#1 SerpApi Alternative
Context.dev is a SerpApi alternative for AI agents that need what is on the result pages, not only the links. One search call returns up to 100 ranked results plus the passages that answer your query, or each page as Markdown. Ten results cost $0.90 per 1,000 searches on Context.dev Pro ($90/mo) and $15.00 on SerpApi’s $75 Developer plan.
1,000 searches, 10 results each
November 2026 list prices
SerpApi bills each successful request as one search, whatever the result count, and cached repeats within an hour are free. Context.dev bills 1 credit per 10 results on every successful search. SerpApi results are Google’s own rankings and SERP features; Context.dev does not return those.
Powering agents and products with the world's data.
Why switch
SerpApi scrapes Google and other search engines and returns the results page as JSON. Context.dev Web Search returns ranked results with the passages or Markdown from each page in the same call, and the same key scrapes, crawls, maps, and answers.
- Key difference
The result pages in the same call, not a second API
SerpApi’s Google Search API returns titles, links, snippets, and SERP features such as the local pack and knowledge graph. Reading the pages takes its Extract API, launched October 13, 2026, at one search per URL, so 10 results with their pages are 11 searches ($165.00 per 1,000 on Developer). Context.dev Web Search returns the passages that answer your query from every result for 1 extra credit per 10 results, or each page as Markdown for 1 credit per page: $1.80 or $9.90 per 1,000 searches on Pro.
- Pricing
100,000 searches for $90 instead of $725
SerpApi plans run from $25 for 1,000 searches ($25.00 per 1,000) to $3,750 for 1 million ($3.75 per 1,000), with larger Cloud plans above that, and its pricing page lists no yearly discount. Context.dev bills 1 credit per 10 results: Pro covers 100,000 such searches for $90 a month ($0.90 per 1,000), and Scale covers 1 million for $500. SerpApi’s price does not change with the result count, and cached repeats within an hour are free, which Context.dev does not match.
- Page reading
JavaScript rendering and anti-bot handling on every page
SerpApi’s Extract API docs say it “doesn’t run JavaScript,” so pages that load their content in the browser can come back with little of it, and SerpApi’s launch announcement says site support “may vary.” Context.dev renders JavaScript and runs managed proxies and anti-bot handling in every 1-credit scrape, and Web Search can scrape each result to Markdown in the same call. Each result reports its own outcome, such as SUCCESS, TIMEOUT, or WEBSITE_BLOCKED, so a failed read never loses the URL.
- Throughput
Concurrency limits instead of hourly caps and speed surcharges
SerpApi caps searches per hour by plan: 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Developer, 6,000 on Big Data, and 20,000 on Searcher. Its faster Ludicrous Speed and Ludicrous Speed Max modes bill 2x and 4x the base price. Context.dev Pro allows 100 concurrent requests with no per-minute cap, Growth 250, and Scale 500, with no surcharge for speed.
- Supply risk
Google is suing SerpApi over how it collects results
Google sued SerpApi on December 19, 2025 in the Northern District of California (No. 4:25-cv-10826), alleging it circumvents SearchGuard, Google’s anti-scraping system, in violation of the DMCA. On July 20, 2026 the court dismissed both DMCA claims, without leave to amend for results with no copyrighted content and with leave to amend for results with a copyrighted component. Google filed an amended complaint on August 10, 2026, and SerpApi moved to dismiss it on August 25, 2026. We found no ruling on that motion as of November 8, 2026.
- Beyond search
Crawl, map, batches, JSON extraction, and monitors on one key
SerpApi’s Extract API scrapes a page, maps a site, or crawls up to 100 pages to a depth of 3, at one search per page. Context.dev crawls at 1 credit per page, maps a site’s URLs for 1 credit per call, runs batches of up to 100,000 URLs with failed pages refunded, returns JSON against your schema for 5 credits, monitors pages for changes, and answers questions in your JSON shape with sources for 10 credits in fast mode.
