SerpApi Python Library & Package

Integrate search data into your AI workflow, RAG / fine-tuning, or Python application using this official wrapper for SerpApi.

SerpApi supports Google, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo, eBay, App Stores, and more.

Query a vast range of data at scale, including web search results, flight schedules, stock market data, news headlines, and more.

Installation

To install the serpapi package, simply run the following command:

$ pip install serpapi

Please note that this package is separate from the legacy serpapi module, which is available on PyPi as google-search-results. This package is maintained by SerpApi, and is the recommended way to access the SerpApi service from Python.

Quick start

Let's start by searching for Coffee on Google:

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("SERPAPI_KEY"))
results = client.search({
  "engine": "google",
  "q": "coffee"
})

print(results)

The results variable now contains a SerpResults object, which acts just like a standard dictionary, with some convenient functions added on top.

This example runs a search for "coffee" on Google. It then returns the results as a regular Python Hash. See the playground to generate your own code.

The SerpApi key can be obtained from serpapi.com/signup.

Environment variables are a secure, safe, and easy way to manage secrets. Set export SERPAPI_KEY=<secret_serpapi_key> in your shell. Python accesses these variables from os.environ["SERPAPI_KEY"].

Extract content from a URL

The Extract API supports single-page scraping, URL discovery, and crawling. Call client.extract() with a parameter dictionary or keyword arguments. The client sets engine="extract" automatically.

Set output="md" to get the page's main content as a Markdown string:

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.environ["SERPAPI_KEY"], timeout=60)
markdown = client.extract(url="https://serpapi.com/", output="md")
print(markdown)

JSON is the default output format. It returns a dictionary-like SerpResults object with page information, structured data, links, and Markdown:

results = client.extract(url="https://serpapi.com/")
print(results["page_information"]["title"])
print(results["markdown"])

Use output="html" to get the retrieved HTML as a string:

html = client.extract(url="https://serpapi.com/", output="html")

Use mode="map" to discover URLs or mode="crawl" to extract multiple pages:

urls = client.extract(url="https://serpapi.com/", mode="map", include_sitemap=False)
pages = client.extract(
    url="https://serpapi.com/", mode="crawl", max_pages=2, max_depth=1, timeout=180
)

Crawl mode can consume one search credit per successfully extracted page, including the starting page. Set max_pages to limit the number of pages.

See the Extract API guide for response examples and more options.

Error handling

Unsuccessful requests raise serpapi.HTTPError or serpapi.TimeoutError exceptions. The returned status code will reflect the sort of error that occurred, please refer to Status and Error Codes Documentation for more details.

import os
import serpapi

# A default timeout can be set here.
client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"), timeout=10)

try:
    results = client.search({
        'engine': 'google',
        'q': 'coffee',
    })
except serpapi.HTTPError as e:
    if e.status_code == 401: # Invalid API key
        print(e.error) # "Invalid API key. Your API key should be here: https://serpapi.com/manage-api-key"
    elif e.status_code == 400: # Missing required parameter
        pass
    elif e.status_code == 429: # Exceeds the hourly throughput limit OR account run out of searches
        pass
except serpapi.TimeoutError as e:
    # Handle timeout
    print(f"The request timed out: {e}")

Documentation

Documentation is available on Read the Docs.

Change history is available on GitHub.

Markdown output for AI agents

For AI agents and LLM workflows, use output="md". It returns search results with clean headings, links, and tables while using roughly half the tokens of JSON on average.

markdown = client.search({
    "engine": "google",
    "q": "coffee",
    "output": "md",
})

Markdown works across SerpApi APIs and is returned as a plain Python string. See Markdown Output for AI Agents for details.

Raw HTML is also available with output="html" and is returned as a plain Python string.

Basic examples

Search Bing

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'bing',
    'q': 'coffee'
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/bing-search-api

Search Baidu

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'baidu',
    'q': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/baidu-search-api

Search Yahoo

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'yahoo',
    'p': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/yahoo-search-api

Search YouTube

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'youtube',
    'search_query': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/youtube-search-api

Search Walmart

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'walmart',
    'query': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/walmart-search-api

Search eBay

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'ebay',
    '_nkw': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/ebay-search-api

Search Naver

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'naver',
    'query': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/naver-search-api

Search Home Depot

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'home_depot',
    'q': 'chair',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/home-depot-search-api

Search Apple App Store

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'apple_app_store',
    'term': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/apple-app-store

Search DuckDuckGo

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'duckduckgo',
    'q': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/duckduckgo-search-api

Search Google

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google',
    'q': 'coffee'
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/search-api

Search Google Scholar

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_scholar',
    'q': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-scholar-api

Search Google Autocomplete

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_autocomplete',
    'q': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-autocomplete-api

Search Google Immersive Product

Get a current page_token from Google Shopping before requesting product details:

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
shopping = client.search(
    engine="google_shopping",
    q="lg tv",
    gl="us",
    hl="en",
    no_cache=True,
)
page_token = next(
    product["immersive_product_page_token"]
    for product in shopping["shopping_results"]
    if product.get("immersive_product_page_token")
)
results = client.search(
    engine="google_immersive_product",
    page_token=page_token,
)

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-immersive-product-api

Search Google Reverse Image

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_reverse_image',
    'image_url': 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Wikipedia-logo.png',
    'max_results': '1',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-reverse-image

Search Google Lens by image URL or upload

Google Lens accepts either a publicly accessible image URL or an uploaded image. To search by URL, pass the URL directly:

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("SERPAPI_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    "engine": "google_lens",
    "url": "https://i.imgur.com/HBrB8p0.png",
})

To search a local image, place a file named image.png in your working directory, upload it, and pass its temporary image_id to Google Lens:

upload = client.upload_image("image.png")
results = client.search({
    "engine": "google_lens",
    "image_id": upload["image_id"],
})

Uploaded images can be JPG/JPEG, PNG, or WebP files up to 500 KB. The returned image_id expires after 10 minutes.

• API Documentation: Google Lens image uploads, Image API

Search Google Local Services

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_local_services',
    'q': 'electrician',
    'data_cid': '6745062158417646970',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-local-services-api

Search Google Maps

import os
import serpapi


client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_maps',
    'q': 'pizza',
    'll': '@40.7455096,-74.0083012,15.1z',
    'type': 'search',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-maps-api

Search Google Jobs

import os
import serpapi


client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_jobs',
    'q': 'software engineer',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-jobs-api

Search Google Play

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_play',
    'q': 'kite',
    'store': 'apps',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-play-api

Search Google Images

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.getenv("API_KEY"))
results = client.search({
    'engine': 'google_images',
    'tbm': 'isch',
    'q': 'coffee',
})

• API Documentation: serpapi.com/google-images-api

License

MIT License.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and publishing instructions.