Top 5 CAPTCHA Solving Services Benchmarked (2026): Speed, Accuracy & Python Integration

Valentina Skakun

Last update: 16 Feb 2026

Speed and accuracy are everything when you’re scraping at scale. High CAPTCHA solving latency breaks your automation flows. Low accuracy burns through your budget on retries.

We tested the five most popular CAPTCHA solving APIs against real challenges. Our Python benchmark measured time to solution and success rate across six categories. These categories include reCAPTCHA v2, Invisible reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile, Audio CAPTCHA, Image CAPTCHA, and Geetest.

Executive Summary

2Captcha delivers the most consistent performance across all categories. It’s the only service in our test that successfully handles Audio CAPTCHA challenges with any reliable success rate. CapMonster Cloud dominates on speed for modern challenges like Cloudflare Turnstile.

The table below shows average solving time in seconds (lower is better):

Latency is only half the picture. Here are success rates for these CAPTCHA solving services.

SolveCaptcha hit a 94% success rate on Invisible reCAPTCHA. 2Captcha maintained 58% accuracy on difficult Image CAPTCHAs where other services misidentified objects.

Comparison Methodology

All tests ran in a controlled Python 3.13.7 environment. The script uses official SDKs where available to match real developer implementations. For services without native wrappers, we used the standard requests library. We validated tokens with Playwright to simulate actual browser interactions and verify acceptance.

Sampling and Metrics

Our dataset includes 50 distinct CAPTCHA challenges per type to minimize network variance. We tracked three key metrics for every service:

1. Time to Solve (TTS). Duration from initial API POST request to final usable token
2. Success Rate (SR). Percentage of tokens accepted by the target site on first attempt
3. Cost Per Mille (CPM). Price per 1,000 successfully solved CAPTCHAs

Test Targets

We targeted the most common anti-bot systems in 2026:

1. Google. reCAPTCHA v2 and Invisible reCAPTCHA
2. Cloudflare. Turnstile (Managed Challenge)
3. Legacy. Standard Image and Audio CAPTCHA
4. Interactive. Geetest v4

2Captcha

2Captcha is one of the oldest players in the CAPTCHA solving industry. It relies primarily on human workers to solve challenges, which ensures high compatibility across 38 distinct CAPTCHA types.

It is the only provider in our benchmark that successfully solves Audio CAPTCHA challenges. This makes it essential for accessibility-based bypass strategies when visual challenges fail.

Here’s the performance data from our tests:

The 14.27-second solve time for Audio CAPTCHA is critical. Yes, the 27% success rate looks low on paper, but it’s infinitely better than the 0% you’ll get from competitors who don’t support Audio at all. A simple retry loop in your script handles the low initial success rate just fine.

The 50.71-second latency for reCAPTCHA v2 reflects the human-based nature of the service. It’s not instant, but token validity is extremely high because a real person clicked the images.

The official documentation is comprehensive and covers all major programming languages. We recommend using the official Python SDK to ensure protocol compatibility and avoid issues with third-party wrappers.

Install the official library:

pip install 2captcha-python

It handles polling logic internally, no need to write your own while loops or sleep timers.

СapMonster Cloud

CapMonster Cloud uses AI to solve CAPTCHAs instead of human workers. It runs on OCR and neural networks, which gives it significantly lower costs and faster response times for modern, standardized challenges like Cloudflare Turnstile. It supports 20 different CAPTCHA types.

Here’s what we measured:

The speed advantage is real. CapMonster solved Cloudflare Turnstile in 6.24 seconds on average. That’s more than 2x faster than 2Captcha and over 3x faster than Anti-Captcha. For reCAPTCHA v2 and Invisible reCAPTCHA, it consistently beat the competition on response time.

But there’s a catch. CapMonster only managed 14% accuracy on Image CAPTCHAs. This was surprising because Image CAPTCHAs are typically easier than interactive challenges. The AI model seems optimized for modern bot detection systems rather than legacy formats.

If you’re scraping sites that use Cloudflare Turnstile or modern reCAPTCHA implementations, CapMonster is a strong choice. The pricing is competitive and the speed gains add up when you’re solving thousands of challenges per day.

There are multiple CapMonster packages on PyPI that are easy to confuse. Use the official client:

pip install capmonstercloudclient

DeathByCaptcha

DeathByCaptcha delivers decent performance across most CAPTCHA types. It supports 21 different CAPTCHA formats. But the developer experience is rough. The documentation is poorly organized and outdated. You’ll spend more time debugging the client library than actually solving CAPTCHAs.

