Apify vs SerpApi — Pricing (2026)
Compare / Apify vs SerpApi
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Team size
25 seats

Apify vs SerpApi

Web Scraping pricing comparison · 2026

Apify pricing ranges from $0–$999/month, while SerpApi ranges from $0–$999/month. SerpApi is typically 70% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.

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See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Apify pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit SerpApi pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Web Scraping & Data Collection
Side-by-side · live
Apify
Apify pricing starts at $0/month on the Free plan, which includes $5 in monthly compute cr
verified 7d ago
View pricing →
SerpApi
SerpApi pricing starts at $0/month on the Free plan, with paid plans beginning at $25/mont
verified 28d ago
View pricing →
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Scale
$60K/yr
year 1 license · $199/seat
Usage-based
$15 per 1K searches
see vendor pricing for volume tiers
REF · 01

Sources & confidence

Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.

Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources 14 sourced facts
13 hidden-cost · 1 contract
Last verified 1w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
Sources 7 sourced facts
5 hidden-cost · 2 contract
Last verified 4w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
REF · 02

Plans at a glance

Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.

Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 03

Hidden costs

Each cost is severity-ranked, with the dollar range quoted from its source (Vendr, Reddit, TrustRadius, BBB, official docs) — never our estimate.

Beyond the sticker
Severity-ranked, sourced
5 documented
  • Proxy Costs Add Significant Per-Page Expense
    50-200% of license costs
    2 sources
  • Memory-Based Compute Overconsumption
    10-50% of license costs
    1 source
  • Paid Third-Party Actors in Apify Store
    5-20% of license costs
    2 sources
  • Consumption-Based Billing Is Hard to Forecast
    10-100% of license costs
    2 sources
  • High Concurrency Settings Accelerate Credit Burn
    5-15% of license costs
    1 source
4 documented
  • Per-Search Cost Pressure for AI Agents and Startups
    25-100% of base plan costs when usage exceeds tier quota
    1 source
  • Search volume limits force rapid tier escalation
    $75-$3,750/month
    2 sources
  • Significantly more expensive than alternatives for bulk data extraction
    300-500% of alternative API costs for review/data extraction at scale
    2 sources
  • No annual billing discount available
    0% annual discount (no annual billing option listed)
REF · 04

Contract terms

The fine print, surfaced. Green = buyer-friendly. Each clause backed by a quoted source.

Apify
SerpApi
Auto-renewal
—
—
Cancellation
—
—
Commitment
—
—
Price escalation
No published escalation schedule; one user noted that actor pricing model changes resulted in higher costs for previously affordable actors.
$75-$3,750/month
Can downgrade
—
—
Based on 3 verified sources (Vendr · TrustRadius · BBB)
REF · 05

What users say

Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.

User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
No public ratings yet
Best for
Developers trying the platform
Watch out
Pricing model is difficult to estimate in advance for real-world workloads
No public ratings yet
Best for
Evaluating the API
Watch out
Pricing too high relative to search volume limits on lower tiers
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Apify pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit SerpApi pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats). Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges. Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
Web Scraping

Apify

$0–$999
/month
5 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Web Scraping

SerpApi

$0–$999
/month
6 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →

Apify and SerpApi both operate in the web scraping category. This page compares their published pricing.

Plan-by-Plan Pricing

Plan Apify SerpApi
Free Free /month Free /month
Starter $29 /month $75 /month
Scale $199 /month $150 /month
Business $999 /month $275 /month
Enterprise Custom $999 /month
Enterprise — Custom

Cost at Scale

Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.

Apify

6 scenarios
$0/month (Free plan)
Solo Developer / Small Project
$29/month
Small Team / Regular Automation
base (Starter) + proxy and actor overage
$199/month
Growing Business / High-Volume Scraping
base (Scale) + proxy costs
See all 6 scenarios →

SerpApi

6 scenarios
$75/month (Developer plan)
Solo Developer / Prototyping
$150/month (Production plan)
Small Production Team
$1,475/month (Volume plan)
Data-Intensive Operation
See all 6 scenarios →

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Apify 8 hidden costs

high
Proxy Costs Add Significant Per-Page Expense 50-200% of license costs
medium
Memory-Based Compute Overconsumption 10-50% of license costs
medium
Paid Third-Party Actors in Apify Store 5-20% of license costs
medium
Consumption-Based Billing Is Hard to Forecast 10-100% of license costs
low
High Concurrency Settings Accelerate Credit Burn 5-15% of license costs
See all Apify hidden costs →

SerpApi 4 hidden costs

medium
Per-Search Cost Pressure for AI Agents and Startups 25-100% of base plan costs when usage exceeds tier quota
high
Search volume limits force rapid tier escalation $75-$3,750/month
high
Significantly more expensive than alternatives for bulk data extraction 300-500% of alternative API costs for review/data extraction at scale
low
No annual billing discount available 0% annual discount (no annual billing option listed)
See all SerpApi hidden costs →

Contract Terms

Term Apify SerpApi
Auto-renewal — —
Cancellation — —
Minimum commitment — —
Price escalation No published escalation schedule; one user noted that actor pricing model changes resulted in higher costs for previously affordable actors. $75-$3,750/month

Continue researching

Apify

SerpApi

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