10 Best Google Image Search APIs for Image Data Extraction

2. SerpAPI

SerpAPI provides a real-time API to scrape images on the fly from Google Image Search pages. It handles proxies, solves CAPTCHAs, and parses rich structured data, ensuring you get accurate results every time.

By default, this API returns JSON arrays with image metadata (URLs, dimensions, sources), but developers can also request raw HTML for custom parsing. SerpAPI is also very flexible, as its advanced filter search is perfect if you need images in batches or specific cases.

Although SerpAPI starts at a higher price point of $75 per month for 5,000 searches, it is ideal for businesses prioritizing development flexibility and precise control over their image data extraction.

Pros and Cons of SERP API

Pros ✅

• Reverse image search capabilities
• Highly customizable
• Free tier (100 searches per month)
• Extensive Documentation

Cons ❌

• Can be expensive at scale
• More coding involved
• Higher pricing and lower scraping volume compared to tools like ScraperAPI

3. Google Custom Search API

Google offers the Custom Search JSON API, which allows developers to create custom search engines for their websites or applications. This API can be used to perform various functions, and with the right configuration, it can also be used to search for images. 
However, it’s important to clarify that this is not a dedicated Google Images API, but it can be configured to retrieve image search results. The search results are returned in JSON format, making it easy to integrate into web applications and process programmatically.

To get started, create a custom search endpoint and get your API key. Then, during the setup, ensure you select options like “search the entire web” and enable “image search“. You can then use the Custom Search JSON API. When making requests, set the “searchType” parameter to “image”. This instructs the API to return image search results.

Note: For detailed parameters and methods, refer to the API documentation.

The Custom Search JSON API is not free. This API allows up to 100 search queries per day for free. If you need more, you can sign up for billing through the API Console. Additional requests cost $5 per 1000 queries, up to a maximum of 10,000 queries per day.

Pros and Cons of Google Custom Search API

Pros ✅

• Native Google integration
• Offers a free tier for light usage
• Google Lens API can be used as a reverse image search API

Cons ❌

• Not a dedicated Google Images API
• Limited free quota (100 queries per day)
• Complex setup
• Higher costs for scaling

4. DataForSeo

DataForSEO SERP API is a high-end solution for image search, offering comprehensive details on image rankings for a specified keyword. With this API, you can obtain key information such as metadata, knowledge graphs, source URLs, and related search queries for images that appear in Google Image Search.

DataForSEO has two main methods to deliver SERP results:

• Google Images SERP Advanced endpoint: Fetches structured data (top 100 images per query) for the specified keyword, search engine, and location. 
• Google Images SERP HTML endpoint: Returns raw HTML of SERP pages for custom parsing.

The most challenging issue about DataForSEO is finding the right documents and tutorials to get started.

Although the API has all the features one might need, it can be quite difficult to figure out how they all work together. Also, the price can be hefty depending on your needs (costing up to $1,200 per 1M SERPs for the priority queue and $600 per 1M SERP results on the standard queue).

Pros and Cons of DataForSEO SERP API

Pros ✅

• Deep SERP insights (knowledge graphs, rankings)
• Flexible endpoints

Cons ❌

• Steep learning curve
• Complex pricing tiers
• High costs for priority access.

5. Oxylabs Google Image Search API

Oxylabs offers industry-leading products for web data collection, including proxy services, ready-to-use datasets, and a Google image search API. This API excels at collecting image data on a large scale as it supports fetching up to 5,000 URLs from numerous pages, all in one batch.

Image data can be delivered via API response (JSON) or directly to cloud storage (Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3). They also provide a free trial with up to 5,000 results, while paid plans start at $49 per month (36,296 results).

Importantly, Oxylabs’ API only provides image thumbnails, which can be limiting for many use cases. A brief conversation with their support confirmed that there’s no option to obtain high-resolution images.

Pros and Cons of Oxylabs Google Image Search API

Pros ✅

• Quality IPs
• Bulk data retrieval
• High Scalability

Cons ❌

• High cost per result
• No high-res image support

6. Zenserp API

Zenserp specializes in Google Image-based scraping, offering two APIs: Google Image Search API and Reverse Google Image Search API. It can also extract SERP data from Google Images, Videos, Maps, and Trends in real-time, returning results in JSON format.

With this API, you can use search parameters similar to those of a regular Google search. Simply specify a search keyword and include your API key to perform an image search. 

