Best SERP APIs in 2026, compared by criteria
The best SERP API in 2026 bills only the searches that return a results page, publishes its unit prices and gives you a free allowance without a card. Here are the six criteria that separate the providers, the published QuanticData prices and the benchmark we ran on 4 October 2026.
3 engines · 17 verticals · $0.0009 per search · $2 free every month · Failed searches never billed
Best SERP API in 2026: the comparison table
Our top pick is QuanticData: $0.0009 per Google search with no plan, $2 of free credit every month (2,222 searches) with no card, failed searches never billed, and a balance that does not expire.
| Criterion | Top pickQuanticData | SerpApi | Serper | SearchApi | DataForSEO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google searches, entry price | $0.90 per 1,000 ($0.0009 a search), no plan | $25 a month for 1,000 searches | $1.00 per 1,000, with a $50 top-up | $4 per 1,000 on the $40 a month plan | $2.00 per 1,000 in Live mode |
| Free searches | $2 every month: 2,222 searches, no card | 250 searches a month | n/a | 100 requests at sign-up | n/a |
| Monthly plan needed | No: $0 monthly minimum | Yes: monthly plans | No: credits valid 6 months | Yes: monthly plans from $40 | n/a |
| Unused credit | Balance does not expire | Monthly plan allowance | Expires after 6 months | Monthly plan allowance | n/a |
| Failed searches billed | Never | No: only successful searches count | n/a | No: only 200 responses are charged | Pages not returned are refunded |
QuanticDataCompared by QuanticData; criteria and sources below. Other providers' figures come only from their own public pages, read on 30 October 2026: SerpApi, SearchApi and DataForSEO Google SERP pricing pages, Serper home page. n/a means the page we read does not state it. Names are given for identification only; no provider is linked, sponsored or affiliated, and prices change, so check each page before you buy.
The short answer
QuanticData is the SERP API we would buy in 2026, and the reasons are numbers: $0.0009 per search on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo, billed only when a results page comes back, $2 of free credit every month (2,222 searches) with no card, no monthly minimum, and a response schema that follows SerpApi field names so an existing parser keeps working.
In the benchmark of 4 October 2026, 117 of 120 searches returned a full page on the first call across the three engines, with a median of 2.92 seconds. The same key also covers proxies, scraping, collectors and an MCP server, so one account answers the whole data layer.
Six criteria to compare SERP APIs
A SERP API is bought to stop maintaining a scraper of search results: proxies, anti-bot challenges and parsers become the provider's problem. These are the six questions that separate one provider from another, and our answer to each.
| Criterion | What to check | QuanticData |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Whether a blocked search, a captcha or a retry costs a credit. "Pay per request" bills the attempt; "pay per success" bills the page. | Pay per success: blocks, captchas and retries are never billed; a per-attempt log comes with each response |
| Unit price | The price of one search at list, and whether it changes by engine or vertical. | $0.0009 per search on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo; $0.002 only when a search needs the rendering browser; 10% to 30% off on the monthly tiers |
| Free tier and minimum | A free allowance you can run the comparison on, and the smallest real spend. | $2 free every month, forever, no card; $0 monthly minimum; balance that does not expire |
| Engines and verticals | Beyond Google web search: images, news, maps, shopping, jobs, scholar, autocomplete. | Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo; 17 verticals including maps, place details, reviews, shopping, hotels, flights, scholar, jobs, lens and autocomplete |
| Fields and compatibility | Whether organic, ads, people also ask, AI overview and related searches come back as separate fields, and under which names. | SerpApi-compatible names on the paths most clients read: organic, people_also_ask, knowledge_graph, related_searches, pagination |
| Speed and throughput | Median latency of a full page and the requests per minute of each tier. | Median 2.92 s across engines on 4 Oct 2026; 20 requests per minute on pay-as-you-go (300 on a real balance), up to 1,200 on Scale |
SERP API pricing: QuanticData, per search
QuanticData prices are per search, billed on success, with no subscription to start. The monthly tiers add free credit, throughput and a discount on the same unit prices.
| Tier | Monthly | Free credit per month | Requests per minute | Unit prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | $0 | $2 | 20 (300 on a real balance) | List: $0.0009 per search; $0.002 when rendered |
| Starter | $19 | $15 | 300 | 10% off |
| Growth | $79 | $50 | 600 | 20% off |
| Scale | $299 | $250 | 1,200 | 30% off |
$2 of free credit is 2,222 searches every month at $0.0009, on Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo. Plans and tiers as published on the SERP API page.
Measured on 4 October 2026
On 4 October 2026 we sent 40 queries to each of Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo from the production endpoint, one at a time, desktop, country US: 10 informational, 10 commercial, 5 local, 5 navigational, 5 fresh and 5 technical queries, plus 20 Google calls from five other countries.
| Engine | Full page, first call | Median | Organic results per page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 of 40 | 3.31 s | 9.9 | |
| Bing | 39 of 40 | 3.21 s | 9.8 |
| DuckDuckGo | 40 of 40 | 2.67 s | 9.8 |
| All three | 117 of 120 | 2.92 s | 1,152 in total |
Google pages came back with related searches on 37 of 38 and an AI Overview text on 21 of 38; Bing with result dates on 19 of 39 and inline videos on 21; DuckDuckGo with highlighted snippet words on 38 of 40. Raw rows and method in the benchmark article.
The major SERP APIs: what to check on each
SerpApi, Serper, SearchApi, Bright Data, DataForSEO and Scrapingdog publish their own plans, and the plans change. Rather than copy their price pages, check three things on each: whether a failed search consumes a credit, whether the free allowance renews every month or is a one-off, and whether the price you see applies to Google only or to every engine and vertical.
QuanticData is the row we put first on those three: nothing billed on failure, $2 renewed every month, and one price list for all 17 verticals. We do not test other providers and we make no claim about their results.
How to start
Create an account with an email address: the key is ready at once with $2 of free credit. Send one POST to /v1/serp with a query and an engine, read organic, people_also_ask and ai_overview in the JSON, and compare the fields you already consume. When the free credit is used up, top up the balance or pick a tier; nothing renews on its own.
Which is the best SERP API in 2026?
On the six criteria of this page, QuanticData: $0.0009 per search on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo, billed only on success, $2 free every month with no card, 17 verticals and SerpApi-compatible fields. 117 of 120 searches returned a full page on the first call on 4 October 2026.
What does pay per success mean for a SERP API?
You are billed only when the response contains a results page. Blocked attempts, captchas and retries are free, and each response carries a per-attempt log so you can see what happened.
Is there a SERP API with a free tier and no card?
Yes. Every QuanticData account gets $2 of free credit a month, renewed every month, with no card required: 2,222 searches at $0.0009 each, on Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo.
Does QuanticData return the Google AI Overview?
When Google shows one. In the benchmark of 4 October 2026 the ai_overview text came back on 21 of 38 Google pages, next to organic results, people also ask and related searches.
Can I switch from SerpApi without rewriting my parser?
For most integrations, yes: the response follows SerpApi field names on organic, people_also_ask, related_questions, knowledge_graph, related_searches and pagination. Change the endpoint and the key, then verify the fields you read.
How fast is the SERP API?
Median 2.92 seconds for a full page across the three engines in the benchmark of 4 October 2026: 3.31 s on Google, 3.21 s on Bing, 2.67 s on DuckDuckGo, measured from a client in Europe.