SerpApi
Ranked 2 of 12 search APIs by recommenders
People recommend it for programmatic access to search results and a usable free tier; critics object to its scraping methods and Google's legal action against it.
People recommend it for programmatic access to search results and a usable free tier; critics object to its scraping methods and Google's legal action against it.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Usable free tier
“One clean API that returns real-time search data with a free tier that's actually usable.”
Comment from 2 May 2026 on Hacker News “we offer a free tier that may serve your needs”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you search the web programmatically these days?” “They do have a decent free tier”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests” Leading API for parsing search results
“SerpApi is the leading API to scrape and parse search engine results.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2025)” “the leading API to scrape and parse search engine results”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2026)” Evades Google's scraping protections
“SerpAPI is comically good at evading Google's scraping protections.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests” “SerpAPI's team unfailingly seems to work around those restrictions”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests” Easy to use and fit for purpose
“its API seems really easy to use”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping” “they are great for the job”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Uses proxies and fake browsers
“That just means they have proxies in Pakistan, that's not as impressive as you're making it sound.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests” “creating fake browsers using a multitude of IP addresses that Google sees as normal users”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping” “SerpAPI fully relies on end-user proxies distributed like malware”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Judge Rejects Google's Attempt to DMCA Its Way Out of Being Scraped” Deceptive scraping of Google
“creating fake browsers using a multitude of IP addresses that Google sees as normal users”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping” “just like SerpApi wouldn't have to act deceptively if they had a monopoly on search”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping” Takes Google's data without paying
“SerpApi riding on the back of Google, abusing the infra without paying a single penny.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “One decision put Ruby into a downward spiral. It's not too late to fix it” “Google does, SerpApi doesn't”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Why we're taking legal action against SerpApi's unlawful scraping”
Other search APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other search APIs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | 33 | 9 | 79% | 10 | — | Approved |
| SerpApiThis page | 16 | 10 | 62% | 8 | — | — |
| Brave Search API | 15 | 3 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| DeepSeek search API | 15 | 7 | 68% | 1 | — | — |
| Parallel Search API | 12 | 6 | 67% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The technical side is all trivial.”
“SerpAPI's team unfailingly seems to work around those restrictions”
“That just means they have proxies in Pakistan, that's not as impressive as you're making it sound.”
“They do have a decent free tier”
“SerpAPI is comically good at evading Google's scraping protections.”
“I'm a happy customer of SerpAPI”
“SerpApi (to get Google Flights data)”
“SerpApi riding on the back of Google, abusing the infra without paying a single penny.”
“the SerpApi leeches and others”
“SerpAPI fully relies on end-user proxies distributed like malware”
“their Brave / Yandex / SerpAPI dependencies”
“the leading API to scrape and parse search engine results”
“based on my actual interactions with them I really can't recommend applying here”
“One clean API that returns real-time search data with a free tier that's actually usable.”
“we offer a free tier that may serve your needs”
“The SerpAPI, Google Custom Search API, etc. exist for a reason”
“When SerpApi helps developers and researchers do it, Google sues... to stifle competition?”
“though Google is already taking legal action there”
“Every SerpApi call costs money.”
“its API seems really easy to use”
“they are great for the job”
“I just signed up /because/ of this announcement.”
“SERP API just assumes everybody wants to be scraped, and doesn't give you a choice.”
“SerpAPI provides a very valuable programmatic access to search that Google are hell bent on never properly providing”
“just like SerpApi wouldn't have to act deceptively if they had a monopoly on search”
“creating fake browsers using a multitude of IP addresses that Google sees as normal users”
“Google does, SerpApi doesn't”
“I definitely appreciate their product.”
“SerpApi is the leading API to scrape and parse search engine results.”
“pretty words, but meaningless in practice”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.