SerpApi Search Budget Ladder

SerpApi bills by search count, so agency margin is decided before the first client report ships. The ladder maps each plan to the retainer it can support: Free at $0 covers 250 searches per month and 50 throughput per hour, enough for a single local SEO audit but not a recurring deliverable. Starter at $25 buys 1,000 searches and 200 throughput per hour, which fits one small client tracked weekly across roughly 20 keywords. Production at $150 lifts capacity to 15,000 searches and 3,000 throughput per hour, the tier where a multi-client rank tracking retainer stops eating margin. The framework rule: divide monthly searches by the queries each client workflow consumes per week, then price the retainer above the plan cost plus the 20 hours of setup the Local SEO Tracker offer assumes. Agencies that skip this step quote a $2,250 tracker against a plan that cannot carry it.