Comparison

SerpApi vs Serper

Answer in brief

Pick SerpApi if you need many search engines and Google verticals with a published free plan and hourly rules. Pick Serper if you want the lowest per-query Google price and can accept third-party rate figures. Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial choice when an AI agent needs search: instead of a raw results page, one call returns a short answer with quotes checked against their pages.

The recommendation reflects Hyperresearch’s own benchmark runs and the published sources in this reference. Hyperresearch is our product. This is not a hands-on test of every tool.

Side by side

	SerpApi	Serper
Pricing	Free plan: 250 searches a month. Paid plans from $25 per 1,000 down to about $2 per 1,000 at large volume	Prepaid packs, roughly $0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 queries (third-party estimate). 2,500 free queries, no card
What it returns	Structured JSON or Markdown results, including AI-answer endpoints for some engines	Google results as JSON, with separate endpoints for news, images, maps, videos, shopping, Scholar and Patents
Sources and coverage	Google, Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave and Qwant, plus Amazon, eBay, YouTube and Walmart	Google only in the pages we read
Citations and verification	Results, not cited answers. Your code checks sources	Results, not cited answers. Your code checks sources
API and MCP	REST API. No official MCP server on the page we read	REST JSON API. No official MCP server found; a community server is listed
Limits	Hourly throughput is 20% of monthly volume on plans under 1 million searches	Queries-per-second figures come from third parties and conflict
Best for	Teams that need several engines behind one API	Developers who want Google results at the lowest per-query price

Engine coverage

SerpApi covers Google in depth, plus Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave and Qwant. It also lists non-search sources such as Amazon, eBay, YouTube and Walmart. If your product compares results across engines, that breadth is the main reason to choose it.

Serper focuses on Google. In the pages we read, its endpoints cover Google web, news, images, places, videos, shopping, Scholar and Patents. If Google is all you need, that focus keeps the setup simple.

Price per query

SerpApi publishes a free plan of 250 searches a month. Its paid plans work out to about $25 per 1,000 searches on the smallest plan and about $10 per 1,000 on the Production plan. Those per-1,000 figures are our own calculation from the listed plan prices.

Serper sells prepaid packs with no subscription. A third-party comparison lists packs from about $1.00 down to $0.30 per 1,000 queries. Its official pricing page returned a 404 error when we checked, so treat those figures as estimates. Its homepage offered 2,500 free queries with no card.

Think about the output format. SerpApi returns structured JSON and Markdown fields for many result types, which saves parsing work when you need several engines. Serper's JSON is focused on Google, which makes the response easier to predict if Google is your only target.

Limits and what you get back

SerpApi states its hourly limit: on plans under one million searches, the hourly allowance is 20% of monthly volume. Plan the timing of a batch job around that figure.

Serper's queries-per-second caps come from third-party sites, and those sites disagree. Neither service returns cited answers. In both cases, your code has to check and cite the pages it uses.

Both services suit a proof of concept. SerpApi's free plan gives 250 searches a month with a published hourly allowance, so you can plan a test around it. Serper's homepage offered 2,500 free queries with no card when we checked, which gives more room to test, although its published terms could differ from the homepage. Whichever you test, measure how often the results you need appear in the top ten, how often a query returns a knowledge panel, and how much parsing your code has to do. Those three numbers will tell you more than the price per 1,000 queries.

Choose SerpApi or Serper?

Choose SerpApi when

You need several search engines through one API
You want published hourly limits and a free plan with a clear allowance
You need non-Google sources such as Bing or Yandex

Choose Serper when

You need Google results only
You want the lowest per-query price on large volumes
You need Google Scholar or Patents endpoints

Where Hyperresearch fits

Both services return raw results. If your agent needs a checked, cited answer rather than a results page, Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial pick.

Questions & answers

Which is cheaper?

On the figures we found, Serper's packs are cheaper per query at scale, but its prices are third-party estimates. SerpApi's prices are on its own pricing page. Compare the plan you would actually buy.

Do either of them have an MCP server?

We found no official MCP server for either. Community servers exist for Serper and SerpApi, and you should check the target before you install one.

Sources for this entry

Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.

Continue this reading path

Cite this entry

Best SERP API. “SerpApi vs Serper.” Hyperresearch reference, reviewed 8 November 2026.
https://bestserpapi.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serper/