Best SERP APIs in 2026: Official Google Alternatives & Third-Party Providers

The digital landscape thrives on data, and search engine results pages (SERPs) are at the core of online discovery. They serve as the gateway to vast amounts of information and insights, making them essential for developers, digital marketers, and SEO professionals.

Whether you're looking to enhance your SEO strategy or simply curious about how search results are aggregated, this article will guide you through the reality of an official Google SERP API and explore alternative solutions.

Key Takeaways

• Google doesn't offer an official SERP API, but alternative options include official search engine APIs (DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yandex) or third-party scraping services
• Third-party SERP API pricing ranges from $0.30/1K (Serper) to $15/1K (SerpApi) with response times between 1.8s and 4s
• Serper (1.8s) and Search API (~2s) are the fastest providers for user-facing applications
• Search API offers $2M legal protection while SerpApi operates under hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn precedent for compliance-focused companies
• Free tiers are available to test your use case with Serper (2,500 searches/mo), HasData (100 searches/mo), or DataForSEO ($1 credit)

In this article, we compare official alternatives, review third-party SERP APIs with verified benchmarks, and provide a decision framework for choosing the right solution.

Four Ways to Access SERP Data

Before diving deep, here's a high-level overview of your options for accessing search engine results programmatically:

Key Decision Point: Need Google results specifically? → Third-party SERP APIs or universal scrapers. Okay with alternative engines (Brave, Yandex)? → Official APIs are simpler and often cheaper.

Now let's explore each option in detail, starting with the fundamentals.

What is SERP?

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page, which is the listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a query. These pages include organic results, paid advertisements, and various rich snippets that help users quickly identify relevant content. The term serp api refers to tools or services designed to programmatically access and parse these search results.

Now that you understand what SERPs are, let’s investigate the possibility of an official Google SERP API.

Is There an Official Google SERP API?

Despite high demand, Google has not released an official API dedicated solely to accessing its SERP data. Instead, developers often rely on workarounds or third-party solutions to extract the information.

Why Isn't there an Official API for Google SERP?

There are several key business, technical, and legal reasons why Google has not released an official SERP API:

Business & Monetization Reasons:

1. Advertising Revenue Protection – Google's business model heavily relies on advertising revenue from search results. A SERP API could undermine this by allowing users to bypass ads and extract data without engaging with the ad ecosystem.

2. Search Traffic Control – Directing users through official Google interfaces ensures they see ads, related searches, and other monetization features that wouldn't exist in raw API responses.

Technical Complexity:

3. Dynamic & Personalized Results – Google customizes search results based on user location, search history, device type, time of day, and hundreds of other signals. An API would struggle to replicate this personalization accurately, potentially delivering inferior results.

4. Infrastructure Load – Google processes billions of searches daily. Opening a public SERP API would massively increase server load from automated requests, requiring significant infrastructure investment.

Strategic Alternatives:

5. Steering Users to Official Tools – Instead of a SERP API, Google offers tools that align with its business model: Search Console API for webmasters and Google Ads API for advertisers.

Historical Context:

Interestingly, Google did offer a Web Search API from 2006-2011, but deprecated it due to low usage relative to maintenance costs. The Custom Search JSON API still exists but only searches custom indexes, not the full Google web index.

The Legal Gray Area:

This absence has created a thriving ecosystem of third-party SERP APIs that scrape Google search results. While this technically violates Google's Terms of Service, there's legal precedent suggesting scraping publicly accessible data may be permissible:

• The hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn case (2019) established that scraping publicly available data doesn't violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• Third-party SERP services argue they only access public data without authentication, similar to how a browser would.
• Google hasn't aggressively pursued legal action against SERP API providers, suggesting practical tolerance despite ToS violations.

