Know what your DataForSEO balance has paid for, and how long it lasts
DataForSEO sells search rankings, keyword volumes and backlink data by the API call instead of by the month, and takes each call's charge from a prepaid balance. Here is how its pricing works, which password the API takes, how long your balance will last, and how to track it alongside the rest of your bill.
DataForSEO sells the raw data behind SEO tools: the top 100 Google results for a search, keyword volumes and trends, backlink profiles, site-audit crawls, and product and review data. Instead of a monthly subscription to a finished tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, you pay for each request from a prepaid balance and build the view you want.
DataForSEO's dashboard already shows your balance, the days it has left, and what you've spent. What it can't show is how that spend sits next to your hosting, your AI APIs and every other service you pay for.
How does DataForSEO pricing work?
DataForSEO’s pricing is pay-as-you-go: no subscription and no plan tiers. You add funds to your account, each request draws its charge from that balance, and money you add doesn’t expire. What a request costs depends on three things: which API you call, how much data you ask for, and how fast you want it back.
Each API has its own meter. The unit changes from one API to the next, so two requests made a second apart can cost very different amounts:
| API | What you pay for |
|---|---|
| SERP | Each page of search results (10 results) |
| Keywords Data | Each task |
| DataForSEO Labs | Each task, plus each result row it returns |
| Backlinks | Each request, plus each row (one backlink, referring domain, page) |
| On-Page | Each page crawled |
Asking for more data costs more. SERP bills per 10 results, so the top 100 results for a search cost ten times the top 10. Labs and Backlinks add a charge for every row they return, so a request that pulls thousands of backlinks costs far more than one that pulls a handful.
Speed costs extra. Many endpoints offer a slow, cheap queue and faster ones that cost more. For Google search results, the Standard queue answers in about five minutes on average, Priority answers within a minute at twice the price, and Live answers in seconds at more than three times the price. A rank tracker that checks overnight can use the Standard queue; a tool that shows results while someone waits pays for Live.
The exact rates differ by endpoint and are listed on DataForSEO’s pricing page.
Which password does the DataForSEO API take?
The DataForSEO API takes your account email and your API password. The API password is a separate password that DataForSEO generates for you, and it has nothing to do with the one you use to sign in to the dashboard.
You find the API password on the API Access page for the first 24 hours after you sign up. After that the page hides it, and the Send by e-mail button on the same page mails it to you.
Where do you see your DataForSEO balance and spend?
In the DataForSEO dashboard. Its main page shows your balance with an “Estimated days left” figure, worked out from how fast you have been spending. The Usage section goes further, breaking spending down by API and endpoint, with the number of requests and what they cost on each day.
How long will your DataForSEO balance last?
Your DataForSEO runway is the balance divided by your burn rate: the money left, over what you spend per day. Because the balance never expires, pace is the only thing that shortens it. A quiet month stretches it, and one heavy crawl can take weeks off it.
When the balance reaches zero there is no bill after the fact, because the money was paid in advance. DataForSEO stops serving calls until you add funds, and the rank tracker, script or agent built on those calls stops with it. Other prepaid accounts you may hold, such as RunPod and Atlas Cloud, work the same way.
CostCompass doesn’t top up, pay or warn. It works out the runway from the current balance and your recent burn rate, and shows it on the DataForSEO card each time you click Refresh.
How do you forecast next month’s DataForSEO bill?
A DataForSEO forecast needs a burn rate, and a burn rate needs a few weeks of history. CostCompass reads last month as well as this month on every Refresh, so both months are filled in on the first one and the forecast appears right away, with no baseline period to wait through. On a very busy account, the first Refresh fills the newest days and the older ones arrive over the next few Refreshes. The forecast projects your recent pace across the coming month. How to forecast AI spending covers the method and how to read it.
How does CostCompass track your DataForSEO costs?
To connect, go to Services → DataForSEO → Enable and fill in two boxes, Account email and API password. CostCompass checks the pair with DataForSEO before it creates the card, so a wrong API password shows up right away.
Each Refresh you click reads what DataForSEO charged for every call this month and last month, plus your balance. What you see is DataForSEO’s own billed figure, not an estimate. The card shows month-to-date, last month, the balance, the forecast, the burn rate and the Runway, with spending broken down by API. The integration is reporting-only: deposits, payment methods and invoices stay in DataForSEO.
DataForSEO is rarely the only thing on the bill. It usually sits beside the models, hosting and tools the same project pays for, all in the one total (see the guides hub and LLM cost management). Its runway is there to check the next time you plan a large crawl.
Frequently asked questions
- Does CostCompass store my DataForSEO credentials?
- It stores them only in a form it cannot read. Your account email and API password are encrypted together in your browser with your vault password before anything leaves your device, and CostCompass keeps only that ciphertext. Your vault password stays with you, so the stored copy is not a usable credential. On each Refresh your browser decrypts the pair and hands it to a relay, which forwards it to DataForSEO for those calls and is built not to log it. The credential does pass through that relay in transit, but it is never written in readable form to CostCompass's database or logs.
- Does CostCompass show which DataForSEO API costs the most?
- Yes. Each Refresh reads the charge DataForSEO recorded for every call this month and last month, and the DataForSEO card breaks that spending down by API, such as SERP, Labs or Keywords Data, with each endpoint's requests and cost.
- Is the DataForSEO number in CostCompass exact?
- Yes. It is DataForSEO's own billed figure. CostCompass adds up the charge DataForSEO records against each call instead of multiplying usage by a price list.
- Does DataForSEO use an API key?
- No. The DataForSEO API signs in with your account email and an API password that DataForSEO generates for you, which is different from your dashboard password. The API password is on the API Access page for the first 24 hours after you sign up; after that, the Send by e-mail button on the same page mails it to you. Enter the email and the API password on the DataForSEO card in CostCompass.
- Why use CostCompass instead of the DataForSEO dashboard?
- The DataForSEO dashboard already shows your balance and the days it has left, but it shows DataForSEO alone. CostCompass puts this month, last month, the balance, a forecast and the runway on one DataForSEO card, and rolls that line into the same total as your AI, hosting and other services.
About the author
Joubert Berger builds CostCompass, a spend-intelligence dashboard that pulls usage from AI and compute providers into one month-to-date total, a forecast, and a per-provider breakdown. This guide reflects how CostCompass reads each provider's own usage API — see the security model for how your keys are handled.
Read your DataForSEO runway with everything else you pay for
Connect DataForSEO once with your account email and API password, and see its month-to-date, balance, forecast and runway beside every other provider you use, whenever you click Refresh.