TL;DR
- A SERP API fetches a search engine results page (usually Google's) and returns it as structured JSON: organic results, ads, People Also Ask, maps, shopping and more.
- It's built for SEO, rank tracking and market research, where "what Google shows" is the point.
- Prices run from $0.30 per 1,000 (Serper at volume) to $25 (SerpApi's entry plan).
- If an LLM reads the results, you may not need Google's page at all. An own-index API like Keirolabs is up to 100× cheaper per search.
SERP stands for search engine results page: the page you see after you hit enter on Google. A SERP API fetches that page for you and hands it back as clean, structured JSON, so your code can read it without fighting HTML, CAPTCHAs or blocked IPs.
If you’ve ever needed to know “where does my site rank for this keyword in Chicago, on mobile?”, a SERP API is what answers it.
What’s in a SERP API response
A modern Google results page is a lot more than ten blue links, and a good SERP API parses all of it:
| Element | What you get |
|---|---|
| Organic results | Position, title, URL, snippet, sitelinks |
| Ads | Top and bottom ads, advertiser, display URL |
| People Also Ask | Questions and their answers |
| Knowledge panel | Entity facts, images, links |
| Local pack / maps | Businesses, ratings, addresses |
| Shopping | Products, prices, merchants |
| News, images, videos | Each as its own block |
| AI Overview | Increasingly, the AI summary and its cited sources |
A request on Serper, one of the cheapest:
curl https://google.serper.dev/search \
-H "X-API-KEY: $SERPER_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"q": "best crm for startups", "gl": "us", "hl": "en"}'Who uses a SERP API
- SEO tools and agencies: rank tracking, SERP feature monitoring, competitor research
- E-commerce: price and product visibility on Google Shopping
- Local businesses and lead-gen: map pack data
- Market research: what people ask (People Also Ask), what ranks, what’s advertised
- Some AI apps: grounding answers in Google’s results specifically
What a SERP API costs
List prices, checked November 5, 2026. More detail in SERP API pricing.
| API | Entry price per 1,000 | At volume | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serper | $1.00 | $0.30 | 2,500 queries |
| Keirolabs Google SERP | $5.33 (Essential) | $1.78 (Startup) | 750 credits |
| SerpApi | $25 | about $2 | Small free plan |
| DataForSEO | Pay as you go | Cheaper with queued tasks | Trial credit |
How SERP APIs get the data (and the legal question)
There’s no official Google results API. Google’s own Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and ends January 1, 2027. So every SERP API scrapes Google, using large proxy pools and browser fleets, then parses the page.
Google’s terms don’t allow that. In practice, the SERP API vendor carries the operational and legal risk, which is part of what you pay for. Courts have been mixed on scraping public pages, and the law is still moving. If that risk matters to your business, the alternative is an API with its own index, which doesn’t touch Google at all.
Before you build a product on a SERP API, ask the vendor what happens to your service if Google changes its page layout or blocks them for a week. The good ones have an answer. The cheap ones sometimes don’t.
Do you actually need Google’s results?
Ask yourself who reads the output.
- A rank tracker or SEO report? Yes. You need Google’s exact page. Use a SERP API.
- A person in your app? Probably not. An independent index like Brave gives good results with no scraping risk.
- An LLM? Almost never. A model needs relevant pages with text, not Google’s ranking and ad slots.
This is where I’d point most AI builders at Keirolabs. Its own-index lite search is $0.03–0.10 per 1,000, which is 3–10× under even Serper’s best price, and fast search with richer results is 0.5 credits. When you do need Google, the same key has a Google SERP endpoint, so you don’t run two vendors. Black Friday code KEIRO20 takes 20% off: see pricing.
SERP API vs web search API
| SERP API | Web search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Results from | Google’s (or Bing’s) page | The provider’s own index or several sources |
| Best for | SEO, rank tracking, SERP features | Apps, agents, RAG |
| Page text included | No, snippets only | Often yes |
| Price per 1,000 | $0.30–25 | $0.03–12 |
| Scraping risk | Yes, on the vendor | No (own index) |
The longer version: what is a web search API.
FAQ
Is a SERP API legal?
Using one is generally treated as the vendor’s risk, not yours, but Google’s terms prohibit scraping and the law varies by country. Read your vendor’s terms and get advice for high-stakes use.
What’s the cheapest SERP API?
Serper, at $1.00 per 1,000 on its smallest pack and $0.30 at 12.5 million. Full comparison: best SERP APIs.
Is there a free SERP API?
Serper gives 2,500 queries at signup, and most others have a small trial. Nothing is free at production volume.
Can a SERP API get Bing or other engines?
Some can. SerpApi supports Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex and more. Serper is Google only.