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Decodo SERP Scraping API vs SerpApi (2026): which should you pick?

As of Oct 24, 2026, we pick Decodo SERP Scraping API: it is second in our ranking of SERP and SEO data APIs, and it grades higher too, 2.8 against 2.4.

Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA

Decodo SERP Scraping API grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.

Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.

Decodo SERP Scraping API

SERP scraping for Google, Bing and more, inside a web data API

Free plan · from $19/mo
Full detailsdecodo.com

SerpApi

Real-time search results API for Google and dozens of other engines

Free plan · from $25/mo
Full detailsserpapi.com

Which one is for you

Pick Decodo SERP Scraping API if

  • Fits if you track rankings by country, language and device in your own code
  • Works for teams that also need to scrape or crawl the pages that rank

Look elsewhere if

  • Watch out: plans are money budgets, so /search, /scrape and /crawl each use them up at different rates
  • Watch out: /scrape uses the premium proxy pool unless told not to, at $1 per 1,000, or $1.50 with JavaScript
  • Tight if you need AI answers in bulk, as the ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Mode templates stay at $1 per 1,000

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

How we grade them

2.8GPADecodo SERP Scraping APIGood2.4GPASerpApiFair
Value for money
B$19 a month is inside this category's cheaper quarter, and /search costs $0.75 per 1,000 on it, one of the lowest rates here, down to $0.40 on the $1,499 plan. Paid plans carry a 14-day money-back option.
CStarter is $25 a month, on the line of this category's cheaper quarter, but it buys 1,000 searches: $25 per 1,000, where most rivals here charge $1 to $4. Developer is $75 for 5,000, still $15 per 1,000.
Free plan and trial
BA free plan for good with every endpoint and feature at 10 requests a second, up to 10K pages scraped or 5K crawls a month. A side project could run on that.
CA free plan for good: 250 searches a month, at most 50 an hour. Enough to build against, not to run anything on.
Features
BGoogle, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Baidu, with ads, snippets, People Also Ask, local packs and AI Mode parsed out, by country, language and device, plus scrape, map and crawl on the same key. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job.
BGoogle Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Maps, Shopping, Scholar and Trends, plus Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon and Walmart, each run in a full browser near the location you set. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job.
Ease of use
CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: TypeScript, Python and Go SDKs and a CLI. No rating on record, and plans are money budgets that each endpoint spends at its own rate, which takes working out.
CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: client libraries in eight languages, and cached or failed searches don't count against you. No rating on record.
Platforms and integrations
BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, plus n8n, LangChain and OpenClaw. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top.
BWeb, with an API, libraries for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Go, PHP, Java, Rust and .NET, and an MCP server. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top.
Best forrank checks plus scraping the pages that rankGoogle plus many other engines from one key

The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Decodo SERP Scraping API and SerpApi. How we grade

Price against what you get

Decodo SERP Scraping API starts at $19 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SerpApi starts at $25 a month and scores 2.7.

They score the same, and Decodo SERP Scraping API starts $6 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Decodo SERP Scraping API for less, and none scores higher than SerpApi for less.

Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged

C2.0B3.0A4.0$2$5$10$20$50$100$200$500More for lessCosts more, scores moreCosts less, scores lessCosts more, scores lessDecodo SERP Scraping…SerpApi

What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →

  • The best score at each price
  • Has a free plan
  • No free plan
The full chart of SERP and SEO data APIs, and the best at every price

Where they differ

    In commonFree planWebPublic APISERP API

    At a glance

    Decodo SERP Scraping APISerpApi
    PricingFree planFree plan
    Starts at$19 per month, up to 38K pages scraped or 19K crawls$25 per month for 1,000 searches, billed monthly
    Free planUp to 10K pages scraped or 5K crawls a month at 10 requests a second, with every endpoint and feature.250 searches a month, up to 50 successful searches an hour. No U.S. Legal Shield.
    Free trialNone listedNone listed
    Web
    Made byDecodoSerpApi, LLC
    Price read fromdecodo.comserpapi.com
    CheckedOct 23, 2026Oct 23, 2026

    Worth knowing

    Decodo SERP Scraping API

    • Plans are monthly budgets: /search costs $0.75 per 1,000 requests on small plans, falling to $0.40 on the $1,499 plan.
    • /scrape uses the premium proxy pool unless told otherwise, at $1 per 1,000 requests on small plans or $1.50 with JavaScript.
    • The Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode templates cost $1 per 1,000 requests on every plan.
    • Only successful requests are charged, and paid plans carry a 14-day money-back option.

    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.

    Key features

    Decodo SERP Scraping API

    Several search engines
    Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Baidu, with Google templates for Search, Ads, AI Mode, Lens, News, Hotels, Jobs, Trends, Play and Autocomplete.
    Parsed SERP features
    Organic results, paid ads, featured snippets, People Also Ask, local packs, AI Mode answers, sitelinks and news results come back as separate fields.
    Local and device targeting
    Set the country, language and device per request across 195+ locations to see local rankings, with optional JavaScript rendering.
    Scrape, map and crawl on one key
    Send ranking URLs to /scrape, list up to 147K of a site's URLs with /map, or crawl up to 10K pages of a competitor with /crawl.
    Real-time or asynchronous
    Get results in the same response or send a task and collect it later, as HTML, Markdown or XHR, with JSON, CSV and PNG where supported.
    AI and developer tools
    An MCP server, agent skills, a CLI and TypeScript, Python and Go SDKs, plus n8n, LangChain and OpenClaw integrations.

    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.

    Plans

    Decodo SERP Scraping API

    • Free$0

      10 requests a second and up to 10K pages scraped or 5K crawls a month; /search runs at $0.75 per 1,000 requests.

    • $19 plan$19

      per month, up to 38K pages scraped or 19K crawls

      10 requests a second, with /search at $0.75 per 1,000 requests and every endpoint and feature included.

    • $49 plan$49

      per month, up to 122K pages scraped or 65K crawls

      25 requests a second; /search drops to $0.65 per 1,000 requests.

    • $99 plan$99

      per month, up to 330K pages scraped or 141K crawls

      50 requests a second; /search at $0.60 per 1,000 requests.

    • $249 plan$249

      per month, up to 1.2M pages scraped or 383K crawls

      100 requests a second; /search at $0.55 per 1,000 requests.

    • Enterprise$499

      per month, up to 2.7M pages scraped or 831K crawls

      150 requests a second at $499; the $999 and $1,499 tiers reach 200 a second, with /search down to $0.40 per 1,000. Larger volumes 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.

    Ways to pay less

    Decodo SERP Scraping API

    No public discounts listed.

    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.

    Common questions

    Which is cheaper, Decodo SERP Scraping API or SerpApi?

    As of Oct 23, 2026, Decodo SERP Scraping API is cheaper to start with: $19 a month, against $25 a month for SerpApi. Decodo SERP Scraping API starts at $19 per month, up to 38K pages scraped or 19K crawls, and SerpApi starts at $25 per month for 1,000 searches, billed monthly.

    Which has a free plan, Decodo SERP Scraping API or SerpApi?

    As of Oct 23, 2026, both Decodo SERP Scraping API and SerpApi have a free plan.

    More comparisons

    How this page was made

    • The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
    • The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
    • Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
    • The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.
    How we review and grade