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

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

Pick Serpshot if

• Fits if you need Google rankings for many keywords in many countries
• Works for irregular workloads that suit prepaid packs over a subscription

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need Google News, Shopping, Maps or another engine, as only web and image search work today
• Watch out: a credit covers 10 results, so a 100-result search is 10 credits, times every keyword in a batch
• Tight if you buy big and use slowly, since credits expire 6 months after purchase and used ones aren't refunded
• Watch out: the pricing page's table lists different packs, Advanced at $175 and Ultimate at $500, from its pack cards

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.

Serpshot

• A credit covers 10 results, so a 100-result search costs 10 credits; a batch request multiplies that by its number of keywords.
• Only Google web and image search are supported; news, shopping and maps are listed as planned.
• Credits expire 6 months after purchase and are not refunded once used; failed requests are not charged.
• The pricing page's comparison table lists different packs (Advanced at $175 for 350,000 credits, Ultimate at $500) from the pack cards.

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.

Serpshot

Google web and image search

Each request fetches live Google results with no caching, typically in one to two seconds, and returns them as JSON.

Localized results

Set country and language for more than 200 countries and regions to see results as searchers there would.

Batch keywords

Send up to 100 keywords in one request and run up to 10 requests at once, for up to 1,000 keywords in parallel.

Results per query

Ask for up to 100 results per keyword; each 10 results requested, rounded up, uses one credit.

MCP server and AI skill

An MCP server and an agent skill let Cursor, Claude Code, OpenClaw and other MCP clients call Google search through Serpshot.

Python SDK

An open-source Python SDK on GitHub, plus a REST API documented in four languages and a public status page.

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.

Serpshot

• Starter$19

  one-time for 25,000 credits, valid 6 months

  About $0.76 per 1,000 queries, 10 concurrent requests, up to 100 keywords per request and auto-refill.

• Standard$65

  one-time for 100,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.65 per 1,000 queries, with email technical support.

• Premium$199

  one-time for 500,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.40 per 1,000 queries, with priority support.

• Ultimate$499

  one-time for 2,500,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.20 per 1,000 queries, with dedicated technical support. Larger volumes are quoted by email.

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.

Serpshot

No public discounts listed.