Serpstat API review
Best for SERP crawling on a budget
Serpstat is the broad, affordable all-in-one of this directory, and its API exposes essentially the whole platform: twelve documented chapters covering domain analysis, keyword analysis, URL analysis, backlinks, domain classification, site audit, rank tracker, project and team management, SERP crawling, a keyword volume checker and a Credits API for watching your own usage.
Two design decisions separate it from everything else here, and both are the kind of thing you want to know before you start rather than after. It speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 rather than REST, so every call is a POST carrying a method name and a params object, and the client libraries you already have for other providers will not transfer. And there is no sandbox, no test endpoint and no test environment of any kind.
Serpstat's own recommended workaround for the missing sandbox is telling: add a test user to your team, give them a small credit allowance, and develop against their token so you do not burn the main balance. That is a sensible answer to a problem most providers simply do not have, and it is worth budgeting the credits for it.
Our scorecard
Our editorial read across six dimensions, scored 1 to 5. This is our own assessment, not an aggregate of user reviews, and it is deliberately kept out of the page's structured data.
- Data coverage4/5
Twelve chapters covering essentially the whole platform, including SERP crawling with AI Overview scraping.
- Pricing4/5
Good credit volume for the money at Team, and Agency's two million credits is competitive. No API on the entry plan.
- Documentation4/5
Every chapter documented and honest about what is missing, which is rarer than it should be.
- Ease of integration2/5
JSON-RPC rather than REST, one token per user, and no sandbox to develop against. Slowest start here.
- Reliability3/5
One request per second below Agency is genuinely restrictive for anything bulk.
- Support4/5
Reviewers rate the support team highly and consistently, and custom volume deals are openly offered.
An editorial read, not an aggregate of user reviews, and deliberately kept out of this page's structured data.
What you can pull
Domain Analysis
Credits per call
Domain SEO statistics, visibility, keyword counts, competitors and historical series
Keyword Analysis
Credits per call
Keyword selection, synonyms, suggestions, volume, difficulty and related terms
URL Analysis
Credits per call
SEO statistics for a specific URL or a path pattern rather than a whole domain
Backlink Analysis
Credits per call
Backlinks, external links, referring domains and domain-level link statistics
SERP Crawling
Credits per call
Crawled SERPs through the API, including AI Overview scraping
Site Audit and Rank Tracker
Credits per call
Scan a site for common SEO errors, and track the positions of your own tracked keywords
Domain Classification
Credits per call
Classify a list of domains into the categories Google most commonly uses
Project, Team and Credits
Credits API is how you monitor burn
Manage projects and team members programmatically, and read your own API credit usage statistics
Who Serpstat API is for
Teams that want most of an all-in-one platform's data through an API without an enterprise invoice, and who have a developer willing to work in JSON-RPC. The SERP Crawling chapter with AI Overview scraping is the standout, because pulling answer-engine surfaces alongside classic SERP data from one credit balance is not common at this price.
Anyone who needs to move fast will struggle with it. One request per second below the Agency tier and no sandbox to develop against means the first week costs more than the subscription does.
Strengths and limits
What it does well
- Twelve documented chapters expose essentially the whole platform, so almost nothing is interface-only.
- SERP Crawling includes AI Overview scraping, which puts answer-engine data on the same credit balance as everything else.
- The Credits API lets a pipeline monitor its own burn rate rather than discovering the problem at month end.
- Agency's two million credits a month and ten requests a second is genuinely competitive for the price.
- Project and Team management methods mean multi-client operations can be automated rather than clicked.
- The documentation is honest about the missing sandbox and suggests a concrete workaround, which is better than pretending.
- Custom volumes and data reselling are openly offered as a conversation, which several providers here flatly prohibit.
Where it falls short
- JSON-RPC 2.0 rather than REST. Nothing else in this directory works this way, so no existing client transfers and every call is a POST to one endpoint.
- There is no sandbox, no test endpoint and no test environment. Development spends real credits unless you build the team-member workaround.
- One request per second on Team and Team x2. That is the real ceiling, and it makes bulk work impractical until the $410 Agency tier.
- The API is absent from the $50 Individual plan entirely, so the effective entry price is $100.
- One API token per user, which complicates key rotation and separating environments.
- The only substantive practitioner comment we could find on the data quality says it is not refreshed often enough.
Serpstat API pricing
The API is not on the entry plan. Individual at $50 a month has no API access at all, so the real starting price is Team at $100 a month billed annually, or $129 monthly, which carries 200,000 API credits and one request a second. Team x2 at $169 doubles the credits to 400,000 and leaves the rate limit alone. Agency at $410 is the significant step: two million credits and ten requests a second.
That rate limit is the number to budget against, not the credit count. At one request a second a pipeline can theoretically make 86,400 calls a day, so on Team the rate limit and the credit allowance run out at roughly similar points. On Agency the tenfold rate increase is what actually makes bulk extraction viable, and it is the reason the jump in price is larger than the jump in credits.
Budget for development separately. With no sandbox, every call you make while building comes out of the same balance, and Serpstat's own advice is to create a test team member with a small allowance rather than develop against your production token.
Custom volumes, and reselling the data, are both explicitly offered as a sales conversation. That is a real difference from providers whose terms prohibit repackaging outright.
