Installation

Run one of these commands in your terminal. Use pip for an existing Python environment, uv add for a uv project, or uv pip install for a virtual environment managed with uv.

pip install serpapi

uv add serpapi

uv pip install serpapi

The package requires Python 3.6 or newer.

Create or sign in to your SerpApi account and copy your API key from the dashboard. An API key identifies your account when you make a request. Replace secret_api_key below with your key and run the command in your terminal. On Windows, use PowerShell.

export SERPAPI_KEY="secret_api_key"

$env:SERPAPI_KEY = "secret_api_key"

First Search

Save this code in a file named search_example.py. Run it with python search_example.py from the same terminal where you set the key. Use python3 if that is the command for Python on your computer. If you installed the package with uv add, run uv run python search_example.py from your project directory.

import os
import serpapi

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.environ["SERPAPI_KEY"], timeout=20)

results = client.search(
    engine="google",
    q="coffee shops",
    location="Austin, Texas",
    hl="en",
    gl="us",
)

first_result = results["organic_results"][0]
print(first_result["title"])
print(first_result["link"])

os.environ["SERPAPI_KEY"] reads the key you set in the terminal. If Python raises KeyError: 'SERPAPI_KEY', set the variable in the terminal where you run the script, or in your editor’s run configuration.

client.search() sends the search to SerpApi. By default, the response uses JSON, a format for named fields and lists. The client converts it into a SerpResults object, which you can read like a Python dictionary. It also has methods such as as_dict(), next_page(), and yield_pages().

results["organic_results"] is a list of unpaid search results. Python counts list positions from zero, so [0] selects the first result. The example prints its title and link. For searches that may return no results, use the loop shown in Output Formats.

What the Parameters Mean

The example above sends a Google Search request:

Each engine has its own search parameters, listed in the SerpApi API documentation. Use the SerpApi Playground to try a search in your browser and copy the parameters into Python.

When to Use the Client

Create a serpapi.Client when you need to make several requests, fetch more pages, or run searches at the same time. You can reuse its API key, timeout, and HTTP session, which manages connections to SerpApi.

For a single search, you can also call serpapi.search() directly:

import serpapi

results = serpapi.search(
    api_key="secret_api_key",
    engine="google",
    q="coffee",
)

To reuse the same settings for later searches, create a client:

client = serpapi.Client(api_key="secret_api_key", timeout=20)
results = client.search(engine="google", q="coffee")

Next Steps

• Read Client Usage for response helpers, request options, and archive helpers.

• Read Pagination when collecting more than one page of results.

• Try Google Across Countries to compare results from different countries.