Price intelligence infrastructure for developers

DataForSEO vs PricesAPI

Queue a Google Shopping collection, or read a selected product's stored offers and history.

Use PricesAPI data to build price comparisons and history views. Coverage varies by product and market; your application handles analysis and pricing decisions.

TL;DR · PricesAPI assessment

DataForSEO Merchant Google Shopping fits bulk collection with location controls, seller detail and completion callbacks. PricesAPI fits apps that read stored offers and earlier observations by product and market.

Official-source facts

Reviewed 2026-09-22. Competitor facts below come from these official sources; PricesAPI facts come from our API documentation and pricing rules. Documented fields do not establish coverage, accuracy or performance for your products. We have not run a paid head-to-head benchmark.

Feature	PricesAPI	DataForSEO
Free access	Free, one-time: 300 product-bearing Searches (3,000 credits); 6 rpm	Merchant tasks spend a prepaid balance. See the official pricing source for current account terms; task/result units differ from PricesAPI credits.
Entry paid plan	$49/month: 3,000 product-bearing Searches (30,000 credits); 20 rpm	Prepaid usage depends on task type, result blocks and priority. See Merchant pricing for the units used by your workflow.
Identity and market	Select id, id_type (pricesapi or catalog), and market. Catalogue lookup returns identities and coverage; a known product needs no new Search.	Discover by keyword and location/language. Product Info and Sellers accept product_id, data_docid or gid; use available IDs together. Sellers also accepts pvf for a variant.
Seller and condition	Snapshot gives seller_id, domain and listing title/URL. Condition is not exposed on Snapshot or observed History; listing equivalence still needs checking.	Seller results include seller_name, domain, listing URL, product_condition and product_availability. Product Info provides specifications and variant IDs.
Delivery and totals	Snapshot has no numeric shipping amount. History shipping null means unknown, not free; a delivered-price comparison needs known delivery costs.	Seller results separate base_price, tax, shipping_price and total_price. Missing values need interpretation; some examples pair null shipping with free-delivery wording.
Currency	Offer currency is inferred from the requested market, not preserved as an observed currency. Do not assume a cross-border amount uses that currency.	Seller results include an ISO currency code. The docs label some amounts integer but show decimals; do not reinterpret these values as minor units.
Freshness	Snapshot exposes observation time, age and stale state. A retained read does not trigger a fresh scrape or confirm a seller's current checkout price.	A task requests collection; priority affects its queue. Result datetime records receipt, not the merchant's price-change time.
History	Read retained offer observations with requested-window coverage. Missing days stay gaps; history depth varies by product and market.	Completed task results can be retrieved for 30 days. This retention is not evidence of precollected product-price history for dates before your task.
Pagination and batch	Snapshot caps at 60 offers, with a truncation flag and no offer cursor. Batch accepts 100 products; History pages repeat the original request tuple.	Submit up to 100 tasks per POST. depth controls collection within a task, not a history cursor; Sellers documents a maximum of 200 results, not guaranteed coverage.
Asynchronous work	Snapshot and History read stored data. Async Bulk Search is a separate discovery workflow, not a History export.	Merchant Google uses Standard POST → task ID → GET, with polling, pingback or postback. Do not apply other DataForSEO products' Live endpoints to this workflow.
Billing unit	Search Products: 10 credits per response that returns at least one product; Product Snapshot: 1 credit per product; Price History: 1 credit per day with recorded offers. History reserves requested days, then refunds days without offers; valid continuations add no charge. A known-product empty Snapshot still bills.	Products: blocks of up to 40 results; Sellers: up to 10; Product Info: per task. Priority changes the price; get_shops_on_google doubles the seller-task cost. Result retrieval is free within retention.
Failures	404 means unknown identity, 403 insufficient balance, 409 expired History cursor, and 429 includes Retry-After. A fresh History restart can bill again.	HTTP 200 can contain task failures: inspect status_code at both levels. Partial-result code 40106 excludes unreturned pages from charging; 40202 means the request-rate limit was exceeded.

Feature: Free access
PricesAPI: Free, one-time: 300 product-bearing Searches (3,000 credits); 6 rpm
DataForSEO: Merchant tasks spend a prepaid balance. See the official pricing source for current account terms; task/result units differ from PricesAPI credits.

