SerpApi vs Serper vs CrustAPI
Benchmarks, public pricing, and receipts for all three.
→ serpapi: 100+ APIs beyond Google + a U.S. Legal Shield on bigger plans, at $9 to $25 per 1,000
→ crustapi: credits never expire, empties are free, $1.96 falling to $0.40 per 1,000
! we build CrustAPI, so check the receipts instead of trusting us
SerpApi vs Serper, side by side
| SerpApi | Serper | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly subscription | Prepaid, expires in 6 months | Prepaid, never expires |
| Entry price per 1,000 searches | $25 (Starter) | $1.00 ($50 / 50k) | $1.96 ($49 / 25k), to $0.40 at scale |
| Free tier | 250 / month | 2,500 once | 3,000 / month, no card |
| Unused credits | Quota resets monthly | Expire after 6 months | Still yours, forever |
| Empty results | Count against quota | 1 credit (we tested) | Free |
| Web speed, our July 11 runs | 2.18s median, 0.8 to 4.7s spread | 1.08s median | 1.05 to 1.35s median |
| Images per credit | ~100 per search | 10 default, 50 at best | ~100, in 1.7s |
| Maps data | Lean place fields | Lean place fields | Counts, hours, sites, stars |
| Engines beyond Google | 100+ APIs (Bing, Baidu, eBay, more) | Google only | Google only, on purpose |
| U.S. Legal Shield (scraping liability cover) | Yes, with the Production Plan and above | No | No |
| AI Overview field | Yes | No | Not yet |
| Agent tooling | MCP (hosted) + IDE plugins | None official | MCP, CLI, x402 agent self-pay |
Figures from SerpApi's and serper's public pages plus our paid probes of both APIs, July 11 to 12, 2026. Anything stale? Email support@crustapi.com and we'll fix it.
The receipts
One billing quirk per rival, found by testing real accounts. Both raw benchmark files are linked below the cards.
Raw timings, billing probes, and the exact scripts: the serper file and the SerpApi file. Re-run them yourself.
60,000 searches over a year
A common mid-size workload: 5,000 searches a month, bursty. Here's what each API bills for it.
$75 x 12, whether you run the searches or not.
Buys 100,000, but the unused 40,000 expire on the six-month clock.
50,000 that never expire, and the free 3,000 a month covers the rest.
Dollar totals put serper and us in the same band, an order cheaper than the subscription. The difference is what survives: their leftovers burn, ours wait for your next project.
How much does CrustAPI cost?
1 credit per successful search, and a search that returns nothing is free. Maps is the exception: it bills 1 credit per business returned.
| Pack | Price | Per 1,000 searches |
|---|---|---|
| 3,000 credits every month | Free, no card | $0 |
| 25,000 credits | $49 | $1.96 |
| 100,000 credits | $149 | $1.49 |
| 500,000 credits | $549 | $1.10 |
| 2.5 million credits | $1,999 | $0.80 |
Packs continue up to 250 million credits for $100,000, which is $0.40 per 1,000. Prices ex-tax.
Credits never expire, so a quiet month costs you nothing later.
How do you get started?
- 1
Create a free account. You get 3,000 credits a month, no card needed.
- 2
Type a search in the playground. The JSON and a flat table show up right away.
- 3
Copy your key and run the curl. One endpoint covers thirteen Google surfaces; the swap example is below.
When to pick each one
Pick SerpApi when
You need engines beyond Google (100+ APIs including Bing, Baidu, and eBay), your legal team requires their U.S. Legal Shield (Production Plan and above), or you want an AI Overview field today.
Pick serper when
You run a steady, high-volume, web-only firehose and reliably burn every credit inside six months. Their raw entry rate of $1 per 1,000 is hard to beat.
Pick CrustAPI when
Your usage is bursty or seasonal (credits must survive quiet months), you bill on lead lists where empties shouldn't cost money, you want deeper maps data, or your AI agents need MCP, a CLI, or x402 self-pay.
Which should you pick?
Switching costs one file
Coming from serper, our JSON uses the same field names, so it's a URL swap. Coming from SerpApi, it's a handful of renames (organic_results becomes organic, related_questions becomes peopleAlsoAsk).
Common questions
Per 1,000 Google searches at entry, dramatically: $1 at serper vs $25 on SerpApi's Starter plan. They sell different things though: SerpApi's price includes 100+ APIs beyond Google and a U.S. Legal Shield on bigger plans, while serper sells raw Google credits that expire after six months.
In our July 11 runs, serper and CrustAPI both answered web searches in about a second, while SerpApi's median was 2.18s with a 0.8 to 4.7s spread. For images, CrustAPI returned ~100 in 1.7s vs SerpApi's 8.3s; raw numbers are linked on this page.
CrustAPI gives 3,000 credits every month with no card. Serper gives 2,500 once, and SerpApi gives 250 a month.
From serper to CrustAPI, yes: the JSON field names match, so it's a URL and header swap. From SerpApi, it's a rename pass in one file: organic_results becomes organic, related_questions becomes peopleAlsoAsk.
CrustAPI and SerpApi both ship official MCP servers. Ours adds a CLI and x402, which lets an agent pay for its own credits with USDC and mint a key with no human signup; SerpApi's covers more engines.
The CrustAPI team, so read it with that in mind. Every number comes from public pricing pages or paid probes of real accounts, the raw files are linked, and both rivals win rows in our table.
Clay
Run the test yourself
Point your real queries at all three for a day. Our side costs nothing, and the results decide, not this page.
Get 3,000 free credits