VirusTotal review
Domain & URL threat intelligence
Quick facts
- Category
- Threat and vulnerability intelligence APIs, IP intelligence and reputation APIs
- Website
- virustotal.com
- Pricing starts at
- $75,000/year Google Threat Intelligence Standard
- Free tier
- Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minute
- How usage is billed
- Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable.
- Enterprise plan
- $1.1 million/year Enterprise+
What VirusTotal is
VirusTotal analyzes domains, URLs, and files for malware and malicious activity using multiple antivirus engines and security tools.
Compared in: Threat and vulnerability intelligence APIs, IP intelligence and reputation APIs.
Strengths
- Multi-engine malware and URL analysis
- Free noncommercial Public API
Limitations
- Security-only focus
- No domain registration features
- The free Public API allows 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minute
Pricing summary
Figures come from published VirusTotal sources checked on 2026-07-29, linked under Sources. Plans and limits change, so confirm them with the vendor before you buy.
| Plan | VirusTotal | DomScan |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minute | Free: 10,000 credits/month |
| Entry paid plan | $75,000/year Google Threat Intelligence Standard | Pay-as-you-go from $10 |
| Enterprise | $1.1 million/year Enterprise+ | Custom pricing |
- Credits, pages, requests, records, compute units, subscriptions, and browser-time blocks are not interchangeable.
Who VirusTotal suits
Good fit
Stay with VirusTotal if multi-engine malware and URL analysis is what you need.
Weaker fit
- You need registration and availability data for names
- You want WHOIS and DNS records beyond reputation verdicts
- You want valuation to go with reputation checks
- You are building domain tools, not malware scanners
VirusTotal vs DomScan
Feature availability for VirusTotal comes from its published product documentation. DomScan credit costs come from its published endpoint pricing.
| Feature | VirusTotal | DomScan |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ✓ | ✓ 10,000/month |
| Domain availability | ✓ | ✓ |
| WHOIS data | ✓ | ✓ |
| DNS lookup | ✓ | ✓ |
| Domain valuation | − | ✓ |
| Brand monitoring | Limited | ✓ |
| MCP/AI integration | − | ✓ |
| Bulk operations | Limited | ✓ |
DomScan products for the same jobs
These DomScan products cover the categories where VirusTotal competes. Each shows its published credit cost per request.
Credits per request: 8 to 12
SSL Certificates
Get SSL certificate information including issuer, validity, and security grade.
Credits per request: 2
IP Geolocation
Get geolocation data for an IP address including country, city, and ISP.
Credits per request: 1
Domain Reputation
Check domain reputation across multiple threat intelligence sources.
Credits per request: 3
Verdict
Main strength of VirusTotal: Multi-engine malware and URL analysis. Main trade-off: Security-only focus. If you need several kinds of domain, DNS or web data from one API key, DomScan publishes the credit cost of every endpoint and includes 10,000 free credits each month.
Frequently asked questions
What is VirusTotal?
VirusTotal analyzes domains, URLs, and files for malware and malicious activity using multiple antivirus engines and security tools.
How much does VirusTotal cost?
Published pricing checked on 2026-07-29. Free tier: Noncommercial Public API: 500 requests/day and 4 requests/minute. Entry paid plan: $75,000/year Google Threat Intelligence Standard. Enterprise: $1.1 million/year Enterprise+.
When is VirusTotal the better choice?
Stay with VirusTotal if multi-engine malware and URL analysis is what you need.
How does VirusTotal pricing compare with DomScan?
VirusTotal and DomScan count usage in different units, so there is no exact per-request comparison. DomScan includes 10,000 free credits every month and publishes the credit cost of every endpoint, so you can price the operations you plan to run.
Sources
Last updated:
