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Cheapest SERP API in 2026: 7 SERP APIs Compared by Price per 1,000 Searches
The short answer: Among the seven on-demand SERP APIs compared here, PrismCrawl has the lowest price per 1,000 Google searches at every budget we compared, from $5 to $5,000 a month. It costs $0.27 per 1,000 at $10, $0.21 at $100, and $0.15 at $1,000 and above. The next lowest rates are Searlo ($0.30 at $74.99 and $0.20 at $799) and Scrapingdog's Google SERP Light API ($0.45 on its $90/month plan).
This comparison is published by PrismCrawl, which is one of the providers compared. All prices were checked against each provider's public pricing page on October 4, 2026. They are list prices, not negotiated quotes, and we have not benchmarked latency, success rate, or result quality across providers.
What this comparison includes
This comparison covers self-serve SERP APIs that run each search on demand, using published plans up to $5,000 a month. Enterprise contracts above that are usually negotiated and are not public. DataForSEO's standard queue is included because each task is still collected on demand, just delivered after a delay; its live mode is listed alongside it. We left out cached results and stored datasets. A cached or pre-collected SERP can be cheaper to serve, but it answers a different question: what a page looked like at some earlier time, not what it shows now. For rank tracking, AI agents, and monitoring, that difference decides whether the data is usable, so a lower price on cached results is not a like-for-like comparison.
SERP API prices at a glance
Prices are for one standard Google search request, in USD. Providers define a billable request differently, so read the notes before comparing rates.
| Provider | Billing | Smallest paid purchase | Rate at that purchase | Lowest public rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PrismCrawl | One-time prepaid credits | $5 | $0.30/1K | $0.15/1K with a $1,000 purchase | Only successful searches are billed. Credits valid for 90 days. |
| Searlo | One-time prepaid credits | $3.99 | $0.80/1K | $0.20/1K with a $799 purchase | $0.30/1K at $74.99. |
| Serper | Prepaid credits | $50 | $1.00/1K | $0.30/1K with a $3,750 purchase | $0.75/1K at $375 and $0.50/1K at $1,250. |
| Scrapingdog | Monthly plans | $40/month | $1.00/1K Light; $2.00/1K Advance | Light: about $0.21/1K on the $5,000/month plan. Advance: about $0.42/1K on the same plan | Google SERP Light uses 5 credits per request and Advance uses 10. |
| DataForSEO | Prepaid balance | Not listed | $0.60/1K queued; $2.00/1K live | $0.60/1K queued | Standard queue averages about five minutes. Some parameters multiply the price. |
| SearchApi | Monthly plans | $40/month | $4.00/1K | $1.00/1K on a $5,000/month plan | $2.50/1K at $250/month. |
| SerpApi | Monthly plans | $25/month | $25.00/1K | $3.75/1K on the $3,750/month plan for 1 million searches | $7.25/1K at $725/month. Only successful searches count. |
What each budget buys
The table below shows how many standard Google searches each provider's public pricing delivers at three spend levels. For each provider we use the largest single purchase or monthly plan that fits within that budget. Monthly plans reset each month; prepaid balances carry over until they expire.
| Provider | About $10 | About $100 | About $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrismCrawl | 37,038 ($10 Lite, $0.27/1K) | 476,191 ($100 Growth, $0.21/1K) | 6,666,667 ($1,000 Volume, $0.15/1K) |
| Searlo | 20,000 ($9.99 Starter, $0.50/1K) | 250,000 ($74.99 Scale, $0.30/1K) | 4,000,000 ($799 Enterprise, $0.20/1K) |
| Scrapingdog | Not available; smallest plan is $40/month | 200,000 Light or 100,000 Advance ($90/month) | 3,800,000 Light or 1,900,000 Advance ($1,000/month) |
| DataForSEO | 16,667 queued or 5,000 live | 166,667 queued or 50,000 live | 1,666,667 queued or 500,000 live |
| Serper | Not available; smallest package is $50 | 50,000 ($50 package) | 500,000 ($375 package) |
| SearchApi | Not available; smallest plan is $40/month | 35,000 ($100/month) | 500,000 ($900/month) |
| SerpApi | Not available at $10; 1,000 for $25/month | 5,000 ($75/month) | 100,000 ($725/month) |
At about $10, PrismCrawl delivers 37,038 searches, nearly twice Searlo's 20,000. Serper, Scrapingdog, SearchApi, and SerpApi need a larger first purchase.
At about $100, PrismCrawl delivers 476,191 searches, almost twice Searlo's 250,000 and more than twice Scrapingdog's 200,000 Light requests.
At about $1,000, PrismCrawl delivers 6,666,667 searches at $0.15 per 1,000. Searlo's best rate is $0.20 and Scrapingdog's Light API is about $0.26.
The cheapest SERP API at scale
PrismCrawl's $0.15 per 1,000 rate is a one-time $1,000 purchase with no monthly commitment. Of the other providers' lowest public rates:
- Searlo bottoms out at $0.20 per 1,000 with a $799 purchase.
