SerpApi Production Checklist

Checklist

API Key & Authentication

• API key stored in secret manager (not env files)
• Backend proxy for all client-side search requests
• Key not exposed in frontend bundles or logs
• Usage monitoring configured

Credit Budget

• Monthly search volume estimated
• Plan tier matches expected volume
• Response caching implemented (LRU or Redis)
• Archive API used for result retrieval (free)
• Budget alerts set (e.g., 80% threshold)

Error Handling

• Check search_metadata.status before using results
• Handle error field in responses
• Retry on 500/timeout (max 2 retries)
• Graceful fallback when credits exhausted
• Log search IDs for debugging (search_metadata.id)

Performance

• Response caching with appropriate TTL
• Rate limiting per plan tier (see serpapi-rate-limits)
• Async search for non-critical queries
• Proxy endpoint rate-limited to prevent abuse

Health Check

app.get('/health', async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const account = await fetch(
      `https://serpapi.com/account.json?api_key=${process.env.SERPAPI_API_KEY}`
    ).then(r => r.json());

    res.json({
      status: account.plan_searches_left > 0 ? 'healthy' : 'degraded',
      serpapi: {
        plan: account.plan_name,
        remaining: account.plan_searches_left,
        used: account.this_month_usage,
      },
    });
  } catch {
    res.status(503).json({ status: 'unhealthy', serpapi: { error: 'unreachable' } });
  }
});

Error Handling

Alert	Condition	Severity
Credits Low	remaining < 10%	P2
Credits Exhausted	remaining = 0	P1
API Unreachable	Account check fails	P1
High Error Rate	> 5% searches fail	P2

Resources

• SerpApi Status
• Account API
• SerpApi Pricing

Next Steps

For version upgrades, see serpapi-upgrade-migration.