SerpApi vs Firecrawl Search: many search engines, parsed or search and scrape in one call
SerpApi is an API that scrapes and parses Google and other search engines into structured JSON. Firecrawl Search is a web scraping platform whose search endpoint returns web results and can scrape each result to Markdown in the same call.
The short answer
- SerpApi: Structured results from many search engines and verticals, including Google Maps and Shopping, through one API.
- Firecrawl Search: Search plus full-page scraping to clean Markdown in one request.
Side by side
| SerpApi | Firecrawl Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Google (many verticals) plus Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave, and sites like Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Walmart, Tripadvisor. | The web, news and images (the provider does not name the underlying engine). |
| Returns | Structured JSON (or Markdown): organic results, maps and local results, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graph, with links, addresses, prices, ratings and reviews. | Title, URL and description per result; optionally full-page Markdown, HTML, links or screenshots for each result. |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key. | No key to get started (low limits); an account and API key for normal use. |
| Free | 250 searches a month. | 1,000 credits a month, no card (about 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results). |
| Paid | $25/month for 1,000 searches (Starter); only successful searches count. | Hobby $19/month (or $16/month billed yearly) for 5,000 credits, about 2,500 searches. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (code: https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) | Official MCP server: https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp (OAuth: https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth) |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use SerpApi?
An account and an API key.
Is SerpApi free?
250 searches a month.
What do I need before I can use Firecrawl Search?
No key to get started (low limits); an account and API key for normal use.
Is Firecrawl Search free?
1,000 credits a month, no card (about 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results).
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
SerpApi, read on October 15, 2026:
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Only successful searches are counted toward your monthly searches. Cached, errored, and failed searches are not.”
- serpapi.com: “Regular organic results are available as well as Maps, Local, Stories, Shopping, Direct Answer, and Knowledge Graph.”
- github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp: “A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation that integrates with SerpApi”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Free $ 0 / month Get Started 250 searches per month”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Starter $ 25 / month Get Started 1,000 searches per month”
Firecrawl Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “1,000 credits / month”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “No cost, no card, no hassle.”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “500 searches or 1,000 pages scraped”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “Hobby: $19/month billed monthly, or $16/month billed annually, for 5,000 credits per month”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “Search costs 2 credits per 10 results.”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/features/search: “No API key needed to get started.”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/features/search: “full-page markdown, HTML, links, or screenshots for each result”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/mcp-server: “https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth”