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SerpApi

by SerpApi, LLC · API service · also known as Serp API, Google Search Results API

API that returns live search-engine result pages from Google and other engines as structured JSON, with localization, device and search-type parameters

ProprietaryFreemiumPaidEnterpriseCloud
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

SerpApi is a hosted API that performs real-time searches on Google and other engines and returns the result page parsed into structured JSON (raw HTML and Markdown are also available). Parameters control query, geographic location, language, device type, pagination and search vertical, and separate endpoints cover Google Images, News, Shopping, Maps, Scholar, Patents, Books and newer surfaces such as AI Mode, alongside other engines. Cached results are not charged against the monthly quota, and plans are monthly subscriptions sized by search volume with a free tier and enterprise options; faster response tiers are sold as add-ons.

Client libraries exist for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Java, Go and other languages (the Python client is MIT-licensed). SerpApi is widely used for SEO rank tracking, market and price monitoring, academic collection of search results and as a search tool in agent frameworks such as LangChain.

It is proprietary and depends on scraping third-party engines, so result structures can change when those engines change their pages, and users are responsible for how they use the collected data.

Capabilities

  • Structured JSON for Google web, images, news, shopping, maps and scholar results
  • Support for additional search engines
  • Localization by country, language and device
  • Raw HTML and Markdown output options
  • Client libraries in many languages
  • Result caching that does not consume quota

Typical workflows

  1. Track rankings for a keyword set across locations
  2. Collect Google Scholar results for a literature study
  3. Provide a search tool to a LangChain agent

Strengths

  • Mature, well-documented parsing of many result types
  • Fine-grained localization controls
  • Broad SDK coverage

Limitations

  • Proprietary and dependent on third-party engines
  • Result schemas change when engines change
  • Subscription sized by volume rather than pure pay-per-use

Prerequisites

  • API key

Who it is for

  • SEO and market analysts
  • Researchers collecting search results
  • Agent developers

Alternatives & comparison

  • Brave Search API

    Developer API over Brave's independent web index offering web, news, image, video, LLM-context and grounded-answer endpoints on prepaid credits

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Bright Data

    Web data platform combining residential, datacenter and ISP proxy networks with unblocking, SERP and scraper APIs, remote browsers, ready-made datasets and an MCP server

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Exa

    Search API for AI agents built on Exa's own web index, offering search, page contents, deep research and asynchronous agent endpoints with Python and JavaScript SDKs

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Tavily

    Web search, extraction, crawling and research API designed for LLM agents, returning concise source content with SDKs, framework integrations and a hosted MCP server

    ProprietaryFreemium
Compare SerpApi with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • Official documentation
    Google Search Engine Results API

    https://serpapi.com/search-api

    Supports: capabilities, data_formats, description

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    SerpApi

    https://serpapi.com/

    Supports: name, summary

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Pricing page
    SerpApi pricing

    https://serpapi.com/pricing

    Supports: pricing_model

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Repository
    serpapi/google-search-results-python

    https://github.com/serpapi/google-search-results-python

    Supports: languages

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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