Apify vs SerpApi (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Apify if

• Fits if you'd rather run a ready-made Google or Maps scraper than write one
• Works for developers who want their own scrapers hosted, scheduled and monitored

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: each store Actor sets its own price, usually per result or per event, so two jobs that look alike can cost different amounts
• Tight if you're on Free, where Actors stop once the month's $5 of usage is spent
• Watch out: prepaid usage you don't spend expires each billing cycle, and use beyond it lands on the next invoice
• Pricey if you need residential proxies at $7 to $8 per GB or Google SERP proxies at $1.70 to $2.50 per 1,000 searches
• Pricey if you outgrow Starter, since the next plan is Scale at $199 a month

Pick SerpApi if

• Fits if you need Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and other engines in one response format
• Works for low volumes that fit in 250 free searches or 1,000 paid ones a month

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you search in volume, at $25 per 1,000 on Starter where Serper charges $1
• Tight if you're on Free, with 250 searches a month and at most 50 an hour
• Skip it if you want the U.S. Legal Shield on a small plan, as it starts on Production at $150 a month
• Watch out: plans are month to month, and yearly billing is only set up by request
• Watch out: Ludicrous Speed costs twice the price, and refunds stop after 7 days or 20% of a plan's searches

Apify

• Store Actors set their own prices, so the cost of a job depends on which Actor runs it and how many results it returns.
• Use beyond a paid plan's prepaid amount is added to the next invoice; on the free plan, Actors stop until the next month.
• Prepaid usage that is not spent expires at the end of each billing cycle.
• Residential proxies cost $7 to $8 per GB and Google SERP proxies $1.70 to $2.50 per 1,000 searches, depending on plan.

SerpApi

• Plans are month to month; the FAQ says yearly billing can only be set up by request while an official yearly plan is in the works.
• The U.S. Legal Shield is not included on the Free, Starter or Developer plans.
• Bigger self-serve plans run from Searcher at $725 for 100,000 searches a month to Cloud plans of 1 million searches and up from $3,750.
• Refunds are offered within 7 days of subscribing, unless more than 20% of the plan's searches have been used.

Apify

Apify Store

Nearly 97,000 ready-made Actors for sites such as Google, Google Maps, TikTok and Instagram. Each sets its own price, usually per result or per event.

Google Search Results Scraper

Apify's own Actor returns organic and paid results, People Also Ask, related queries, AI Overviews and AI Mode by country and language, from $1.80 per 1,000 pages.

Build and host your own Actors

Start from Python, JavaScript or TypeScript templates, use the open-source Crawlee library, and run, schedule and monitor the Actors on Apify.

Proxies and unblocking

Datacenter and residential proxies, Google SERP proxies priced per 1,000 searches, and an unblocker billed per 1,000 requests.

API, CLI, webhooks and MCP

Run Actors and fetch results over a REST API or CLI, get webhooks when runs finish, chain Actors together, or call them from AI agents through an MCP server.

Automation integrations

Connectors for Make, n8n, Zapier and other automation tools, and setups for coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor and OpenAI Codex.

SerpApi

Google and many other engines

Endpoints for Google Search, AI Mode, AI Overview, Maps, Shopping, Scholar, Trends, Flights and Hotels, plus Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu, Naver, YouTube, Amazon, eBay and Walmart.

Full browser and CAPTCHA solving

Each request runs immediately in a full browser through a proxy near the chosen location, and results come back as JSON or Markdown.

Only successful searches counted

Cached, errored and failed searches do not count against the monthly allowance, and a response with 100 results counts as one search.

Ludicrous Speed

An option on every paid plan that sends parallel requests for faster responses, at twice the price; Ludicrous Speed Max is four times the price.

U.S. Legal Shield

From the Production plan up, SerpApi says it takes on liability for the lawful collection of public search data, with up to $2 million in coverage.

Teams and client libraries

Unlimited team members with admin, developer, billing and viewer roles, and libraries for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Go, PHP, Java, Rust and .NET, plus an MCP server.

Apify

• Free$0

  $5 of usage a month at $0.20 per compute unit, 16 GB of Actor memory and 5 concurrent runs. Stops when the $5 is spent.

• Starter$19

  per month, billed monthly, with $19 of usage included

  $0.20 per compute unit, 64 GB of Actor memory, 32 concurrent runs, chat support and the Bronze Store discount. Extra usage is billed.

• Scale$199

  per month, billed monthly, with $199 of usage included

  $0.16 per compute unit, 256 GB of memory, 128 concurrent runs, priority chat support, the Silver Store discount and lower proxy rates.

• Business$999

  per month, billed monthly, with $999 of usage included

  $0.13 per compute unit, 512 GB of memory, 256 concurrent runs, an account manager and the Gold Store discount.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom scraping solutions, pricing and limits, with SLAs on data and a dedicated team. Through sales.

SerpApi

• Free$0

  250 searches a month with a throughput of 50 an hour.

• Starter$25

  per month for 1,000 searches, billed monthly

  Throughput of 200 successful searches an hour. No U.S. Legal Shield.

• Developer$75

  per month for 5,000 searches, billed monthly

  Throughput of 1,000 successful searches an hour. No U.S. Legal Shield.

• Production$150

  per month for 15,000 searches, billed monthly

  Throughput of 3,000 an hour, and the U.S. Legal Shield with up to $2 million in coverage.

• Big Data$275

  per month for 30,000 searches, billed monthly

  Throughput of 6,000 an hour, with the U.S. Legal Shield.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom volume and throughput, ZeroTrace mode, which stores no search data, and priority support. Sold through sales.

Apify

• Annual discount

  Save 10% with annual billing

  Apify's pricing page shows a 10% discount for billing annually instead of monthly.

• Education

  30% off Starter and Scale for students

  Apify's pricing FAQ says students are eligible for 30% off the Starter and Scale plans.

• Nonprofit

  Personalized discount for nonprofits

  Apify's pricing FAQ says nonprofit organizations can get a personalized discount on paid plans.

• Startups

  30% off the Scale plan for startups

  Apify's pricing FAQ offers startups a 30% discount on the Scale plan.

SerpApi

• Education

  Special pricing for students and educators

  SerpApi's FAQ says universities, students and educators can email about their project and budget to arrange special pricing.