Skip to the page
Get started free

Free SERP API in 2026

10,000 searches free, no card.

Free SERP API tiers in 2026 run from 50 searches a month on Zenserp to 5,000 requests a month on Bright Data. SerpApi gives 250 a month, Serper 2,500 once, Scale SERP 125 a month and VALUE SERP 100 on sign up.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. A new account gets $10 of credit with no card: 10,000 searches through the SerpApi, Serper, VALUE SERP, Scale SERP or DataForSEO address, each in that API's own JSON.

Get an API key

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 searches through any drop-in address.

What each SERP API gives free, from each company's own page

SpecStreamBright DataSerpApiSerperScale SERPVALUE SERP
Free searches10,000 searches of up to 10 results on the $10 of credit5,000 requests a month on the Free Tier250 searches a month on the Free plan, at 50 an hour2,500 free queries125 free searches a month100 free requests on sign up
Card neededNoNoA $0 Free planNoNoNo
When it renewsOnce, and it never expiresEvery monthEvery monthOnce. Paid credits are valid for 6 monthsEvery monthOnce
Price per 1,000 after the free step$1 through a drop-in address, from your balance, with no plan to buy$1.50 pay as you go$25 on Starter, 1,000 searches for $25 a month$1.00 on the 50k pack$6.60 on 10,000 searches for $66 a month, billed annually$2.50 pay as you go
Failed and empty callsA call that returns no results costs nothing. A busy call gets 429 with Retry-After and is not chargedFailed and errored requests are not billedCached, errored and failed searches are not countedA credit for each successful responseOnly successful searches are countedOnly successful searches are counted
What else the credit runsThe Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a rowSERP requests onlySearches only, from the same 250 a monthQueries only, from the same creditsSearches only. Calls to its other APIs cost nothingSearches only

Why start your free SERP calls on SpecStream

Your first free call, in SerpApi's JSON

curl "https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi/search.json?engine=google&q=coffee+roasters+in+portland&num=10&api_key=$SPECSTREAM_KEY"

The reply is SerpApi's: organic_results[] with position, title, link, displayed_link and snippet, with search_metadata, search_parameters and serpapi_pagination.next on our host. A call of up to 10 results costs $0.001 from the $10.

Keep the client you already wrote

Change the base address and the key, and the parser stays. SerpApi answers at https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi, Serper at /serper, VALUE SERP at /valueserp, Scale SERP at /scaleserp/search, DataForSEO at /dataforseo, SearchApi at /searchapi, Zenserp at /zenserp/api/v2, serpstack at /serpstack/search and Google Custom Search at /customsearch/v1, each on https://api.specstream.ai.

Each move has its own page with the call before and after: SerpApi, Serper, VALUE SERP, Scale SERP and DataForSEO.

No card, and the credit stays

The $10 comes with a new account and asks for no card. It does not reset at the end of the month and it does not expire, so a project you start this week still has its searches next quarter. Credit you buy later never expires either.

Up to 100 results a call

num goes to 100. On a drop-in address each started block of 10 more results adds $0.0012, so a call with 100 results costs $0.0118 and the free credit covers 847 of them. A call is charged for the results it returns, never more than num asks.

News and images on the same credit

SerpApi's engine=google_news and engine=google_images, Serper's /serper/news and /serper/images, and VALUE SERP and Scale SERP with search_type=news or images answer in each API's own shape, at the same price as a web search.

The top score on the free credit

A free search is the same search a paying account gets. The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

Search, pages and datasets on one key

The same key reads pages, PDF, Word and Excel files with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, under a maximum you approve before it runs. Source URL and read time on every value.

Other free SERP APIs

SerpHouse

The Free plan gives 4,000 API credits a month to a work email and 7 days to a personal email, and the Basic plan is $29.99 a month at $0.75 per 1,000 SERP requests. SpecStream's $10 has no time limit and covers 10,000 searches at $1 per 1,000 after it.

SearchApi

100 free requests on sign up with no card, then $4 per 1,000 searches on the Developer plan. SpecStream answers the same GET /api/v1/search?engine=google at https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi for $1 per 1,000.