How Third-Party Services Navigate This:

Reputable SERP API providers operate in this gray area by:

• Only accessing publicly available search results (no authentication required)
• Respecting robots.txt and rate limits to avoid server strain
• Using residential proxies and browser fingerprinting to appear as normal users
• Some (like SerpApi) even offer Legal US Shield programs to protect customers from liability

This legal ambiguity is why millions of businesses use third-party SERP APIs daily for legitimate purposes like SEO analysis, market research, and competitive intelligence, despite the technical ToS violation.

Now that we understand why there's no official Google SERP API and the landscape this creates, let's explore your alternatives.

Alternative Official SERP APIs

There are several reputable alternatives for accessing search results data. Each API comes with its own strengths, pricing models, and unique features that cater to different needs. Let’s explore these options in detail.

Bing Search API (Retiring August 2025)

Important: Microsoft announced that Bing Search APIs will be retired on August 11, 2025. All existing instances will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available for use or new customer signup.

Microsoft encourages users to migrate to Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents, which allows Azure AI Agents to incorporate real-time public web data when generating responses with an LLM.

What this means for developers:

• No new signups after the retirement date
• Existing subscriptions will be discontinued
• Migration to Azure AI Agents required for continued Bing-powered search functionality

If you're currently using Bing Search API, plan your migration to alternative solutions before August 2025. Let's explore other available alternatives.

DuckDuckGo API

The DuckDuckGo API is an unofficial, zero-click information API that delivers quick, concise answers rather than full search result pages. Since it isn't an officially supported API, there is no formal documentation available. Moreover, as a Zero-click Info API, it is optimized for delivering instant answers for well-known topics, and most deep or non-topic-specific queries may return blank responses.

• Unofficial API: No formal documentation or official support.
• Zero-click Info API: Delivers instant answers for recognized topics; deeper, non-topic queries may yield no results.
• Simple Access: Access it with a GET request at:
  https://api.duckduckgo.com/?q=serp+api&format=json

Example Using Python

import requests

def duckduckgo_search(query):
    url = "https://api.duckduckgo.com/"
    params = {
        'q': query,
        'format': 'json',
    }
    response = requests.get(url, params=params)
    return response.json()

# Example usage
result = duckduckgo_search("Python programming")
print(result)

In this example, we define a function duckduckgo_search that takes a search query as input and sends a GET request to the DuckDuckGo API endpoint. The parameters specify that the response should be in JSON format The function returns the JSON response, which contains the instant answer if available.

Now that you understand DuckDuckGo’s approach, let’s examine another alternative with a regional focus.

Yandex Search API

Yandex Search API caters specifically to projects targeting the Russian market or regions where Yandex is dominant. Although it requires an approval process and has a more limited feature set compared to other options, it remains a viable choice for localized search solutions.

• Approval Process:
  Requires registration and approval to access the API.
• Limited Feature Set:
  Offers a more restricted set of functionalities.
• Region-Specific Utility:
  Ideal for projects focused on the Russian market.

Example Using Python

import requests
import json

url = "https://searchapi.api.cloud.yandex.net/v2/web/searchAsync"

headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_IAM_TOKEN",  # Replace with your actual IAM token
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

body = {
    "query": {
        "searchType": "<search_type>",
        "queryText": "<search_query_text>",
        "familyMode": "<result_filter_setting_value>",
        "page": "<page_number>",
        "fixTypoMode": "<typo_correction_mode_setting_value>"
    },
    "sortSpec": {
        "sortMode": "<result_sorting_rule>",
        "sortOrder": "<sort_order_of_results>"
    },
    "groupSpec": {
        "groupMode": "<result_grouping_method>",
        "groupsOnPage": "<number_of_groups_per_page>",
        "docsInGroup": "<number_of_documents_per_group>"
    },
    "maxPassages": "<maximum_number_of_passages>",
    "region": "<region_ID>",
    "l10N": "<notification_language>",
    "folderId": "<folder_ID>",
    "responseFormat": "<result_format>",
    "userAgent": "<User-Agent_header>"
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=body)

# Print the JSON response from the API
print(response.json())

In the above code, we use Python's requests library to send a POST request to the Yandex Search API endpoint. The headers dictionary contains the Authorization header (with your IAM token) and the Content-Type header. The body variable holds the JSON payload. Finally, the response is parsed and printed in JSON format.

