Perigon vs GDELT Project: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Perigon (4.5/5) edges ahead of GDELT Project (3.9/5) overall. Perigon is the better choice for indie developers and startups wanting enriched data at a known price. GDELT Project is the stronger option for zero-budget data projects and research prototypes. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Perigon vs GDELT Project: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Perigon | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 | 2013 |
| HQ | Austin, Texas, USA | Open research project (no commercial HQ) |
| Team size | 11–50 | Not publicly disclosed |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 3.9 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly | No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Free |
| Entry price | $25/mo | Free |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON, CSV |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
Perigon vs GDELT Project: overview
Perigon
Perigon is an Austin, Texas startup founded in 2022 by Joshua Dziabiak and Josh Rickel, backed by a $5 million seed round that LiveOak Ventures led in February 2024. For developers its main draw is that the pricing page tells you what you will pay: Individual at $25 a month for personal use, Startup at $250 with limited commercial rights, and Commercial at $1,250 with real-time data, an SLA and SSO. Every tier returns enriched articles with entities, topics, summaries and story clusters from 230,000+ sources (per company website; independently unverifiable), and Monitors let you save a query and get matches on a schedule. Plan for the delay: below Commercial, data lags by an hour unless you pay for the real-time add-on.
GDELT Project
The GDELT Project, created by Kalev Leetaru, watches broadcast, print and web news in more than 65 languages and publishes fresh data every 15 minutes. The DOC 2.0 API needs no key and no signup, which makes it the fastest free start here, and it returns article lists and timelines for a query. Bulk event and knowledge-graph tables are also available in Google BigQuery for SQL users. Two things trip developers up. Responses contain metadata and links only, so you have to fetch and parse each article yourself, and the data formats were designed for researchers, with field names and conventions that take some reading to understand.
Features: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| Capability | Perigon | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| Format / SDK | Perigon | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | ✓ | 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: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| Criterion | Perigon | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25/mo | Free |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Free |
| Access models | Free trial, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract | Open data |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Free |
Who each API suits: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| Dimension | Perigon | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
| Example use cases | A startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month. Alerting on a brand or topic without building a scheduler. | A free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch. Geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. |
| How you get access | Free trial | Open data |
Perigon vs GDELT Project: pros and cons
| Perigon | |
|---|---|
| + | The cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers |
| + | Monitors replace a cron job and a diffing script with a saved query |
| + | Python and Node SDKs, plus webhooks for pushed results |
| + | The license explains what you may do with the structured data, which saves a round of legal questions |
| - | Data lags by an hour below the $1,250 plan unless you buy real-time |
| - | The Startup tier caps you at 10,000 requests a month |
| - | Republishing full article text is outside the license |
| GDELT Project | |
|---|---|
| + | You can call it right now with no account |
| + | BigQuery tables let you query years of events with SQL |
| + | Machine-translated coverage in 65+ languages |
| + | Event coding of who did what to whom suits geopolitical work |
| - | No article text, only links and derived fields |
| - | No SLA or support channel |
| - | Research-style schemas take time to learn |
Who should choose Perigon?
A typical fit: a startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month.
Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. Paid access starts at $25/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose GDELT Project?
A typical fit: a free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch.
No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. Paid access starts at Free. Typical uses: Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring.
Decision matrix: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| 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 | Perigon |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You want an official SDK | Perigon |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Perigon |
Use case fit: Perigon vs GDELT Project
| Use case | Perigon fit | GDELT Project fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
Verdict: Perigon vs GDELT Project
Perigon (4.5/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly.
GDELT Project (3.9/5) is worth a look if you need geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. If your situation matches that, GDELT Project is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Perigon vs GDELT Project FAQ
Is Perigon better than GDELT Project?
Perigon (4.5/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Perigon's strongest advantage: the cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers. GDELT Project's strongest advantage: you can call it right now with no account.
How do Perigon and GDELT Project differ in pricing?
Perigon: monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume, with paid access from $25/mo. GDELT Project: free, with paid access from Free. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Perigon or GDELT Project?
Perigon 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 Perigon and GDELT Project?
What sets Perigon apart: Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. What sets GDELT Project apart: no key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. They also differ on entry price ($25/mo vs Free) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring vs Research & academia, Risk & compliance).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.