Rate Limits & Pricing Fresh

Rate Limits

DataForSEO enforces limits on how many requests you can make and how many tasks you can submit per batch. These are per-account limits.

Request Rate Limits

Limit Type	Default	Notes
Requests per second	~10	Across all endpoints combined
Requests per minute	~300	Soft limit — may vary by plan
Max tasks per batch	100	Per single tasks_post request
Max keywords per volume request	1,000	Keywords Data API
Max seeds for Labs	5	Per keywords_for_keywords request

If you hit rate limits, you'll get HTTP 429. Add a 1-second delay between batch posts and exponential backoff on retries.

Checking Your Current Limits

import os
import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

auth = HTTPBasicAuth(
    os.environ["DATAFORSEO_LOGIN"],
    os.environ["DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD"]
)

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/appendix/user_data",
    auth=auth
)

data = response.json()
user_data = data["tasks"][0]["result"][0]

print(f"Account login: {user_data.get('login')}")
print(f"API key status: {user_data.get('api_key_status')}")
print(f"Available credits: {user_data.get('money', {}).get('balance')}")
print(f"Rate limit (RPS): {user_data.get('limits', {}).get('requests_per_second')}")

Pricing Model

DataForSEO uses a pay-per-use credit model. You buy credits and spend them per task. Prices below are approximate and may vary by plan tier.

SERP API Pricing

Endpoint Type	Cost per Task	Notes
Organic — Task-based	~$0.0025	Per keyword, depth 10
Organic — Live	~$0.003	Per keyword
Organic — Live Advanced	~$0.005	Includes more data
Google Maps — Live	~$0.003	Per local pack query
Local Finder — Live	~$0.003	Per query
AI Mode — Task-based	~$0.01	AI results cost more
AI Overview	~$0.005	Per query
News, Images, Shopping	~$0.003	Per query

Backlinks API Pricing

Endpoint	Cost	Notes
Domain Summary	~$0.01	Per domain
Referring Domains	~$0.005–$0.05	Scales with result count
Backlinks (raw list)	~$0.01–$0.10	Scales with result count
Anchors	~$0.005	Per request
Bulk metrics	~$0.002/domain	For bulk domain checks

Keywords Data API Pricing

Endpoint	Cost	Notes
Search Volume (per keyword)	~$0.0005	Cheapest data in the API
Keywords for Site	~$0.01	Per domain
Google Trends	~$0.001	Per keyword

Labs API Pricing

Endpoint	Cost	Notes
Keywords for Keywords	~$0.005	Per request (up to 5 seeds)
Related Keywords	~$0.005	Per seed keyword
Ranked Keywords	~$0.01	Per domain
Competitors Domain	~$0.01	Per domain
Domain Rank Overview	~$0.01	Per domain

On-Page API Pricing

Endpoint	Cost	Notes
Crawl task (per page)	~$0.004	Per page crawled
With JavaScript enabled	~$0.006	Per page — JS costs more
With spell check	Additional	Avoid unless needed

Business Data API Pricing

Endpoint	Cost	Notes
GMB Info	~$0.01	Per business
Reviews	~$0.005–$0.02	Scales with review count
Yelp/TripAdvisor	~$0.01	Per request

Task-Based vs. Live — Cost Comparison

For most endpoints, the task-based pattern is significantly cheaper than Live. The tradeoff is 30–120 seconds of wait time.

Pattern	Typical Cost	Wait	Use When
Task-based	$0.0015–$0.003/task	30–120 sec	Bulk work, scheduled jobs
Live	$0.003–$0.010/task	Immediate	Single queries, dashboards

Rule: If you're running more than 5 queries, use task-based. The cost difference compounds fast.

Cost Optimization Tips

1. Batch Keywords

Keywords Data and SERP both support batches. Always fill a batch before posting.

# Instead of 100 individual requests:
for keyword in keywords:
    requests.post(endpoint, json=[{"keyword": keyword}])  # 100 requests

# Batch them:
requests.post(endpoint, json=[{"keyword": kw} for kw in keywords])  # 1 request

2. Use Task-Based for Bulk Work

Anything more than a few queries should use the task-based pattern. The cost difference is approximately 2–3x.

3. Limit depth to What You Need

For rank tracking, depth: 10 is usually enough to see if you're in the top 10. depth: 100 is needed only if you're tracking positions 11–100.

# For "are we in the top 10?" — use depth 10
{"keyword": kw, "depth": 10}  # ~$0.0015

# For "what's our exact position in top 100?" — use depth 100
{"keyword": kw, "depth": 100}  # ~$0.0025

4. Skip JavaScript Unless Needed

On-Page API charges more when JavaScript rendering is enabled. Only use it for SPAs or React/Next.js sites where content is client-rendered.

{
    "target": url,
    "enable_javascript": False,   # saves ~50% per page
    "check_spell": False,         # saves additional cost
    "store_raw_html": False       # saves storage cost
}

5. Deduplicate Before Posting

Don't post the same keyword twice. Deduplicate your keyword list before building the payload.

keywords = list(set(keywords))  # remove duplicates before posting

6. Cache Results

SERP data doesn't change minute to minute. Cache results and set appropriate refresh intervals:

Data Type	Suggested Refresh
Rank positions	Weekly
Search volume	Monthly
Backlink profile	Weekly
On-page audit	Monthly
Competitor analysis	Monthly
Local pack	Daily (if tracking closely)

7. Monitor Spend Per Run

Log cost from each API response and alert when a single run exceeds a threshold:

data = requests.post(endpoint, auth=auth, json=payload).json()

cost = data.get("cost", 0)
print(f"This request cost: ${cost:.4f}")

COST_ALERT_THRESHOLD = 1.00  # alert if single request costs more than $1

if cost > COST_ALERT_THRESHOLD:
    print(f"WARNING: High cost request — ${cost:.4f}")

8. Use Bulk Endpoints for Domain Metrics

Instead of making one request per domain when comparing competitors, use bulk endpoints:

# Instead of 10 individual domain summary requests:
for domain in domains:
    requests.post(".../domain_pages_summary/live", json=[{"target": domain}])

# Use bulk endpoints where available:
requests.post(".../backlinks/bulk_ranks/live", json=[{"targets": domains}])

Estimated Monthly Costs by Use Case

Use Case	Tasks/Month	Approx. Cost
50 keywords, weekly rank tracking	200 SERP tasks	~$0.50/mo
500 keywords, weekly rank tracking	2,000 SERP tasks	~$5/mo
Monthly backlink audit (5 clients)	50 domain summaries + 500 referring domains	~$5/mo
Monthly on-page audit (100 pages)	100 page crawls	~$0.40/mo
Keyword research (500 seeds)	1 volume request + 5 Labs requests	~$0.53
Full SEO audit (1 client)	SERP + backlinks + on-page + keywords	~$3–$8