5+ Best Google Rank Tracking and SERP APIs of 2025

TL;DR

1. I tested and compared the best Google Rank Tracking APIs of 2025.
2. Criteria: accuracy, speed, pricing, scalability, stability, and developer-friendliness.
3. Excluded async-only APIs and overpriced tools (like AccuRanker, Keyword.com, Semrush, Ahrefs).
4. Top picks include SerpApi, Bright Data, Zenrows, DataForSEO, and Zenserp.

I was randomly scrolling Reddit when I found this old post and thought, “He’s right.”

Using Ahrefs or Semrush just for rank tracking is expensive and limiting. A lot of Google Rank Tracking APIs can do the same job at a fraction of the cost.

But the real problem is… there are too many APIs to choose from.

That’s why I tested the best Google Rank Tracking APIs of 2025 to see which ones actually deliver.

But how did I figure out which ones are really the best?

How to choose the best Google rank tracking API?

I’ve already covered the best Google search scrapers and APIs in a previous article in detail.

But for this article, I approached the topic as someone who might build a rank tracking micro-SaaS product on top of these APIs.

So I needed more than just marketing claims.

I wanted to see how they perform in real-world use, how they scale, and whether they’re friendly enough for both devs and vibe-coders.

I went through forums, social media, and dev communities to see what people were saying. Then I ran my own tests and cross-checked results with user reviews.

Here’s how I measured everything:

Accuracy was my first check.

I wanted APIs that return real-time results, support flexible geo-targeting, and stay consistent across tests.

Some looked fine in my short runs, but reviews showed bigger accuracy issues at scale. That’s why I trusted both my testing and the wider user base.

Pricing came next.

APIs of big boys like Semrush and Ahrefs charge enterprise-level prices. So I needed to find affordable APIs.

Another issue I encountered was different pricing mechanisms. Some charge per search, others per request or result, TBH it’s messy.

So I broke it down into cost per 1k results in the highest plan. That way, it’s easier to see who’s fair and who’s just milking it.

Speed was something I measured hands-on. Slow APIs kill productivity, so this was non-negotiable.

I pulled 10 results from each API and timed the responses. That gave me a baseline.

Then I checked reviews to see if speeds hold up with heavier loads.

Scalability shows whether an API is really built for growth.

I looked at how many results I could pull per month with their top-tier plans.

Stability was tougher to measure directly.

I don’t have months to hammer APIs at scale, so I leaned on user reviews for reliability insights.

Still, I stress-tested a few runs to confirm they don’t choke on small to mid workloads.

Developer-friendliness was the part I cared about most.

I checked docs, SDKs, examples, and how easy it was to actually get started. I also looked at user feedback about support quality.

And yes… I also factored in what I call “vibe-coder friendliness.”

Basically, does the API play nice when you’re letting an LLM handle most of the coding?

If endpoints are messy or responses inconsistent, vibe-coding turns painful fast. The APIs that keep things clean and predictable make life much easier.

With these factors in mind, I tested and rated the best Google Rank Tracking APIs of 2025 to see which ones actually deliver.

5 Best Google rank tracking APIs compared

I removed all APIs that didn’t meet my testing criteria.

I also dropped async-only APIs since they aren’t developer-friendly. What’s left is a list of solid synchronous APIs.

The numbers here don’t mean rankings. Each API has its own strengths, so I just numbered them for structure.

Let’s dive in and see what each one offers.

1. SerpApi

1. Capterra rating: 5 (55 reviews)
2. G2 rating: 4.8 (27 reviews)

Features

1. Bulk keyword tracking
2. Wide range of Google scraping APIs
3. US legal shield support
4. Real-time results
5. Search Xray for detailed SERP insights

Accuracy is excellent.

It gives real-time results, correct rankings, and even city or area-level geo targeting. The Xray feature also helps pull deeper SERP data when needed.

Speed

The response time is around 1 to 3 seconds, which is fine, but not consistent. I did hit some slowdowns and occasional failed responses. Reliability is generally solid.

Developer-friendliness

SerpApi offers a synchronous api.

The docs are clean, detailed, and beginner-friendly. Every endpoint and parameter comes with examples, which makes integration smooth.

