Yelp API · what Yelp’s three paid plans cost, and how the 240-result cap shapes a local list

Yelp’s API used to be free for small apps. An API is a way for your code to ask another service for data. In July 2024, Yelp emailed developers about the end of free access.

Today Yelp sells its data under paid licenses. A license is the written permission that says what you may do with the data. As of October 26, 2026, Yelp has three plans for one license and a different price model for another.

The short answer

Use Yelp’s Places API if your product shows Yelp content to the public. It starts at $229 a month as of October 26, 2026, and it is the licensed route for that job.

Ask Yelp about its Insights API if you want Yelp data for analysis inside your company. Insights costs from $0.04 per location, over a rolling 12 months. A rolling 12 months is the last 12 months, counted back from any given day.

Use SearchApi if you are building a local prospect list. Developer is $40 a month for 10,000 searches, as of October 26, 2026. Split the list by search term and city, because each Yelp search stops at 240 results. SearchApi is a search tool, and it gives you no Yelp license.

How Yelp’s API went paid

On July 31, 2024, the Hacker News user billylo wrote that Yelp’s email said the app used more of the API than other developers. billylo said the app had a tiny user base.

I am particularly disappointed by the generic “Your API usage is higher than lots of other Yelp Fusion developers” statement. billylo on Hacker News, July 31, 2024

The next day, WoodenChair, who wrote the article that started the thread, posted a new Yelp email. Yelp gave developers 90 more days of free access. That extension ran 90 days from August 1, 2024. The paid plans below are what developers face now.

Yelp sells two licenses for the same data

The Places API is for showing Yelp content to the public. Yelp says the Places API lets you “access and present Yelp content on your consumer-facing product.” Consumer-facing means people outside your company see it.

Yelp says the Insights API is “for B2B purposes and internal analysis.” B2B means business to business. Insights is priced per unique location, over a rolling 12 months.

A sales team that reads the Places price is reading the wrong plan.

What each Yelp plan costs

Yelp prices below are as of October 26, 2026.

An API call is one request your code sends. Each plan comes with a 30-day trial of 5,000 free calls, and you need a business email to sign up. Above 150,000 calls a month, Yelp asks you to talk to sales.

Insights costs from $0.04 per location on Base, from $0.06 per location on Enhanced and from $0.08 per location on Premium, each over a rolling 12 months. Yelp gives volume discounts as usage grows.

Yelp’s AI API is $25 per 1,000 API calls, with a minimum of 1,000 calls a day.

The 30-day trial of 5,000 free calls may cover a one-off test on Yelp’s own terms.

Every Yelp search stops at 240 results

SearchApi’s Yelp Search engine takes a search term and a location, like “plumber” and a city or ZIP code. As of October 26, 2026, SearchApi says Yelp lists no more than 240 results for one term and one location, across all pages.

Paging deeper doesn’t help. You get more businesses by searching more terms and smaller areas.

The words you search change the count a lot. Jan Berning, who runs growth at the data company Databar.ai, saw this on Google Maps in his October 22, 2026 list guide. “Restaurant equipment repair” found 436 businesses, and “walk-in cooler repair” found 7,498. His company sells data about people and companies, so read his numbers with that in mind. Test every term your customers use for themselves on Yelp the same way.

Results carry a place ID, a code that names one business. Use it to dedupe, which means to drop the same business when it shows up twice.

Use mobile results for phone numbers

SearchApi’s docs say a mobile results page holds up to 80 results. Desktop organic results come without phone numbers.

For a call list, set the device to mobile. Then each result carries the phone along with the rating, review count, categories and address.

What a 50-city list costs

The math: on October 26, 2026 prices.

• One term in one city. At up to 80 results a page and 240 in total, that is at least 3 searches.
• 10 terms across 50 cities. That is 500 pairs at 3 searches each, so 1,500 searches. It fits inside SearchApi Developer at $40 a month for 10,000 searches and uses about $6 of it.
• The same 1,500 calls on Yelp’s Places API. Base starts at $229 a month, and its license covers showing Yelp content to the public.
• Yelp Insights for Jan Berning’s list. His October 22, 2026 list guide kept 14,710 companies. If each of those 14,710 companies counts as one location, Insights starts at 14,710 × $0.04 = $588.40, over a rolling 12 months.

SearchApi is the cheaper route for a list, and it is no Yelp license. If your product shows Yelp content to the public, Yelp’s own plans are the licensed route.

What to do this week

Write down whether your Yelp data is for the public or for your sales team.

If it is for the public, start Yelp’s 30-day trial with a business email. If it is a prospect list, pick 10 search terms your customers use, run them in 5 cities on SearchApi with the device set to mobile, and count the businesses after you dedupe.

Try SearchApi

Next · SearchApi tool page covers every SearchApi plan · Google Maps scrapers covers the Google side of a local list · Lead generation tools lists more list builders.

Sources · Yelp data licensing pricing, checked October 26, 2026 · Yelp Places API docs, read October 26, 2026 · SearchApi pricing, checked October 26, 2026 · SearchApi Yelp Search docs, read October 26, 2026 · billylo on Hacker News, July 31, 2024 · WoodenChair on Hacker News, August 1, 2024 · Jan Berning’s list guide on X, October 22, 2026.