Feature: Entry paid plan
PricesAPI: $49/month: 3,000 product-bearing Searches (30,000 credits); 20 rpm
DataForSEO: Prepaid usage depends on task type, result blocks and priority. See Merchant pricing for the units used by your workflow.

Feature: Identity and market
PricesAPI: Select id, id_type (pricesapi or catalog), and market. Catalogue lookup returns identities and coverage; a known product needs no new Search.
DataForSEO: Discover by keyword and location/language. Product Info and Sellers accept product_id, data_docid or gid; use available IDs together. Sellers also accepts pvf for a variant.

Feature: Seller and condition
PricesAPI: Snapshot gives seller_id, domain and listing title/URL. Condition is not exposed on Snapshot or observed History; listing equivalence still needs checking.
DataForSEO: Seller results include seller_name, domain, listing URL, product_condition and product_availability. Product Info provides specifications and variant IDs.

Feature: Delivery and totals
PricesAPI: Snapshot has no numeric shipping amount. History shipping null means unknown, not free; a delivered-price comparison needs known delivery costs.
DataForSEO: Seller results separate base_price, tax, shipping_price and total_price. Missing values need interpretation; some examples pair null shipping with free-delivery wording.

Feature: Currency
PricesAPI: Offer currency is inferred from the requested market, not preserved as an observed currency. Do not assume a cross-border amount uses that currency.
DataForSEO: Seller results include an ISO currency code. The docs label some amounts integer but show decimals; do not reinterpret these values as minor units.

Feature: Freshness
PricesAPI: Snapshot exposes observation time, age and stale state. A retained read does not trigger a fresh scrape or confirm a seller's current checkout price.
DataForSEO: A task requests collection; priority affects its queue. Result datetime records receipt, not the merchant's price-change time.

Feature: History
PricesAPI: Read retained offer observations with requested-window coverage. Missing days stay gaps; history depth varies by product and market.
DataForSEO: Completed task results can be retrieved for 30 days. This retention is not evidence of precollected product-price history for dates before your task.

Feature: Pagination and batch
PricesAPI: Snapshot caps at 60 offers, with a truncation flag and no offer cursor. Batch accepts 100 products; History pages repeat the original request tuple.
DataForSEO: Submit up to 100 tasks per POST. depth controls collection within a task, not a history cursor; Sellers documents a maximum of 200 results, not guaranteed coverage.

Feature: Asynchronous work
PricesAPI: Snapshot and History read stored data. Async Bulk Search is a separate discovery workflow, not a History export.
DataForSEO: Merchant Google uses Standard POST → task ID → GET, with polling, pingback or postback. Do not apply other DataForSEO products' Live endpoints to this workflow.

Feature: Billing unit
PricesAPI: Search Products: 10 credits per response that returns at least one product; Product Snapshot: 1 credit per product; Price History: 1 credit per day with recorded offers. History reserves requested days, then refunds days without offers; valid continuations add no charge. A known-product empty Snapshot still bills.
DataForSEO: Products: blocks of up to 40 results; Sellers: up to 10; Product Info: per task. Priority changes the price; get_shops_on_google doubles the seller-task cost. Result retrieval is free within retention.

Feature: Failures
PricesAPI: 404 means unknown identity, 403 insufficient balance, 409 expired History cursor, and 429 includes Retry-After. A fresh History restart can bill again.
DataForSEO: HTTP 200 can contain task failures: inspect status_code at both levels. Partial-result code 40106 excludes unreturned pages from charging; 40202 means the request-rate limit was exceeded.

Credits, searches and extracted records are different billing units. Compare the work each request does, not just the number included in a plan. The recommendations below are our assessment.

Choice guide · PricesAPI assessment

Choose PricesAPI when

You need earlier recorded offers without first running and storing a new collection campaign, where product coverage exists.
You want an exact product-and-market read with visible observation times and history gaps, and can validate currency and delivery limitations.

Choose DataForSEO when

You need localized Shopping research across many queries and can process queued results or callbacks.
Your comparison needs Google's seller condition, availability and tax/delivery fields, with your own checks for missing or inconsistent amounts.

