Google rank checker API
Google rank checker API: Google position checker API and Google keyword ranking API
The short answer
Google does not sell a rank checker API. The Search Console API returns an average position for your own verified site only, and the Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and shuts down on January 1, 2027. To get a keyword's Google position as JSON you use a third party: a per search SERP API, or a rank tracker API that has already checked your keywords today.
Google facts are quoted from developers.google.com. Vendor prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars.
Check one Google position now, no API key
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.
- You
Track daily and get an alert the day it drops.
The same top 10 check our API serves, one keyword at a time.
Is there an API for Google rankings? Four Google APIs, none of them a rank checker.
Most people who type "google api rank checker" expect Google to have one, because Google has an API for nearly everything else. It does not have this one. Four Google products get suggested in answer threads, and each returns something close to a ranking without being one.
The one that matters is the Search Console API. It is free, it is official, and it is the right source for how your own site performs across all of Google. What it cannot do is tell you where a keyword ranks right now, next to a named competitor, for a keyword you never got an impression for. That is the question a rank checker answers.
The deadline most guides miss
Google's own overview page says the Custom Search JSON API "is closed to new customers" and that existing customers "have until January 1, 2027 to transition to an alternative solution." Any tutorial that tells you to build a rank checker on it, at 100 free queries a day and $5 per 1,000 after that, is describing a product you can no longer sign up for.
| Google API | Returns a live google.com position? | Which domains | Price and limits | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search Console API (searchanalytics.query) | No. An average position over the date range | Only properties you have verified access to | Free. Up to 25,000 rows per request; 1,200 queries a minute per site | Your own clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by query and page |
| Custom Search JSON API | No. Results from a Programmable Search Engine you configure | Any, but not google.com ordering | Closed to new customers. Existing: 100 free a day, $5 per 1,000, 10,000 a day cap, ends January 1, 2027 | Nothing new. Plan a migration if you still use it |
| Vertex AI Search | No | Up to 50 domains you choose (Google's own note) | Google Cloud billing | Search inside your own sites and documents |
| Google Ads API (Keyword Planner) | No. Paid search data only | Not domain based | Needs an Ads account and developer token | Search volumes and bid ranges for keyword research |
Read from developers.google.com: the Custom Search JSON API overview, the Search Console API reference for searchanalytics.query and the Search Console API usage limits page.
Check your keyword position using Google API: what the Search Console route gives you
If the site is yours, the Search Console API answers the question in one call. Send
searchanalytics.query a date range, the query dimension and a filter on the
keyword, and each row comes back with clicks, impressions, ctr
and position. Google's reference defines that last field in three words: "Average
position in search results."
Three things make that number a poor rank checker. It blends every device and location that saw the result, so a page at 3 on mobile and 11 on desktop can report 7. It only exists for impressions you actually received, so a keyword where you sit on page four often has no row at all. And it never covers a competitor, because you can only query properties you control. For reporting on your own search traffic it is the best free source there is. For "where do we rank for this term today, and who is above us" it has no answer.
Search Console API vs a rank checker API
- Position: averaged across impressions vs one reading of the page.
- Domains: yours only vs yours plus named competitors.
- Keywords: only those you got impressions for vs any keyword you add.
- Price: free vs paid. Most teams use both.
Google position checker API pricing: per search, or per keyword already checked.
Paid options come in two shapes. A per search API runs a Google search when you call it and returns the parsed results page, and you pay for every call. You find your domain in the response, store the position, and schedule tomorrow's call yourself. A rank tracker API hands you positions for keywords the vendor has already checked on its own schedule, with the history kept. The first is cheaper per data point. The second is cheaper per finished report.
The table turns both into the question buyers actually have: what does it cost to know where a list of keywords ranks on Google every day? The per search rows multiply keywords by 30 days for one device and one location. Double them for mobile and desktop.
| Keywords checked daily | Searches a month | SerpApi plan that covers it | DataForSEO standard queue | SerpsTracker API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 3,000 | Developer, $75 (5,000 searches) | $1.80 plus $50 minimum deposit | $249 Agency |
| 500 | 15,000 | Production, $150 (15,000 searches) | $9 | $249 Agency |
| 1,000 | 30,000 | Big Data, $275 (30,000 searches) | $18 | $249 Agency |
| 5,000 | 150,000 | Enterprise, price by quote | $90 | $249 Agency |
SerpApi plans read from serpapi.com/pricing: Starter $25 for 1,000 searches, Developer $75 for 5,000, Production $150 for 15,000, Big Data $275 for 30,000, and a free plan of 250 a month. Only successful searches count. DataForSEO at $0.0006 per SERP on the standard queue, which states 5 minutes on average; Live mode costs $0.002. Full provider list on our SERP API pricing page.
Raw data is cheaper, and we say so
At 1,000 keywords a day DataForSEO's standard queue costs about $18 a month against our $249. If you have an engineer, a database and a scheduler already, per search data is the cheapest route to Google positions.
The bill is not the calls
The per search route still needs the job that runs every morning, retries when a search fails, finds your domain in the results, stores each day, compares it to yesterday and sends the alert. That is the part a rank tracker API has already built.
Where the flat price wins
Past about 1,000 keywords a day, SerpApi's listed plans cost more than the Agency plan, and at 5,000 SerpApi quotes a custom price. Our Agency plan covers 5,000 keywords checked daily across unlimited sites for the same $249.
Google keyword ranking API: four read only endpoints, one bearer token.
SerpsTracker checks every tracked keyword against Google's top 10 once a day. The API reads what those checks found. You authenticate with a bearer token from your account, call a GET endpoint, and get JSON back. There is no per call meter and no unit balance to top up.
