DataForSEO, read from its own rate cards
DataForSEO pricing and DataForSEO API cost for SERP data and daily rank tracking
The short answer
DataForSEO has no plans. You top up at least $50 and pay per call: a Google results page of 10 costs $0.0006 queued, $0.0012 on priority and $0.002 live. That headline rate covers the top 10 only. Checking a keyword to position 100 bills 10 pages, so rank tracking past page one costs ten times what the rate card suggests.
Read from dataforseo.com/pricing, the Google Organic SERP API rate card and the July 1, 2026 pricing update, all in US dollars. We are not affiliated with DataForSEO.
See what one keyword check returns
Google rank checker
Live · checked today
Querying Google results…
Type any keyword and see today's top Google results (up to 10). Add your domain and we highlight where you rank. This is a live check of the positions the full product tracks for you daily.
Sample, not a live reading. Stored top 10 for this keyword from an earlier check on .
- You
Track daily and get an alert the day it drops.
Live Google top 10, no signup. A tracker runs this check for every keyword, every morning, and keeps the history.
Three speeds, one billing unit, and a price gap of more than three times.
DataForSEO bills the Google Organic SERP API per results page, and one page is up to 10 organic results. You pick the speed per task and can mix them freely. Location, language, device, the Google domain and the result format (regular, advanced or raw HTML) are all included in the base price.
Standard queue
$0.0006
per page of 10 results, $0.60 per 1,000
Relative price
~5 min
average, 45 minute target
POST, then GET the result. Built for scheduled overnight jobs.
Priority queue
$0.0012
per page of 10 results, $1.20 per 1,000
Relative price
~1 min
average
Same two step flow, twice the price, results within a minute.
Live mode
$0.002
per page of 10 results, $2.00 per 1,000
Relative price
~6 sec
average, single POST
One request, answer in seconds. For anything a user waits on.
For rank tracking the standard queue is the obvious choice. A daily check does not need an answer in six seconds, and DataForSEO says retrieving a queued result is free: you pay once, when the task is set. The price difference is real money at volume. Five thousand keywords a day is $90 a month queued and $300 a month live.
The same $0.0006 starting price appears across DataForSEO's other search engines too: Bing pages of 10, Yahoo pages of 6 and YouTube pages of 20 results. If you ever track Bing, budget the same way. If you only compare raw SERP vendors, our SERP API pricing table puts DataForSEO next to SerpApi, ScraperAPI and Scrapingdog per 1,000 searches.
The multipliers sit under the rate card, and depth is the one that decides a tracking bill.
Most write-ups of DataForSEO pricing stop at $0.60 per 1,000. The rate card itself continues with a table of "advanced parameters and cost multipliers", and that table is where a rank tracking budget is won or lost.
-
Depth
+1 base price per extra 10 results
Rounded up to the next ten. Depth 100 = 10 pages.
-
Search operators
x5 base price per operator
site:, inurl:, intitle: and a dozen more.
-
AI Overview block
+1 base price
The load_async_ai_overview flag. Total 2x.
-
Pixel rankings
+1 base price
The calculate_rectangles flag. Total 2x.
-
People Also Ask clicks
+$0.00015 per click
Each simulated expansion of a question.
One keyword, standard queue
1,000 keywords, daily, 30 days, top 100 with AI Overview
$198
against $18 for the same list at top 10 only
The AI Overview add-on is one extra base price on top of the depth total, which is how DataForSEO's own worked example adds pixel rankings: two pages plus one base price for a depth 15 task. If Google returns fewer results than the depth you asked for, the difference is refunded to your balance.
What a month of daily rank checks costs on DataForSEO, at four list sizes.
One check per keyword per day for 30 days, one device and one location, Google organic. Every extra device or city is another task at the same price, so a list tracked on desktop and mobile doubles each figure. The last column is our published plan for the same keyword count.
| Keywords a day | Top 10, queued | Top 10, live | Top 100, queued | Top 100, priority | SerpsTracker, top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | $4.50 | $15 | $45 | $90 | $49 Starter, no API |
| 1,500 | $27 | $90 | $270 | $540 | $99 Growth, no API |
| 5,000 | $90 | $300 | $900 | $1,800 | $249 Agency, API included |
| 10,000 | $180 | $600 | $1,800 | $3,600 | $498 Enterprise, API included |
Raw top 10 data is cheaper on DataForSEO
At every size in the table, the queued top 10 column is below our price, and at 5,000 keywords it is $90 against $249. We store the organic top 10 per check, so that is the fair comparison. If you have an engineer, a database and a scheduler already, buying the raw pages is the cheaper route and we would not argue you out of it.
The data is the smallest line on the build
The API bill does not include the code that schedules 5,000 tasks, polls for results, retries the failures, finds your URL among the ten, stores every reading and emails someone when a money keyword falls. That work is paid for in developer hours and server time, every month, and it is what a rank tracker API sells you finished.
How the DataForSEO balance works, and what the July 2026 increase did and did not touch.
$50
Minimum top-up
Added to your balance, not a monthly fee. Unused funds never expire.
$1
Trial credit
For the Playground, MCP and integrations. About 1,666 queued Google pages.
$0
Sandbox
Sample responses for testing an integration before you spend anything.
$5,000
Wire and ACH
Bank transfer opens at this size. Cards, PayPal and Amazon Pay below it.
