SerpApi Alternatives in 2026: Prices and Trade-offs

The main SerpApi alternatives in 2026 are Serper, DataForSEO, SearchApi, Bright Data, Oxylabs, Scrapingdog, ValueSERP, Zenserp and CrawlerData. Most are much cheaper per 1,000 searches than SerpApi’s entry plans, but only SearchApi lists a similar catalogue of about 40 engines. The right switch depends on whether you’re leaving for price, billing model or Google Shopping depth.

What SerpApi does well

It’s worth being clear about what you’d give up. Per its homepage and pricing page, as of October 2026:

• About 40 Google engines, from Search, Images and News to Flights, Hotels, Scholar, Lens, Trends and AI Mode.
• Location and device control. Its Google Shopping engine documents location, uule and desktop, tablet or mobile (docs).
• No charge for failed, errored or cached searches.
• 100 results count as 1 search. There’s no surcharge for num=100.
• Legal Shield on Production plans and up, “up to $2 million in coverage”.
• A playground and sample JSON for each engine.

Why teams look for an alternative

The reasons are mostly about cost and billing shape:

• Entry price. Starter is $25 for 1,000 searches, or $25.00 per 1,000. The largest listed plan (Cloud 54M, $106,050 a month) works out to about $1.96 per 1,000 (our arithmetic).
• Subscription with a monthly refill. Searches refill at renewal; the pricing page doesn’t mention rollover.
• Speed modes multiply the price. Ludicrous Speed is 2× and Ludicrous Speed Max is 4× the base price.

Alternatives at a glance

Cost per 1,000 Google searches, from the entry plan to the largest public plan, as of October 2026.

Notes: “~” figures are our arithmetic from published plans. DataForSEO prices a SERP of 10 results. ValueSERP’s page states $1.60 per 1,000 for its first tier, but $50 for 25,000 searches works out to $2.00.

Google engine breadth

The alternatives

Serper

Matches: Search, Images, News, Maps, Places, Videos, Shopping, Scholar, Patents and Autocomplete (homepage). Failed requests aren’t charged; credits are deducted only for successful responses. It claims “1-2 seconds” per request and lists 50 to 300 queries per second depending on the pack.

Lacks vs SerpApi: fewer engines, no Shopping product or sellers endpoint that we found, and its FAQ mentions country and language targeting only. We found no public docs site.

Pricing: packs of $50 for 50k credits down to $3,750 for 12.5M ($1.00 → $0.30 per 1,000), valid 6 months, with 2,500 free queries. These are exactly the same pack prices and validity as CrawlerData. Whether num above 10 costs extra isn’t stated on its page.

DataForSEO

Matches: Organic, AI Mode, Maps, News, Images, Autocomplete, Ads and more, “up to 700 results per keyword” and all Google locations (SERP API). Failed requests aren’t charged and the balance never expires (FAQ).

Lacks vs SerpApi: the cheap prices are queued. Depth is billed per 10 results, so 100 results cost 10× while SerpApi counts them as one search.

Pricing: $0.60 per 1,000 SERPs on Standard (about 5 minutes on average), $1.20 on Priority, $2.00 on Live (pricing). $50 minimum deposit.

SearchApi

Matches: about 40 engines, a 99.9% SLA on all plans and a Legal Protection Guarantee from Production up (pricing). Only 200 responses are charged.

Lacks vs SerpApi: still a monthly subscription; throughput is capped at 20% of the plan’s credits per hour.

Pricing: $40 for 10,000 searches ($4.00 per 1,000) to $5,000 for 5M ($1.00). 100 free requests.

Bright Data

Matches: Google Web, News, Shopping, Images, Maps, Jobs, Hotels, Flights and Lens through one endpoint, with uule, city and ZIP targeting and mobile results (docs).

Lacks vs SerpApi: verticals are URL parameters rather than separate engines; Shopping product data is a separate Scraper API product.

Pricing: $1.50 per 1,000 pay-as-you-go, or $499 a month for 380k requests (pricing). 5k free requests a month. Failed requests aren’t billed, except in zones using custom headers or cookies.

Oxylabs

Matches: Google Search (web, images, news, AI Overviews), Ads, AI Mode, Lens, Maps, Scholar, Trends, Hotels and Shopping (docs).

Lacks vs SerpApi: 2xx and 4xx responses are billed (billing); unused balance expires at cycle end.

Pricing: non-JS Google $1.00 → $0.50 per 1,000; rendered $1.35 → $0.90 (pricing). Plans from $30 a month.

Scrapingdog

Matches: Google Search plus Maps, News, Scholar, Trends, Jobs, Hotels, Lens, Images, AI Mode and Shopping. Failed, blocked and timed-out requests are refunded.

