Background
I've worked on SEO monitoring, AI agent RAG, and academic SERP scraping. Different scenarios need different APIs. I tested 6 major vendors (SerpBase, SerpApi, Serper.dev, DataForSEO, Bright Data, Oxylabs) across 10 dimensions.
10-Dimension Comparison
1. Price (per 1k calls)
| Provider | Entry | Mid | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| SerpBase | $0.30 (Boost, 1 month) | $0.40 (Growth) | $0.30 (negotiated) |
| SerpApi | $10 (5k) | $8.3 (30k) | $4-5 (negotiated) |
| Serper.dev | $1 (50k) | $0.75 (200k) | $0.45 (1M) |
| DataForSEO | $0.50 (100k) | $0.25 (1M) | quote |
| Bright Data | $1-1.5 | quote | quote |
| Oxylabs | $0.90-1 | quote | quote |
2. Speed (us region, English SERP, P50)
| Provider | P50 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Serper.dev | 1.2s | Fastest |
| SerpBase | 1.4s | Stable |
| SerpApi | 1.5-2.0s | Slower |
| DataForSEO | 2-3s | Live mode slow |
| Bright Data | 2-4s | Slow |
| Oxylabs | 2-4s | Slow |
3. Stability (90 days, 6,000 calls)
| Provider | Success | Auto-refund |
|---|---|---|
| SerpBase | 99.7% | 100% triggered |
| Serper.dev | 99.7% | Ticket required |
| SerpApi | 99.5% | Ticket required |
| DataForSEO | 99.6% | Ticket required |
| Bright Data | 99.4% | Ticket required |
| Oxylabs | 99.5% | Ticket required |
4. Endpoint Coverage
| Provider | Search | Images | News | Videos | Maps | Shopping |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SerpBase | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (search+detail) | ✗ |
| SerpApi | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Serper.dev | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| DataForSEO | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Bright Data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Oxylabs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
5-10 (Summary)
- QPS friendly: SerpApi (subscription, no limit) > Serper (50) > SerpBase (10)
- Refund window: Serper 14d > SerpApi 7d > SerpBase (no refund, but auto-refund)
- Credit never expires: SerpBase / Serper / Bright Data > subscription models
- MCP support: Only SerpBase (in 2026, the only official SERP API MCP server)
- Documentation: SerpApi > SerpBase > Serper > DataForSEO > Bright Data > Oxylabs
- Chinese language support: SerpBase (most complete)
Decision Tree
- Personal / small project (<50k calls/month): SerpBase
- Need maximum speed: Serper.dev
- Enterprise volume + full features: SerpApi enterprise
- Google SERP only, budget tight: DataForSEO
- Need residential proxy + SERP: Bright Data
- SERP + web scraping combo: Oxylabs
- AI agent integration: SerpBase (only official MCP)
My Own Choices
- SEO monitoring projects: SerpBase (cheap + auto-refund)
- AI RAG projects: SerpBase (structured JSON + MCP)
- Academic research: SerpBase (cheap + clean docs)
- Occasional speed-critical: Serper.dev (when 1.2s matters)
Free 100 searches to test: serpbase.dev signup, no card required.
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