# SerpApi vs Serper (2026): price, credits and engines compared

> SerpApi vs Serper in 2026: price per 1,000 searches at 4 volumes, free tiers, credit expiry, engines, legal shield and payment, checked on 22 October 2026.

- URL: https://serpcrypto.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serper/
- Last updated: 2026-10-22
- Publisher: SerpCrypto (https://serpcrypto.com)

SerpApi is the broad, premium option; Serper is the low-cost Google specialist. This page compares their public plans line by line and says which one fits which job. It is published by SerpCrypto, a competitor of both, and our own column is labelled.

**Quick answer — SerpApi or Serper: which SERP API should I use in 2026?**

Choose Serper for low-cost Google results: $1.00 per 1,000 queries on its $50 pack, down to $0.30 at 12.5 million, credits valid 6 months (22 October 2026). Choose SerpApi for breadth and legal cover: about 125 APIs and a U.S. Legal Shield, but $7.25 per 1,000 at 100,000 searches a month. **SerpCrypto**, the publisher of this page, adds crypto payment and no KYC.

## SerpApi vs Serper vs SerpCrypto: the facts side by side

Competitor facts come from their own pages, read on 22 October 2026. The last column is ours.

|  | SerpApi | Serper | SerpCrypto (ours) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Billing model | Monthly plans | Prepaid packs | Prepaid packs |
| Unused searches | "reset at the start of the new billing cycle" | Credits valid for 6 months | Never expire |
| Free start | 250 searches a month | 2,500 queries once, no credit card | None |
| Smallest paid option | Starter: $25 for 1,000 a month | $50 for 50,000 | $7.50 for 10,000 searches |
| What counts | Successful searches; "Cached, errored, and failed searches are not" | Credits deducted for successful responses | 1 credit per successful search; failed requests free |
| Engines | About 125 APIs: some 60 Google variants (incl. AI Overview and AI Mode), Bing, Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, Naver, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, eBay and more | Google only: Search, Images, News, Maps, Places, Videos, Shopping, Scholar, Patents, Autocomplete | Google Search, News, Images, Maps, Shopping and Bing |
| Throughput | Per plan per hour, e.g. 20,000 on Searcher | 50 to 300 queries per second by pack | Concurrency limit in the dashboard |
| Speed | "Each API request runs immediately"; no figure | "1-2 seconds"; about 0.6–0.7 s median in Proxyway's January 2026 tests | Not published until measured |
| Legal cover | U.S. Legal Shield, up to $2 million, Production plan and above | None stated | None |
| Payment | Credit cards (Stripe) | Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, PayPal | BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC |
| Identity checks | None stated | None stated | No KYC |
| Refund | Full refund within 7 days unless more than 20% used | Within 7 days of first payment if less than 20% used | Within 72 hours if less than 20% used, to your balance |
| MCP | Hosted MCP server, MIT licence | — | Copy-paste MCP server code in the docs |

*Prices checked on October 22, 2026.*

"—" = not stated on the pages we read. Sources at the bottom of the page.

## How much does each cost per 1,000 searches?

Effective price per 1,000 Google searches for a steady monthly volume. SerpApi: the least expensive plan that covers the volume. Serper: the least expensive pack that covers it within its 6-month validity. SerpCrypto: the pack equal to one month of searches, at the prices on this page, set on 2026-10-22.

| Searches per month | SerpApi | Serper | SerpCrypto (ours) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1,000 | $25.00 (Starter) | $8.33 ($50 pack used over 6 months) | $0.75/1K searches (10,000 searches lasts 10 months) |
| 10,000 | $15.00 (Production, $150) | $1.00 ($50 pack lasts 5 months) | $0.75/1K searches |
| 100,000 | $7.25 (Searcher, $725) | $0.75 ($375 pack lasts 5 months) | $0.56/1K searches |
| 1,000,000 | $3.75 (Cloud 1M, $3,750) | $0.50 ($1,250 pack lasts 2.5 months) | $0.38/1K searches |

*Prices checked on October 22, 2026.*

Since SerpCrypto credits do not expire, a larger pack lowers the rate further. Prices exclude taxes.

## Why is SerpApi so much more expensive than Serper?

SerpApi charges for breadth and guarantees, Serper for volume. SerpApi's plans cover about 125 APIs, from Google's many verticals to Amazon, YouTube and Yelp, and from the Production plan up they include a U.S. Legal Shield of up to $2 million: SerpApi says it assumes liability "for the lawful collection of public search data". Each plan also states a guaranteed number of successful searches per hour.

Serper sells Google only, as prepaid packs, with no legal cover stated. Its list price is $1.00 per 1,000 at the entry pack and $0.30 at 12.5 million. Proxyway's report of 4 March 2026 put the two at $25 to $7.25 and $1 to $0.75 per 1,000 for the plans it tested.

## Which one is faster?

Serper has the published edge. In Proxyway's 2026 report, based on three rounds of 2,000 requests in mid-January 2026, Serper and Oxylabs were the fastest real-time APIs, at about 0.6 to 0.7 seconds at the median. Serper's own page says "Google search results in 1-2 seconds".

SerpApi publishes no latency figure; its homepage says "Each API request runs immediately – no waiting for results." Speed also depends on the engine, the location and the features you ask for, so test both on your own queries before you decide.

