# Serper pricing: $1.00 to $0.30 per 1,000, and $1 on SpecStream Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/serper-pricing Serper sells prepaid credit packs: $50 for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000) up to $3,750 for 12.5 million ($0.30 per 1,000). Credits are valid for 6 months, and a new account gets 2,500 free queries. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. It answers Serper's own `POST /search` call at $1 per 1,000 searches from the first search, with no pack to buy and credit that never expires. [Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-serper-pricing&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=serper-pricing&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fsearch%3Froute%3Dserper) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 searches. ## Every Serper price, and what SpecStream charges for the same call | | SpecStream | Serper | |---|---|---| | Price per 1,000 searches | $1 for up to 10 results, from the first search, on Serper's call at `https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search` | Starter $50 for 50k credits ($1.00/1k), Standard $375 for 500k ($0.75/1k), Scale $1,250 for 2.5M ($0.50/1k), Ultimate $3,750 for 12.5M ($0.30/1k) | | Smallest purchase | A $10 top-up, which covers 10,000 searches | The $50 Starter pack | | How long the balance lasts | Credit you buy never expires | Credits are valid for 6 months | | Volume price | A top-up of $1,000 or more adds 20% more credit: $1,000 buys $1,200, or 1,200,000 searches | The rate falls to $0.30 per 1,000 on the $3,750 pack of 12.5 million credits | | More than 10 results | Each started block of 10 more results adds $0.0012: `num=50` costs $0.0058 a call and `num=100` $0.0118 | Serper's page does not price it. ColdIQ's guide reports 2 credits for a query that asks for more than 10 results | | Free to start | $10 of credit on a new account, no card: 10,000 searches through Serper's call | 2,500 free queries, no credit card | | When a call is charged | A call that returns no results costs nothing. A busy call answers `429` with `Retry-After` and is not charged, and the reply carries `specstream.price_usd`, the price of that call | Credits are deducted each time you receive a successful response. When the balance reaches zero, Serper stops accepting new queries | | Speed limit | The same key and the same price for any volume. A busy call is told when to retry and charged nothing | 50 queries per second on Starter, 100 on Standard, 200 on Scale and 300 on Ultimate | | What answers the call | The whole live web, read at the moment of the call. 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct) and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks | Google, queried live at each call. Serper caches nothing | | The text of the pages | `passages=true` on `GET /v1/web-search` gives each source an excerpt of its page, up to about 3,500 characters. The Extract API reads up to 20 pages a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged | Google's `snippet` for each organic result | | 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 query, as JSON. Your code builds the rows | ## What the Serper price list means for your bill ### What 100,000 searches a month cost At 100,000 searches a month, two Starter packs cost $100 a month on Serper, the same $100 as on SpecStream. The Standard pack at $375 brings Serper to $0.75 per 1,000, but its 500,000 credits must be used within 6 months: at 60,000 searches a month, 140,000 of them expire unused. On SpecStream you pay $1 per 1,000 as you go, and a balance left over stays. A top-up of $1,000 or more adds 20%, so $1,000 covers 1,200,000 searches with no date to spend them by. ### When the $0.30 rate applies Serper's $0.30 per 1,000 is the Ultimate pack: $3,750 paid up front for 12.5 million credits, about 2 million searches a month to use them before they expire. Under that volume the rate you pay is $0.50 to $1.00 per 1,000, and credits you do not use are lost. ### 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. Every score and its method are on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=serper-pricing) page. ### What Serper's call returns on SpecStream `/serper/search`, `/serper/news` and `/serper/images` answer in Serper's JSON: `searchParameters`, `answerBox` when the search has an answer, and `organic[]` with `title`, `link`, `snippet`, `position` and `date` when known. `gl`, `hl` and `location` are accepted and echoed, and do not shape the search. The maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar, patents and autocomplete paths are not served, and `knowledgeGraph`, `peopleAlsoAsk` and `relatedSearches` are not returned. ## Other search API prices next to Serper ### 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, Serper'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. ### SerpApi Monthly plans: Starter $25 for 1,000 searches, Developer $75 for 5,000, Production $150 for 15,000, up to Cloud 54M at $106,050 a month. SpecStream answers SerpApi's own `search.json` call at $1 per 1,000 with no monthly plan. ### 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. ### Parallel $1 per 1,000 requests in `turbo` and `fast` mode and $5 in `basic` and `advanced`, and a request with no mode runs `advanced`. SpecStream answers Parallel'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, with 1,000 free credits every month. SpecStream answers Tavily's own call at $1 per 1,000. ## How to move your Serper calls to SpecStream Change one line. `https://api.specstream.ai/serper` answers the call your code sends to `https://google.serper.dev` today, in Serper's JSON, so the code that reads `organic[]` stays as it is. Send a SpecStream key in `X-API-KEY`. Each call of up to 10 results costs $0.001. ``` # Before curl -s https://google.serper.dev/search -H "X-API-KEY: $VENDOR_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"q": "open source vector databases", "num": 10}' # After curl -s https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"q": "open source vector databases", "num": 10}' ``` In Python: ``` import os import requests BASE = "https://api.specstream.ai/serper" # was https://google.serper.dev reply = requests.post( f"{BASE}/search", headers={"X-API-KEY": os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]}, json={"q": "open source vector databases", "num": 10, "page": 1}, ).json() for result in reply["organic"]: print(result["position"], result["title"], result["link"]) print(reply["specstream"]["price_usd"]) ``` `q`, `num`, `page` and `tbs` work as before, and `credits` stays 1 so code that counts it keeps working. Every field is in the [Serper migration guide](https://specstream.ai/migrate/serper?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=serper-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 Serper cost? Serper sells four prepaid packs: $50 for 50,000 credits, $375 for 500,000, $1,250 for 2.5 million and $3,750 for 12.5 million, from $1.00 down to $0.30 per 1,000. There is no monthly subscription. ### Is Serper free? A new account gets 2,500 free queries with no credit card. After that you buy a pack. SpecStream gives a new account $10 of credit with no card, which covers 10,000 searches through Serper's own call. ### Do Serper credits expire? Yes. Serper credits are valid for 6 months. SpecStream credit you buy never expires. ### What does one Serper credit buy? One search of up to 10 results. Serper deducts credits for each successful response. ColdIQ's guide reports 2 credits for a query that asks for more than 10 results. ### Is there a cheaper alternative to Serper? SpecStream answers Serper's own `POST /search` at $1 per 1,000 from the first search, the price of Serper's Starter pack, with no pack to buy and no expiry. A top-up of $1,000 or more covers 1,200,000 searches. ### 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 Serper price comes from Serper's own 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 - [Serper](https://serper.dev/), read Nov 12, 2026 - [ColdIQ, Serper pricing in 2026](https://coldiq.com/blog/serper-pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SerpApi pricing](https://serpapi.com/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Parallel search modes](https://docs.parallel.ai/search/modes.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Tavily credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md), read Nov 12, 2026