SerpApi pricing 2026: plans, cost per 1,000 searches, free tier
SerpApi pricing starts with a free plan of 250 searches a month, then Starter at $25 for 1,000 searches, Developer at $75 for 5,000 and Production at $150 for 15,000, up to Cloud plans from $3,750 for 1 million. Only successful searches count: cached, errored and failed searches are free. Plans are month to month, searches reset each cycle, and the faster speed modes cost 2x or 4x.
SerpApi sells search result pages as JSON on monthly plans. You buy a number of searches per month and an hourly throughput cap, and the price per search falls as plans grow, from $25 per 1,000 to about $2 per 1,000. Below are the plans from serpapi.com today, the rules that change your bill, and the math at three volumes.
SerpApi pricing plans
| Plan | Price a month | Searches a month | Searches an hour | Per 1,000 searches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 250 | 50 | $0 |
| Starter | $25 | 1,000 | 200 | $25.00 |
| Developer | $75 | 5,000 | 1,000 | $15.00 |
| Production | $150 | 15,000 | 3,000 | $10.00 |
| Big Data | $275 | 30,000 | 6,000 | $9.17 |
| Searcher | $725 | 100,000 | 20,000 | $7.25 |
| Volume | $1,475 | 250,000 | 50,000 | $5.90 |
| Infrastructure | $2,750 | 500,000 | 100,000 | $5.50 |
| Cloud 1M | $3,750 | 1,000,000 | 110,000 | $3.75 |
| Cloud 5M | $11,475 | 5,000,000 | 150,000 | $2.30 |
| Cloud 10M | $21,125 | 10,000,000 | 200,000 | $2.11 |
Source: SerpApi pricing page. The per-1,000 column is our math, assuming you use the whole plan. Cloud plans continue in 1 million steps up to 54 million searches for $106,050 a month. All plans are month to month and can be cancelled anytime; the page lists no yearly discount. Enterprise and custom volumes go through contact@serpapi.com.
What counts as a SerpApi search
- Only successful searches count. Cached, errored and failed searches do not, per the pricing FAQ.
- One search is one request, however many results it returns. An empty result page still counts.
- Cache: results are cached for 1 hour, and a cached repeat is free. The
no_cacheparameter forces a fresh fetch, which then counts (Search API docs). - Pagination: Google pages step by 10 with the
startoffset, sostart=10is page 2. Tracking the top 30 for a keyword is three requests.
Speed modes multiply the price
| Mode | Cost | Production plan in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Best Effort (default) | 1x | 15,000 searches for $150 |
| Ludicrous Speed | 2x | 7,500 searches, $20 per 1,000 |
| Ludicrous Speed Max | 4x | 3,750 searches, $40 per 1,000 |
SerpApi says the faster modes use 2x or 4x the server resources for quicker, more consistent responses. Use them only on the calls a user is waiting for.
SerpApi free plan and trial
There is no separate trial. The Free plan gives 250 searches a month at up to 50 an hour, without Legal Shield, ZeroTrace or priority support. On paid plans SerpApi offers a full refund within 7 days of subscribing, as long as you have used no more than 20% of the searches. For Google's own free options, see is the Google Search API free.
Running out, renewals and unused searches
The pricing page describes no per-search overage. When you run out, you renew early by hand, or turn on Automatic Early Renewal, which starts a new cycle as soon as the searches are used up. A renewal resets your monthly searches, so unused searches do not roll over. The one exception: when you downgrade, leftover searches move to an "Extra Credits" balance.
What you get on higher plans
- U.S. Legal Shield, from Production up: up to $2 million in coverage for scraping and parsing search engine data, as long as your use is legal.
- ZeroTrace, on Cloud plans: search data is not stored on SerpApi's systems.
- Priority support, on Cloud plans.
SerpApi cost at three volumes
| Job, per month | Searches | Plan | Cost | Effective per 1,000 used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 keywords, top 10, checked daily | 6,000 | Production (Developer's 5,000 is too small) | $150 | $25.00 |
| 1,000 keywords, top 30, checked daily | 90,000 | Searcher | $725 | $8.06 |
| Data pipeline, 1 million searches | 1,000,000 | Cloud 1M | $3,750 | $3.75 |
The first row shows the main cost trap: plans come in fixed steps, so a volume just above a tier pays for the next one. If your volume is uneven, size for your normal month and use early renewal for spikes.
Is SerpApi worth it?
Yes, for SEO and search products. SerpApi beats a general data API in clear ways:
- Many engines: APIs for Google, Bing, Baidu, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Naver, Yahoo and Yandex, plus Amazon, eBay and YouTube (homepage).
- Parsed SERP features: organic results, Maps, Local, Shopping, Stories, direct answers and the Knowledge Graph, returned as JSON or Markdown.
- Precise targeting: city-level
location,glcountry,hllanguage, and desktop, tablet or mobile devices. - High throughput with published hourly caps, and a legal coverage program from Production up.
It is less worth it when you search a few hundred times a month at random intervals. Monthly searches reset, so a $25 plan used for 300 searches costs $83 per 1,000. And you need it only for result pages; for social profiles and posts it is the wrong tool.
SerpApi alternatives
We compared Serper, DataForSEO, Brave and others with prices from their own pages in Google Search API alternatives, and Google's closed Custom Search JSON API in Google Custom Search API pricing. Pick by three questions: do you need many engines and SERP features, how even is your monthly volume, and do you need city-level locations.
Doing it with ScrapeIO
ScrapeIO's Google search API returns Google results for a query, with an optional two-letter region, a date_posted filter and a page, at 1 credit a call. That is $1.88 per 1,000 searches on the $47 pack, or $0.99 on the $497 pack, with no monthly reset and no charge for failed or cached calls. The 90,000-search row above would be about $89 of credits on the $497 pack. It does not offer other engines, city-level locations, devices or Legal Shield, so for rank tracking SerpApi is the stronger tool. It fits when Google is one source among social ones: the same key reads the YouTube search API and the Google ad library advertiser search API, and agents can use the Google Search MCP server.
FAQ
How much does SerpApi cost per search?
From $0.025 a search on Starter to $0.01 on Production and about $0.002 on the largest Cloud plans, in the default speed mode.
Is SerpApi free?
There is a free plan with 250 searches a month at up to 50 an hour. It has no Legal Shield, ZeroTrace or priority support.
Does SerpApi charge for failed or cached searches?
No. Only successful searches count. Results are cached for 1 hour, and cached repeats are free.
Do unused SerpApi searches roll over?
No. Searches reset at each renewal. Leftover searches move to an Extra Credits balance only when you downgrade.
Does SerpApi have pay-as-you-go pricing?
No. It sells monthly plans with a fixed number of searches, and you can renew early when you run out.
Sources
Checked on 9 November 2026 from each vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change; follow the links before you decide.
- https://serpapi.com/pricing
- https://serpapi.com/pricing.md
- https://serpapi.com/
- https://serpapi.com/search-api
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