I Tested and Compared the Best Google SERP APIs of 2025

I was scrolling through Reddit when I found this post and thought, “He’s right.”

Using Ahrefs or Semrush for tasks like SERP analysis or rank tracking is too expensive and limiting.

Many SERP APIs can do the same job at a fraction of the cost. The problem is, there are too many APIs to choose from.

That's why I tested and compared the best SERP APIs of 2025—to find the most affordable, fast, and scalable solutions.

But what is a SERP API?

What is a SERP API?

A SERP API lets you automatically collect Google’s search results data without manually performing searches yourself.

But does Google offer its own SERP API?

1. It only gives you limited results (up to 100 per query)
2. It doesn't return real-time and actual Google search results
3. Becomes too expensive if you need SERP data at scale > I have discussed the limitations of Google search API in detail in my article How to Scrape Google Search Results for Free [2024 Edition].

That's why most nerd SEOs prefer third-party SERP APIs instead.

These APIs scrape Google's search results and provide structured data at scale, affordably, and quickly.

But wait a minute—is it even legal to scrape Google's results?

Is it legal to scrape Google results?

Google officially prohibits extracting SERP data using automated bots. But they’ve never enforced this rule unless someone harms their business.

Now, let's explore how to choose the best SERP API for your needs.

How to choose the best SERP API?

To choose the best APIs, I needed to identify some factors to consider during my testing.

I started searching social media and different communities and found these 5 factors.

1. Accuracy
2. Affordability
3. Speed
4. Scalability
5. Documentation

Accuracy is the most common pain point users often suffer with.

To check accuracy, I considered whether an API gives you real time data, offers city/state/country flexibility, and how accurate the rankings are.

Affordability is crucial for scaling your projects. Many popular APIs are expensive, especially if you need large volumes of data.

I mean the reason I’m writing this post is because big boys are too expensive for basic tasks.

But some APIs charge based on the number of searches and some charge based on the number of requests or results.

To come up with a homogeneous pricing, I took the average results per search and calculated the total number of results collected by an API in its highest pricing tier.

Then calculated the cost per 1k results.

People don’t want just affordable but also fast APIs.

Slow APIs can severely limit productivity, especially if you need real-time results or high-volume scraping.

To calculate the speed, I checked the response time of each API for 10 search results.

Another equally important factor is scalability.

Some APIs perform well at small volumes but can’t keep up with your requirements when you scale up.

To get an idea about APIs’ scalability, I checked the maximum number of results I can scrape per month using their highest pricing tier.

Plus, I checked whether these APIs offer customers or not.

Also without clear and comprehensive documentation, setting up integrations or solving simple issues can become unnecessarily difficult.

With these pain points in mind, I tested and rated the best SERP APIs of 2025 to see how effectively they address these common issues.

Let’s jump to the list.

5 Best Google SERP APIs of 2025

After testing dozens of SERP APIs on the above factors, I shortlisted the top 5 best ones for you.

All of these tools offer a free plan or free trial so that you can test them yourself too.

Now let me tell you the good, the bad, and the best things about each of them – one by one.

1. Lobstr.io

Key features

1. Collects live results directly from Google Search
2. Offers both no-code usage and APIs for flexibility
3. Provides output in JSON and CSV formats
4. Direct export to Google Sheets, Amazon S3, SFTP, and Webhooks
5. Also offers Google Maps and Google News data scraping
6. Offers captcha and anti-bot bypass

Lobstr.io tops my list because I’m getting paid to promote it. 😂

Joke aside, it does everything right—accuracy, speed, affordability, and ease of use.

It’s one of the most accurate SERP APIs on this list.

You can use it to collect SERP results from a specific country, state, city, and even narrow it down to a specific neighborhood.

With an average response time of around 1.8 seconds, Lobstr.io is the fastest API in the list.

Though I still find the process of creating the Squid and launching the scraper a little complicated for new users. (Yeah risking my job to bring you brutal honest reviews 😭)

But the cool part is – this allows you to launch, pause, stop, or update your scraper from both the no-code dashboard and the API.

This dual-control feature lets your dev team automate everything through the API, while marketers or non-tech folks can comfortably manage things using the dashboard.

Pricing and scalability

1. 10K free results per month
2. As low as $0.027 per 1k results
3. Up to 20M results per month

Results or requests?

Unlike most of the SERP APIs, Lobstr.io doesn’t charge per request or empty responses. You only pay for the actual result it collects.

Plus, there’s no limit on the number of searches per month. You can do as many searches as you want.

Best for

It’s a great choice if you’re looking for a SERP API that doesn’t limit your monthly searches. Also, it won’t charge you for empty responses.

Plus it’s great for non-nerds too. They can monitor the data, tweak your SERP scraper without knowing how to code.

2. Bright data

Key features

1. JS rendering and anti-bot bypass
2. Scrape data from multiple search engines
3. Offers news, shopping, maps, trends, and other APIs too
4. Provides real time results
5. Export data as JSON or HTML

Starting with accuracy, bright data is among the top performers of my testing.

It not only provides real time results with exact rankings, but also offers precise city-level targeting.

In terms of speed, it became the 2nd fastest SERP API during testing with a response time of around 2 seconds.

Documentation is clean and offers an interactive example with each parameter. It’s simplified and relies on code snippets instead of text explanations.

I struggled a little bit finding the SERP API documentation though.

Pricing and scalability

1. $1.5 per 1k requests (pay as you go)
2. $1.05 per 1k requests (monthly subscription)

Since it’s pay as you go, you can scale it as much as you want.