The July 1, 2026 update
DataForSEO announced an increase of about 20% across eight APIs, with a few endpoint exceptions, and moved everything to pay as you go by cancelling monthly commitments. Backlinks and LLM Mentions no longer need the $100 a month they used to. The SERP API, the one a rank tracker runs on, is not on the list, so its rates were not part of the increase.
Research data is where the increase landed. The pricing page now lists DataForSEO Labs at $0.012 per task plus $0.00012 per item, Keywords Data from $0.0012 per task and On-Page from $0.00015 per page. If your build pulls search volumes or ranked keywords next to the positions, reprice that part.
Rate changes, July 1, 2026
- Backlinks API +20%
- Business Data API +20%*
- Content Analysis API +20%
- DataForSEO Labs API +20%
- Domain Analytics API +20%
- Keywords Data API +20%
- On-Page API +20%
- Merchant API +50%*
- SERP API unchanged
* On named endpoints only: two Business Data endpoints, Amazon Products and Sellers on Merchant.
05 · Build on DataForSEO or buy a tracker
Eight jobs the DataForSEO invoice leaves to you.
01
Schedule
Post every keyword once a day, spread across the queue.
02
Collect
Poll tasks_ready and fetch every finished result.
03
Retry
Catch the tasks that failed or timed out and resubmit them.
04
Match
Find your domain among the ten, including subdomains and redirects.
05
Store
Keep every reading, per keyword, per day, per location.
06
Compare
Work out the change since yesterday and since last week.
07
Alert
Email or Slack someone when a money keyword falls.
08
Report
Get it into a dashboard, a spreadsheet or a client portal.
Build on DataForSEO if
rank data is one input to a product you are building anyway, you need depth past the top 10 or engines beyond Google, or you are tracking hundreds of thousands of keywords where the raw rate is the whole game. At that scale nobody beats $0.60 per 1,000.
Buy SerpsTracker if
you want daily Google positions for your sites or your clients' sites, with history and drop alerts, and the API is how you get them into your own reports. Agency covers 5,000 keywords on unlimited sites for $249 a month, $124.50 billed yearly, with nothing metered.
Frequently asked questions
How much does DataForSEO cost?
DataForSEO is pay as you go with no subscription. You top up a balance, minimum $50, and each call is charged at its own rate. A Google organic results page of up to 10 results costs $0.0006 on the standard queue, $0.0012 on the priority queue and $0.002 in Live mode, which is $0.60, $1.20 and $2.00 per 1,000.
Is the DataForSEO $50 a monthly fee?
No. The $50 is the minimum top-up, not a subscription. DataForSEO's pricing FAQ says the amount is added to your balance, is used to pay for the requests you make, and has no expiration date, so you can spend it over a week or over a year. Larger top-ups of $5,000 or more can be paid by wire or ACH.
Is DataForSEO free?
Only for testing. New accounts get a $1 trial credit for the Playground, MCP and integrations, and a Sandbox returns sample responses at no cost. At $0.0006 a page, $1 buys about 1,666 standard queue Google results pages. Production use needs the $50 minimum top-up.
How much does DataForSEO cost for rank tracking?
For a top 10 check, 1,000 keywords once a day for 30 days is 30,000 results pages: $18 a month on the standard queue, $36 on priority and $60 live. Checking to position 100 means a depth of 100, which DataForSEO bills as 10 pages per keyword, so the same list costs $180, $360 or $600 a month.
Why does a deeper DataForSEO search cost more?
Because the billing unit is one results page of 10. DataForSEO's rate card adds one base price for every additional 10 results requested through the depth parameter, rounded up to the next ten. A depth of 15 bills as 20 results, two pages, and a depth of 100 bills as 10 pages.
What is the difference between DataForSEO Standard and Live pricing?
Standard requests wait in a queue, about 5 minutes on average with a 45 minute target, and cost $0.0006 a page. Priority returns in about a minute for $0.0012. Live mode answers a single POST in about 6 seconds for $0.002. Retrieving a queued result is free; you pay when the task is set.
Did DataForSEO raise prices in 2026?
Yes, on July 1, 2026, by about 20% across eight APIs: Backlinks, Business Data, Content Analysis, DataForSEO Labs, Domain Analytics, Keywords Data, On-Page and Merchant. The SERP API is not on that list. The same update removed the $100 monthly commitment on the Backlinks and LLM Mentions APIs.
Is DataForSEO cheaper than SerpApi?
Per search, by a wide margin. DataForSEO's standard queue is $0.60 per 1,000 Google pages, while SerpApi lists $25 a month for 1,000 searches on its entry plan. SerpApi returns results live on every plan; DataForSEO's cheapest rate is the queued one, and its Live mode at $2.00 per 1,000 is still cheaper than SerpApi's entry tier.
What is cheaper than building a rank tracker on DataForSEO?
Raw data is cheapest on DataForSEO, and we say so. What costs money is the system around it: scheduling, retries, matching your URL in the results, storing history and sending alerts. SerpsTracker Agency does all of that for 5,000 daily Google keywords with the API included at $249 a month, $124.50 billed yearly.
Weighing DataForSEO against finished trackers rather than other APIs? Our DataForSEO alternative for rank tracking article lines up the trackers that ship an API, and the Google rank checker API page prices SerpApi, DataForSEO and our API side by side at 100 to 5,000 keywords.
Start today
Want the rankings without building the tracker?
Run a live check above, then start tracking. 5,000 daily Google keywords on unlimited sites, history, drop alerts and the API for $249 a month, half that billed yearly.