Lacks vs SerpApi: credit weights vary: /google is 5 credits, 10 with advance_search or mob_search.

Pricing: $40 for 200k credits, so $1.00 per 1,000 searches at 5 credits; about $0.14 on the largest plan (our arithmetic). Unused credits roll over from Standard up (pricing).

ValueSERP

Matches: web, news, images, videos, places, shopping and product requests, and batches of up to 10,000 searches (docs). ValueSERP now redirects to Traject Data, which ScraperAPI says it acquired.

Lacks vs SerpApi: no autocomplete; credit expiry isn’t stated.

Pricing: $50 a month for 25,000 searches to $10,000 for 20M ($0.50 per 1,000), shown with annual billing; pay-as-you-go $2.50 per 1,000 (pricing).

Zenserp

Matches: Google Search, AI Overview, Images, Maps, News, Shopping and more, plus Bing, Yandex and DuckDuckGo (docs). Only successful responses are charged.

Lacks vs SerpApi: AI Overview costs 3 searches; the free plan covers Google Search only.

Pricing: $49.99 for 25,000 searches to $899 for 1M ($2.00 → $0.90 per 1,000) (pricing).

CrawlerData

Matches: the Google Search API returns organic results with real destination links, ads, AI Overview, People Also Ask, local pack, top stories and knowledge panel, on desktop or mobile, pages 1 to 10. Shopping, Sellers, Product, Images, News, Local and Autocomplete are the other 7 endpoints. Failed requests aren’t charged.

Lacks vs SerpApi: see the weaknesses section below.

Pricing: 1 credit per request, $1.00 → $0.30 per 1,000 credits, packs valid 6 months (pricing). The one exception is the Sellers endpoint: 1 credit per 10 sellers returned, rounded up, minimum 1. Live, Fast and Regular queues cost the same.

If you use SerpApi for Google Shopping

SerpApi’s flow is: Google Shopping search, then Immersive Product with the immersive_product_page_token. That returns “3 to 5 stores” by default and “up to 13 stores” with more_stores=1; more sellers need next_page_token calls (docs). Whether each extra page bills as one search is not stated on the pricing page. SerpApi’s docs also list a Google Product engine; we haven’t tested it ourselves.

How the alternatives handle sellers:

For a full breakdown, see the best Google Shopping APIs.

Migration notes

Moving from SerpApi to CrawlerData is mostly renaming:

A request looks like this:

{
  "endpoint": "google-search",
  "params": { "query": "best crm software", "country": "us", "device": "mobile" },
  "queue": "live"
}

Tokens aren’t interchangeable between providers, so re-run the Shopping search on the new API before calling product endpoints.

Which alternative to choose

• You want SerpApi’s breadth for less: SearchApi. It’s still a subscription, but $4.00 per 1,000 at entry instead of $25.00, with a similar engine list.
• You run big batches and can wait: DataForSEO’s Standard queue at $0.60 per 1,000 SERPs, with a balance that never expires.
• You want live Google Search at volume, no subscription: Serper or CrawlerData. Prices are identical, so choose on endpoints: Serper has Videos, Scholar and Patents and a larger free trial; CrawlerData has the Shopping Sellers and Product endpoints, real destination links and a desktop/mobile switch.
• You need city or ZIP targeting: Bright Data, or stay on SerpApi.
• You need rendered pages and other sites too: Oxylabs or Bright Data, keeping their billing rules in mind.

A quick cost check at 100,000 searches a month: SerpApi’s Searcher plan is $725. On SearchApi, the BigData plan is $250. On Serper or CrawlerData, a $375 Standard pack (500k credits) covers 5 months, so about $75 a month. On DataForSEO, 100,000 SERPs is $60 on Standard or $200 on Live. All list prices, page 1, 10 results, no add-ons.

Where CrawlerData is weaker than SerpApi

• Far fewer endpoints: 8 Google endpoints against about 40 engines.
• No city or uule targeting: 31 countries at country level.
• Devices: desktop or mobile on Search only; SerpApi also offers tablet.
• Smaller trial: 50 credits, valid 30 days, with a verified work email, against SerpApi’s 250 searches a month.
• Slower Shopping product requests: they can take tens of seconds.
• Page 1 only for Shopping search, Images and Autocomplete; no product reviews.
• Newer product, with no published rate limit.

If you need breadth, city-level locations or Legal Shield, staying on SerpApi or moving to SearchApi makes more sense. For pure price, compare Serper vs SerpApi vs DataForSEO and our cheapest SERP API breakdown.

Changelog

• 2026-10-12: First published. All prices and docs checked on this date.
• 2026-10-12: Updated CrawlerData seller pricing (1 credit per 10 sellers).