Additionally, Zenserp API offers a free plan forever. With this plan, developers and businesses can use this API at no charge for up to 50 searches per month. If you require more requests, their pricing starts at $49 per month for 5000 searches and goes up to $1,599 monthly for 1,000,000 searches.

Pros and Cons of Zenserp API

Pros ✅

• Supports both standard and reverse image search.
• Free plan available (50 requests per month).

Cons❌

• Costly for high-volume use
• Limited documentation for advanced features.
• Very low output free tier

7. BrightData Google Images API

With BrightData, you can easily obtain real-time Google image search results delivered in HTML. They also handle proxies, browsers, and CAPTCHAs, ensuring accurate result delivery with high uptime. Thanks to BrightData’s extensive proxy network, the API provides accurate image results from a wide range of locations.

In addition, BrightData offers a Reverse Image Search API that provides real-time results for image searches, with output available in HTML or JSON. This versatility makes it easy to integrate image search capabilities into your applications.

Results can be filtered by location, language, or device type, ideal for market research requiring regional specificity. While a free trial is available, paid plans start at $499 and get as high as $1999 on their premium plans.

Pros and Cons of BrightData Google Images API

Pros ✅

• Built for volume
• High location accuracy thanks to an extensive proxy network
• Reverse image search

Cons ❌

• Very expensive for small & medium scale projects
• Steep learning curve.

8. Outscraper

Outscraper employs cutting-edge technology to ensure efficient and accurate data extraction from Google Images, providing users with high-quality results. Its intuitive user interface makes it easy for users to set up and manage their scraping tasks without requiring any coding knowledge. This user-friendly approach is ideal for both beginners and experienced professionals.

The service offers a free tier for light usage, and its medium plan guarantees approximately 13,000 results for around $50. Additionally, Outscraper provides an API for those who prefer direct integration into their applications, further enhancing its flexibility.

Pros and Cons of Outscraper

Pros ✅

• User-Friendly Interface
• No-code UI
• Free tier

Cons❌

• Limited scalability for enterprise needs
• Higher cost per result compared to ScraperAPI.

9. TinEye API

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. This means that you can upload an image, and TinEye will find other websites where the image is used, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, and check for higher resolution versions. This can be a useful way to find out where an image came from or who is in the image.

TinEye uses image recognition technology rather than keywords, metadata, or watermarks, which can be a useful way to find out where an image came from or who is in the image.

Pricing starts at $200 for 5,000 searches, with no free tier. While costly, TinEye’s API excels in accuracy, making it ideal for copyright enforcement or verifying image authenticity in apps.

Pros and Cons of TinEye

Pros ✅

• High-performance
• No dependence on metadata.

Cons ❌

• Expensive
• No free plan is offered.

10. Scrapingdog

Scrapingdog API allows you to extract data from Google Images without worrying about proxy rotation and data parsing. In addition to their dedicated API for Google Images, they also offer APIs for Google Lens and Google Search.

With ScrapingDog, you can filter images by color, size, file type, country, date, etc., and get only images that meet your exact needs. Moreover, Scrapingdog delivers high-resolution images directly from the original source, making it an excellent choice for projects that demand quality visuals.

Scrapingdog offers a 30-day free trial with 1,000 credits, allowing you to test the service before committing. Paid plans start at $40 per month for 40,000 Google requests.

Pros and Cons of Scrapingdog API

Pros ✅

• Handles proxy rotation and data parsing.
• Delivers high-resolution images.
• 30-day free trial.

Cons❌

• Unreliable at higher scraping volumes

What Factors Should You Consider When Choosing a Google Image API?

When evaluating a Google Image Search API, several factors must be considered to ensure you select the best tool for your project. Let’s break down these important considerations in detail:

• Accuracy and Performance: At the top of your list should be accuracy and performance. A Google Image Search API that can accurately deliver high-quality images and the image metadata should correspond with the search engine. Also, how quickly the API can deliver results can make or break the user experience. Look for an API with a proven track record of high accuracy rates and reliable performance under various conditions.

• Scalability and Rate Limits: As your application grows, so will the demand for image data. That’s where scalability comes in. You need an API that can handle increasing volumes of images without compromising speed. Also, you need to understand the Search Image API’s maximum request limits per minute, hour, and day, as well as how exceeding these limits is handled.

