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# SerpApi pricing: $25 to $1.96 per 1,000, and $1 on SpecStream

Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/serpapi-pricing

SerpApi sells monthly plans: $25 for 1,000 searches on Starter, $75 for 5,000 on Developer, $150 for 15,000 on Production, up to $106,050 for 54 million. The Free plan gives 250 searches a month.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. It answers SerpApi's own `search.json` call with `engine=google` at $1 per 1,000 searches, with no monthly plan and credit that never expires.

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-serpapi-pricing&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=serpapi-pricing&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fsearch%3Froute%3Dserpapi) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 searches.

## Every SerpApi plan, and what SpecStream charges for the same searches

| | SpecStream | SerpApi |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 searches a month | $1 | Starter, $25 a month: $25 per 1,000 |
| 5,000 searches a month | $5 | Developer, $75 a month: $15 per 1,000 |
| 15,000 searches a month | $15 | Production, $150 a month: $10 per 1,000 |
| 30,000 searches a month | $30 | Big Data, $275 a month: about $9.17 per 1,000 |
| 100,000 searches a month | $100 | Searcher, $725 a month: $7.25 per 1,000 |
| 500,000 searches a month | $500 | Infrastructure, $2,750 a month: $5.50 per 1,000 |
| 1,000,000 searches a month | $1,000, or about $833 when paid as top-ups of $1,000 or more, which add 20% more credit | Cloud 1M, $3,750 a month: $3.75 per 1,000 |
| Free to start | $10 of credit on a new account, no card: 10,000 searches through SerpApi's call | Free plan: 250 searches a month, 50 an hour |
| When the searches run out | Calls spend from your balance. Credit you buy never expires | Automatic Early Renewal starts a new plan period once you have used all your searches |
| Faster replies | Every SerpApi call runs the fast search at the same $1 per 1,000 | Ludicrous Speed costs 2× the base price and Ludicrous Speed Max 4× |
| Hourly limit | None set by plan. A busy call answers `429` with `Retry-After` and is not charged | Guaranteed searches an hour: 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Developer, 3,000 on Production, 110,000 on Cloud 1M |
| Zero retention | `zero_retention` on any key: a search keeps no request text and no answer after the reply | ZeroTrace mode, which keeps no search parameters, queries or results, from the Cloud 1M plan at $3,750 a month |
| What is counted | A call that returns no results costs nothing, and the reply's `price_usd` is what the call cost | Only successful searches. A reply with 100 results or with none counts as 1 search |
| Search engines | `engine=google`, `google_news` and `google_images`, and `bing_images`, in SerpApi's JSON. Other engines answer `400` | Google and many other engines and result types, each its own `engine` |
| Structured rows | Deep Search: one request in plain words returns every match as a row, with a source URL and read time on every value, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row | One results page per call, with `serpapi_pagination` for the next one |

## What the SerpApi price list means for your bill

### You pay for the plan, not for the searches

A plan is a monthly count of searches. A month that uses 6,000 searches needs Production at $150, because Developer stops at 5,000; on SpecStream the same month costs $6. A month that uses fewer searches than the plan holds costs the full plan.

When a plan runs out, Automatic Early Renewal starts the next period and charges the plan again. There is no rate for a single extra search.

### Speed doubles the price

Ludicrous Speed doubles the price of every plan and Ludicrous Speed Max quadruples it, so 15,000 searches on Production cost $300 or $600 a month. Every SerpApi call on SpecStream runs the fast search at $1 per 1,000, $15 for the same 15,000.

### The most accurate web search API

The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. SerpApi's own post of Oct 16, 2026 reports 97.6% on SimpleQA Verified, 937 of the 960 questions it kept. Every score and its method are on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=serpapi-pricing) page.

### What SerpApi's call returns on SpecStream

`GET /serpapi/search.json?engine=google` answers in SerpApi's JSON: `search_metadata`, `search_parameters`, `organic_results[]` with `position`, `title`, `link`, `displayed_link`, `snippet` and `date` when the page has one, and `serpapi_pagination.next` on our host. Answer boxes, knowledge graphs, related questions, local results and top stories are not returned.