It’s vibe-code friendly as well. The documentation is filled with examples for each API, you just need to paste an example in your LLM tool and it’ll do the rest.

Pricing and scalability

You’re charged per search not per result or per keyword. One request = 1 search which includes 10 results.

1. Free tier offers 250 free searches per month
2. Costs $9.2 per 1k requests (searches)

You don’t pay for failed requests but if a request responds with an empty response, it counts as a valid search and you’re charged for it.

SerpApi offers high-volume plans too.

1. You can do up to 500k searches per month
2. At highest plan, it costs you $5.5 per 1k searches (requests)

What do users say?

SerpApi is actually my personal favorite and I’ve used it multiple times, so I’d count myself as a regular user too.

The only thing I didn’t like about the API is its pricing. Monthly plans are too expensive and not suitable for solo devs.

And that’s what many users also complain about… the pricing does feel expensive.

The feature loved by me and many users is its speed. It’s not the fastest in my list but it does offer a pretty impressive response time.

Best for

It’s perfect if you want to build an app on it for personal use. It’s affordable, accurate, and easy to use. Plus it offers a lot of other Google related APIs too.

But if you need a huge scale, you’ll run into limits.

2. Bright Data

1. Capterra rating: 4.7 (66 reviews)
2. G2 rating: 4.6 (256 reviews)

Features

1. JS rendering and anti-bot bypass
2. Works with multiple search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu)
3. Supports Google products like news, shopping, maps, and trends
4. Real-time results
5. Data export in JSON format or HTML

It delivers real-time results with exact rankings and supports precise city-level targeting. Easily one of the most accurate APIs I tested.

Speed

Response time is less than 2 seconds.

That made Bright Data the second fastest API in my testing. It’s quick, stable, and generally reliable.

Developer-friendliness

Bright data offers both Synchronous and Asynchronous APIs.

The documentation is clean and comes with interactive examples for each parameter. It focuses more on snippets than text, which makes it nerd-friendly.

I did find the SERP API docs a bit hard to locate, but once you’re in, it’s smooth. If you’re a newbie or a vibe-coder, you might find it a little complicated.

Pricing and scalability

Bright Data charges per request. Each request = 10 search results.

1. $0.5 per 1k requests (with subscription)
2. $0.75 per 1k requests (pay-as-you-go)

You don’t pay for failed requests. But empty responses still cost credits.

It’s one of the best APIs if you want to scale. The pay-as-you-go model is super handy and there are monthly plans too. There’s no upper limit.

What do users say?

Documentation is a common concern. Many reviewers find it complicated and scattered.

I had to jump across multiple nested pages just to understand how the SERP API works, what each endpoint does, and how the parameters connect.

It’s fine for experienced developers, but a newbie or a vibe-coder will definitely find it confusing.

Pricing is another recurring complaint. A lot of users say it feels expensive at scale.

Personally I didn’t find it expensive, but since I’m not the one who used this API at scale, I’ll go with what users say.

Best for

Bright Data is best if you want a reliable SERP API with fast speed and wide coverage of search engines and Google products.

But it gets expensive at scale, so it’s better suited for teams with bigger budgets rather than solo developers or small projects.

3. Zenrows

1. Capterra rating: 4.8 (96 reviews)
2. G2 rating: 5 (18 reviews)

Features

1. Bulk keyword tracking with no keyword limit
2. Up to 100 concurrent requests
3. Collects organic and paid results with questions
4. Also supports news, maps, jobs, and flights data
5. Interactive code builder
6. Residential proxies to avoid bans

Accuracy is decent but not top tier.

It works well at the country level, but there’s no way to specify regions or cities. That makes it less accurate if you need hyper-local tracking.

Speed

The average response time is around 3 to 4 seconds.

Early tests were faster, but later runs slowed down. The good part is that uptime is strong, and I didn’t see failed responses in my testing.

Developer-friendliness

The documentation is what users love the most.

It’s clean and easy to follow, with plenty of examples.

It’s also vibe-coder friendly. You can drop the code samples straight into your LLM tool and let it generate functional snippets.

Pricing and scalability

Zenrows charges per result, not per search or keyword. This makes cost tracking a bit confusing.

