SearchApi vs SerpBase (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, SerpBase grades higher than SearchApi: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
SerpBase grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
SearchApi
Real-time SERP API for Google, AI answers and dozens of other sites
SerpBase
Search, social and shopping data API with 47 endpoints on one key
Which one is for you
Pick SearchApi if
- Fits if you need Google results and ChatGPT or Perplexity answers in the same format
- Works for teams watching ads in the Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok libraries
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if your jobs come in bursts, since any one hour can use only 20% of the month's searches
- Pricey if you need answers faster, as enhanced speed doubles the price of every plan
- Skip it if you need team management or the legal guarantee for $40, as both start at $100
- Not for you if you want a free plan that renews, since the 100 requests come once
Pick SerpBase if
- Fits if you want Google, social and shop data on one key for a few dollars
- Works for AI agents that call search through MCP
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: requests that ran but failed may still use credits, and only failures proven never to have run are refunded
- Tight if you need speed, as the rate starts at 2 requests a second and only prepaid packs raise it, not subscriptions
- Watch out: the $3 plan's credits are time-limited, and Maps, Shopping, Jobs, Scholar and Trends cost 2 credits a request
- Watch out: used credits are generally not refundable, and the payment reseller's refund terms apply too
- Tight if you're testing, as new accounts get 100 free credits
How we grade them
| 2.4GPASearchApiFair | 2.8GPASerpBaseGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CDeveloper is $40 a month for 10,000 searches, $4 per 1,000, right at this category's middle. Enhanced speed doubles any plan, and the Legal Protection Guarantee needs Production at $100. | AStarter Boost is $3 a month for 10,000 credits, under 60% of this category's cheaper quarter, and a $10 pack of 20,000 credits has no calendar expiry. A Google web search is 1 credit, so that's $0.25 to $0.50 per 1,000. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan: 100 free requests on sign-up with no card, and then you're paying. | CNo free plan: 100 credits for a new account with no card, enough for a quick test and no more. |
| Features | BGoogle with AI Overview, AI Mode, Maps, Shopping, Lens and Scholar, answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, plus Bing, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon and ad libraries, targeted down to coordinates. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. | BGoogle web, images, news, video, shopping, jobs, scholar, Trends and Maps, with the AI overview and People also ask parsed out, plus Bing, DuckDuckGo, social sites, stores and plain page scraping. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: plain GET requests, with examples in Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP and C#. No rating on record. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: a fixed credit price per endpoint and an MCP server. No rating on record, and the request rate depends on how much you've prepaid in total. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, code samples in many languages and an MCP server for AI assistants. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb, with an API, an open-source MCP server and an agent skill for Claude, Codex, Cursor, Cline and OpenClaw. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | Google and AI answer engines from one API | Google plus social and shop data on 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: SearchApi and SerpBase. How we grade
Price against what you get
SearchApi starts at $40 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SerpBase starts at $3 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and SerpBase starts $37 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than SearchApi for less, and none scores higher than SerpBase for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
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
Where they differ
At a glance
| SearchApi | SerpBase | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $40 per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly | $3 per month for 10,000 credits |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 100 free requests on sign-up, no credit card required | 100 free credits for every new account, no card needed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | SearchApi, LLC | SerpBase |
| Price read from | searchapi.io | serpbase.dev |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
SearchApi
- Each plan can use only 20% of its monthly searches in any one hour.
- The Legal Protection Guarantee and team management are not on the Developer plan.
- Enhanced speed doubles the price of any plan; larger plans run to Octo 2M at $2,800 and Octo 5M at $5,000 a month, with custom plans on request.
- The 100 free requests are a sign-up allowance; the pages do not describe an ongoing free plan.
SerpBase
- Google web, image, news and video searches cost 1 credit; Maps searches, Shopping, Jobs, Scholar and Trends 2; Maps place details 3.
- Requests that ran but failed may still use credits; only failures proven never to have run are refunded automatically.
