Cheapest SERP API 2026: Official Prices Compared

The cheapest SERP API 2026 pick, per each vendor's own pricing page, depends on volume and on how long you can wait for results. DataForSEO's Google Organic pricing puts its Standard queue at $0.60 per 1,000 first-page Google SERPs, and among the five providers compared here only Serper's two largest prepaid packs list less, at $0.50 or $0.30 per 1,000. The catch is commitment: Serper's credits expire after six months, while DataForSEO's wallet balance does not expire but starts with a $50 minimum top up. For tiny volumes, Serper's 2,500 free queries and SerpApi's 250 free searches a month cost nothing.

This post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article. An AI assistant helped me draft it. Every rate below was read from the vendor's own pricing page, checked 1 November 2026; links are in the sources table.

How the pricing comparison works

The figures below are public list prices in US dollars from each vendor's official page. For plans with a search allowance, the plan price is divided by the allowance and multiplied by 1,000. Response times are vendor statements, not measurements.

Three details matter more than the headline rate:

Delivery time. DataForSEO's Standard queue averages about five minutes, with a 45 minute target. Serper says queries generally return in one to two seconds. They solve different timing problems.
How long the money lasts. A monthly allowance resets, Serper packs are valid for six months, and a DataForSEO balance does not expire. A low per-search rate means little if most of a pack goes unused.
What counts as one search. Deeper results, AI Overviews and search operators can change how many paid units a job consumes.

The comparison covers five providers with readable prices and usable billing units, not every SERP API on the market. Bright Data's static pricing page did not expose a readable SERP price, and Scrapingdog's page lists credit bundles without saying how many credits a Google request uses, so both are left out of the table.

Cheapest SERP API 2026 prices compared

Provider and tier	Billing	Price	Volume	Price per 1,000	Delivery time or hourly throughput
DataForSEO Standard queue	Wallet, $50 minimum top up	$0.0006 per SERP	Any	$0.60	About 5 minutes on average, 45 minute target
DataForSEO Priority queue	Wallet	$0.0012 per SERP	Any	$1.20	Up to 1 minute on average
DataForSEO Live	Wallet	$0.002 per SERP	Any	$2.00	Up to 6 seconds on average
Serper Starter	Prepaid, valid 6 months	$50	50,000 credits	$1.00	1 to 2 seconds in general
Serper Standard	Prepaid, valid 6 months	$375	500,000 credits	$0.75	1 to 2 seconds in general
Serper Scale	Prepaid, valid 6 months	$1,250	2.5M credits	$0.50	1 to 2 seconds in general
Serper Ultimate	Prepaid, valid 6 months	$3,750	12.5M credits	$0.30	1 to 2 seconds in general
Zenserp Small	Monthly	$49.99	25,000	$2.00	Not stated
Zenserp Medium	Monthly	$149.99	100,000	$1.50	Not stated
Zenserp Enterprise	Monthly	$899	1,000,000	$0.90	Not stated
SearchApi Developer	Monthly	$40	10,000	$4.00	Not stated
SearchApi BigData	Monthly	$250	100,000	$2.50	Not stated
SearchApi top listed plan	Monthly	$5,000	5,000,000	$1.00	Not stated
SerpApi Starter	Monthly	$25	1,000	$25.00	200 an hour, plan throughput
SerpApi Big Data	Monthly	$275	30,000	$9.17	6,000 an hour, plan throughput

These are selected tiers, not every plan from every provider. Zenserp also lists Large at $299.99 for 250,000 and Premium at $499.99 for 500,000. SearchApi has more tiers between those shown, including Production and a 1M plan used below. Above Big Data, SerpApi's page lists only Enterprise, with "Contact sales for pricing". The SerpApi figures in the last column are hourly throughput, which its pricing page calls guaranteed, not response times. Per-1,000 figures are rounded to the cent and assume the whole allowance is used.

Serper's listed prices exclude sales tax, VAT and GST. Its $0.30 Ultimate rate also assumes all 12.5 million credits get used before they expire, which changes the winner below.

Worked monthly bills at four volumes

The examples use first-page Google web searches without paid extras. For monthly subscriptions, the smallest listed plan that covers the volume is selected. Each Serper pack is paid for upfront, then its cost is spread across the months of actual use within the six-month validity, counting credits lost at expiry. DataForSEO figures show consumption from a wallet, not the first cash payment, and its minimum top up is $50.

So a $1.20 usage bill does not mean starting with $1.20 in cash, and an $8.33 average pack cost is not a charge of $8.33 each month.

