Quick answer
How do I query a SERP API with curl?
Run curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" --data-urlencode "q=your query" and pipe the JSON to jq. With SerpCrypto, each successful search costs 1 credit, from $0.30/1K searches, and errors are free. -G turns the data flags into a query string. Credits are paid in crypto, with no KYC.
Which curl flags matter here?
Set the key once per shell with export SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY=…. Install jq from your package manager if it is missing.
| Flag | Why |
|---|---|
-s | Silent: no progress bar mixed with the JSON. |
-G | Send the -d and --data-urlencode values as a query string on a GET request. |
--data-urlencode | Encode spaces, quotes and accents in q and location. |
-H "Authorization: Bearer …" | Your API key. Keep it in an environment variable. |
-w '%{http_code}' | Print the HTTP status, useful when a call fails. |
How do I print the top 10 links for a keyword?
Ask for the organic results and let jq print the position and link of each one, separated by a tab. The []? form prints nothing instead of failing when a block is absent, which keeps scripts quiet on unusual pages.
# Top 10 organic links, one per line
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=kubernetes cost monitoring" -d gl=us -d hl=en \
| jq -r '.organic_results[]? | "\(.position)\t\(.link)"'How do I list the People Also Ask questions?
Read people_also_ask[].question. The questions follow the language in hl and change with the country in gl, so run the same query in each market you write for. Content teams paste this list straight into a brief.
# People Also Ask questions, ready for a content brief
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=how to brew cold brew" -d gl=gb -d hl=en \
| jq -r '.people_also_ask[]?.question'How do I see which sources an AI Overview cites?
Read ai_overview.references. The block exists only when Google shows an AI Overview for that query and place, so the recipe prints a clear message otherwise. Tracking these sources over time shows whether your pages are cited in Google's generated answers.
# Sources cited by the AI Overview, if the page shows one
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=what is a heat pump" -d gl=us -d hl=en \
| jq -r 'if .ai_overview then .ai_overview.references[] | "\(.index)\t\(.source)\t\(.link)" else "no AI Overview for this query" end'How do I get the local pack and the Maps list?
A web search with location returns the local pack shown on the results page, usually a few businesses. engine=google_maps returns the longer Maps list with address, rating and review count, which @tsv turns into rows for a spreadsheet. Both are 1 credit each.
# Local pack in a city, then the full Maps list for the same query
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=vegan restaurant" \
--data-urlencode "location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada" -d gl=ca -d hl=en \
| jq -r '.local_results[]? | "\(.position)\t\(.title)\t\(.rating // "-")"'
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
-d engine=google_maps --data-urlencode "q=vegan restaurant Toronto" -d gl=ca -d hl=en \
| jq -r '.local_results[]? | [.title, .address, .rating, .reviews] | @tsv'How do I see the error when a call fails?
Add -w '\nHTTP %{http_code}\n' to print the status after the body. An error body is small JSON with code and message; the errors page lists all six codes. The second command reads your credits, which is free.
# Print the body, then the HTTP status on its own line
curl -sG "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=test" -w '\nHTTP %{http_code}\n'
# Credits left (free call)
curl -s "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/credits" -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" | jq .What is the PowerShell equivalent on Windows?
Invoke-RestMethod sends the request and parses the JSON into objects, so you do not need jq. Pass the parameters as a hashtable in -Body: with a GET request, PowerShell encodes them into the query string. Format-Table then prints positions, titles and links.
# Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7
$headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:SERPCRYPTO_API_KEY" }
$query = @{ q = "kubernetes cost monitoring"; gl = "us"; hl = "en" }
$data = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://serpcrypto.com/api/v1/search" -Headers $headers -Body $query -Method Get
$data.organic_results | Select-Object position, title, link | Format-Table -AutoSizeWhen should I move from curl to code?
As soon as you repeat a command with a list of keywords. A shell loop works for a few dozen searches, but retries, parallelism and storage are easier in Python or Node.js. The requests are the same, so a recipe tested here carries over unchanged. Each search stays at 1 credit, at $0.75/1K searches on the 10,000 searches pack.
curl questions
Why does my query return a 400 error in curl?
Usually because q was sent with -d and contains a character that needs encoding. Use --data-urlencode "q=…" for the query and for location; plain codes such as gl=us can stay with -d.
Can I save the full JSON to a file?
Yes: add -o result.json instead of piping to jq. Saving raw answers lets you re-parse them later without paying for the search again.
Does curl on Windows work the same way?
Windows 10 and 11 include curl.exe, and the flags are the same. Quoting differs in cmd.exe, so PowerShell with Invoke-RestMethod is usually simpler there.