SerpApi Debug Bundle

Overview

Collect diagnostic data for SerpApi issues using the Account API and Searches Archive API. SerpApi stores all search results for retrieval without additional credit charges.

Instructions

Step 1: Collect Diagnostics

#!/bin/bash
BUNDLE="serpapi-debug-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)"
mkdir -p "$BUNDLE"
KEY="${SERPAPI_API_KEY:?Set SERPAPI_API_KEY}"

# Account status
curl -s "https://serpapi.com/account.json?api_key=$KEY" \
  | jq '{plan: .plan_name, used: .this_month_usage, remaining: .plan_searches_left, rate_limit: .searches_per_month}' \
  > "$BUNDLE/account.json"

# Recent searches (last 10)
curl -s "https://serpapi.com/searches.json?api_key=$KEY" \
  | jq '.[0:10] | .[] | {id: .id, status: .status, engine: .search_parameters.engine, query: .search_parameters.q, created: .created_at}' \
  > "$BUNDLE/recent-searches.json"

# Test search
curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search.json?q=test&engine=google&num=1&api_key=$KEY" \
  | jq '.search_metadata' > "$BUNDLE/test-search.json"

# Environment
echo "Node: $(node --version 2>/dev/null || echo N/A)" > "$BUNDLE/env.txt"
echo "Python: $(python3 --version 2>/dev/null || echo N/A)" >> "$BUNDLE/env.txt"
pip show serpapi 2>/dev/null >> "$BUNDLE/env.txt" || true
npm list serpapi 2>/dev/null >> "$BUNDLE/env.txt" || true

tar -czf "$BUNDLE.tar.gz" "$BUNDLE"
echo "Bundle: $BUNDLE.tar.gz"

Step 2: Retrieve Failed Search Details

# Use the Searches Archive API to get details of any past search
import serpapi, os

client = serpapi.Client(api_key=os.environ["SERPAPI_API_KEY"])

# Get a specific search by ID (no credit charge)
result = client.search(engine="google", search_id="YOUR_SEARCH_ID")
print(f"Status: {result['search_metadata']['status']}")
if "error" in result:
    print(f"Error: {result['error']}")

Error Handling

Finding	Likely Issue	Action
`remaining: 0`	Credits exhausted	Upgrade plan or wait for monthly reset
Test search fails	API key issue	Re-check key at serpapi.com
Recent searches show errors	Bad parameters	Check engine-specific param requirements

Resources

Next Steps

For rate limit issues, see serpapi-rate-limits.