$0.03 per 10,000 Google search pages. Up to 3,333× cheaper than SerpAPI for the same data.
Hi — this repo exists to put the math on the table for anyone evaluating a SERP API on price. The product is Serpent API. Code examples live in Anurag2912/serpent-api. This page is the receipts.
→ Sign up free (10 searches, no card) · → Pricing · → Code examples
For 100,000 Google web search results (= 10,000 SERP pages):
| Provider | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Serpent API · Scale | $0.03 | $500 single deposit unlocks 20× off, forever |
| Serpent API · Growth | $0.06 | $100 single deposit unlocks 10× off |
| Serpent API · Default | $0.60 | Pay-as-you-go, no commitment |
| SerpAPI · Big Data | $50.00 | Requires $1,250/mo subscription |
| SerpAPI · Production | $75.00 | $250/mo subscription |
| SerpAPI · Developer | $100.00 | $50/mo subscription |
| ScaleSerp · Basic | $50.00 | $50/mo subscription |
| ValueSerp · Startup | $200.00 | $50/mo subscription |
| SerpStack · Basic | $59.80 | $30/mo subscription |
At Serpent API's Scale tier, $0.03 buys what SerpAPI charges $100 for. That's a 3,333× gap for byte-identical Google SERP data — same organic results, same AI Overviews, same People Also Ask, same Featured Snippets, same Knowledge Panel, same Local Pack.
Three honest reasons. No marketing fluff.
- No subscriptions. Subscription pricing forces vendors to charge for unused capacity ("you committed to 10K/mo, you used 2K — still pay for 10K"). Pay-as-you-go means you literally pay only for what runs.
- Volume tier deposits. Growth (10× off at $100 single deposit) and Scale (20× off at $500) reward up-front commitment instead of monthly recurring revenue. Credits never expire.
- No paid sales team. Product-led: devs find Serpent API through docs, code, and search results. The cost of an enterprise sales org isn't baked into the unit price.
The data quality is identical — Google's SERP is Google's SERP. You're paying for the wrapper, the rate limit, and the JSON shape. Serpent API charges less for the wrapper.
- ✅ Google organic results (full SERP)
- ✅ Google AI Overviews with sources (14+ citation links)
- ✅ People Also Ask (with answers and sources)
- ✅ Featured Snippets
- ✅ Knowledge Panels
- ✅ Local Pack (Google Maps results)
- ✅ Sitelinks
- ✅ Shopping PLAs
- ✅ Inline videos
- ✅ Related searches
- ✅ Ads (top + bottom)
- ✅ 112 country codes
- ✅ Bing · Yahoo · DuckDuckGo at the same flat price
- ✅ AI Ranking endpoints for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity (track AI-era brand visibility)
- ✅ YouTube and Instagram data endpoints
- ✅ Failed-request automatic refunds
- ✅ No monthly minimums
- ✅ 10 free web searches when you sign up — no credit card
Sign up at apiserpent.com/login, copy your key, run:
curl -H "X-API-Key: $YOUR_KEY" \
"https://api.apiserpent.com/api/search/quick?q=cheapest+serp+api&engine=google&country=us"You'll get structured JSON back in ~3 seconds. If you don't, refund's automatic.
Code lives in the sibling repo — Anurag2912/serpent-api:
- Python — basic search, rank tracking, AI ranking, news monitoring
- Node.js — basic search, rank tracking
- curl — every endpoint as a one-liner
- Postman — importable collection
- SEO teams paying $500-5,000/mo for rank tracking. Same data at <$50/mo at Serpent's Scale tier.
- AI startups building search-grounded LLM apps. RAG over real-time SERPs without enterprise contracts.
- Brand monitoring companies. Track citations across ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini / Perplexity (no other SERP API offers this).
- Solo developers who can't afford SerpAPI's $50/mo entry point.
- Agencies doing competitive research across hundreds of keywords nightly.
- Researchers building public-good datasets without the per-query cost killing the project.
Is the data really the same as SerpAPI? Yes. Google's SERP is the same regardless of who scrapes it. The differences between SERP API vendors are in the JSON shape, rate limits, country coverage, and price — not the underlying results.
Are there hidden fees? No. The published price is the price. No setup fee. No "overage" fee. No required monthly minimum.
What happens if a search fails? Server errors are automatically refunded to your account, instantly. You only pay for successful requests.
Why don't more people use it then? Switching costs. Most teams pay 10-100× more than they need to because migrating SDKs feels expensive. Worth checking the actual integration time — a Serpent migration is usually under an hour.
Can I keep using SerpAPI side-by-side? Of course. Many users add Serpent API as a second provider, route 90% of traffic to Serpent, and keep SerpAPI as a fallback for legacy code.
- Website: https://apiserpent.com
- Sign up free: https://apiserpent.com/login
- Pricing page: https://apiserpent.com/pricing
- Docs: https://apiserpent.com/docs
- Code examples: https://github.com/Anurag2912/serpent-api
- Playground: https://apiserpent.com/playground
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