What one request really costs
What 1,000 requests cost on Context.dev Pro ($90) and SerpApi Developer ($75), the closest plans by price. SerpApi bills one search per request; Context.dev bills per 10 results and per page read.
| Request | Context.dev | SerpApi | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search, 10 results with titles, links, and snippetsOne Google results page on SerpApi | $0.90 (1 credit) | $15.00 (1 search) | 16.7x more |
| Search, 10 results with relevant passagesContext.dev highlights read from every result page | $1.80 (2 credits) | Not offered | Not offered |
| Search, 10 results with full-page MarkdownSerpApi search plus one Extract call per result | $9.90 (11 credits) | $165.00 (11 searches) | 16.7x more |
| Page by URL as MarkdownSerpApi Extract API, no JavaScript rendering | $0.90 | $15.00 (1 search) | 16.7x more |
| Page that needs JavaScript to renderSerpApi’s Extract API does not run JavaScript | $0.90 | Not supported | Not supported |
| Crawl a site, per pageSerpApi Extract crawl mode, up to 100 pages a request | $0.90 | $15.00 (1 search) | 16.7x more |
| The same search repeated within an hourSerpApi serves an exact repeat from its 1-hour cache for free | $0.90 (1 credit) | $0 | Free on SerpApi |
| Google’s exact ranking with local pack and knowledge graphParsed SERP features from Google itself | Not offered | $15.00 (1 search) | SerpApi only |
Derived from Context.dev Pro ($90 for 100,000 credits) at monthly billing and SerpApi Developer ($75 for 5,000 searches). SerpApi counts only successful searches; cached, errored, and failed searches are free. Extract API pricing assumes one search per scraped or crawled page, per serpapi.com/extract-api.
Full comparison
| Feature | Context.dev | SerpApi |
|---|---|---|
| Search Results | ||
| Ranked web results by API | Yes | Yes |
| Results per call | Up to 100 | About 10 per Google page |
| Google’s exact rankings | No | Yes |
| Ads, local pack, and knowledge graph | No | Yes |
| Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo | No | Yes |
| Google Maps, Shopping, News, and Images APIs | No | Yes |
| Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and YouTube results | No | Yes |
| Location targeting | Country | City level, plus device |
| Domain include and exclude lists | Up to 100 each | Search operators |
| Search operators (site:, intitle:, OR) | Yes | Yes |
| Research papers in results | Yes | Google Scholar API |
| Page Content | ||
| Relevant passages from every result | +1 credit per 10 | No |
| Full-page Markdown with each result | +1 credit per page | Separate Extract call |
| Scrape a URL to Markdown or HTML | 1 credit | 1 search |
| JavaScript rendering | Always included | No |
| Managed proxies and anti-bot handling | Always included | Not documented |
| Screenshots | Yes | Not documented |
| JSON extraction against your schema | 5 credits | No |
| Crawl a site | 1 credit/page | Up to 100 pages a request |
| Map site URLs | 1 credit per call | 1 search per call |
| Async batches of URLs | Up to 100,000 URLs | Not documented |
| Change monitoring with webhooks | Yes | Not documented |
| Sourced answers in your JSON shape | Yes | Google AI Mode results |
| Pricing & Billing | ||
| How search is billed | Per 10 results | Per request |
| 10 results, per 1,000 searches | $0.90 on Pro | $15.00 on Developer |
| Exact repeat searches | Billed | Free for 1 hour |
| Failed searches free | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits/mo | 250 searches/mo |
| Rate limit on paid plans | 10 to 500 concurrent | Hourly search caps |
| Faster response modes | No surcharge | 2x or 4x price |
| Self-serve yearly billing | 2 months free | Not listed |
| Legal indemnity for customers | No | Up to $2M from $150/mo |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% on Enterprise | 99.95% on all plans |
| Deployment | ||
| Managed API | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | On request | ZeroTrace, Cloud plans |
| Developer Experience | ||
| JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP SDKs | Yes | Yes |
| Java, Rust, .NET, Swift, and C++ SDKs | No | Yes |
| CLI | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Also Included: Brand & Company Data | ||
| Brand profile by domain, name, email, or ticker | Yes | No |
| Logo CDN for direct embedding (Logo Link) | Yes | No |
Cost per 1,000 searches
Public list prices on both sites, broken down to the cost of 1,000 searches of 10 results at each tier, with what each SerpApi plan costs when your agent also reads the 10 result pages.