For detailed guidelines, visit the Yandex Search API Documentation.

Now that you’ve seen how Yandex fits into the picture, let’s review the final alternative

Brave Search API

Brave Search API is a premium, subscription-based service that emphasizes user privacy and independent search results. It is designed for users who require scalable and reliable search data, making it a strong choice for projects where privacy and detailed insights are paramount.

• Paid Service:
  Subscription-based access ensures premium service levels.
• Comprehensive Data:
  Offers detailed search data with advanced filtering options.
• Privacy-Focused:
  Emphasizes independent search results and user privacy.

Example Using Python

import requests

# Define the API endpoint and your search query
url = "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search"
query = "brave search"

# Set up the headers, including your API key
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Accept-Encoding": "gzip",
    "X-Subscription-Token": "YOUR_API_KEY"  # Replace with your actual API key
}

# Set up the query parameters
params = {"q": query}

# Send the GET request to the Brave Search API
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)

In this script, we define the API endpoint and the search query. The headers dictionary includes the necessary headers, such as Accept, Accept-Encoding, and X-Subscription-Token, which is your API key. The params dictionary contains the query parameters, with 'q' set to your search term. We then send a GET request to the Brave Search API using requests.get().

Learn more by visiting the Brave Search API page.

Comparison of Official Search Engine APIs

Below is a detailed comparison table with current pricing and best use cases:

Pricing verified as of November 2025. Check provider websites for current rates.

When to Use Official APIs:

• You're okay with search results from Brave or Yandex instead of Google
• Lower budget ($0-$50/month range)
• Simpler ToS compliance (no legal gray area)
• Geographic targeting for Russian markets (Yandex)

When Official APIs Fall Short:

• You specifically need Google search results
• You need rich SERP features (People Also Ask, knowledge graphs, etc.)
• You require geo-targeting across multiple countries
• You need high volume (>100K searches/month)

For these Google-specific needs, third-party SERP APIs fill the gap. Let's explore them next.

Third-Party SERP API Providers

The absence of an official Google SERP API has created a thriving market of third-party services that scrape Google search results and return structured, parsed data via API. This section covers the leading providers, their pricing, performance characteristics, and when each makes sense.

SerpApi

Pricing: Developer tier starts at $75/month for 5,000 searches ($0.015 per search). Higher tiers scale to $0.005 per search at volume.

Performance: Average response time of ~2.5 seconds for Google searches with full SERP feature extraction.

Key Strengths:

• Legal US Shield: Operates under hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn precedent protection
• 80+ search engines in one API (Google, Amazon, YouTube, Walmart, eBay, etc.)
• Comprehensive SERP features: Knowledge graphs, People Also Ask, Shopping results, etc.

Best Use Case: Enterprise-grade applications requiring legal compliance, multi-engine coverage, and reliable uptime.

Serper

Pricing: Starting at $50/month for 50,000 searches (~$0.001 per search). At scale, pricing drops to $0.30 per 1,000 searches.

Performance: Industry-leading 1-2 second average response time.

Key Strengths:

• Lowest cost per search among major providers
• Fastest response times in the industry
• Simple API with minimal learning curve

Best Use Case: High-volume applications where speed and cost efficiency are critical (e.g., real-time SERP monitoring, large-scale SEO tools).

DataForSEO

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go starting at $0.60 per 1,000 results (Standard), $1.20/1K (Priority), $2.00/1K (Live mode).

Performance: Average 3-6 seconds depending on mode (task-based vs live).

Key Strengths:

• Task-based architecture for bulk operations
• Integrated SEO toolkit (SERP + backlinks + keywords)
• Flexible pricing with no monthly minimums

Best Use Case: SEO agencies and marketing platforms needing combined SERP, backlink, and keyword data in one provider.

