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

Pick Autom if

• Fits if you want Google, Bing, Brave and Perplexity at the same price per request
• Works for high-volume rank tracking that needs 50 to 300 requests a second

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need DuckDuckGo, Yandex or another engine, which only sit on its public roadmap
• Tight if you're testing, as the smallest pack is $50 once the 1,000 free requests are gone
• Watch out: credits expire a year after purchase, and queries stop when the balance reaches zero
• Watch out: refunds come only within 7 days of a first purchase, with no more than 20% of the credits used

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

Autom

• Credits come in one-time packs, the smallest $50, that expire a year after purchase; queries stop when the balance reaches zero.
• Refunds are given within 7 days of the first purchase, as long as no more than 20% of the credits have been used.
• Only successful requests use credits; failed ones are free.
• Coverage is limited to search engines: Google, Bing, Brave and Perplexity; other engines go through its public roadmap.

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.

Autom

Google Search API

Returns web, image, news and local results as JSON, with organic results, the knowledge graph, related searches and pagination.

Bing, Brave and Perplexity

Separate endpoints for Bing, Brave and Perplexity cost the same single credit per request as Google.

Location targeting

Set the country and language, or narrow a search to a city or neighborhood, to see results as local searchers do.

Live results

Every call queries the engine directly with no caching; Autom says most results come back in one to two seconds.

High request rates

Packs allow 50 to 300 requests a second, roughly 15,000 to 18,000 searches a minute at the top rate.

No-code and API clients

Works from Zapier, n8n and Power Automate, or from API clients such as Postman, Bruno and Insomnia, with code samples in nine languages.

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.

Autom

• Starter$50

  one-time for 50,000 credits, valid 1 year

  $1.00 per 1,000 requests, 50 requests a second, location targeting and 90 days of logs.

• Standard$375

  one-time for 500,000 credits, valid 1 year

  $0.75 per 1,000 requests and 100 requests a second.

• Premium$1,250

  one-time for 2,500,000 credits, valid 1 year

  $0.50 per 1,000 requests and 200 requests a second.

• Ultimate$3,750

  one-time for 12,500,000 credits, valid 1 year

  $0.30 per 1,000 requests and 300 requests a second, which can be raised on request.

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.

Autom

• Startups

  Startup Program discounts for 12 months

  Autom's Startup Program gives early-stage companies under 3 years old discounted rates on paid plans for 12 months, with priority support.

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.