs AI & LLM apps, Research & academia).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.