October 12, 2026
SerpApi pricing · fair at 1,000 searches, steep at 30,000
SerpApi plans start at $25 a month with no overage, so running out means renewing early. At 30,000 searches a month, SearchApi costs $100 and SerpApi $275.
The short answer
If you run more than 1,000 searches a month, use SearchApi. It costs about a third of SerpApi's price per search at the middle plans. If you run 1,000 searches a month or fewer, SerpApi's $25 Starter plan is the cheaper one.
SerpApi and SearchApi are search APIs. An API is a way for your own code to ask a tool for data. A search API runs a Google search for your code and sends back the results page as data.
Say you build a daily news check on 1,000 target accounts. That is 1,000 searches a day, or about 30,000 a month. On SerpApi that needs the $275 Big Data plan. On SearchApi it fits the $100 Production plan.
How SerpApi counts a search
SerpApi charges in searches. One search uses one search credit, however many results come back.
Only successful searches count. Cached, errored and failed searches are free.
SerpApi sells these plans, paid monthly:
- Free is $0 for 250 searches a month.
- Starter is $25 for 1,000 searches.
- Developer is $75 for 5,000.
- Production is $150 for 15,000.
- Big Data is $275 for 30,000.
- Searcher is $725 for 100,000.
- Volume is $1,475 for 250,000.
- Infrastructure is $2,750 for 500,000.
- Cloud plans start at 1 million searches.
The math, price per 1,000 searches: Starter is $25 ÷ 1 = $25.00. Developer is $75 ÷ 5 = $15.00. Production is $150 ÷ 15 = $10.00. Big Data is $275 ÷ 30 = about $9.17. Searcher is $725 ÷ 100 = $7.25. Volume is $1,475 ÷ 250 = $5.90. Infrastructure is $2,750 ÷ 500 = $5.50.
So the price per search drops as you move up. It drops fastest on the first few steps.
What happens when you run out mid-month
Many tools charge an overage. An overage is a small fee for going a little past your limit.
SerpApi has no overage. When your plan runs dry, SerpApi uses what it calls an "Automatic Early Renewal." It refills the plan, charges the full monthly price again and moves your billing date to that day.
So one busy week can cost you a whole extra month.
The math: say you are on Production at $150 for 15,000 searches, and one month you need 20,000. You run out early, renew for $150, and pay $300 that month. Big Data would have cost $275 for 30,000.
Unwatched code can burn through searches fast. One builder put it plainly.
Burned through $600 on Apify, SerpApi, and Social Vault in a couple of days while building an OSINT tool just from unmonitored background calls.
Set a cap in your own code before you go live.
What the same searches cost on SearchApi
SearchApi sells the same kind of Google search data. It charges only for successful searches too.
SearchApi sells these plans, paid monthly:
- Developer is $40 for 10,000 searches.
- Production is $100 for 35,000.
- BigData is $250 for 100,000.
- Scale is $500 for 250,000.
The math, price per 1,000 searches: Developer is $40 ÷ 10 = $4.00. Production is $100 ÷ 35 = about $2.86. BigData is $250 ÷ 100 = $2.50. Scale is $500 ÷ 250 = $2.00.
Now go back to the 30,000-search news check.
The math: SerpApi Big Data is $275 a month. SearchApi Production is $100 a month and includes 35,000 searches. $275 minus $100 is $175 a month. Over a year that is $175 × 12 = $2,100.
SearchApi gives you 100 free requests to test, with no card.
SearchApi's limit is per hour
SearchApi has one rule that SerpApi does not. You can use only up to 20% of your plan's searches in any one hour.
Throughput means how many searches a tool will run for you in an hour. SerpApi promises a set number on each plan: 50, 200, 1,000, 3,000 and 6,000 an hour, from the Free plan up to Big Data.
The math: SearchApi Production allows 20% of 35,000, which is 7,000 searches an hour. SerpApi Big Data promises 6,000 an hour. At 30,000 searches a month, the cheaper plan is also the faster one.
The 20% rule bites when you fire everything at once. If your job runs all 30,000 searches at 9am, it will hit the limit. Spread your runs across the day.
When SerpApi is the better buy
SerpApi wins at very small volume. The math: 1,000 searches a month is $25 on SerpApi Starter. SearchApi's smallest paid plan is $40.
That edge ends fast. From 1,001 searches, SerpApi's next plan is Developer at $75. SearchApi's $40 plan covers up to 10,000.
SerpApi also has a free plan of 250 searches a month, and it is month to month. You can get a refund within 7 days, unless you have used more than 20% of the plan. Both tools have legal protection up to $2M. On SearchApi it starts on Production.
If you also need the page text
Sometimes you need the search results and the text of each page they point to. Firecrawl does both from one balance of credits.
A Firecrawl search costs 2 credits for every 10 results. Its Standard plan is $83 a month, billed yearly, for 100,000 credits.
The math: 100,000 credits ÷ 2 = 50,000 searches. $83 ÷ 50 = about $1.66 per 1,000 searches. Page scrapes come out of the same credits, so your real search count will be lower if you also pull pages.
What to do this week
Count the searches your code runs in a normal week. Multiply by four. Then pick the plan.
- If you run 1,000 searches a month or fewer, use SerpApi Starter at $25.
- If you run more than 1,000 searches a month, use SearchApi. At 30,000 a month it costs $100 against SerpApi's $275.
- If you need the page text as well as the results, use Firecrawl.
Start with SearchApi's 100 free searches, and set a spending cap in your code on day one.
Next · SerpApi alternatives compares more search APIs · Firecrawl pricing explains how Firecrawl credits work.