SerpApi vs Serper in 2026: Pricing, Engines, and Rate Limits

The short answer: PrismCrawl is our pick if you are comparing SerpApi and Serper on cost and coverage. It is cheaper than both at $0.30 to $0.15 per 1,000 successful searches with no subscription, and it covers Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Amazon, YouTube, and more alongside Google. Between the two: Serper is the cheaper choice if you only need Google, at $1.00 to $0.30 per 1,000 searches on prepaid packages. SerpApi costs far more per search ($25 to $3.75 per 1,000 on monthly plans) but covers many engines and offers official client libraries and a U.S. Legal Shield on its Production plan and above.

This comparison is published by PrismCrawl, which competes with both. SerpApi's prices come from its public pricing page, checked October 13, 2026, and Serper's from serper.dev, checked October 8, 2026. These are published list prices. We have not benchmarked latency or parsing quality across providers.

SerpApi vs Serper at a glance

Price: what each costs at common volumes

For SerpApi we use the smallest monthly plan that covers the volume. For Serper and PrismCrawl we use the cheapest combination of published prepaid packages.

Serper costs less than SerpApi at every volume, and from 50,000 searches up it is roughly 7 to 15 times cheaper. The gap comes from two things: Serper's per-search rate is lower, and SerpApi's monthly plans charge for capacity whether you use it or not. If your volume is steady and small, SerpApi's Developer or Production plan is predictable. If it is irregular or growing, prepaid credits cost less. Model your own volume with the SERP API cost calculator, or see every plan in SerpApi pricing.

Engines and endpoints

Serper is a Google Search API. Its endpoints cover Google web search, Images, News, Maps, Places, Videos, Shopping, Scholar, Patents, and Autocomplete. If you need any other engine, you will run a second provider.

SerpApi covers Google surfaces in depth and many other engines, which is the main reason teams pay its premium. One account and one response style cover several engines.

PrismCrawl has more than 100 endpoints, including every Serper endpoint type, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Flights, Hotels, Jobs, Trends, Lens, and Finance, plus Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, Naver, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, YouTube, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and the app stores. Browse the API directory.

Rate limits and speed

The two providers limit throughput differently:

• Serper sets a per-second limit by package: 50 queries per second on the $50 package, rising to 300 on the $3,750 package. Higher limits are available on request.
• SerpApi caps searches per hour by plan: 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Developer, 3,000 on Production, 20,000 on Searcher, and 110,000 on Cloud 1M, about 30 per second. A burst job can force a larger plan than its monthly volume needs.

For high-volume jobs, Serper's published limits are much higher per dollar. PrismCrawl allows 5 to 100 requests per second by package and runs custom plans at 1,000 or more; the scalable SERP API guide compares high-volume limits across providers.

API format

Both return Google results as JSON, but the requests differ:

# SerpApi: GET with the key as a query parameter
curl "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google&q=coffee&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

# Serper: POST with a JSON body and an X-API-KEY header
curl "https://google.serper.dev/search" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q":"coffee"}'

# PrismCrawl: POST with a JSON body and an x-api-key header
curl "https://api.prismcrawl.com/v1/google/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"coffee","gl":"us","hl":"en-US"}'

SerpApi returns organic results in organic_results, Serper in organic, and PrismCrawl in data.content.results. SerpApi publishes official client libraries for several languages; Serper's API is simple enough that most teams call it directly. PrismCrawl has Python and Node.js SDKs and an MCP server for AI agents.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Serper if you only need Google, want the lowest price between the two, and need high requests per second on a small package.
• Choose SerpApi if you need many engines from one long-established provider, want official client libraries, or need its Legal Shield, and the monthly plan cost is acceptable. Note that Google sued SerpApi in December 2025 over automated access to its results.
• Choose PrismCrawl if you want a lower price than either, more engines than Serper, and no subscription. Run your own queries on the 100 free credits before you buy.

For the wider field, see the SerpApi alternatives and Serper alternatives guides, or the best SERP API buyer's guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Serper cheaper than SerpApi?

Yes, at every volume. Serper's prepaid packages cost $1.00 to $0.30 per 1,000 searches, while SerpApi's monthly plans cost $25 to $3.75 per 1,000 on its standard and Cloud 1M plans. 100,000 searches cost $100 on Serper (two $50 packages) and $725 a month on SerpApi. PrismCrawl is cheaper than both at $0.30 to $0.15 per 1,000, so 100,000 searches cost $25.

Does Serper support Bing like SerpApi?

No. Serper is a Google-only API covering web search, Images, News, Maps, Places, Videos, Shopping, Scholar, Patents, and Autocomplete. SerpApi covers Google and other engines. PrismCrawl covers Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, Naver, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, YouTube, and more from one prepaid balance.

Which is faster, SerpApi or Serper?

Serper publishes higher throughput limits: 50 queries per second on its $50 package, rising to 300 on its $3,750 package. SerpApi caps searches per hour by plan, from 200 an hour on Starter to 20,000 on Searcher and 110,000 (about 30 per second) on Cloud 1M. Published limits cap throughput and say nothing about response time, so measure latency on your own queries.

Which has the better free tier, SerpApi or Serper?

Serper gives 2,500 free queries once with no card. SerpApi's free plan gives 250 searches every month, limited to 50 an hour. PrismCrawl gives 100 free credits, and its paid credits start at $5 for 16,667 searches.

What is a cheaper alternative to both SerpApi and Serper?

PrismCrawl sells one-time prepaid credits from $5 ($0.30 per 1,000) to $1,000 ($0.15 per 1,000), bills only successful searches, and covers Google plus Bing and 10+ other engines and marketplaces. 50,000 searches cost $15 on PrismCrawl, $50 on Serper, and $725 a month on SerpApi's smallest plan that covers them.