1. 14-day free trial (40 results)
2. $0.9 per 1k requests

But how much do you actually pay?

1. If you want 10 results per search, you pay $9.9 per 1k searches
2. If you want 100 results per search, it costs you $99 per 1k searches

Plus It doesn’t charge for failed requests, but responses like 404 and 410 still count as successful requests… which means you pay even if you don’t get results.

You can collect up to 318.5k results (which equals to 790 full Google searches i.e. 400 results per page) without needing a custom plan.

What do users say?

Most users praise Zenrows for its documentation and ease of use. Many also like the strong uptime and success rate.

The biggest complaint is the pricing model.

It’s hard to track real costs because of the way they split results into categories (basic, protected, proxies).

At scale, it becomes expensive and expense reporting is messy.

Best for

Zenrows is best if you want strong documentation and simple integration. It’s a good fit for beginners or small projects.

But if you need hyper-local accuracy or rank tracking at scale, you’ll find better options.

4. Data for SEO

1. Capterra rating: 4.8
2. G2 rating: 3.8

Features

1. Dedicated APIs for SERP, keywords, backlinks, and content
2. Live results plus a large historical dataset
3. Built-in integrations with n8n, Make, and Zapier
4. SEO data MCP server and client
5. AI support

Accuracy is mostly solid. I found the results reliable and most users agreed. Some did mention accuracy issues, but those seemed rare.

Speed

The API is slow compared to others. Live mode takes 8 to 10 seconds on average.

Queued requests can take even longer, which makes it less practical for real-time tracking.

Developer-friendliness

DataForSEO offers both synchronous and asynchronous APIs. The live tracking endpoint is sync, while most others are async.

The docs are messy and scattered.

It takes time to figure things out. For a vibe-coder, it is even harder… you’ll probably need to dump the docs into your LLM and run trial and error before you get working snippets.

Pricing and scalability

Pricing is based on SERP pages, similar to SerpApi. One page equals one request.

1. $2 per 1k pages in Live Mode (real-time)
2. Async modes are cheaper but slower and not real-time

Pricing is pay-as-you-go, so you can scale it as much as you want.

What do users say?

Users love the variety of APIs and the depth of SEO data. It is especially popular with developers building their own SEO tools.

Documentation is the biggest complaint. People find it messy and scattered across multiple pages.

Response times are another sore spot. Customer support also gets mixed reviews.

From my side, I’d say it is a strong choice if you want to build on top of it. It is not fast, but the data coverage makes it valuable.

Best for

DataForSEO is best if you want to build your own SEO tool. It is not the fastest option, but the variety of APIs and data depth make it worth considering for serious projects.

5. ZenSerp

1. Capterra rating: Nil
2. G2 rating: Nil

Features

1. Real-time SERP data
2. Collects results with knowledge graphs and local packs
3. Supports news, videos, and maps data
4. APIs for other search engines
5. Up to 400 concurrent requests

Accuracy is generally good, but not perfect.

City-level searches can be inconsistent unless you provide a zip code. It also relies on offset pagination, which isn’t efficient when you need full SERP coverage.

Still, for local and country-wide analysis, it works well.

Speed

Zenserp is slower than most APIs I tested.

Average response time is around 5 to 7 seconds, which makes it 2nd slowest API on this list.

Developer-friendliness

The documentation is the highlight here.

It’s clean, descriptive, and packed with examples. It makes integration easy, whether you’re a dev or a vibe-coder.

Pricing and scalability

Zenserp charges per search and 1 search means 10 results i.e. 1 Google serp page.

1. Free 50 searches per month
2. $4.2 per 1k searches on lower plans

At the enterprise level, it gets much cheaper.

You can do up to 1M searches/month without needing a custom plan, and at that scale the cost drops to $1.6 per 1k searches.

Custom quotations are available for even larger needs.

Zenserp doesn’t charge for failed requests. But 404 responses still count as valid searches, so you’ll pay for them even if no data comes back.

What do users say?

Zenserp doesn’t have any reviews on Capterra or G2, which is usually one of my benchmarks to judge an API.

This is the only API in the list I’ve added based purely on my own experience.

I really liked how smooth the documentation and examples were.