| Tier | Context.dev | SerpApi |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free $0/mo 1,000 credits 2 concurrent requests $0 per 1K searches, 10 results each | Free $0/mo 250 searches 50 searches per hour 250 searches a month 22 searches a month with 10 pages read |
| Entry | Developer $20/mo 5,000 credits 10 concurrent requests $3.33–$4.00 per 1K searches, 10 results each | Starter $25/mo 1,000 searches 200 searches per hour $25.00 per 1K searches $275.00 per 1K searches with 10 pages read |
| Mid | Pro $90/mo 100,000 credits 100 concurrent requests $0.75–$0.90 per 1K searches, 10 results each | Developer $75/mo 5,000 searches 1,000 searches per hour $15.00 per 1K searches $165.00 per 1K searches with 10 pages read |
| Growth | Growth $300/mo 500,000 credits 250 concurrent requests $0.50–$0.60 per 1K searches, 10 results each | Big Data $275/mo 30,000 searches 6,000 searches per hour $9.17 per 1K searches $100.83 per 1K searches with 10 pages read |
| High volume | Scale $500/mo 1,000,000 credits 500 concurrent requests $0.42–$0.50 per 1K searches, 10 results each | Searcher $725/mo 100,000 searches 20,000 searches per hour $7.25 per 1K searches $79.75 per 1K searches with 10 pages read |
- A Context.dev search of 10 results costs 1 credit. Adding the relevant passages from every result costs 1 more credit, and full-page Markdown costs 1 credit per page, so 10 results with Markdown are 11 credits ($9.90 per 1,000 on Pro). Context.dev ranges run from yearly to monthly billing.
- SerpApi bills one search per successful request, whatever the result count. Its Google Search API returns about 10 organic results per page: SerpApi’s blog says Google discontinued support for the num parameter, and its September 16, 2025 post says paging further “generates additional costs.” “10 pages read” adds one Extract API call per result, so 11 searches per query.
- SerpApi plans, hourly limits, and speed modes are from serpapi.com/pricing, which lists monthly prices only. Larger plans run from Volume ($1,475 for 250,000 searches) to Cloud 1M ($3,750 for 1 million, $3.75 per 1,000); Context.dev Scale covers 1 million 10-result searches for $500. SerpApi’s U.S. Legal Shield, up to $2 million in coverage, starts on the $150 Production plan.
- SerpApi’s Extract API is documented at serpapi.com/extract-api: it returns JSON, HTML, or Markdown, does not run JavaScript, and crawls up to 100 pages to a depth of 3. Cached searches and extractions are free on SerpApi; Context.dev bills every successful search.
Prices and plans checked on .
Which one fits
SerpApi returns what a search engine shows. Context.dev returns what the result pages say. These are the cases where the choice is clear. For formats, pricing, and code, see the Context.dev web search API.
Choose Context.dev if
- Your agent reads the pages behind the results. Ten results with the passages that answer your query cost $1.80 per 1,000 searches on Pro, and full-page Markdown $9.90, in one call.
- You search at volume: 100,000 searches of 10 results cost $90 a month on Pro, against $725 on SerpApi Searcher, with 100 concurrent requests and no hourly cap.
- Your pages need JavaScript rendering or sit behind bot protection: every 1-credit Context.dev scrape includes both, and SerpApi’s Extract API does not run JavaScript.
- You also scrape, crawl, map, batch, or monitor pages, or want sourced answers in your JSON shape, on the same key and credit balance.
Choose SerpApi if
- You need Google’s exact rankings: rank tracking, SEO tools, ad and local pack monitoring, or results by city and device.
- You need engines and verticals beyond the open web: Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Google Maps, Shopping, News, Images, Scholar, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, or YouTube.
- You repeat the same queries often. SerpApi serves exact repeats within an hour from cache for free, and its price per search does not change with the number of results.
- You want contractual cover for scraping search engines (the U.S. Legal Shield, up to $2 million from the $150 Production plan), a 99.95% uptime SLA on all plans, or SDKs for Java, Rust, .NET, Swift, or C++.
A few things to know.
More details in the API documentation.
What is the best SerpApi alternative?
Context.dev is a SerpApi alternative for AI agents that need the content of the result pages, not only titles, links, and snippets. One Context.dev Web Search call returns up to 100 ranked results plus the relevant passages or full-page Markdown from each one, at $0.90 per 1,000 10-result searches on Pro against $15.00 on SerpApi Developer. If you need Google’s exact rankings, SERP features such as the local pack, or other engines like Bing and Baidu, SerpApi is the better fit.
How much does SerpApi cost?
As of November 2026, SerpApi’s monthly plans are Starter at $25 for 1,000 searches, Developer at $75 for 5,000, Production at $150 for 15,000, Big Data at $275 for 30,000, Searcher at $725 for 100,000, Volume at $1,475 for 250,000, and Infrastructure at $2,750 for 500,000, with Cloud plans from $3,750 for 1 million. That is $25.00 down to $3.75 per 1,000 searches, and less on larger Cloud plans. Only successful searches count, cached repeats within an hour are free, and faster speed modes bill 2x or 4x.