HasData

Pricing: Free tier with 100 searches/month, starting at $49/month for 20,000 searches ($2.45 per 1K), scaling to $0.83 per 1K at 300K searches/month.

Performance: Reliable response times with built-in anti-bot protection and JavaScript rendering.

Key Strengths:

• Free tier for testing (100 searches/month, no credit card required)
• Comprehensive anti-bot bypass (CAPTCHA handling, user-agent rotation, WAF bypass)
• Flexible subscription modifications allowed anytime

Best Use Case: Teams needing reliable SERP data with strong anti-bot protection at mid-range volumes.

Search API

Pricing: Pay-per-success model starting at $40/month for 10,000 searches ($4 per 1K), scaling to $1 per 1K at 5M searches/month.

Performance: Real-time results delivered in seconds with 99.9% SLA guarantee across all plans.

Key Strengths:

• Legal Protection Guarantee with up to $2M coverage
• 99.9% SLA across all plans for enterprise reliability
• Premium proxy infrastructure with 20M+ global proxies

Best Use Case: Companies requiring legal protection, SLA guarantees, and enterprise-grade reliability for production applications.

Comparing Dedicated SERP APIs

Here's how the major dedicated SERP API providers compare:

Pricing verified as of November 2025. Check provider websites for current rates.

Key Insights:

• Speed vs Cost: Serper leads on both dimensions (sub-2s, <$1/1K at scale)
• Best Value: DataForSEO at $60/100K is cheapest for low-medium volume; HasData offers good balance at $99/100K with anti-bot features
• Compliance: SerpApi's legal shield and Search API's $2M legal protection justify premium pricing for regulated industries
• Multi-Engine: SerpApi's 80+ search engines (Google, Bing, Amazon, YouTube) vs single-engine competitors

Scrape Google SERPs with Scrapfly

While dedicated SERP APIs (SerpApi, Serper, DataForSEO) excel at search results, many projects need to scrape multiple data sources beyond just SERP. For example:

• E-commerce intelligence: SERP data + product pages + competitor pricing
• Content aggregation: SERP data + article scraping + social media
• Market research: SERP data + review sites + industry directories

Scrapfly is a universal web scraping platform that can scrape any website, including Google SERPs, using automatic AI-powered extraction models. Instead of integrating multiple APIs (one for SERP, one for products, one for articles), Scrapfly provides a single API endpoint for all sources.

When Scrapfly Makes Sense for SERP Scraping

Choose Scrapfly if:

• You need SERP data AND data from other sources (e-commerce, articles, social media)
• You want structured data without writing custom parsers (extraction models handle this)
• You're building a data aggregation platform requiring diverse web data sources
• You need flexibility to scrape any website, not just search engines

Choose dedicated SERP APIs if:

• You only scrape search engine results (no other websites)
• You need historical SERP data or rank tracking features
• You want SERP-specific optimizations (like SerpApi's 80+ engines)

Scrapfly's Search Engine Results Extraction Model

Scrapfly includes a pre-built search_engine_results extraction model that automatically:

• Extracts organic results, ads, People Also Ask, knowledge graphs
• Handles JavaScript rendering and anti-bot bypass automatically
• Returns structured JSON without custom parsing code
• Works with Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines

Example: Scrape Google SERP with automatic extraction

This example uses the Scrapfly Python SDK to scrape Google search results using the Search Engine Results Extraction Model:

from scrapfly import ScrapflyClient, ScrapeConfig

scrapfly = ScrapflyClient(key="YOUR-SCRAPFLY-KEY")

result = scrapfly.scrape(ScrapeConfig(
    url="https://www.google.com/search?q=web+scraping+tools",
    extraction_model="search_engine_results",  # Auto-extract SERP features
    country="us",                              # Geo-target results
    format="json",                             # Return structured JSON
    render_js=True,                            # Handle JavaScript
    asp=True,                                  # Anti-scraping protection bypass
))

