---
title: "The best SERP tracking API in 2026: rank tracking costs compared"
category: "comparisons"
url: https://keirolabs.cloud/blog/serp-tracking-api
---

## The 60-second version

**Tracking 1,000 keywords daily on Google's top 10 costs about $3 a month on Keirolabs, $18 on DataForSEO's standard queue, $30 to $50 on Serper, Scrapingdog or Bright Data, and $275 on SerpApi.** Tracking the top 100 costs up to ten times more everywhere, because Google stopped serving 100 results per page in September 2025.

- **Cheapest per check:** Keirolabs SERP ($0.10 per 1,000) and DataForSEO standard queue ($0.60 per 1,000).
- **Best for location and device targeting:** DataForSEO and SerpApi, which both target by city and device.
- **Real-time checks:** DataForSEO live mode ($2.00 per 1,000), Serper, Keirolabs.
- **Budget rule:** a tracked keyword checked daily is 30 SERP requests a month per page of results.

Prices are from each vendor's pricing page, checked in October 2026; links are in the tables.

## What does it cost to track 1,000 keywords daily?

**1,000 keywords checked once a day is 30,000 SERP requests a month for the top 10, and up to 300,000 for the top 100.**

| Vendor | Rate per 1,000 | Top 10 (30k/mo) | Top 100 (300k/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Keirolabs SERP** | $0.10 | **$3** | **$30** |
| DataForSEO standard queue | $0.60 per 10-result page ([pricing](https://dataforseo.com/pricing/google-serp/google-organic-serp-api)) | $18 | $180 |
| DataForSEO live | $2.00 per page | $60 | $600 |
| Serper | $1.00 to $0.30 by pack ([guide](/blog/serper-api-guide-2026)) | $30 (from a $50 pack) | $225 (Standard pack) |
| Scrapingdog (Light) | $1.00 to $0.14 by plan ([pricing](https://www.scrapingdog.com/pricing/)) | $40 (Lite plan) | $200 (Pro plan) |
| Bright Data | $1.50 PAYG ([pricing](https://brightdata.com/pricing/serp)) | $45 | $450 |
| SearchAPI.io | $4.00 to $1.00 by plan ([pricing](https://www.searchapi.io/pricing)) | $100 (Production) | $900 (Octo 500K) |
| SerpApi | $25 to $1.96 by plan ([pricing](/blog/serpapi-pricing)) | $275 (Big Data) | $2,750 (Infrastructure) |

Serper bills two credits for queries beyond 10 results, and its packs expire after six months; the figures assume you use a pack within that window. Subscription vendors bill the full plan even when you use less.

## Why does tracking the top 100 cost ten times more?

**Since Google removed the `num=100` parameter in September 2025, each page of 10 results is a separate request.** Every vendor passes that through:

- **DataForSEO** bills one base price per extra 10 results, and rounds depth up to the next ten (a depth of 15 bills as 20).
- **SerpApi** counts every page as a search.
- **Serper** charges two credits for queries beyond 10 results.

**Most rank trackers do not need the top 100 daily.** Track the top 20 daily for keywords you are fighting for, and run a weekly top-100 sweep for discovery. That cuts a 1,000-keyword top-100 budget by about 70%.

## Location and device targeting

**Rankings differ by city and device, so the right API is the one that targets where your customers search.**

| Vendor | Location | Device | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataForSEO | Country, region, city, coordinates | Desktop, mobile | Yes |
| SerpApi | Any Google location string (city level) | Desktop, mobile, tablet | Yes |
| Serper | Country (`gl`) and city (`location`) | — | Yes (`hl`) |
| Keirolabs | Country (`region`) | — | Yes (`language`) |
| Bright Data | Country and city | Desktop, mobile | Yes |

**For local SEO, choose city-level targeting** (DataForSEO, SerpApi, Bright Data, Serper). For national rank tracking, country targeting is enough, and the cheapest vendor wins.

## Queue or live?

**Rank tracking rarely needs an answer within the second.** DataForSEO's standard queue returns results in minutes at $0.60 per 1,000, against $2.00 for live mode. A nightly job that posts tasks in the evening and collects them before the team logs in pays a third of the live price. Use live mode only for on-demand checks a user is waiting on.

## Build a simple rank tracker

**A daily rank tracker is a loop over keywords, one SERP call each, and a table of positions over time.** With Keirolabs' SERP endpoint:

```python
import os, csv, datetime, requests

KEY = os.environ["KEIRO_API_KEY"]
DOMAIN = "example.com"
KEYWORDS = ["serp tracking api", "rank tracker api", "serp api pricing"]

def position(keyword: str, domain: str) -> int | None:
    r = requests.post(
        "https://api.keirolabs.cloud/api/search-engine",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
        json={"query": keyword, "region": "US", "language": "en", "top_n": 20},
        timeout=60,
    )
    r.raise_for_status()
    for hit in r.json()["results"]:
        if domain in hit["url"]:
            return int(hit["position"])
    return None

today = datetime.date.today().isoformat()
with open("ranks.csv", "a", newline="") as f:
    w = csv.writer(f)
    for kw in KEYWORDS:
        w.writerow([today, kw, position(kw, DOMAIN)])
```

Run it from cron once a day. After a week you have a trend; after a month you can see what your title and content changes did.

## Which SERP tracking API should you pick?

- **Cheapest daily top-10 tracking:** Keirolabs SERP, or DataForSEO's standard queue.
- **Local SEO across many cities:** DataForSEO or SerpApi.
- **Multiple engines (Bing, Yandex, Baidu) in one tracker:** SerpApi or DataForSEO.
- **Small tracker with a one-time budget:** Serper's 2,500 free queries cover 1,000 keywords for two and a half days; a $50 pack covers 50,000 checks.

**Keirolabs prices SERP requests at $0.10 per 1,000, and the free tier's 1,250 monthly credits are enough to test a tracker on your own keywords before you pay.** For the full price ladder across SERP vendors, see [cheapest SERP API](/blog/cheapest-serp-api); if SERP APIs are new to you, start with [what is a SERP API](/blog/what-is-a-serp-api).