A SerpApi alternative that is a one-line change
Responses use the SerpApi schema field for field, so switching is a base-URL change rather than a rewrite. Dedicated plans are sold in fixed tiers; we meter individual searches.
Price, side by side
| Your volume | Smallest plan that covers it | Their price | SmartAPIHub | Relative cost | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,000 searchesper month | SerpApi Production — 15,000 | $150 | $25Pro | −83% | |
| 25,000 searchesper month | SerpApi Big Data — 30,000 | $275 | $80Ultra | −71% | |
| 70,000 searchesper month | SerpApi Searcher — 100,000 | $725 | $175Mega | −76% |
SerpApi list pricing read from serpapi.com/pricing on 9 August 2026. Dedicated plans are sold in fixed tiers, so the comparison uses the smallest tier that covers each volume — which is what you would actually have to buy.
Where we are honest about the trade-offs
Cheaper is not free of consequences. Here is what you give up.
Latency
We sit in front of the provider, so add a little overhead versus calling them directly. For batch and background work this is irrelevant; for hard real-time it may not be.
Surface area
We expose the endpoints most projects actually use, not every option the vendor ships. If you need a niche parameter, check the listing docs before you switch.
Support model
Support is through the RapidAPI listing and email, not a dedicated account manager. Every response carries a request ID, which is what makes that workable.
Questions
Is it really compatible with SerpApi?
Field for field on the core objects — search_metadata, search_parameters, organic_results, knowledge_graph, answer_box, related_questions. If you are already parsing SerpApi responses, change your base URL and your existing code keeps working.
Which engines are supported?
Google and its verticals (News, Images, Videos, Maps, Local, Shopping, Scholar, Jobs, Trends, Autocomplete, Lens, Patents, Play, Finance), Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, Naver, Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Home Depot, the Apple App Store, YouTube and Yelp. Parameters are forwarded rather than enumerated, so a newly supported engine works the day it appears.
How fresh are the results?
Identical queries are served from a short-lived cache whose window depends on the engine: 10–15 minutes for News and Trends, an hour for general web search, six hours for Maps, a day for Scholar. Send no_cache=1 to force a freshly fetched result at no extra cost.
How fast is a search?
Typically 5–7 seconds for a fresh Google query. That is normal for this category — a real search is being executed — but it is slower than an API that only returns ten links. If you need sub-second responses on every call, this is not the right tool.
Does one request return the whole first page?
Yes. A Google query returns 9–10 organic results plus every panel the page showed. News and Images return up to 100 items, Shopping 40, Maps 20 — all on a single request.
Try it on the free tier first
No card, no contract. Compare the output against what you use today before you switch anything.