I Tested Apify, SerpApi & DataForSEO — Serpent API Has the Best Google Maps API (2026)

Bottom line up front: I signed up for four Google Maps / local business APIs, pulled their live 2026 pricing, and mapped exactly which fields each one returns for a place. They are not priced the same way — per place, per record, per task, per month — which makes naive comparison misleading. After normalising everything to cost per 1,000 and matching it against the data each returns, one came out ahead for the most common job:

• Serpent API — Google Maps & local business data on pay-as-you-go credits that never expire, from $0.60 per 1,000 and as low as $0.03 at scale, synchronous, 10 calls free with no card. Best overall value.
• Apify — a strong dedicated Google Maps Scraper from $1.50 per 1,000 places, but an asynchronous run-and-poll model and a platform subscription on top.
• SerpApi — a clean dedicated Google Maps API with the widest engine catalogue, but it is a monthly subscription and unused searches reset every cycle.
• DataForSEO — cheap local data through its SERP API, but the cheapest tier is an asynchronous queue you have to poll.

The honest summary: if you want Google Maps and local business data — names, addresses, phones, websites, ratings, reviews, hours and coordinates — at the lowest cost with the fewest billing traps, Serpent API does it for the least money and waits for you to use your balance instead of expiring it. The rest of this post is the evidence, including where the others pull ahead. Every Serpent API figure is verified against our live pricing page; the others against each provider's public 2026 pricing.

The four at a glance

Each provider owns at least one column, which is the honest shape of this market. But for the central job — pull structured local business records, at volume, without overpaying or losing credits to a calendar — Serpent API is the one I keep coming back to. Here is why, round by round.

Pick each one when…

• Pick Serpent API when you want Google Maps and local business data at the lowest synchronous price, on credits that never expire, with a free tier you can start on today.
• Pick Apify when you want a managed, no-code Google Maps Scraper actor and you are comfortable with an asynchronous run-and-export workflow.
• Pick SerpApi when you also need its long tail of other engines and verticals and a fixed monthly bill suits your finance team.
• Pick DataForSEO when you want the cheapest possible batch local data and your jobs tolerate an async queue you poll for results.

What a Google Maps / local business API actually returns

Before pricing, it is worth being precise about the product. A local business API takes a query (a keyword plus a location, or a place identifier) and returns a structured record for each business in the Google Maps and local results. A complete record looks like this:

{
  "name": "Blue Bottle Coffee",
  "category": "Coffee shop",
  "address": "66 Mint St, San Francisco, CA 94103",
  "latitude": 37.7825,
  "longitude": -122.4070,
  "phone": "+1 415-495-3394",
  "website": "https://bluebottlecoffee.com",
  "rating": 4.5,
  "reviews": 1287,
  "price_level": "$$",
  "hours": "Mon-Fri 7am-6pm",
  "place_id": "ChIJ-aValk1...",
  "position": 1
}

That shape — name, category, address, coordinates, phone, website, rating, review count, price level, hours and a place identifier — is the baseline. All four providers return it. The differences that matter are price, billing model, latency and how cleanly the location targeting works. So let's compare those.

Pricing: the round most people care about

These price in four different shapes. Here is each, normalised to cost per 1,000 local records (lower is better):

• Serpent API — pay-as-you-go from a credit balance: $0.60 / 1,000 (default), $0.06 / 1,000 after a single $100 deposit, $0.03 / 1,000 after a single $500 deposit. Synchronous, and the balance never expires.
• Apify — the Google Maps Scraper actor is from $1.50 / 1,000 places, with the cheaper rate at higher platform tiers. There is also a platform plan on top ($0 Free with a $5 monthly credit, $29 Starter, $199 Scale).
• DataForSEO — prepaid pay-as-you-go: its SERP API is $0.60 / 1,000 on the Standard (asynchronous) queue, or $2.00 / 1,000 on Live (synchronous). Maps and local data ride the same prepaid model.
• SerpApi — monthly subscription: $25/mo for 1,000 ($25 / 1,000) on Starter, scaling to $275/mo for 30,000 (~$9.17 / 1,000), with an Enterprise floor of $2.75 / 1,000 on reserved volume.

And the fifth name I promised in the intro — Outscraper — deserves a mention here because it is the dedicated Google Maps scraper many people land on first. Its Google Maps endpoint is $3 / 1,000 records up to 100,000, then $1 / 1,000 beyond, pay-as-you-go with 500 free records per service every 30 days. It returns an unusually rich local record (phone, website, hours, review counts, even optional email and social enrichment), but it is asynchronous and its mid-volume rate sits above Serpent API's.

Normalised, the ladder is clear:

Serpent API and DataForSEO tie at the $0.60 entry line, but DataForSEO's $0.60 is an asynchronous queue — you submit a task and poll for it — while Serpent API's $0.60 is synchronous and drops to $0.03 at scale without ever moving to an async model. That is the gap that decides it for live applications.

Billing models — where the real money leaks

Price per call is only half the story; the billing model decides how much you waste.