Zenserp

50 free searches a month, then $49.99 a month for 25,000. SpecStream answers Zenserp's /api/v2/search at https://api.specstream.ai/zenserp/api/v2 in Zenserp's JSON, with 10,000 searches on the free credit.

serpstack

100 searches a month on the Free plan, for non commercial use, then $29.99 a month for 5,000. SpecStream answers serpstack's /search at https://api.specstream.ai/serpstack/search, from $1 per 1,000.

DataForSEO

A $1 trial credit on a new account, then a $50 minimum top-up. SpecStream answers the live/regular and live/advanced Google organic calls at https://api.specstream.ai/dataforseo in DataForSEO's shape, one task a call, with $10 of credit and no minimum.

Google Custom Search JSON API

100 free queries a day, then $5 per 1,000, for existing customers only: the API is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers the same GET /customsearch/v1 call in Google's JSON with a key you create today.

How SpecStream scores

The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.

SpecStreamParallelExaTavilyPerplexity
Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna60.945.553.047.947.0
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna9694919494
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol9997919295

How to start for free

1. Sign up at specstream.ai. The account starts with $10 of credit, no card.

2. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace, and give it a spending limit.

3. Point the client you have at SpecStream. With serpapi-python:

import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=SPECSTREAM_KEY)
client.BASE_DOMAIN = "https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi"  # was https://serpapi.com

results = client.search({"engine": "google", "q": "coffee roasters in portland", "num": 10})
for result in results["organic_results"]:
    print(result["position"], result["title"], result["link"])

4. Or with Serper's call, in JavaScript:

const reply = await fetch("https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "X-API-KEY": process.env.SPECSTREAM_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ q: "coffee roasters in portland", num: 10 }),
});
const { organic } = await reply.json();
console.log(organic.map((r) => r.link));

5. In an MCP client, add the server https://api.specstream.ai/mcp with OAuth or the key, and call the search_web tool with {"q": "<the question>"}.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

Is there a free SERP API?
Yes. A new SpecStream account gets $10 of credit with no card, which covers 10,000 searches through the SerpApi, Serper, VALUE SERP, Scale SERP or DataForSEO address. Bright Data gives 5,000 requests a month, SerpApi 250 a month and Serper 2,500 once.
Which free SERP API gives the most searches at once?
Of the tiers on this page, SpecStream's: 10,000 searches of up to 10 results on $10 of credit, with no card and no expiry. Serper gives 2,500 once, and Bright Data 5,000 a month.
Is SerpApi free?
SerpApi's Free plan gives 250 searches a month at 50 an hour. Starter is $25 a month for 1,000. Through SpecStream's SerpApi address the same search.json call costs $1 per 1,000, and the first 10,000 come with the $10 credit.
Does Serper have a free tier?
Serper gives 2,500 free queries with no card, and its smallest pack is 50,000 credits at $1.00 per 1,000. SpecStream answers Serper's /search in Serper's JSON at https://api.specstream.ai/serper for $1 per 1,000, with 10,000 searches on the free credit.
Is the Google Custom Search API free?
It gives 100 queries a day free to existing customers only. It is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers the same call at https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1 with a key you create today.
How much does a SERP API cost after the free tier?
From $1.00 per 1,000 on Serper's 50k pack and $1.50 on Bright Data to $25 on SerpApi Starter. SpecStream costs $1 per 1,000 through every drop-in address, from your balance, with no plan.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each free tier and price comes from that company's own page, read on Nov 12, 2026.

  1. Bright Data SERP API pricingbrightdata.com/pricing/serp, read Nov 12, 2026
  2. Bright Data SERP API billingdocs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/pricing-and-billing, read Nov 12, 2026
  3. SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  4. Serperserper.dev/, read Nov 12, 2026
  5. Scale SERP pricingtrajectdata.com/pricing/scaleserp-api, read Nov 12, 2026
  6. VALUE SERP pricingtrajectdata.com/serp/value-serp-api/pricing/, read Nov 12, 2026
  7. SerpHouse pricingserphouse.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  8. SearchApi pricingsearchapi.io/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  9. Zenserp pricingzenserp.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  10. serpstack pricingserpstack.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  11. DataForSEO pricingdataforseo.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
  12. Google Custom Search JSON API overviewdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview, read Nov 12, 2026
  13. SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 12, 2026
  14. SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 12, 2026