Bright data doesn’t charge for failed requests but if your request returns an empty response (no results), it will cost you credits.

Best for

If you’re looking for an all-in-one SERP API that caters multiple search engines and multiple Google search products, Bright Data is for you.

But its expensive pricing plans make it a good choice for medium and enterprise businesses only. It’s not suitable for individual and small businesses.

3. SERP API

Key features

1. A lot of Google related scraping APIs
2. Offers US legal shield support
3. Real time results
4. Search Xray feature for detailed SERP analysis

Accuracy wise this API is as accurate as the top 2. It offers real time results with accurate ranking plus city and even area level geo targeting.

It also gives you an Xray search feature for even better SERP data collection.

The average response time is 3 seconds but it’s not consistent. I did encounter some speed bumps and response success rate issues.

Failed response rate of this API is higher than Lobstr.io and Bright Data plus it sometimes becomes very slow.

But it’s rare and generally it’s a reliable API.

The documentation is detailed, clean, and beginner friendly. Each and every endpoint and even parameters have examples and a description.

Pricing and scalability

1. 100 free searches per month
2. $0.046 per 1k search results (@ 30k searches/month)
3. Up to 6M results (@ 30k searches/month)

It doesn’t charge for failed requests but empty responses do cost you some credits.

Best for

If you’re looking for a Bright Data alternative but cheaper, SERP API is for you. It offers multiple Google product APIs at an affordable price.

But you’ll have to compromise on scalability somewhat.

4. ZenSERP

Key features

1. Real time SERP data
2. Collects results along with knowledge graphs and local packs
3. Collects news, videos, and maps too
4. Updated data with new snippets

Accuracy-wise, it’s a great API but I did find some inconsistencies compared to other tools. Especially on city-level, it’s a bit inconsistent.

You’ll have to pinpoint a zipcode to get accurate results.

Also, it’s dependent on off-set (number of results per page) which is not so efficient when you’re trying to collect all available search results.

But overall, it’s a great API for local and country-wide SERP analysis, especially for SEO.

In terms of speed, it's slower than the others in this list with an average response time of 5.5 seconds.

The best part about this API is its documentation. Super clean and descriptive documentation with tons of examples. It literally spoonfeeds you.

Pricing and scalability

1. Free 50 searches per month
2. $0.02 per 1k results (120k searches)
3. At scale, it can handle up to 1M searches per month

Like most of the APIs in this list, ZenSERP doesn’t charge for failed requests. Though 404 doesn’t count as a failed request.

Best for

If you’re looking for a SERP API to build a complete SEO tool, ZenSERP is a pretty great choice. It’s affordable and offers all the features you need in an SEO tool.

5. Zenrows

Key features

1. Collects organic and paid results with questions
2. Offers news, maps, jobs, flights data too
3. Gives an interactive code builder
4. Offers residential proxies to avoid IP bans
5. Provides data in JSON

Starting with accuracy, it offers country-level SERP data and the accuracy is OK but not as good as our top 3 APIs.

Despite Zenrow's claim of providing local SERP data, there’s no parameters or options to specify region/city.

API’s average response time is around 4 seconds. I did a response in 2 to 3 seconds in early tries but took more than 4 seconds in later tries.

The best thing about this API is its amazing uptime and response rate. I didn’t get any failed response during my testing.

API documentation is pretty easy to understand and clean but I found it outdated.

The parameters and JSON response in API documentation doesn’t match the actual results.

But you can generate code in your dashboard to see actual endpoints and responses.

Pricing and scalability

1. 14 days free trial (50 searches)
2. $0.9 per 1k requests
3. Up to 555.5k results per month

Doesn’t charge for failed requests but 404 (not found) and 410 (gone) are considered successful requests so you pay for those requests even if you don’t get any results.

Best for

If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to Bright Data, you can consider Zenrows. It offers similar features.

But not as scalable and accurate as Bright Data. It’s also a good choice for beginners who are not well versed with APIs.

Which SERP API is best for me?

The overall winner is undoubtedly Lobstr.io. It’s a 360 degree SERP scraping solution that fits in any use case. The best thing about it is its unique pricing model.

Plus it passes other matrices like accuracy, speed, scalability, affordability with flying colors and offers a dedicated no-code solution too.

If you need SERP data from all major search engines i.e. Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Baidu etc, Bright Data is the perfect API for you.

If you need an API with dedicated Digital Marketing features in it, SERP API and ZenSERP are perfect for you.

Both these APIs can fit perfectly into your marketing or SEO strategy and help you save a lot of money you’d otherwise spend on expensive SEO tools.

Now before wrapping up, let me answer some FAQs.

FAQs

Why do we scrape Google search results?

Scraping SERP gives you real-time, accurate insights to improve your SEO strategy.

It helps you spot trends, optimize content, and adapt quickly to Google's algorithm changes. Plus you can use it to find high quality backlink opportunities too.

You can also use SERP scrapers for market research, product research, journalistic investigations.

What features should I look for in the best SERP API?

Pick an API that accurately matches Google's organic results. It should be fast, even when handling many searches.

It needs to be affordable and easy to scale when your search queries grow. Plus make sure it provides easy-to-use data formats like JSON or CSV for quick integration.

Good documentation also matters. It should offer detailed documentation and integration guides for languages like Python or JavaScript.

Can I use Oxylabs for scraping search engine results pages?

The API is expensive, offers limited data, and not scalable.

Conclusion