Building a price tracker?

A seller comparison or price-history chart does not need a new Search at every step. PricesAPI also has three product-read APIs in public Beta:

Find the product for free. Look up a name and market, choose the exact product, and check its recorded-history coverage before spending credits.
Compare its stored seller prices. Use the product ID and market with Snapshot. Show when each offer was observed; a stored offer is not a live-price guarantee.
Chart its recorded history. Read a date window and follow the remaining pages. For example, compare a headphone promotion with its earlier recorded prices, leaving unobserved days as gaps.

Check coverage for your actual products and markets. History first reserves credits for the full requested window, then refunds days without offers; continuation pages add no charge. Check the billing rules before choosing a long window.

Response shape

Product Search API returns matched products with available merchant offers inline. Carry a result’s product_ref into Snapshot or History; free product lookup is another starting point. Both examples are illustrative and based on the linked contracts; values are not live measurements or current commercial data.

Illustrative PricesAPI response shapeDocumentation: PricesAPI OpenAPI

GET /api/v1/products/search?q=Sony%20WH-1000XM5&market=us

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "query": "Sony WH-1000XM5",
    "market": "us",
    "products": [{
      "position": 1,
      "pid": 100569554,
      "product_ref": { "id": "100569554", "id_type": "pricesapi", "market": "us" },
      "cluster_id": "123456789",
      "catalog_id": "987654321",
      "title": "Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Headphones",
      "image": "https://example.com/headphones.jpg",
      "headline_price": 348,
      "headline_currency": "USD",
      "condition_label": null,
      "source": "Amazon.com",
      "multi_store": true,
      "rating": 4.7,
      "reviews": 8523,
      "delivery": "Free delivery",
      "tags": [],
      "nearby_distance_km": null,
      "offers": [{
        "seller": "Amazon.com",
        "seller_url": "https://amazon.com",
        "price": 348,
        "currency": "USD",
        "product_title": "Sony WH-1000XM5",
        "stock_status": "In stock",
        "delivery_info": "Free delivery",
        "url": "https://example.com/product"
      }],
      "offerCount": 1
    }]
  },
  "meta": { "latency_ms": 842, "raw_count": 3, "gid_bearing_count": 2 }
}

Carry product_ref.id, id_type and market to the retained reads:
GET /api/v1/products?id=100569554&id_type=pricesapi&market=us
GET /api/v1/products/history?id=100569554&id_type=pricesapi&market=us&from=2026-09-01&to=2026-09-07

Snapshot: inspect observation and offers_page.truncated.
History: inspect coverage and follow page.next_cursor with the same parameters.
Null product_ref means no usable product identity; do not substitute cluster_id.

Illustrative DataForSEO seller task · illustrative, not executedDocumentation: Sellers Advanced response schema

Illustrative, not executed. Invented ID and amounts; abbreviated response.
POST https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/merchant/google/sellers/task_post
Authorization: Basic REDACTED
Content-Type: application/json
Request body:
[{"product_id":"1234567890123456789","location_code":2840,"language_code":"en","depth":20}]

Use an ID from discovery for the intended variant. Retain the task UUID.
After completion:
GET https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/merchant/google/sellers/task_get/advanced/TASK_UUID
Authorization: Basic REDACTED

Response fragment:
{
  "status_code": 20000,
  "tasks": [{
    "id": "TASK_UUID",
    "status_code": 20000,
    "result": [{
      "datetime": "2026-09-20 12:00:00 +00:00",
      "items": [{
        "type": "shops_list",
        "seller_name": "Example Store",
        "base_price": 80,
        "tax": 8,
        "shipping_price": 5,
        "total_price": 93,
        "currency": "USD",
        "product_condition": "New",
        "product_availability": "in_stock"
      }]
    }]
  }]
}

Try the Product Search API

3,000 free credits, granted once. That covers 300 Searches returning products at 10 credits each. Empty and failed Searches cost nothing. Snapshot and History use different billing units.

Need more? Developer is $49/month for 30,000 credits, with a limit of 20 requests per minute.

Start free →Read /docs