Your agent needs live Google results, and the scraper you wrote last quarter just broke again. Proxies burn out. CAPTCHAs multiply. Someone has to re-parse the HTML every time a SERP feature shifts. Many teams want an SEO API for AI agents that returns clean JSON rather than a pile of markup. I reviewed the market with that reader in mind. The criteria: engine and location coverage, structured output, latency, agent integration, and who maintains the collection layer.
Cutting a Dozen Down to Six
I started with roughly a dozen names and cut on what anyone can verify. Public documentation had to show which search engines and SERP features come back, in what format, and whether results arrive live or through a queue. Agent support kept a candidate in: an MCP server, or connectors for n8n and Make. Vendors that left proxies and parsing entirely on the buyer dropped down the list.
Pricing model counted too. Prepaid credits, pay-as-you-go and subscriptions suit different workloads, so I noted which each vendor uses and looked at free tiers or sample requests where they existed. I also read user reviews on Trustpilot and G2, watching for recurring complaints about support, billing surprises and reliability, and I treated thin review pools with caution.
Company history, customer counts and funding come only from verified statements. The assessment rests on public data.
Scores From Reviewers
Verified public scores, side by side:
| Provider | Trustpilot | G2 |
| HasData | 4.5/5 (42) | 4.8/5 (5) |
| Serper | 2.9/5 (5) | – |
| Oxylabs | 3.9/5 (748) | 4.5/5 (401) |
| DataForSEO | 4.5/5 (64) | 4.4/5 (15) |
| SE Ranking | 4.1/5 (716) | 4.7/5 (1511) |
A Trustpilot or G2 rating could not be verified for Tavily.
1. Serper
Serper says it returns Google results in 1-2 seconds. Speed is the pitch. It is a Google Search API aimed at quick lookups inside agent loops and small apps.
New accounts get 2,500 free queries to start. Credits are prepaid with no monthly subscription, and they stay valid for six months, so occasional workloads do not pay for idle capacity. It sits in the accessible, pay-as-you-go corner of the market.
On Trustpilot, Serper shows 2.9/5 from 5 reviews. A small sample, worth reading before you commit.
Best for: Solo developers and small agent projects that need fast Google lookups on prepaid credits, without a subscription.
2. DataForSEO
DataForSEO offers a SERP API built for AI agents, agencies and software vendors. One endpoint covers seven engines (Google, Bing, YouTube, Yahoo, Baidu, Naver and Seznam), plus Google Maps, News, Images and AI Mode. Output arrives as structured JSON, or as the raw page HTML, for any Google location.
A single call in Live mode comes back in seconds, which fits agent loops, while the Standard and Priority queues absorb bulk tracking jobs. Billing is mid-range and pay-as-you-go: add funds, pay per request, no seats. The official MCP server works as an SEO MCP server for Claude, and the same setup reaches Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT and Gemini CLI; it runs as a hosted endpoint, through npx locally, or in Docker. Collection stays on DataForSEO’s side, so nobody on your team babysits scrapers or proxies.
On Trustpilot, DataForSEO scores 4.5/5 from 64 reviews. The same account also covers the On-Page API, whose 60+ technical checks and JavaScript rendering let agencies build their own technical SEO audit at scale beside rank tracking.
Best for: Growth teams, developers, agencies and software vendors feeding live Google results into agents, rank trackers and site audits.
3. Tavily
Agent builders who want a web layer rather than a bare results list tend to start here. Tavily offers Search, Extract, Research, Crawl and Map endpoints, so one key covers finding pages, pulling their content and walking a site.
It says it is trusted by 3M+ developers. It raised a $25M Series A and now operates as Tavily by Nebius. The mid-range tier mixes subscription and pay-as-you-go billing, which gives prototypes and production different on-ramps.
The product is built around agent retrieval, not SEO data. Rank tracking, ad parsing and Maps-style structured output sit outside its core, and teams that need them will lean another way.
Best for: AI agent teams that need search, page extraction and crawling from a single web-access API.
4. HasData
63 API endpoints and 21 no-code scrapers: HasData reads more like a scraping toolbox than a single search API. It describes itself as a web scraping service for data pipelines and AI, and it says it is trusted by 1.3k+ customers.
It charges only for successful requests, so failed calls stay off the invoice. The no-code scrapers help colleagues who would rather not write integration code at all. It is accessible-tier and subscription-based.
Breadth is the draw. Depth on any one search engine is not what the catalogue is organised around.
Best for: Data teams that want search results plus wider scraping endpoints and no-code scrapers under one subscription.
5. Oxylabs
Founded in 2015 and based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Oxylabs sits at the enterprise end of proxy-backed data collection. It reports 15,000+ clients and 500+ employees. Its pool holds 177M+ proxies.
In 2022 it acquired the self-service proxy platform Webshare. That deal widened its reach from large contracts to smaller self-serve buyers.
G2 shows Oxylabs at 4.5/5 from 401 reviews. The pricing is premium and subscription-based. Teams that value proxy infrastructure under their scraping will see what they pay for, while lean agent prototypes may find the footprint larger than the job.
Best for: Large organisations that want enterprise-scale, proxy-backed collection from a vendor with a big client base.
6. SE Ranking
Agencies already living inside a rank tracker may find the shortest path here. SE Ranking launched its first SEO tool in 2013 and now offers Rank Tracker, Website Audit and an API for integrating its data.
It lists legal addresses in London and Wilmington, Delaware, with team hubs in Kyiv, Wroclaw and Warsaw and 150+ people. It says more than a million businesses, agencies and SEO experts have relied on it.
G2 lists SE Ranking at 4.7/5 from 1511 reviews. That is the largest review pool in this article.
The subscription is mid-range. The API extends a finished product, so the interface comes first and the integration second, a different order from the raw-data options above.
Best for: SEO agencies that want a ready rank tracker and site audit, with an API to feed their own reports.
The Shortlist, Side by Side
| Provider | Best for | Pricing model |
| Serper | Quick Google lookups on prepaid credits | Accessible, pay-as-you-go |
| DataForSEO | Growth teams, developers, agencies, software vendors | Mid-range, pay-as-you-go |
| Tavily | Agent web retrieval and extraction | Mid-range, subscription plus pay-as-you-go |
| HasData | Scraping toolbox with no-code options | Accessible, subscription |
| Oxylabs | Enterprise-scale proxy-backed collection | Premium, subscription |
| SE Ranking | Agencies pairing a rank tracker with an API | Mid-range, subscription |
Matching the API to Your Workload
Three situations cover most buyers.
If an agent needs live Google results inside a loop and little else, weigh Serper for fast lookups and prepaid credits. Weigh Tavily instead if the same agent also needs Extract, Crawl and Research endpoints on one key.
If the workload mixes agent calls, bulk rank tracking and site audits, weigh DataForSEO for Live and queued modes plus an MCP server. SE Ranking fits the version of this where the team wants a finished Rank Tracker and Website Audit first and an API second.
If procurement demands enterprise scale and proxy infrastructure, weigh Oxylabs. If the project stretches into general scraping beyond search, weigh HasData.
Before committing, ask one question. Who maintains collection when Google changes its markup at 2 a.m.? Settle that before you write a single line of integration code.