Integration was simple, and the API delivered solid results at country and local levels when I used zipcode targeting.

But accuracy is not as strong as DataForSEO, and speed is noticeably slower than most competitors.

That’s why I’ve ranked it below DataForSEO.

DataForSEO not only outperforms in features and data accuracy but also has actual user reviews to back up its reliability at scale.

Best for

Zenserp is a good DataForSEO alternative if you want to build SEO tools at scale.

It’s affordable, comes with clean documentation, and supports multiple Google products and search engines.

But why is Lobstr.io not in the list?

Lobstr.io does offer a really cool API for Google SERP scraping and it’s the only one that comes with features perfect for rank tracking.

Why is Lobstr.io not in the list?

The reason is simple: this list is focused only on synchronous APIs for better developer-friendliness.

Lobstr.io is async-only, so it didn’t meet the criteria.

That said, it’s still a strong product with affordable pricing, great accuracy, and useful features. So instead of leaving it out completely, I’ve given it a dedicated section as a bonus API.

Bonus: Lobstr.io

1. Capterra rating: 5 (21 reviews)
2. G2 rating: Nil

Features

1. Collects live results directly from Google Search
2. JSON and CSV output formats
3. Direct export to Google Sheets, Amazon S3, SFTP, and Webhooks
4. Supports Google Maps and Google News scraping
5. Captcha and anti-bot bypass
6. Dual-control system: run scrapers from the dashboard or API

Lobstr.io is highly accurate. The results are real-time, what you’re seeing in response is what you’d get if you search the keyword in that same region.

You can filter results by country, state, city, and even neighborhoods.

Speed

If you’re already tracking a keyword and you run the API for real-time results, it responds in 1.8 to 2.5 seconds. That makes it one of the fastest APIs in this list.

Developer-friendliness

The API is async-only, which is the main reason it’s not in the top 5. Async jobs mean you’ll need to send a request, then wait and fetch results later.

API documentation is clean and comes with practical, simply explained examples. That makes it easy to follow for most developers.

Where it struggles is vibe-coding friendliness. It takes some trial and error to teach an LLM how to use the API.

That said, I’ve published tutorials showing how I use Lobstr.io with LLMs, which can save you some of that effort.

Pricing and scalability

1. 10k free results per month
2. Pricing starts at $0.8 per 1k results
3. At scale, drops to $0.5 per 1k results
4. Up to 20M results per month

Lobstr.io charges per result, not per request, which makes costs transparent. Failed requests and empty responses don’t cost you anything.

Custom pricing option is also available for high-volume data collection.

What do users say?

Lobstr.io has a 5 star rating on Capterra. We actively listen to our users' feedback and keep improving our product.

From my side, I find the dual-control system really useful: developers can automate everything with the API while non-tech users manage scrapers from the dashboard.

Best for

Lobstr.io is best if you want a scalable SERP API that charges only for actual results and doesn’t cap monthly searches.

It’s not dev-friendly if you need synchronous endpoints, but if async fits your workflow, it’s one of the strongest options out there.

And that’s it.

But wait a minute… all rank tracking APIs basically scrape Google search results… is it even legal to scrape Google's results?

Is scraping Google search results legal?

Google officially prohibits extracting SERP data using automated bots. But they’ve never enforced this rule unless someone harms their business.

Now before wrapping up, let me answer some FAQs.

FAQs

Why are Accuranker and Keyword.com not in the list?

Both are solid tools for keyword rank tracking, but they didn’t fit the scope of this list.

Their APIs are async-only, pricing is almost as high as full SEO suites like Semrush or Ahrefs, and the response time was too slow in my testing.

What is a Keyword Rank Tracker API?

A Keyword Rank Tracker API lets you fetch ranking data for specific keywords through simple API calls.

It’s mainly used for keyword rank tracking across different locations and devices.

Some APIs also return related metrics like search volume, making it easier to monitor SEO performance at scale.

Who Needs Rank Tracking APIs and Why?

APIs are used for programmatic access to ranking data.

They’re also ideal if you want to build your own rank tracking tool or integrate keyword performance and SERP features into apps.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap on the best Google Rank Tracking APIs of 2025.