DataForSEO pricing is prepaid API credit, not a monthly seat. The pricing page (accessed 27 August 2026) prints a $50 minimum payment. Signup adds a $1 trial credit that does not expire, per the free-trial help article. Google Trends Explore is $0.0027 per standard task or $0.011 live, with up to five keywords in one charge, on the Google Trends API product page. DataForSEO still wins SERP, backlinks, and location-level Explore. Buy Trends MCP when the job is live multi-source boards plus a three-tool MCP, billed as 100 to 25,000 requests a month rather than per task.

What the public rate card actually prints

DataForSEO does not sell Starter/Pro/Business seats. Funds sit on the account until tasks run. The SERP API pricing page (accessed 27 August 2026) repeats the $50 minimum payment and the $1 signup credit, then states there is no monthly fee for SERP. Unused funds can be refunded within 30 days. An empty balance returns error 40200. Failed requests refund the charge.

Google Trends Explore rates on the product page, accessed the same day:

ModeTurnaround printedPrice per taskPrice per 1M keywords (200,000 tasks × 5 keywords)
Standard queueup to 45 minutes$0.0027$540
Liveup to 32 seconds on average$0.011$2,200

A task price does not change between one keyword and five. Related topics and related queries need a single keyword, per the Explore task_post docs. Standard billing hits on POST (setting the task). GET of a completed task is free for 30 days.

The same help article that calls the trial "unlimited" also prints what $1 actually buys: 833 high-priority SERPs, or 20,000 backlinks with Rank, or 20,000 keywords with Google Ads metrics. At the Google Trends Explore rates above, $1 covers 370 standard tasks ($0.999) or 90 live tasks ($0.990). A $50 top-up covers 18,518 standard Explore tasks at $0.0027.

SERP, if the pipeline needs rankings rather than interest curves, is cheaper per call than live Google Trends. The SERP pricing page prints $0.0006 per SERP of 10 results on the standard queue (5 minutes average, 45-minute target), $0.0012 high priority (up to 1 minute), and $0.002 live (up to 6 seconds). Extra depth, screenshots ($0.004), and the AI Summary endpoint ($0.01 per task) add on. Payment methods listed: PayPal, Amazon Pay, cards, and bank wire.

The $50 top-up is not a monthly seat

The $50 figure is a minimum payment, not a subscription. Credit has no expiry date on the Google Trends product page. Auto-recharge is optional in the dashboard. That is the opposite of Trends MCP, which sells monthly request buckets on pricing.md (dated 27 August 2026):

PlanMonthly requestsPrice
Free100$0
Starter1,000$19
Pro5,000$49
Business25,000$199

Annual billing saves 20%. Keyword alerts: Pro 50, Business 250. Same sources on every plan, per the markdown table. HTML /pricing the same day also prints Free as top 10 trends plus 12 months of history, paid as all trends plus full history, a 7-day trial with a card at checkout charged on day 8, and a "35+" data-source claim. The markdown mirror does not print those Free caps. Quote both files rather than picking one count.

A get_growth call on Trends MCP is one request per source plus keyword, even when percent_growth lists several windows. get_top_trends counts per feed type and per page (limit / offset). Default limit is 25, min 1, max 200. That is the durable meter, not a per-keyword Explore task.

DataForSEO still wins if the product needs SERP HTML, backlinks, Labs, Merchant, or On-Page in the same prepaid wallet. Trends MCP does not sell those endpoints.

What 1 July 2026 changed on the bill

On 1 July 2026 DataForSEO moved remaining commitment products onto pay-as-you-go and raised selected APIs. The $100 monthly commitment on Backlinks API and LLM Mentions API went away. Eight APIs took rate changes. Keywords Data API rose about 20% on most endpoints and 22% on Google Trends Explore. Merchant Amazon Products and Sellers Task POST rose 50%. SERP is not in that eight-API list.

The $0.0027 / $0.011 Explore figures on the product page are the post-update public rates as of 27 August 2026. Dashboard line items can still differ by endpoint. Quote the dashboard for a production forecast, not a third-party roundup.

Shared capacity is the other limit that does not show on the price table. Explore task_post documents a 500,000 daily request cap across all Google Trends API endpoints and all users, plus 2,000 API calls per minute and at most 100 tasks per POST (40006 over that). Web history starts 2004-01-01. News, YouTube, Images, and froogle (Shopping) start 2008-01-01. Default type is web. Default graph window, if date_from is omitted, is the same day and month one year earlier.

DataForSEO Trends, a separate Keywords Data product, is not a resale of Google Trends. The DataForSEO Trends API page (accessed 27 August 2026) covers Google Search, News, and Shopping across 170+ locations, up to five keywords, relative 0-100 scores, plus Subregion Interests, Demography, and Merged Data. Live Explore is $0.0012 per task ($240 per 1M keywords on the 200,000 × 5 math). Subregion / Demography is $0.0024. Merged Data is $0.006. Average turnaround printed: up to 2 seconds. That is the cheap interest curve. It does not return TikTok hashtags, Reddit Hot Posts, or Amazon Best Sellers boards.

DataForSEO MCP is four tools, billed as API tasks

The current official server is v3. The GitHub README for dataforseo/mcp-server-typescript (accessed 27 August 2026) deprecates the older multi-tool package. v3 exposes four tools: docs_index, docs_list_sections, docs_search, and api_request. Hosted URL printed there:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dataforseo": {
      "url": "https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp"
    }
  }
}

OAuth is the HTTP default. Stdio still wants DATAFORSEO_LOGIN / DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD (DATAFORSEO_USERNAME accepted as an alias). MCP calls that hit api_request spend the same prepaid balance as REST. Docs tools cache for 24 hours.