- The request rate rises with total prepaid top-ups, from 2 a second at $3 to 50 at $1,000; subscriptions do not count toward it.
- Used credits are generally not refundable; payments go through a reseller such as Paddle, whose refund terms also apply.
Key features
SearchApi
- Google and its verticals
- Google Search, Light, AI Overview, AI Mode, Maps and reviews, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, News, Images, Lens, Jobs, Scholar, Trends and a rank tracking endpoint.
- AI answer engines
- Endpoints for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Bing Copilot answers alongside the Google AI features.
- Other engines and sites
- Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Naver, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, TikTok, app stores, and Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok ad libraries.
- Pay per success
- Only searches that return a 200 status code are charged, and requests run through premium proxies with location targeting down to coordinates.
- Legal Protection Guarantee
- From the Production plan up, SearchApi says it takes legal responsibility for how it collects and parses public results, with up to $2 million in coverage.
- Code samples and MCP
- Plain GET requests with examples in Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, C# and other languages, and an MCP server for AI assistants.
SerpBase
- Google search endpoints
- Web, images, news, videos, shopping, jobs, scholar, books, finance, patents, Play and Trends, plus autocomplete and Google Maps search, places and reviews.
- Parsed Google results
- Web search JSON includes organic results, the knowledge graph, the AI overview, People also ask and other modules on the page.
- Bing and DuckDuckGo
- Web search endpoints for Bing and DuckDuckGo, each at 1 credit a request.
- Social and shopping data
- Reddit, TikTok, X and YouTube (including transcripts), Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Flipkart and Myntra, and Zillow property search.
- Web scrape and crawl
- Fetch or crawl ordinary web pages through the same key, at 1 credit per request.
- MCP server and agent skill
- An open-source MCP server and a portable skill let Claude, Codex, Cursor, Cline and other agents call SerpBase with your key.
Plans
SearchApi
Developer Plan$40
per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly
$4 per 1,000 searches and a 99.9% SLA. Enhanced speed, with parallel threads, doubles the price to $80.
Production Plan$100
per month for 35,000 searches, billed monthly
$3 per 1,000 searches, team management and the Legal Protection Guarantee. $200 with enhanced speed.
BigData Plan$250
per month for 100,000 searches, billed monthly
$2.50 per 1,000 searches, with medium throughput. $500 with enhanced speed.
Scale Plan$500
per month for 250,000 searches, billed monthly
$2 per 1,000 searches, high throughput and search analytics. $1,000 with enhanced speed.
Octo 500K$900
per month for 500,000 searches, billed monthly
$1.80 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $1,800 with enhanced speed.
Octo 1M$1,500
per month for 1 million searches, billed monthly
$1.50 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $3,000 with enhanced speed.
SerpBase
Starter Boost$3
per month for 10,000 credits
A monthly subscription with time-limited credits at $0.30 per 1,000; it does not raise the request rate.
Starter$10
one-time for 20,000 credits, no calendar expiry
Prepaid pack at $0.50 per 1,000 credits, with 2 requests a second.
Growth$50
one-time for 125,000 credits, no calendar expiry
Prepaid pack at $0.40 per 1,000 credits, with 5 requests a second.
Pro Monthly$100
per month for 400,000 credits
A monthly subscription at $0.25 per 1,000 credits, with 10 requests a second.
Pro$200
one-time for 570,000 credits, no calendar expiry
Prepaid pack at $0.35 per 1,000 credits, with 15 requests a second.
Business$500
one-time for 1,500,000 credits, no calendar expiry
Prepaid pack at $0.33 per 1,000 credits and 15 requests a second. An Enterprise pack is $1,000 for 3.3M credits at 50 a second.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, SearchApi or SerpBase?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SerpBase is cheaper to start with: $3 a month, against $40 a month for SearchApi. SearchApi starts at $40 per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly, and SerpBase starts at $3 per month for 10,000 credits.
Which has a free plan, SearchApi or SerpBase?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither SearchApi nor SerpBase has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
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.