# Bright Data SERP API review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Search results API on Bright Data's proxy network, with AI engines

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

Bright Data's SERP API fetches search results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo and Naver as a real user would see them in any of 195 countries, handling proxies, unblocking and parsing. It returns JSON, HTML or Markdown, and its playground also queries answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok and Copilot. Only successful requests are charged.

- **Category:** SERP & SEO Data APIs
- **Made by:** Bright Data Ltd. (since 2014)
- **Website:** https://brightdata.com/products/serp-api
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you want a plan, as the cheapest is $499 a month for 380,000 requests.
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026

## Pricing

As of Oct 23, 2026, Bright Data SERP API has a free plan, and paid plans start at $499 per month for 380,000 requests.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** 5,000 requests a month, no credit card required.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free Tier | $0 | 5,000 requests a month with expert support. |
| Scale 380K | $499 per month for 380,000 requests | Extra requests at $1.30 per 1,000, unlimited concurrency, cancel anytime. |
| Scale 900K | $999 per month for 900,000 requests | Extra requests at $1.10 per 1,000, unlimited concurrency. |
| Scale 2M | $1,999 per month for 2 million requests | Extra requests at $1 per 1,000, unlimited concurrency. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Volume discounts, an account manager, a premium SLA, priority support and SSO. Sold through sales. |

Read from https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Bright Data SERP API before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **First deposit matched up to $500** (Other savings): Bright Data's SERP API pricing says it matches a new account's first deposit dollar for dollar, up to $500. Source: https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp
- **Up to $20,000 in credits for AI startups** (Startups): The AI Startup Program offers up to $20,000 in platform credits to AI startups from pre-seed to Series A, after an application and a call. Source: https://brightdata.com/ai/ai-startups-program

## Key features

- **Seven search engines:** Google on all its country domains, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo and Naver, with search, shopping, maps, hotels, images, trends, reviews, news, flights, ads, videos and jobs.
- **Answer engines:** The playground queries ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok and Microsoft Copilot, and a parameter makes Google AI Overviews more likely to appear in results.
- **Location and device targeting:** Results from any of 195 countries with city-level targeting, desktop or mobile user agents and a choice of browser.
- **Async batch mode:** For large batches only sending the request is billed; responses are kept for 48 hours, usually ready in 5 minutes, and can be downloaded again at no charge.
- **Output formats:** Parsed JSON for applications, Markdown for AI models and agents, or raw HTML for your own parsing.
- **Fast SERP:** A Fast Parser returns only Google's top 10 results with lower latency, and an Ultra Fast endpoint, sold through sales, returns Google and Bing results in about a second.

## Good for

- Teams that already use Bright Data proxies or scrapers and want search data too
- Tracking rankings across many countries and cities
- High-volume batch jobs that can wait for async results

## Worth knowing

- Pay as you go is $1.50 per 1,000 requests with monthly spend limits; Scale plans lower the rate to $1.30, $1.10 or $1 per 1,000.
- Every API call counts as a request; in async mode only sending the request is counted.
- Volume discounts, SSO and the premium SLA come only with the custom-priced Enterprise plan.
- Proxies, web scrapers, datasets and the Unlocker API are separate Bright Data products, each with its own prices.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Bright Data's SERP API fetches results from seven search engines in any of 195 countries, with a free tier of 5,000 requests a month and pay as you go at $1.50 per 1,000. Its plans start at $499 a month, though, and SSO, volume discounts and the premium SLA are only on Enterprise, priced through sales.

- **Value for money: C.** Plans start at $499 a month for 380,000 requests, in this category's dearest tenth, but you don't need one: pay as you go is $1.50 per 1,000 with a monthly spending limit, near the middle of what rivals here charge.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** A free tier of 5,000 requests a month with no card, which a small project could run on. Its pricing page also matches a first deposit dollar for dollar, up to $500.
- **Features: B.** Google on every country domain plus Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo and Naver, with city targeting, desktop or mobile, async batches and answer engines in the playground. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job.
- **Ease of use: C.** Judged on how fast a developer gets a first result: a playground, and JSON, HTML or Markdown back. No rating on record, and the SERP API is one of many Bright Data products, each priced on its own.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with an API and LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, n8n, Dify, Postman and AWS Marketplace. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Bright Data's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among SERP and SEO data APIs

- Bright Data SERP API's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 31 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade, and level with 3.
- It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 35 of 38) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $499 a month, against a middle price of $29.49 for the category: 25 of the 25 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo-data-apis

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Bright Data SERP API you would be making search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 31 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade. It costs $5,988 a year.

- You could not: Search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, LangChain, LlamaIndex and CrewAI among them, and has an API.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, n8n, Dify, Postman, AWS Marketplace

**Tags:** SERP API, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Oxylabs SERP Scraper API](https://toolgpa.com/tools/oxylabs-serp-scraper-api): Search results scraping from Oxylabs, billed per successful result. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bright-data-serp-api-vs-oxylabs-serp-scraper-api)
- [SerpApi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpapi): Real-time search results API for Google and dozens of other engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bright-data-serp-api-vs-serpapi)
- [DataForSEO](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dataforseo): Pay-as-you-go APIs for SERP, keyword, backlink and AI mention data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bright-data-serp-api-vs-dataforseo)
- [Decodo SERP Scraping API](https://toolgpa.com/tools/decodo-serp-scraping-api): SERP scraping for Google, Bing and more, inside a web data API. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bright-data-serp-api-vs-decodo-serp-scraping-api)
- [Scrapingdog](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapingdog): Web scraping and Google SERP APIs on one shared credit plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bright-data-serp-api-vs-scrapingdog)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026:

- https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp
- https://brightdata.com/products/serp-api
- https://brightdata.com/about
- https://brightdata.com/ai/ai-startups-program
- https://docs.brightdata.com/integrations/ai-integrations

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/bright-data-serp-api
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).