## Which should I choose for my use case?

- **Rank tracking on Google at volume:** Serper, for its per-1,000 rate, unless you need a legal cover or other engines.
- **Many engines in one contract** (Google, Bing, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon): SerpApi.
- **A company that wants a vendor to assume collection liability:** SerpApi, from its Production plan.
- **A first test without a card:** Serper, with 2,500 free queries.
- **AI agents that need Google AI Mode:** SerpApi, which lists a Google AI Mode API.
- **Crypto payment, no KYC, credits that never expire, Google and Bing at one price:** SerpCrypto, the publisher of this page.

## What about the lawsuit against SerpApi?

Google sued SerpApi in December 2025 under the anti-circumvention rule of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. On 20 July 2026 the court dismissed the complaint; claims about plain search results were dismissed without leave to amend. Google filed an amended complaint on 10 August 2026, based on content-licensing terms. These are allegations; no ruling against SerpApi had been made when we checked.

The case concerns how search results are collected, which is the business of every SERP API, Serper and SerpCrypto included. Our [legal overview](https://serpcrypto.com/guides/is-a-serp-api-legal/) gives the timeline; it is not legal advice.

## What does SerpCrypto cost?

Prepaid packs from $7.50 to $1,500, one credit per successful search on every engine, credits that never expire. Paid in BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC.

| Plan | Quantity | Price | Price per unit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Test | 10,000 searches | $7.50 | $0.75/1K searches |
| Build | 100,000 searches | $56.25 | $0.56/1K searches |
| Volume | 1,000,000 searches | $375 | $0.38/1K searches |
| Bulk | 5,000,000 searches | $1,500 | $0.30/1K searches |

In every plan: Every engine at 1 credit per search · Failed requests not charged · Credits never expire · Country, language, city and device targeting

**Before you pay**

- Minimum top-up $25. Top up once in crypto, then buy any plan from your balance.
- Unused balance stays on your account and never expires, and it pays for search credits. When a purchase costs less than the minimum top-up, the part added only to reach the minimum is refundable on request to support within 30 days of the payment, in USDT or USDC, as long as it has not been spent. The rest of the balance is not paid back, except where the law requires it.
- Credited once your payment is checked on the blockchain. Typical network confirmation time: BTC ≈ 20 min · USDT TRC-20 ≈ 1 min · USDT ERC-20 ≈ 5 min · USDC ERC-20 ≈ 5 min · ETH ≈ 5 min · SOL ≈ 1 min · LTC ≈ 15 min

## SerpApi vs Serper: common questions

### Is Serper cheaper than SerpApi?

Yes, by a wide margin at the list prices read on 22 October 2026. At 100,000 searches a month, SerpApi's Searcher plan costs $725, or $7.25 per 1,000, while Serper's $375 pack for 500,000 queries works out at $0.75 per 1,000.

### Do SerpApi and Serper credits roll over?

SerpApi's searches reset at the start of each billing cycle; on a downgrade, remaining searches move to an "Extra Credits" balance. Serper's prepaid credits are valid for 6 months. SerpCrypto credits never expire.

### Which one supports Bing?

SerpApi does; Serper covers Google only. SerpCrypto also returns Bing with `engine=bing`, for one credit per search.

### Can I pay SerpApi or Serper in crypto?

Neither lists crypto on the pages we read on 22 October 2026: SerpApi references credit cards through Stripe, and Serper lists cards and PayPal. SerpCrypto takes BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC.

### Who wrote this comparison?

SerpCrypto, a SERP API that competes with both. We used each provider's own pages and one independent report, all listed below, and labelled our own column. Check the providers' pages before you buy: prices change.

## Sources

1. [SerpApi pricing](https://serpapi.com/pricing) — SerpApi (read 2026-10-22)
2. [SerpApi homepage](https://serpapi.com/) — SerpApi (read 2026-10-22)
3. [SerpApi legal](https://serpapi.com/legal) — SerpApi (read 2026-10-22)
4. [SerpApi MCP server](https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) — SerpApi on GitHub (read 2026-10-22)
5. [Google AI Mode API](https://serpapi.com/google-ai-mode-api) — SerpApi (read 2026-10-22)
6. [Serper: Google Search API](https://serper.dev/) — Serper (read 2026-10-22)
7. [Serper terms of service](https://serper.dev/terms) — Serper (read 2026-10-22)
8. [Search APIs 2026 report](https://proxyway.com/research/search-apis-2026-report) — Proxyway (2026-03-04, read 2026-10-22)
9. [Court dismisses Google's DMCA claims against SerpApi](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/court-dismisses-googles-dmca-claims-against-serpapi/583033/) — Search Engine Journal (2026-07-21, read 2026-10-22)
10. [Google amends SerpApi suit with content licensing terms](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-amends-serpapi-suit-with-content-licensing-terms/585505/) — Search Engine Journal (read 2026-10-22)

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SerpCrypto: SerpCrypto is a SERP API for developers and AI agents that returns Google and Bing results as JSON, paid in crypto with no ID upload. Prepaid search credits from $0.30/1K searches never expire. No KYC — no ID, no selfie, no documents. Pay in crypto.