• Serpent API & DataForSEO & Outscraper are true pay-as-you-go: deposit a balance, spend per call, no monthly commitment. You pay for exactly what you use.
• SerpApi is a subscription: you pre-buy a monthly bucket whether you use it or not, and the unused part resets every cycle.
• Apify blends a monthly platform plan with per-result actor pricing, so you carry a base subscription alongside usage.

For local data this matters more than for plain web SERPs, because local jobs are bursty: an agency onboards a client and pulls every competitor in a metro over a weekend, then goes quiet. On a never-expiring pay-as-you-go balance, the quiet weeks cost nothing. On a monthly-reset subscription, they are sunk cost. We put numbers on exactly this trade-off in do your SERP API credits expire.

Local fields & the “no website” goldmine

All four return the baseline record. Where it gets interesting is the derived data. Because a local business record includes the website field, you can filter for businesses that have a Google listing but no website — the single most valuable lead list a web-design or local-marketing agency can build. I wrote a full playbook on that in find local businesses without websites, and it works on any of these APIs that expose the website field, which all four do.

The other derived use is opening-hours and rating monitoring — tracking when a competitor changes hours, watching review-count velocity, or auditing listing accuracy across locations. The record shape above is all you need for it.

Local rank tracking & geo-targeting

Google Maps and local pack results are geo-specific: the same query returns different businesses from different coordinates. That makes location targeting the single most important capability for local work, and all four support it — you pass a location (a city, or latitude/longitude) and get localised results back.

This is the foundation of a geo-grid local rank tracker: you fan a query out across a grid of coordinates around a target area and record where a business ranks at each point. It is exactly how tools like Local Falcon work, and you can build your own — I walked through it in building a geo-grid local rank tracker and in the broader local SEO rank tracking guide. Serpent API's never-expiring credits suit this especially well, because a geo-grid sweep is the definition of a bursty, periodic workload.

Speed & the async-queue caveat

Two of the four are synchronous for local data: Serpent API and SerpApi return the parsed result in the same request, in seconds. Apify and Outscraper default to an asynchronous job model — you start a run and poll or wait for a webhook — which is fine for a scheduled overnight pull but awkward for an app with a user waiting. DataForSEO sits in both camps: its cheapest Standard queue is asynchronous; its Live endpoint is synchronous at roughly 3.3x the price. If you are powering anything interactive — a store locator, an in-app "find nearby" feature, a live audit — synchronous is the difference between a clean integration and a polling loop you have to babysit. We compared the broader scraping-vs-API trade-off in how to scrape Google Maps data (Python + API).

One more consideration: portability & the legal backdrop

If you are choosing a local data provider in 2026, it is worth knowing the market has legal weather. SerpApi has been the subject of legal action from Google over scraping — we covered it neutrally in Google's legal action against SerpApi, explained. This is not a reason to panic; it is a reason to keep your integration portable. Because all of these return the same local record shape, a thin adapter keeps you free to switch providers if pricing or availability shifts. Portability plus a backup provider is cheap insurance.

Which one should you choose?

Choose Serpent API if…

You want Google Maps and local business data at the lowest synchronous cost, on a balance that never expires, and you would rather start on a free tier than commit to a subscription. At scale you are at $0.03 per 1,000, and the same account also covers Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo web search plus AI rank tracking — one provider for the whole local-and-search stack.

Choose Apify if…

You want a managed, configurable Google Maps Scraper actor with a no-code option, and an asynchronous export workflow fits how you process data.

Choose SerpApi if…

You also query niche engines the others do not cover and a fixed monthly bill is simplest for your team — you pay a premium, but you get the broadest catalogue.

Choose DataForSEO if…

You want the cheapest possible batch local data alongside SEO sub-APIs, and your jobs tolerate the asynchronous Standard queue. Use Live mode for the slices that must be real-time.

FAQ

What's the best Google Maps / local business API in 2026?

For most teams, Serpent API: Google Maps and local business data on pay-as-you-go credits that never expire, from $0.60 per 1,000 down to $0.03 at scale, synchronous, with a free tier and no card. Apify and Outscraper are strong dedicated scrapers, SerpApi has the widest catalogue, and DataForSEO is cheap but async on its cheapest tier.

How much does a Google Maps API cost per 1,000?

Serpent API $0.60 (to $0.03 at scale); Apify from $1.50 per 1,000 places; Outscraper $3 down to $1 per 1,000 records; DataForSEO $0.60 async or $2.00 sync; SerpApi from $25 on Starter down to $2.75 on Enterprise reserved volume.

What fields does a local business API return?

Name, category, full address, latitude/longitude, phone, website, star rating, review count, price level, opening hours and a place identifier. Some providers add photos, popular times and email/social enrichment.

Are these Google Maps APIs synchronous?

Serpent API and SerpApi are synchronous. Apify and Outscraper default to asynchronous jobs. DataForSEO is async on its cheap Standard queue and synchronous on Live.

Which has a free tier with no credit card?

Serpent API (10 calls) and Apify ($5/mo credit) need no card. Outscraper gives 500 free records per service per 30 days; SerpApi 250 searches a month; DataForSEO a one-time $1 trial with a $50 minimum deposit.

Can I build a local rank tracker on these?

Yes. All four support location targeting, so you can fan a query across a grid of coordinates and record local rankings at each point — the basis of a geo-grid local rank tracker.