Individual
$50 / mo annual, $69 monthly
No API access at all
- Listed because it is the plan people assume includes the API
- 5 projects, 100 searches a day, core features only
- The API begins one tier up
- Worth checking before you buy on price alone
Team / Team x2
$100 / $169 / mo annual
200,000 and 400,000 API credits a month; $129 / $209 monthly
- 1 request per second on both tiers
- Adds API, MCP, batch analysis and scheduled reports
- The realistic entry point for API work
- Rate limit is the binding constraint, not the credits
Agency
$410 / mo annual
2,000,000 API credits a month; $499 monthly
- 10 requests per second, a tenfold jump
- 5,000 searches a day and 100,000 results per report
- The first tier where bulk extraction is practical
- Custom volumes and reselling are negotiable above this
Request example
A minimal call against the live endpoint, with credentials read from the environment rather than pasted inline.
curl -s -X POST "https://api.serpstat.com/v4?token=$SERPSTAT_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"id": "1",
"method": "SerpstatDomainProcedure.getDomainsInfo",
"params": {
"domains": ["example.com"],
"se": "g_us"
}
}'
# Note the shape: this is JSON-RPC 2.0, not REST. Every call is a
# POST to one URL carrying a method name, so the REST clients you
# have for other providers in this directory will not transfer.Rate limits and quotas
- API access requires a middle or top tier plan. The Individual plan has none.
- 1 request per second on Team and Team x2; 10 requests per second on Agency.
- API credits per month: 200,000 on Team, 400,000 on Team x2, 2,000,000 on Agency.
- Each user may hold only one API token at a time.
- No sandbox, test endpoint or test environment exists.
- The protocol is JSON-RPC 2.0, so requests are POSTs carrying a method and params object.
- Special high-volume API plans are available outside the published tiers.
Third-party reviews
Scores read from each source on 3 September 2026. We report them as-is and publish no rating of our own.
These scores rate the Serpstat platform as a whole, not the API specifically. No review site scores the API on its own.
What practitioners say on Reddit
There is not enough practitioner discussion of Serpstat to report a sentiment honestly, and saying so is more useful than manufacturing one. A sweep of r/SEO, r/bigseo, r/TechSEO and r/juststart turned up plenty of threads that mention it in a list of alternatives, a handful of posts that appear to be Serpstat's own marketing, and exactly one substantive comment about the product.
That comment is negative and is quoted below in full so you can weigh it yourself. One person's view is not a finding, and we are not going to dress it up as one. The Capterra sample above is much larger and considerably more positive, which is worth setting against it.
If you are evaluating on data freshness specifically, treat both as prompts to run your own comparison against a domain you know well rather than as an answer.
“Semrush if you are going with just one. ahrefs close second. se ranking is pretty solid. but no need for moz or serpstat. serpstat data is old and not updated frequently.”
r/SEO on Reddit
Verdict
Good coverage for the money, with a first week that costs more than the first month. Twelve chapters, AI Overview scraping and a Credits API are a lot of platform for $100, and Agency's two million credits at ten requests a second is competitive with providers charging considerably more.
The two friction points are real and neither is a dealbreaker if you know about them going in. JSON-RPC means no client you already own will transfer, and the missing sandbox means your development spends production credits unless you set up the team-member workaround Serpstat itself recommends. Budget a day and a few thousand credits for that.
Size on the rate limit, not the credits. One request a second is the thing that will actually stop you below Agency, and if your workload is bulk extraction rather than steady lookups, DataForSEO or SE Ranking will get you moving faster for less.
Serpstat API FAQ
How much does the Serpstat API cost?
The API starts on the Team plan at $100 a month billed annually ($129 monthly), which includes 200,000 API credits and one request a second. Team x2 is $169 for 400,000 credits, and Agency is $410 for two million credits and ten requests a second. The $50 Individual plan includes no API access.Does the Serpstat Individual plan include API access?
No. API access begins on the middle tier, so a buyer choosing on headline price will find the API missing from the plan they bought. Budget $100 a month as the genuine entry point rather than $50.Is the Serpstat API REST?
No, it uses JSON-RPC 2.0. Every call is a POST to a single endpoint carrying a method name and a params object, rather than a GET against a resource path. It works perfectly well, but no REST client you have built for another provider in this directory will transfer to it.Is there a Serpstat API sandbox?
No. Serpstat states plainly that there is no sandbox, test endpoint or test environment. Its recommended workaround is to add a test user to your team, give them a small credit allowance and develop against their token, which keeps development spend off your main balance.What is the Serpstat API rate limit?
One request per second on the Team and Team x2 plans, rising to ten on Agency. That tenfold difference matters more than the credit allowance for most workloads, because it is what decides whether bulk extraction finishes in an hour or a day.Can the Serpstat API return AI Overviews?
Yes. The SERP Crawling chapter includes AI Overview scraping, so answer-engine surfaces come back through the same API and the same credit balance as classic SERP data. That is unusual at this price point.Can I resell Serpstat data?
It is a conversation rather than a flat no, which is a real difference from some providers here. Serpstat's documentation explicitly invites teams dealing in big volumes or looking to resell data to book a call about custom options. Get the terms in writing before you build.Serpstat API or SE Ranking API?
SE Ranking for the flexible purchasing and credits that never expire, and for a REST interface you can integrate in an afternoon. Serpstat for AI Overview scraping and the sheer breadth of the method list at $100. If you expect irregular usage, SE Ranking's Wallet is the safer commercial shape.
Other providers worth a look
This is an independent review. We have no affiliate relationship with Serpstat API, earn nothing if you sign up, and no provider pays for placement in the directory. Prices were read from the vendor's own pages in September 2026 and change without notice.