Here’s what we measured:

The success rates are solid and the pricing sits in the mid-range. Image CAPTCHA performance was good at 64% accuracy. But the implementation problems overshadow these positives.

Python 3.13 compatibility is broken. The library still imports imghdr, which was removed from the standard library in Python 3.13. You’ll need to manually comment out the import in the installed package or downgrade to Python 3.11. If you’re running multiple Python versions, you can specify which one to use:

py -3.11 your_script.py

Service overload errors happen regularly. We saw “CAPTCHA was rejected due to service overload, try again later” multiple times during testing. This suggests capacity issues on their backend. You’ll need retry logic in your code to handle these failures.

The support team is responsive and can provide code examples for different CAPTCHA types. But they only operate 8 hours per day, so expect delays if you’re working outside their timezone.

pip install deathbycaptcha

DeathByCaptcha works if you’re willing to deal with the friction, but newer services offer better developer experience for similar pricing.

SolveCaptcha

SolveCaptcha supports 15 CAPTCHA types and uses a hybrid approach. They route challenges to either AI or human solvers depending on the CAPTCHA type. The pricing is competitive, but there’s no official SDK. You’ll need to build your own integration using standard HTTP requests.

Here’s what we measured:

The solve times are slow for reCAPTCHA v2 (84.8 seconds) and Invisible reCAPTCHA (71.2 seconds). This suggests heavy reliance on human workers for Google’s challenges. Cloudflare Turnstile and Image CAPTCHAs solve faster, likely handled by their AI system.

Success rates are perfect for all reCAPTCHA variants and Turnstile. Geetest drops to 86%, which is still usable with retry logic. Image CAPTCHA accuracy sits at 48%, which is workable but not great.

No SDK means more work for you. You’ll need to implement the polling mechanism yourself, handle rate limiting, and parse error responses manually. This adds development time compared to services with maintained client libraries. If you’re building a quick prototype or need to ship fast, the lack of tooling will slow you down.

The pricing is attractive if you’re operating on thin margins. At $0.55 per thousand reCAPTCHA v2 solves, it undercuts most competitors. For high-volume scraping where cost matters more than developer convenience, SolveCaptcha makes sense.

Anti-Captcha

Anti-Captcha is a mixed bag. The performance varies significantly depending on the CAPTCHA type. The service supports 14 CAPTCHA types and delivers reliable results for modern challenge types. It has an official Python SDK, which makes integration easier than services without client libraries.

Here’s what we measured:

reCAPTCHA v2 took 92.86 seconds on average, which is the slowest in our benchmark. The 86% success rate means roughly 1 in 7 attempts will require a retry.

Invisible reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile both achieved 100% success rates. Invisible reCAPTCHA averaged 49.87 seconds compared to CapMonster’s 13.77 seconds. Turnstile averaged 20.33 seconds versus CapMonster’s 6.24 seconds.

Geetest v4 reached 84% accuracy with a 42.34-second solve time. For comparison, 2Captcha solved Geetest in 14.38 seconds and CapMonster in 16.2 seconds.

Image CAPTCHA accuracy came in at 22%, requiring multiple retries for most challenges.

Install the official library:

pip install anticaptchaofficial

Anti-Captcha works for basic use cases, but the solve times are longer than some competitors, and Image CAPTCHA handling requires retry logic.

Final Recommendations

Best for Speed. CapMonster Cloud solves Cloudflare Turnstile in 6.24 seconds and reCAPTCHA v2 in 32.23 seconds. If throughput matters more than cost, CapMonster is the fastest option across modern CAPTCHA types.

Best for Reliability. 2Captcha hit 100% success rates on reCAPTCHA v2, Invisible reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile, and Geetest v4. It’s the only service that handles Audio CAPTCHAs. The human-based approach means slower solve times but higher token validity across all challenge types.

Best Value. SolveCaptcha offers the lowest pricing at $0.55 per thousand reCAPTCHA v2 solves. The solve times are slower and there’s no SDK, but if you’re operating on thin margins and can build your own integration, the cost savings add up at scale.

The complete benchmark Python scripts are available on GitHub.

Valentina Skakun

Valentina is a software engineer who builds data extraction tools before writing about them. With a strong background in Python, she also leverages her experience in JavaScript, PHP, R, and Ruby to reverse-engineer complex web architectures.If data renders in a browser, she will find a way to script its extraction.

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