SerpApi vs Apify Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Starter
- 1,000 searches per month
- 200 throughput per hour
Developer
- 5,000 searches per month
- 1,000 throughput per hour
Production
Popular- 15,000 searches per month
- 3,000 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Big Data
- 30,000 searches per month
- 6,000 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Searcher
- 100,000 searches per month
- 20,000 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Volume
- 250,000 searches per month
- 50,000 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Infrastructure
- 500,000 searches per month
- 100,000 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Free
- 250 searches per month
- 50 throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
Enterprise
- Custom searches per month
- Custom throughput per hour
- U.S. Legal Shield
- ZeroTrace Mode
- Priority support
Free
- $0.2 per compute unit
- Community support
Starter
- $0.2 per compute unit
- Chat support
- Bronze Apify Store discount
Scale
Popular- $0.16 per compute unit
- Priority chat support
- Silver Apify Store discount
Business
- $0.13 per compute unit
- Account manager
- Gold Apify Store discount
SerpApi vs Apify FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- SerpApi starts lower at $25/mo, compared to $29/mo for Apify.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. SerpApi uses usage-based pricing, while Apify goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. SerpApi: SerpApi sits in the mid-to-premium range for SERP data APIs — not the cheapest scraping option out there, but they're selling reliability and structured data over raw DIY scraping. They're targeting devs and data teams who want clean results without maintaining their own scraper infrastructure. Apify: Apify sits in the mid-to-premium range for web scraping infrastructure, competing with tools like Bright Data and Oxylabs at the high end and lighter DIY setups at the low end. They're clearly targeting developers and data teams who want a managed platform rather than raw proxy/infrastructure — the actor marketplace and workflow tooling is the differentiator, not just cheap compute.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for SerpApi and Apify and let you know when something moves.