Two DataForSEO pages still disagree with that README. The Cursor help article tells operators to disable modules because "Cursor can only support up to 40 active MCP tools" and to set ENABLED_MODULES. That matches the retired multi-tool server, not the four-tool v3 README. The OAuth remote guide pastes https://mcp.dataforseo.com/mcp without /v3. The product MCP page uses /v3/mcp. Prefer /v3/mcp plus the GitHub README, and treat the 40-tool copy as stale unless a live client still lists dozens of tools.

Trends MCP is the other shape. Docs.md (27 August 2026) names three tools: get_trends (REST get_time_series), get_growth, get_top_trends. Two hosts, not interchangeable: Bearer on https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp, OAuth for Claude.ai Connectors on https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp. Cursor config from docs:

"trends-mcp": {
  "url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp",
  "transport": "http",
  "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
}

Full Cursor walkthrough: Google Trends MCP for Cursor and MCP server for Cursor. No username/password pair. No 40-tool pruning step, because the server only publishes three tools.

Source counts on Trends MCP also split by document, so do not flatten them. docs.md tables 15 keyword sources (no python) and 24 named live feeds, including TikTok Trending Hashtags by Category. data-sources.md lists the same 15 keyword sources and 20 live feeds, omitting the four by-Category boards. The live MCP get_growth schema still lists python as a keyword source (16 names). get_top_trends enumerates 23 feeds and omits TikTok Trending Hashtags by Category. llms.txt says "plus 21 live feeds." HTML /pricing markets "35+ data sources." Cite the file that was opened.

If the job is live boards, buy a trend feed instead

DataForSEO Google Trends Explore is the right SKU for related queries, related topics, maps, category codes, location_code, and five-keyword index compares back to 2004. DataForSEO Trends is the right SKU for a cheaper proprietary 0-100 curve with age/gender splits. Neither SKU is a live TikTok / Reddit / Amazon / YouTube / Wikipedia board.

Trends MCP get_top_trends is the board call. MCP requires type. REST can omit type and return every feed in one response. Category is required on Amazon Best Sellers by Category, Google Trends by Category, Top Websites, Substack by Category, and (in docs.md) TikTok Trending Hashtags by Category. Sort rank_change with window 1d, 3d, 7d, 14d, or 30d returns climbers against a prior snapshot.

Job fit, not a ranked "best SEO API" table:

JobCheaper honest buyWhy
SERP / backlinks / Labs in one walletDataForSEOTrends MCP has none of those APIs
Google Trends Explore with related queries and geoDataForSEO Google Trends$0.0027 standard; 2004 web history; 5 keywords
Cheap 0-100 interest, 170+ locations, demographyDataForSEO Trends$0.0012 Explore live; not Google's Explore dump
Live TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, YouTube boards in an agentTrends MCPThree MCP tools; monthly 100-25,000 requests
Cursor JSON with Bearer, no Basic authTrends MCPapi.trendsmcp.ai/mcp plus Authorization: Bearer

A team that already burns DataForSEO credit for rank tracking should keep that wallet. Adding Trends MCP is the extra product when agents need get_top_trends on named feeds. The reverse is also true: a Trends MCP Pro plan at $49 for 5,000 requests will not replace a SERP crawler.

FAQ

Does DataForSEO still sell monthly plans?

Not on the public pricing page accessed 27 August 2026. Billing is pay-as-you-go after a $50 minimum payment. The 1 July 2026 update removed the $100 monthly commitment that used to gate Backlinks and LLM Mentions. Auto-recharge is optional. Trends MCP is the product in this pair that still sells $19 / $49 / $199 monthly request buckets.

How far does the $1 trial actually go on Google Trends?

The trial help article does not print a Google Trends example. It prints 833 high-priority SERPs, 20,000 backlinks, or 20,000 Google Ads keywords. At the Google Trends Explore rates on the product page, $1 is 370 standard tasks or 90 live tasks. Duplicate trial accounts are a Terms violation. Sandbox exists for structure tests without spending credit.

Is DataForSEO Trends the same product as Google Trends Explore?

No. DataForSEO Trends is a proprietary 0-100 index for Search, News, and Shopping, with Subregion, Demography, and Merged Data endpoints. Google Trends Explore wraps Google's Explore feature (web, news, youtube, images, froogle), related topics, related queries, and the 500,000 shared daily cap. Rates differ: $0.0012 vs $0.0027 / $0.011.

Can Trends MCP replace DataForSEO for an SEO platform?

No. Trends MCP is trend series, growth windows, and live boards. It does not return SERP HTML, backlink graphs, or On-Page audits. Keep DataForSEO (or another SEO API) for those jobs. Use Trends MCP when the agent needs multi-source Google Trends history plus TikTok, Reddit, and Amazon boards through one MCP server.

Which DataForSEO MCP URL should a Cursor config use?

The v3 GitHub README and the product MCP page print https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp. An OAuth help article still pastes https://mcp.dataforseo.com/mcp. Cursor help still describes a 40-tool ENABLED_MODULES workflow that the v3 README replaced with four tools. Start with /v3/mcp and the four-tool list, then check the live tool count in Cursor.

Sources