2,000 searches a month

DataForSEO: Standard usage is 2,000 × $0.0006 = $1.20. Live usage is $4.00. Both come out of a wallet with a $50 minimum top up and a balance that does not expire.
Serper: The $50 Starter pack holds 50,000 credits. At 2,000 searches a month, only 12,000 are used in six months. The pack still costs $50, or about $8.33 a month spread over that period.
SearchApi: Developer covers the volume for $40 a month.
Zenserp: Small costs $49.99 a month.
SerpApi: Starter covers only 1,000 searches, so Developer at $75 is the smallest fit.

Serper's $1.00 per 1,000 looks attractive, but most of the pack goes unused at this volume.

25,000 searches a month

DataForSEO: Standard costs $15.00, Priority $30.00 and Live $50.00 in usage.
Serper: The $50 Starter pack covers two months, an effective $25 a month.
Zenserp: Small covers the full volume for $49.99 a month.
SearchApi: Developer is too small, so Production costs $100 for 35,000 searches.
SerpApi: Big Data covers the volume for $275.

For fast results, Serper's $25 monthly equivalent beats DataForSEO Live at $50.00, though Serper takes the full pack payment upfront.

100,000 searches a month

DataForSEO Standard: 100,000 × $0.0006 = $60.
Serper: The $375 Standard pack holds 500,000 credits and lasts five months at this usage, or $75 a month.
Zenserp: Medium costs $149.99 a month.
DataForSEO Live: $200 in usage.
SearchApi: BigData costs $250 a month.
SerpApi: The volume exceeds Big Data's 30,000 searches. Above that, the pricing page lists only Enterprise, priced through sales, so no published figure applies.

The queue is still clearly cheaper than a near-immediate response here; whether that matters depends on whether the search feeds a batch job or a user-facing feature.

1,000,000 searches a month

Serper Scale: A 2.5 million credit pack costs $1,250 and lasts about 2.5 months, equal to $500 a month.
DataForSEO Standard: $600 in usage.
Serper Ultimate: The $3,750 pack holds 12.5 million credits but expires after six months. Only 6 million would be used at this rate, an effective cost of about $625 a month.
Zenserp Enterprise: $899 a month.
SearchApi: Its 1M plan costs $1,500 a month.
DataForSEO Live: $2,000 in usage.
SerpApi: Enterprise only, with no published price.

The surprise is the Ultimate pack. Its $0.30 per 1,000 is the smallest Serper rate in the table, but the six-month expiry pushes its effective monthly cost to $625. That is more than DataForSEO Standard's $600. Serper Scale, at $500 a month, is the cheaper fit for this workload, and it also returns results in real time while DataForSEO Standard queues them.

What the per 1,000 number hides

Extra results pages

DataForSEO's Google Organic pricing bills per SERP of up to 10 results, and depth values round up to the next ten. Set depth to 100 and the Standard base price is multiplied by 10, giving $0.006 per keyword instead of $0.0006. If the requested depth is higher than the number of results available, the difference is refunded to the balance.

SerpApi's pricing FAQ says responses with 100 results or empty result sets both count as one search. Its Search API documentation also shows pagination using start in steps of 10. Those two statements do not prove that a live account retrieves 100 positions in one charged request. Test the pagination needed on the free plan before committing to that cost model.

AI Overviews

Zenserp says an AI Overview request uses 3 searches. DataForSEO adds one base price when load_async_ai_overview is used; for a first-page task with no other extras, that doubles the base price. Serper's homepage did not state a separate AI Overview rate, so ask before assuming it is included.

Operators and paid flags

On DataForSEO, a keyword containing a search operator such as site: or intitle: costs five times the base price per operator used. Pixel coordinates add one base price. Site-restricted discovery or other operator-heavy work will have different unit economics from the first-page examples above.

Failed requests

Serper's FAQ says credits are deducted for successful responses. SearchApi says only successful searches with a 200 status code incur charges. Zenserp says only successful requests are billed. SerpApi's counting rules exclude cached, errored and failed searches. A successful response is not always a complete one, so budget a margin for retries your own code decides to make.

Free SERP API options

Provider	Free allowance stated on its page
Serper	2,500 free queries
SerpApi	250 searches a month
SearchApi	100 free requests
Zenserp	50 searches a month, "free forever"
DataForSEO	$1 trial credit for new accounts, plus a free Sandbox with sample responses

The Serper and SearchApi entries are described as free queries and free requests, not monthly allowances.

