GDELT Project vs Mediastack: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
GDELT Project (4.0/5) edges ahead of Mediastack (3.8/5) overall. GDELT Project is the better choice for researchers and data scientists with no budget. Mediastack is the stronger option for hobby projects and low-volume apps on a tight budget. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
GDELT Project vs Mediastack: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | GDELT Project | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2013 | 2015 |
| HQ | Open research project (no commercial HQ) | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera |
| Team size | Not publicly disclosed | Part of Idera |
| Rating | 4.0 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Free global coverage with 15-minute updates and BigQuery access | Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data |
| Pricing model | Free | Monthly request plans |
| Entry price | Free | $24.99/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, CSV | REST API, JSON |
| Typical uses | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
GDELT Project vs Mediastack: overview
GDELT Project
The GDELT Project, created by Kalev Leetaru, is an open research database that monitors broadcast, print and web news worldwide in more than 65 languages and publishes updates every 15 minutes. Its DOC 2.0 API searches recent coverage and returns article lists and timelines, while bulk event and knowledge-graph files can be queried in Google BigQuery. The main APIs are free and need no key. What you get back is metadata and links, so you still have to fetch and parse each page yourself.
Mediastack
Mediastack is one of the apilayer products, alongside ipstack and weatherstack. apilayer was founded in Vienna in 2015 by Julian and Paul Zehetmayr and acquired by the US software group Idera in January 2021. The API aggregates live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, filtered by country, category, language and keyword. The free plan allows 100 requests a month, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Its source list is far smaller than the big crawlers here, and it adds no enrichment beyond basic metadata.
Features: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Capability | GDELT Project | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✗ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Licensed publisher content | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Format / SDK | GDELT Project | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | N/A | 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 |
Pricing comparison: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Criterion | GDELT Project | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free | $24.99/mo |
| Pricing model | Free | Monthly request plans |
| Access models | Open data | Free tier, Monthly plans |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Free | Budget |
Who each API suits: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Dimension | GDELT Project | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | Academic studies of global media coverage. Geopolitical risk dashboards built in BigQuery. | A news ticker or category feed for a small website. A learning project that needs commercial rights cheaply. |
| How you get access | Open data | Free tier |
GDELT Project vs Mediastack: pros and cons
| GDELT Project | |
|---|---|
| + | Completely free, bulk files and BigQuery tables included |
| + | Machine-translated coverage across 65+ languages, which is rare at any price |
| + | Event coding (who did what to whom, and where) supports geopolitical analysis |
| + | Fresh data every 15 minutes |
| - | No full article text, only URLs, metadata and derived signals |
| - | No SLA, commercial support or guaranteed uptime |
| - | Research-grade data structures take time to understand |
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | One of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month |
| + | Same conventions as other apilayer APIs, which helps if you already use one |
| + | Historical news included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste examples |
| - | Only 7,500 sources and 13 languages |
| - | The free plan is 100 requests a month, which runs out in a day of testing |
| - | Descriptions only, with no full text, sentiment or entities |
Who should choose GDELT Project?
A typical fit: academic studies of global media coverage.
Free global coverage with 15-minute updates and BigQuery access. Paid access starts at Free. Typical uses: Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring.
Who should choose Mediastack?
A typical fit: a news ticker or category feed for a small website.
Paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Decision matrix: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | GDELT Project |
| You need full article text in the response | Neither returns full text |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You need licensed premium or wire content | Neither; look at Factiva, AP or LexisNexis |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both work through plain REST calls |
Use case fit: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
| Use case | GDELT Project fit | Mediastack fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research & academia | Strong | Limited | GDELT Project |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Limited | GDELT Project |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Limited | GDELT Project |
| News & content apps | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
| Marketing & PR | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
Verdict: GDELT Project vs Mediastack
GDELT Project (4.0/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Free global coverage with 15-minute updates and BigQuery access.
Mediastack (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need a learning project that needs commercial rights cheaply. If your situation matches that, Mediastack is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
GDELT Project vs Mediastack FAQ
Is GDELT Project better than Mediastack?
GDELT Project (4.0/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. GDELT Project's strongest advantage: completely free, bulk files and BigQuery tables included. Mediastack's strongest advantage: one of the cheapest paid entries among general news APIs, at $24.99 a month.
How do GDELT Project and Mediastack differ in pricing?
GDELT Project: free, with paid access from Free. Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: GDELT Project or Mediastack?
Neither sells an enterprise contract. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between GDELT Project and Mediastack?
What sets GDELT Project apart: free global coverage with 15-minute updates and BigQuery access. What sets Mediastack apart: paid plans from $24.99 with commercial use and historical data. They also differ on entry price (Free vs $24.99/mo) and typical uses (Research & academia, Risk & compliance vs News & content apps, Marketing & PR).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.