# Structured data automatically extracted - no parsing needed
serp_data = result.content
print(f"Found {len(serp_data['organic_results'])} organic results")
print(f"First result: {serp_data['organic_results'][0]['title']}")

Response structure (automatically extracted):

{
  "organic_results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "Top 10 Web Scraping Tools in 2025",
      "url": "https://example.com/scraping-tools",
      "description": "Comprehensive guide to the best web scraping tools...",
      "date": "2025-01-15"
    }
  ],
  "ads": [...],
  "people_also_ask": [...],
  "related_searches": [...]
}

Key advantages:

• No parsing code required: Extraction model handles schema changes automatically
• Multi-source ready: Same API scrapes product pages, articles, any website
• Development time savings: 30+ minutes saved per SERP structure vs writing custom parsers

Pricing: Starts at $30/month for 2M API credits. SERP scraping with extraction model costs ~5 credits per search, giving you ~400K SERP searches or mixed usage across multiple data sources.

For SERP-only projects at high volume, dedicated APIs like Serper ($0.30/1K) or DataForSEO ($0.60/1K) offer better per-search pricing. But for multi-source scraping, Scrapfly's single API eliminates integration overhead and provides better overall value.

Web Scraping Google SERPs using Python

Below is a Python code snippet that demonstrates how to fetch and parse Google SERP data:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Send a GET request to Google with a custom user-agent header and proper language parameters
url = "https://www.google.com/search?q=serp+api"
headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0", "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9"}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

# Parse the HTML content using BeautifulSoup
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

# Extract and print all search result titles using a CSS selector that targets Google's search result titles
titles = [tag.get_text() for tag in soup.select("div.yuRUbf > a > h3")]
print(titles)

In the above code, we initiate a GET request to Google by including a user-agent header to mimic a browser. The response HTML is parsed with BeautifulSoup, and we extract the text from all <h3> tags, which typically contain the titles of search results.

Important: This basic example demonstrates the scraping concept but will likely be blocked by Google's anti-bot protection in production. For reliable SERP scraping, use:

• Dedicated SERP APIs (Serper, SerpApi, DataForSEO) for Google-specific results
• Scrapfly with extraction models for multi-source scraping needs
• Advanced scraping techniques with rotating proxies and browser fingerprinting if building a custom solution

Calculate Your True Cost

Pricing for SERP APIs varies dramatically based on volume, and "cheap per search" doesn't always mean "best value." Here's how to calculate your true cost based on realistic usage scenarios.

Pricing Breakdown by Volume

The table below shows actual monthly cost for different usage levels across major providers:

Pricing verified as of November 2025. Check provider websites for current rates.

Key Observations:

1. Volume Is King: At 10K searches/month, DataForSEO costs $6. At 1M searches/month, Search API ($1,500) and DataForSEO ($600) are significantly cheaper than SerpApi ($7,000).

2. Free Tiers Matter: Serper offers 2,500 free searches/month; HasData offers 100 free searches/month; DataForSEO gives $1 in free credits. These eliminate costs for small projects.

3. Pricing Models: Most providers use tiered pricing that rewards volume. DataForSEO and Serper offer the most predictable pay-as-you-go models.

Hidden Pricing Factors

Beyond per-search costs, watch for these pricing nuances:

1. JavaScript Rendering Fees:

• Most modern Google SERPs require JS rendering
• Some providers (ScraperAPI) charge extra credits for JavaScript
• Serper/SerpApi include JS rendering in base price

2. CAPTCHA Solving:

• HasData includes automatic CAPTCHA solving in all plans
• Others may fail requests or charge extra for CAPTCHA retries

3. Historical Data Access:

• SerpApi charges premium for accessing past SERP results
• DataForSEO historical data costs $2-$5 per 1,000 results

4. Overage Penalties:

• Credit-based systems (SerpApi, ScraperAPI) can surprise you with overage charges
• Pay-as-you-go systems (DataForSEO, Serper) are more predictable