At $0.0006 each, DataForSEO's $1 trial credit covers about 1,666 first-page Standard SERPs, or 500 Live requests at $0.002, before paid extras. The Sandbox is the better fit for building request handling, since it returns sample responses without spending credit.

Which one to pick

Batch jobs that can wait: DataForSEO Standard fits nightly rank checks, SERP snapshots and research exports at $0.60 per 1,000, with no expiring pack. The trade off is the queue, and the $50 minimum top up still matters for a small project. Its Sandbox lets request handling be built against sample responses before a paid batch. For queued jobs, start with this DataForSEO signup link.
Real-time Google results at scale: Serper's Scale and Ultimate packs undercut DataForSEO Standard on published rates and generally return in one to two seconds. Size the pack to what six months will use, not the biggest one.
A straightforward monthly subscription: Zenserp or SearchApi may be easier to budget when a plan allowance matches the expected volume. Compare the full plan price, including unused capacity.
Engine coverage, throughput and legal cover: SerpApi costs far more per search in its listed plans, but its hourly throughput (guaranteed, per its pricing page), long list of engine APIs and U.S. Legal Shield, described as up to $2 million in coverage, can outweigh unit cost for some applications. Per SearchApi's pricing page, its Production and higher plans also include a Legal Protection Guarantee backed by up to $2M in coverage, at lower per-search rates.

FAQ

Is there a completely free SERP API?

Yes, for limited use, as the free table shows. None of the vendor pages included here advertises unlimited free Google SERP requests.

What is the cheapest Google SERP API for small projects?

Start with a free allowance if the volume fits, such as SerpApi's 250 free searches a month. For paid first-page queries among the five providers priced here, DataForSEO Standard lists $0.60 per 1,000 with no expiring credit pack. It does require a $50 minimum top up, so low consumption and low cash to start are not the same thing.

Why are some SERP APIs so much more expensive?

Providers differ in hourly throughput, engine coverage, caching rules, legal provisions, support and delivery commitments. DataForSEO's queue prices waiting differently from immediate delivery, and SerpApi's pricing page lists guaranteed throughput and a Legal Shield for its plans.

Are SerpApi alternatives open source?

Open-source scrapers exist, but running one means taking on proxies, browsers, parsers and maintenance. None of the hosted APIs in the table is presented here as an open-source service.

Do these prices change?

Yes. DataForSEO published a pricing update notice on 1 July 2026 that adjusted rates for selected APIs and moved all endpoints to pay as you go by cancelling monthly commitments. Recheck the official page before paying for a plan or pack.

Sources

Per-1,000 rates and monthly examples are arithmetic from these published figures, not measured tests.

Fact used	Source
DataForSEO Google Organic $0.0006 / $0.0012 / $0.002 per SERP, turnaround and 45 minute target, depth billing and refund, operators x5, AI Overview and pixel +1 base price	https://dataforseo.com/pricing/google-serp/google-organic-serp-api
DataForSEO $50 minimum top up, balance never expires, $1 trial credit for new accounts, Sandbox	https://dataforseo.com/pricing
DataForSEO pricing update notice, 1 July 2026	https://dataforseo.com/update/pricing-update-in-dataforseo-apis
Serper packs $50 / 50k, $375 / 500k, $1,250 / 2.5M, $3,750 / 12.5M, 6 month validity, 1 to 2 seconds, 2,500 free queries, tax excluded, success based deduction	https://serper.dev/
Zenserp Free 50 a month, Small $49.99 / 25,000, Medium $149.99 / 100,000, Large $299.99 / 250,000, Premium $499.99 / 500,000, Enterprise $899 / 1,000,000, AI Overview uses 3 searches, only successful requests billed	https://zenserp.com/pricing-plans/
SearchApi Developer $40 / 10,000, Production $100 / 35,000, BigData $250 / 100,000, 1M plan $1,500, top plan $5,000 / 5M, 100 free requests, charged on 200 status only, Legal Protection Guarantee up to $2M	https://www.searchapi.io/pricing
SerpApi Free 250, Starter $25 / 1,000, Developer $75 / 5,000, Big Data $275 / 30,000, Enterprise via sales, guaranteed throughput, counting rules, Legal Shield up to $2M	https://serpapi.com/pricing
SerpApi `start` pagination	https://serpapi.com/search-api
Bright Data SERP pricing (prices not readable in static page, excluded)	https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp
Scrapingdog pricing (credits per Google request not shown, excluded)	https://www.scrapingdog.com/pricing/
Per 1,000 rates, monthly bills	Calculated from the published prices and quotas above

Cheapest SERP API 2026: Prices per 1,000 Searches From Official Pages