DataForSEO has two main modes to deliver the data you requested: Standard and Live.

If your system requires delivering instant results, the Live mode is the best solution for you. Unlike the Standard mode, it doesn’t require making separate POST and GET requests to the corresponding endpoints.

If you don’t need to receive data in real-time, you can use the Standard (queue-based) mode of data retrieval. This mode requires making separate POST and GET requests, but it’s more affordable.

Learn more about the time it takes to complete a task >>

Worth pointing out, if you are using SERP API, the Standard mode is more efficient for scaling. The thing is, using the Live mode, you will have to keep the connection between your servers and our system open up to the moment when the data is ready. On average, it takes up to 6 seconds. Yet, if you make a vast number of requests to our API, it may take longer than that. Given this, large-scale companies working with SERP API usually find the Standard mode with High priority a better fit for their growing needs.

Note the Standard mode has two different priorities of that stand for the relative speed of task execution and have different prices:

1. Normal priority
2. High priority

With both normal or high priority of the Standard mode, you can retrieve the results after our system collects them. Alternatively, you can specify pingback_url or postback_url when setting a task, and we will notify you upon the completion of tasks or send the results to you respectively.

If you use the postback_url field with SERP API, you should also indicate the function that will be applied for data retrieval: regular, advanced, or HTML.

Learn more about using pingbacks and postbacks with DataForSEO API >>

API references:

• SERP API, Merchant API, and Business Data API support both the Live and the Standard mode along with Normal or High priority.
• All endpoints in DataForSEO Labs API support the Live mode only.
• The operation of the On-Page API is a bit different from other APIs. Basically, it is working based on the Standard mode. However, the price and speed depend on the number of pages to crawl and the parameters you enabled for a crawl.