• Ease of Integration: A good Google Image Search API will come with well-documented SDKs and libraries that make it easy to integrate into your existing systems. Whether you’re working in Python, Java, or JavaScript, the API should offer comprehensive support and clear, concise documentation that helps you get up and running quickly.

• Cost and Pricing Models: Budget is always a consideration, so understanding the cost structure of an API is crucial. Some APIs offer pay-as-you-go pricing, while others have subscription models or tiered pricing based on usage. Consider the long-term costs as your application scales, and be aware of any hidden fees or penalties for exceeding quotas.

• Security and Authentication: Security and privacy are non-negotiable, especially when dealing with sensitive data like photos. The API you choose should support authentication methods like API keys or OAuth and adhere to strict security regulations like GDPR.

ScraperAPI: The Best Google Image Search API

We firmly believe ScraperAPI is the best web scraping tool for collecting Google image data on an enterprise scale. Its lightweight API offers complete flexibility and includes a wide range of tools you can use to collect millions of images at a fraction of the cost, allowing you to build image datasets quickly at an affordable rate.

Quick Tutorial: Using ScraperAPI to Extract Google Images

Let’s see a short example of how to extract images for the query  “Best Android phones” using ScraperAPI.

If you do not already have an account, quickly sign up for one. There’s no credit card requirement, and you get 5000 free credits for the first 7 days.

From your ScraperAPI dashboard, select API Playground to open the request builder.

Choose “API” or “Async” as your scraping method and paste your Google Image Search URL (e.g., https://www.google.com/search?q=best+android+phones&udm=2) into the Input URL field. 

Then, set your request parameters, in our case, we enable javascript rendering, set a location and a device type.

After that, scroll down to the “Integrate into codebase” section and copy the automatically generated snippet (in Python, Node.js, or your preferred language). This code snippet includes your API key and URL parameters, so you can just paste it into your application to run the request. But in our case, we will run it in our browser.

That’s it! You can now retrieve thumbnails or high-level metadata from Google Image Search in just a few clicks.

If you need to collect over 10,000 image results per run, click “Schedule as a DataPipeline Project.” This feature automates your scraping tasks without extra coding, making it perfect for large-scale data collection. 

Our popular Google Endpoints also allow you to collect data from Google Search, Google Jobs, Google News, and Google Shopping in JSON format with a simple API call.

Ready to see for yourself? Sign up for ScraperAPI and discover how effortless Google Image scraping can be.

Until next time, happy scraping!

Check out these comprehensive Google web scraping tutorials to help you build reliable and efficient data extraction tools:

• How to Scrape Competitors’ Google Ads Data
• How To Build A Google Trends Scraper Using PyTrends
• The 5 Best Google Scholar APIs and Proxies
• How to Build a Google Jobs Scraper with Python and ScraperAPI
• How to Scrape Google Shopping with Python

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Best Google Image Search API?

ScraperAPI stands out as the best Google image search API. With one simple API call, you can achieve a remarkable 99.9% success rate as it effectively manages browsers, proxies, and CAPTCHAs. For larger-scale data needs, ScraperAPI’s Async Scraper Service effectively automates timeouts and implements retries, enabling you to scrape millions of URLs without manual intervention.

Is Google Image API Free?

While many providers offer free tiers or trial credits, most Google Image Search APIs operate on a subscription or pay-as-you-go pricing model. It is important to review each provider’s pricing structure to ensure it aligns with your project’s needs and budget.

What is Google Reverse Image API?

The term “Google Reverse Image API” typically refers to a service that allows developers to submit an image and retrieve similar or matching images from all over the internet. It can be used for finding the original source of an image, higher-resolution versions, or copyright enforcement.

What are Some Use Cases for Scraped Image Data?

Some major applications of scaped image data include:

• Dynamic Content Generation

You can generate engaging content by automatically updating image feeds based on user interactions and preferences. This enhances user experience with visually relevant content.

• AI Training and Testing

Scraped image databases can be used to train AI models for better accuracy in visual recognition and image generation tasks.

• User Interface Design

Scraped image data can help make application interfaces with high-quality images suited to user needs and contexts.

• Augmented Reality Content Creation

You can Integrate real-time image fetching into AR applications to create immersive and interactive experiences.

• Content Moderation Tools   

This data can help automatically filter and moderate user-generated content by integrating image recognition capabilities and maintaining content quality across platforms.

These are just a few examples of how a Google Image Search API can be used, but the possibilities are endless for those who are creative and know how to utilize the data.