Choosing Based on Budget

Tight Budget (<$100/month):

• Best: Serper free tier (2,500 searches) or DataForSEO pay-as-you-go
• Alternative: Build DIY scraper if you have development time

Mid-Market ($100-$1,000/month):

• Best: Serper or DataForSEO for pure SERP scraping
• Alternative: Scrapfly if you need multi-source scraping (SERP + products + articles)

Enterprise ($1,000+/month):

• Best: DataForSEO or Search API for best cost at scale
• Alternative: SerpApi for multi-engine support and legal compliance

FAQ

Below are quick answers to common questions about using SERP APIs and scraping Google search results:

What is a SERP API?

A SERP API allows developers to access search engine results programmatically, streamlining the process of data extraction for analysis and SEO optimization. SERP APIs scrape search engine results and return structured data one of such examples is Scrapfly's web scraping API

Can I rely on third-party APIs for Google SERP data?

Yes, while Google lacks an official API, several third-party and alternative APIs provide reliable access to search data for various needs.

What are some Google SERP alternatives

The best value alternative depends on your specific requirements: DuckDuckGo offers limited SERP data for free, Yandex is region-specific with low-cost official API, and Brave Search provides a privacy-focused independent index. Note that Bing Search API is retiring in August 2025.

Are there free SERP APIs available?

Yes, several options provide free tiers or free access to SERP data:

Free Tiers:

• Serper: 2,500 free searches/month (no credit card required)
• DataForSEO: $1 in free credits (~1,667 searches at $0.60/1K)
• Google Custom Search API: 100 queries/day for custom search indexes only
• ValueSerp: 100 free searches/month (community tier)

Unofficial Free APIs:

• DuckDuckGo Instant Answer API: Free (no rate limits published) for zero-click answers, not full SERP data

Important limitations: Free tiers typically restrict volume, features, or commercial use. For production applications scraping >10K searches/month, paid plans are necessary.

Recommendation: Start with Serper's 2,500 free searches to test your use case, then evaluate paid options based on actual volume needs.

Should I use a third-party SERP API or build my own scraper?

Use a third-party API if:

• You're scraping <1M searches/month (API cost is lower than development time)
• You need structured data and don't want to maintain parsers (Google changes SERP layout frequently)
• You lack in-house scraping expertise (proxies, anti-bot bypass, CAPTCHA solving)
• You need reliability with SLAs for production applications

Build your own scraper if:

• You're scraping >1M searches/month AND have engineering resources (DIY becomes cost-effective at scale)
• You need extreme customization that APIs don't support
• You already have scraping infrastructure for other purposes
• You have dedicated engineers to maintain scrapers when Google changes SERP structure

ROI reality: Building a production-grade SERP scraper costs ~$11,500 in the first 6 months (development + proxies + maintenance). Even expensive APIs like SerpApi break even within 6-12 months when factoring in opportunity cost.

For most teams, third-party APIs are the better choice. Only large-scale operations (1M+ searches/month) with in-house expertise should consider DIY.

Summary

Google does not offer an official SERP API, creating a choice between official search engine alternatives (DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yandex) and third-party SERP scraping services.

Official APIs like Brave Search API ($3-$5/1K searches) and Yandex ($0.25-$4/1K) provide legitimate access to alternative search engines, but cannot access Google's search results. They're best for projects that don't specifically require Google data or need legal certainty. Note: Bing Search API is retiring August 11, 2025.

Third-party SERP APIs (SerpApi, Serper, DataForSEO, HasData, Search API) scrape Google and return structured data via API. While they violate Google's ToS, they operate under legal precedent (hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn) and handle compliance risk on behalf of customers.

For most developers, dedicated SERP APIs provide better value than DIY scraping. Start with free tiers (Serper: 2,500 searches, DataForSEO: $1 credit) to test your use case, then scale based on actual volume needs.