Because the checks already ran, reading 5,000 positions is one request to the positions endpoint, not 5,000 searches. Your dashboard, a Google Sheet on a schedule or a warehouse job can pull the whole account in seconds and chart it next to revenue. When a money keyword drops, the rank drop alert goes out by email and Slack the same day whether your integration polls or not.
One honest limit. Each check reads the top 10 organic results, so the API returns a position from 1
to 10, or null when the domain is not in the top 10. If you need to watch keywords at
position 40 climb toward page one, a raw SERP API or a suite tracker that reads to 100 is the better
tool.
GET /api/v1/projects/{project}/positions
{
"data": [
{
"keyword": "commercial roofing chicago",
"position": 4,
"previous_position": 6,
"best_position": 3,
"last_checked_at": "2026-09-27T06:12:40+00:00",
"competitors": {
"rival-roofing.com": 2,
"other-contractor.com": null
}
}
]
}
Example response shape. Field names are the real ones; the values are illustrative.
| Endpoint | What it returns |
|---|---|
| GET /api/v1/projects | Every project on the account with its domain, location, device and competitor list. |
| GET /api/v1/projects/{project}/positions | Every tracked keyword with today's position, the previous one, the best one, the check time and a column per competitor. |
| GET /api/v1/projects/{project}/keywords/{keyword}/history | The last 90 daily readings for one keyword, each with its date. |
| GET /api/v1/projects/{project}/keywords/{keyword}/serp | The stored top 10 behind the last 30 readings, so you can see who held each spot. |
API access is part of the Agency plan at $249 a month, or $124.50 a month billed yearly (a year costs the price of six months), and of Enterprise. Starter and Growth export CSV. More on the integration side on our rank tracking API page.
Google rank tracker API or SERP API: pick by what you are building.
You are building a search product, a keyword research tool or a tracker of your own that you will resell. Buy raw SERP data. You need every result, every feature and control over when each search runs, and the per search price is your cost of goods.
You are an agency or an in house team that wants Google positions inside a client portal, Looker Studio, a spreadsheet or a BI tool. Buy positions that are already checked. The work you would otherwise do is scheduling, storage and diffing, and none of it differentiates your reporting. Our rank tracker for agencies page covers how the Agency plan handles many client sites at once.
You already pay for a suite. Semrush meters its Position Tracking API at 100 units per keyword per request on top of a $549 plan, and Ahrefs includes Rank Tracker endpoints without units but tracks weekly. Both are worked through on our Semrush API pricing page and in the Ahrefs API pricing guide.
Quick fit check
- Your own site's average position, free: Search Console API.
- Positions to 100, built in house: a per search SERP API.
- Daily top 10 positions for many sites, with competitors, as JSON: a rank tracker API.
- One keyword, right now: the checker at the top of this page, or our Google rank checker.
Google rank checker API questions, answered.
Does Google have a rank checker API?
No. Google publishes no API that returns where a keyword ranks on google.com. The Search Console API returns the average position of your own verified site, averaged over the impressions it received, and nothing about other domains. The Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. Every rank checker API is a third party product.
How do I check my keyword position using Google API?
Use the Search Console API if the site is yours. Call searchanalytics.query with the query dimension and a filter on the keyword, and each row returns clicks, impressions, CTR and position, where position is an average across every impression in the date range. It needs OAuth access to a verified property and cannot check a competitor or a keyword you never showed up for.
Is the Search Console API position the same as my Google ranking?
Not quite. Search Console reports the average topmost position your site held each time it appeared, across all searchers, devices and locations in the date range you ask for. A keyword that ranked 3 on mobile and 11 on desktop can read as 7. A rank checker reads the result page once and returns the single position it saw.
Can I still use the Google Custom Search JSON API to check rankings?
Not as a new customer. Google's documentation states the Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and that existing customers have until January 1, 2027 to move to an alternative. It also never returned google.com: it searched a Programmable Search Engine you configured, so its order was not the ranking a searcher sees.
What is the best API for Google rank tracking?
It depends on what you want back. For a raw results page per call, a SERP API such as SerpApi or DataForSEO is the base. For your own keywords already checked every day, with history and competitor columns, a rank tracker API is less work. Check three things before buying: refresh cadence, whether history comes back, and whether each call is metered.
How much does a Google rank checker API cost?
Per check APIs bill per search. SerpApi lists $25 a month for 1,000 searches up to $275 for 30,000, and DataForSEO lists $0.60 per 1,000 on its standard queue. Checking 1,000 keywords daily is about 30,000 searches a month. SerpsTracker includes its API in the Agency plan at $249 a month for 5,000 keywords checked daily, with no per call charge.
How many API calls does it take to check 1,000 keywords every day?
About 30,000 a month on a per search API: 1,000 keywords times 30 days, for one device and one location. Adding mobile doubles it to 60,000 and a second city doubles it again. On a rank tracker API the checks run on the vendor's schedule, so reading 1,000 positions is one request to the positions endpoint, not 1,000.
Does the SerpsTracker API return positions beyond the top 10?
No. Each daily check reads Google's top 10 organic results, and the API returns a position from 1 to 10 or null when the domain is not in the top 10. That covers the positions that get clicked. If you need rankings to 100 for long tail research, a raw SERP API or a suite tracker is the better fit, and we say so.
Which SerpsTracker plan includes the API?
The Agency plan, at $249 a month or $124.50 a month billed yearly, which is the price of six months. It tracks 5,000 keywords daily across unlimited sites and includes read access to projects, current positions with competitor columns, 90 days of position history per keyword and the stored top 10 snapshot behind each reading. Enterprise includes it too.
Start today
Google positions as JSON, checked every day.
5,000 keywords checked daily across unlimited sites, competitor columns, 90 days of history and drop alerts by email and Slack. API included on Agency at $249 a month.