## Other search API prices next to SerpApi

### SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. The Search API costs $1 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results on the fast tier and every drop-in address, SerpApi's among them, and $5 with the answer. The Extract API reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000, and Deep Search delivers full datasets at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

### Serper

Google results in prepaid credit packs, from 50k credits at $1.00 per 1,000 to 12.5M at $0.30, and credits are valid for 6 months. SpecStream answers Serper's own call at $1 per 1,000 with no pack and no expiry.

### SearchApi

Monthly plans: the Developer plan is $40 a month for 10,000 searches, $4 per 1,000, and only successful searches with a 200 status code are charged. SpecStream answers SearchApi's own call at $1 per 1,000.

### Brave Search API

$5 per 1,000 requests on the Search plan, with $5 in free credits every month. SpecStream answers Brave's own call at $1 per 1,000.

### Tavily

Pay as you go is $0.008 per credit. A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search 2, so 1,000 searches cost $8 to $16. SpecStream answers Tavily's own call at $1 per 1,000.

## How to move your SerpApi calls to SpecStream

Change one line. `https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi/search.json` answers the call your code sends to `https://serpapi.com/search.json` today, in SerpApi's JSON, so your parser stays as it is. Send a SpecStream key as `api_key`. Each call of up to 10 results costs $0.001.

```
# Before
curl "https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google&q=$QUERY&num=10&api_key=$VENDOR_API_KEY"

# After
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi/search.json?engine=google&q=$QUERY&num=10&api_key=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"
```

With serpapi-python, set `client.BASE_DOMAIN`:

```
import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"])
client.BASE_DOMAIN = "https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi"  # was https://serpapi.com

results = client.search({"engine": "google", "q": "open source vector databases", "num": 10})
for result in results["organic_results"]:
    print(result["position"], result["title"], result["link"])
```

`q`, `num`, `start` and `tbs` keep their meaning. Every parameter and reply field is in the [SerpApi migration guide](https://specstream.ai/migrate/serpapi?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=serpapi-pricing).

On MCP, your agent calls `search_web` with `{"q": ...}` and `read_pages` with `{"urls": [...]}` at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does SerpApi cost?

From $25 a month for 1,000 searches on Starter to $106,050 a month for 54 million on Cloud 54M. Developer is $75 for 5,000, Production $150 for 15,000 and Big Data $275 for 30,000.

### Is SerpApi free?

The Free plan gives 250 searches a month, at most 50 an hour. SpecStream gives a new account $10 of credit with no card, which covers 10,000 searches through SerpApi's own call.

### What does SerpApi cost per search?

$0.025 on Starter, $0.015 on Developer, $0.01 on Production, $0.00725 on Searcher and $0.00375 on Cloud 1M, when the whole plan is used. On SpecStream a search of up to 10 results costs $0.001.

### What happens when my SerpApi searches run out?

Automatic Early Renewal starts a new plan period and charges the plan again, or you renew by hand. SerpApi has no rate for one extra search.

### Does SerpApi charge for failed searches?

No. Only successful searches are counted, and cached, errored and failed searches are not. On SpecStream a call that returns no results costs nothing, and a busy call answers `429` with no charge.

### Is there a cheaper alternative to SerpApi?

SpecStream answers SerpApi's own `search.json` call with `engine=google` at $1 per 1,000 searches, in SerpApi's JSON. The change is the host and the `api_key`.

### Does SpecStream have an API and an MCP server?

Yes. The Search API is `GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search` at $5 per 1,000 searches, or $1 with `speed=fast`, and the MCP server is at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` over Streamable HTTP, with OAuth or an API key.

## Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each SerpApi price comes from SerpApi's own pricing page, read on Nov 12, 2026.

- [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SerpApi pricing](https://serpapi.com/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SerpApi on SimpleQA Verified](https://serpapi.com/blog/serpapi-achieves-97-6-accuracy-on-simpleqa-verified/), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Serper](https://serper.dev/), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SearchApi pricing](https://www.searchapi.io/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Tavily credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md), read Nov 12, 2026