Is SerpApi free?
SerpApi has a free plan with 250 searches a month, capped at 50 searches per hour, without the U.S. Legal Shield. Context.dev’s free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, enough for 1,000 searches of 10 results or 500 searches with the relevant passages from every result.
SerpApi vs Context.dev: what is the difference?
SerpApi scrapes Google and other search engines and returns the results page as JSON, including SERP features such as the local pack and knowledge graph, at one search per request. Context.dev Web Search returns up to 100 ranked web results with the passages or full-page Markdown from each one, billed at 1 credit per 10 results plus page content. SerpApi reads pages through a separate Extract API, launched October 13, 2026, that does not run JavaScript; Context.dev renders JavaScript and handles anti-bot measures on every page.
Does Context.dev return Google search results?
No. Context.dev Web Search does not return Google’s results page: there are no ads, local pack, knowledge graph, or shopping results, and its docs make no claim to match Google’s ranking. It returns ranked web results with a relevance label, filtered by country, 74 languages, freshness, domain lists, and search operators, and can read every result page in the same call. For Google-exact data such as rank tracking, use a SERP API like SerpApi.
What is the Google lawsuit against SerpApi?
Google sued SerpApi on December 19, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Google LLC v. SerpApi, LLC, No. 4:25-cv-10826), alleging SerpApi circumvents SearchGuard, Google’s anti-scraping system, in violation of the DMCA. On July 20, 2026 the court dismissed both DMCA claims, without leave to amend where results contain no copyrighted content and with leave to amend where they do. Google filed an amended complaint on August 10, 2026, and SerpApi moved to dismiss it on August 25, 2026. We found no ruling on that motion as of November 8, 2026.
What is the cheapest SERP API?
For plain search results at volume, Serper is the cheapest of these three: its prepaid credit packs run from $50 for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000) to $3,750 for 12.5 million ($0.30 per 1,000), valid for 6 months. Context.dev costs $0.42 to $4.00 per 1,000 10-result searches on its self-serve plans, and SerpApi $3.75 to $25.00 per 1,000 searches up to 1 million a month. When the agent also needs the pages, Context.dev returns 10 results with the relevant passages for $1.80 per 1,000 searches on Pro, in one call.
SerpApi vs Serper: which is better?
SerpApi covers many engines and verticals (Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Amazon, YouTube, and more), offers a U.S. Legal Shield from $150 a month, and sells monthly plans from $25 for 1,000 searches. Serper focuses on Google results and sells prepaid credits from $1.00 to $0.30 per 1,000, with 2,500 free queries and credits valid for 6 months. If your agent reads the result pages, Context.dev returns the passages or Markdown from each result in the same search call.
Can I migrate from SerpApi to Context.dev?
For open-web search, yes: send the q parameter as query to POST /web/search, set numResults up to 100 instead of paging with start, map gl to country, and add highlightsOptions or markdownOptions to read each result. Extract API calls map to POST /web/scrape, POST /web/crawl, and GET /web/urls. Context.dev ships TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP SDKs, a CLI, and an MCP server. Google-specific features such as the local pack, ads, Maps, Shopping, and other engines have no Context.dev equivalent.
When is SerpApi the better choice?
Choose SerpApi when you need what Google or another engine actually shows: exact rankings for SEO and rank tracking, the local pack, knowledge graph, Maps, Shopping, News, or Images results, or engines such as Bing, Baidu, Yandex, Amazon, and YouTube. It is also the better fit for repeated identical queries (free from cache within an hour), the U.S. Legal Shield up to $2 million, a 99.95% uptime SLA on all plans, and SDKs for Java, Rust, .NET, Swift, or C++.
More comparisons
Other search APIs that teams compare with Context.dev, or see every comparison.
- Context.dev vs Tavily98.0% accuracy on Openbenchmarks’ 300 factual lookups against Tavily’s 93.0%, with the relevant passages from every result for 2 credits.
- Context.dev vs ParallelResearch in your JSON shape from one request, and up to 100 search results with full pages instead of 20 with excerpts.
- Context.dev vs ExaUseful content on 87.0% of fresh pages on TRACE against Exa’s 79.1%. Search plus full-page scraping of protected sites, crawl, map, and batches on one key.
Ready to switch from SerpApi?
Send your queries to Context.dev Web Search, add passages or Markdown per result instead of a second scraping call, and start on the free plan with 1,000 credits a month.