- Serper bottoms out at $0.30 per 1,000 with a $3,750 purchase.
- Scrapingdog's Google SERP Light API reaches about $0.21 per 1,000 on its $5,000/month plan, and its full Advance API about $0.42.
- DataForSEO's lowest rate is $0.60 per 1,000 in the standard queue; its live mode is $2.00.
- SearchApi reaches $1.00 per 1,000 on its $5,000/month plan, and SerpApi $3.75 per 1,000 on its $3,750/month plan.
On published plans up to $5,000 a month, no provider in this comparison has a lower rate than PrismCrawl, and none of them reaches $0.15 per 1,000 with a one-time purchase.
Why the per-1,000 price is not the whole cost
A low headline rate can cost more than a higher one if it doesn't match your workload. Check these before buying:
- What counts as one request. Some providers bill one unit per results page, others per request regardless of depth, and some charge extra credits for advanced endpoints or features. Scrapingdog's Light and Advance Google APIs cost 5 and 10 credits respectively.
- Live, queued, or cached. DataForSEO's queued rate is less than a third of its live rate. Queued results suit batch rank tracking, but not an agent waiting on an answer. Cached results are cheaper still, but they may not show today's rankings.
- Failed requests. PrismCrawl and SerpApi bill only successful searches. If a provider bills failures, its effective rate rises with its error rate.
- Expiry and resets. Monthly plans reset unused searches, and prepaid credits can expire. PrismCrawl credits are valid for 90 days; check each provider's terms for its prepaid balance. A cheap rate on credits you cannot use in time is not cheap.
- Minimum purchase. The lowest rates require larger purchases: $799 for Searlo's lowest rate, $1,000 for PrismCrawl's Volume package, and $3,750 for Serper's lowest rate.
- Throughput. Lower plans often come with lower request-per-second or hourly limits. If your job must finish in a fixed window, check the limit attached to the plan you can afford.
To estimate your own volume, multiply keywords × engines × locations × devices × checks per period × pages per check. The SERP API cost calculator runs this against PrismCrawl's current packages.
PrismCrawl pricing
PrismCrawl sells one-time prepaid credit packages with no subscription. Every search runs live, one successful search uses one credit, failed requests are free, and every package includes the same endpoints and SERP features.
| Package | Purchase | Searches | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | $5 | 16,667 | $0.30 |
| Lite | $10 | 37,038 | $0.27 |
| Starter | $25 | 100,000 | $0.25 |
| Basic | $50 | 217,392 | $0.23 |
| Growth | $100 | 476,191 | $0.21 |
| Pro | $200 | 1,052,632 | $0.19 |
| Scale | $500 | 2,941,177 | $0.17 |
| Volume | $1,000 | 6,666,667 | $0.15 |
Credits are valid for 90 days, and new accounts get 100 free credits with no card required. The same balance covers Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Amazon, Maps, reviews, and app store endpoints. See SERP API pricing for rate limits per package, or try a request in the playground.
How to choose
- Estimate a month of successful searches, including extra pages, devices, and locations.
- Decide how fresh the results must be. If queued results are acceptable, DataForSEO's standard queue is worth pricing. If you need the current page during a request, compare live prices only.
- Price the purchase you would actually make, not the provider's lowest rate. Include expiry or monthly resets.
- Run the same 50 to 100 real queries on your shortlist with the free tiers. Check that the fields you need are present and that failures are handled the way you expect.
- Recheck prices before buying. Rates in this market change often.
For a feature-by-feature comparison beyond price, read the best Google SERP API buyer's guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest SERP API in 2026?
Among the seven on-demand SERP APIs compared here, PrismCrawl has the lowest price per 1,000 Google searches at every budget we compared, from $5 to $5,000 a month: $0.27 at $10, $0.21 at $100, and $0.15 at $1,000 and above. The next lowest rates are Searlo ($0.30 at $74.99, $0.20 at $799) and Scrapingdog's Google SERP Light API ($0.45 at $90/month).
What is the cheapest SERP API at scale?
PrismCrawl's $1,000 package costs $0.15 per 1,000 successful searches, the lowest rate in this comparison at that spend. On self-serve plans up to $5,000 a month, Searlo's lowest public rate is $0.20, Scrapingdog's Google SERP Light API is about $0.21, and Serper's is $0.30.
What is the cheapest SERP API without a subscription?
PrismCrawl, Searlo, Serper, and DataForSEO sell prepaid balances instead of monthly plans. Of these, PrismCrawl has the lowest rate at every budget from $5: $0.30 per 1,000 successful searches from a one-time $5 purchase, falling to $0.15 per 1,000 on the $1,000 package.
How much does PrismCrawl cost?
PrismCrawl sells one-time prepaid credit packages from $5 ($0.30 per 1,000 successful searches) to $1,000 ($0.15 per 1,000). One successful search uses one credit, failed requests are free, credits are valid for 90 days, and new accounts get 100 free credits.