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

Pick SearchCans if

• Fits if your AI agent searches Google and then reads the pages behind the results
• Works for batch jobs that need many requests at once with no hourly cap

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: every pack is shown as 80% off a crossed-out price, with no end date given
• Watch out: credits expire 6 months after purchase
• Skip it if you need rankings by city or device, as targeting is by country and language only
• Pricey if you read pages through residential proxies, at 2 credits plus 10 more per request
• Tight if you want a refund, which needs under 10% of the credits used within 7 days, minus fees

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

SearchCans

• Credits expire 6 months after purchase, and only successful responses are charged.
• A search costs 1 credit plus 1 per extra page; a Reader request costs 2, plus 2, 5 or 10 more with shared, datacenter or residential proxies.
• Every pack is shown as 80% off a crossed-out price, with no end date given.
• Refunds are possible within 7 days of payment if under 10% of the credits are used, minus the fees in the terms.

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.

SearchCans

Google Search API

One request returns organic results with AI Overview, People Also Ask, People Also Search For and Knowledge Graph blocks.

Other Google endpoints and Bing

Google Shopping, Images, News, Videos and Short Videos at one credit each, plus Bing search.

Country and language targeting

Pick from 244 country codes for the regional Google index and set the result language; both default to global English.

Reader API

Turn any URL into clean markdown or HTML, with a wait for JavaScript, and route through shared, datacenter or residential proxies.

File extraction and screenshots

Parse PDFs and Office documents into text, and capture first-screen or full-page screenshots, from the same credit balance.

Parallel lanes

No hourly request caps: each pack sets how many requests run at once, and stacking packs adds lanes on one account.

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.

SearchCans

• Standard$18

  one-time pack of 20,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.90 per 1,000 credits and 2 parallel lanes. Shown as 80% off a crossed-out $90.

• Starter$99

  one-time pack of 132,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.75 per 1,000 credits, 5 parallel lanes and faster response priority; packs can be stacked for more lanes.

• Pro$597

  one-time pack of 995,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.60 per 1,000 credits, with priority request routing and tier-1 developer support.

• Ultimate$1,680

  one-time pack of 3,000,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.56 per 1,000 credits, a dedicated cluster node with no queue and a dedicated account manager.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Tailored concurrency for high-volume workloads, with invoice payment, arranged through support.

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.

SearchCans

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.