Best captcha solver benchmark: speed, accuracy & pricing

Captcha solver benchmark: Speed vs. accuracy

How fast is a captcha solver if most of its answers are wrong?

Average response time is one of the most common ways to compare captcha solving services. But a fast response isn't necessarily a successful one. When the answer is wrong, the application may have to submit another task, repeat a browser interaction, or start a new verification session. In web scraping and browser automation, those failed attempts can cost more than a few seconds of difference in response time.

We compared four captcha solving services — 2Captcha, Anti-Captcha, SolveCaptcha, and CapSolver — across seven captcha types to see how speed and accuracy together shape overall performance.

Alongside the benchmark results, we introduce Effective Solving Time (EST), a calculated metric that estimates the time spent per correct solution rather than per API response.

How we measure captcha solving efficiency

The benchmark evaluates each service on three metrics:

Each one captures something different. A service may answer quickly but get only a small share of challenges right, while another takes longer and delivers more reliable results. Looking at response time alone hides that difference.

Effective solving time: Combining speed and accuracy

To account for both speed and successful solutions, we calculate Effective Solving Time (EST).

The first step is the probability that a submitted request produces a correct answer:

$$
P = R \times A
$$

Where:

• $R$ = response rate, expressed as a decimal.
• $A$ = accuracy among returned answers, expressed as a decimal.
• $P$ = probability of receiving a correct solution.

EST then follows:

$$
\boxed{EST = \frac{T}{R \times A}}
$$

Where $T$ is the average solving time in seconds.

Take a service with these results:

Its probability of returning a correct solution is:

$$
P = 0.98 \times 0.59 = 0.5782
$$

Plugging that into the EST formula:

$$
EST = \frac{13}{0.5782} = 22.48 \text{ seconds}
$$

So the service returns an answer in 13 seconds on average, but its estimated effective solving time is 22.48 seconds per correct solution. That makes EST useful for comparing services whose response times and accuracy rates differ.

EST is a comparative estimate based on the reported average response time and observed success rate. The formula assumes independent attempts with consistent success probabilities and comparable time costs per attempt. If the reported response time excludes failed tasks or timeouts, EST does not represent the actual elapsed time required to obtain a correct solution. Network delays, retries, and browser session recovery may also affect real-world performance.

Captcha solver benchmark results

We compared 2Captcha, Anti-Captcha, SolveCaptcha, and CapSolver across seven captcha types:

• Image captcha (English)
• reCAPTCHA v2
• reCAPTCHA v3
• Cloudflare Turnstile
• Arkose Labs (FunCaptcha)
• GeeTest v3
• Amazon WAF captcha

The results come from the supplied benchmark data, with the reporting period labeled "Yesterday." The available data does not establish the number of requests per test, so the observed percentages should not be read as guaranteed performance under other workloads.

For each captcha type, we calculated EST from the reported average response time, response rate, and accuracy. A lower EST means less estimated processing time per correct solution.

Image captcha: English text recognition

Image recognition is where accuracy has the most visible effect on effective solving time.

Anti-Captcha answered two seconds faster than 2Captcha and SolveCaptcha, but its lower accuracy left its effective solving time close to 2Captcha's.

CapSolver returned an answer for every submitted task, yet only 19% were correct. Despite an average response time of 13 seconds, its estimated time per correct solution reached 68.42 seconds.

reCAPTCHA v2

The benchmark tested reCAPTCHA v2 at the Easy difficulty level.

All four services reached 100% accuracy here, so their calculated effective solving times equal their average response times. SolveCaptcha was fastest at 38 seconds on average, followed by 2Captcha and CapSolver at 41 seconds. Anti-Captcha averaged 63 seconds.

reCAPTCHA v3

Unlike reCAPTCHA v2, reCAPTCHA v3 assigns a score to interactions. Websites can use this score to decide whether to accept a request or ask for additional verification. The benchmark therefore measured both response performance and the distribution of returned scores.

The score distribution adds context:

2Captcha answered in 4.72 seconds on average, and every measured result scored 0.9. SolveCaptcha averaged 5.68 seconds, with 98.39% of results scoring 0.9. CapSolver averaged 6 seconds, again with all measured results at 0.9. Anti-Captcha needed 17 seconds on average, and 9.09% of its results received a score of 0.

With reCAPTCHA v3, response time should be weighed together with the returned score and the target website's verification requirements.

Cloudflare Turnstile

All four services achieved a 100% response rate and 100% accuracy in the Cloudflare Turnstile test.

With accuracy and response rates identical, processing time is the only thing separating them. SolveCaptcha averaged 7.87 seconds, with 2Captcha just behind at 8.01 seconds. CapSolver took 10 seconds, and Anti-Captcha averaged 28 seconds.

Arkose Labs (FunCaptcha)

Arkose Labs gives one of the clearest examples of how misleading response time can be on its own.

CapSolver answered in just 0.51 seconds on average, but none of its answers were correct in the observed test. With a measured success rate of zero, its EST is undefined. That doesn't prove successful solutions are impossible; it means the available sample contains no successful results from which to calculate a finite EST.

2Captcha recorded an EST of 18.37 seconds, followed by SolveCaptcha at 20 seconds. Anti-Captcha did return correct solutions, but it needed 83 seconds on average.

GeeTest v3

In GeeTest v3, response rate shapes overall efficiency even where response times are similar.

2Captcha and SolveCaptcha both averaged 16 seconds per response. 2Captcha achieved 100% accuracy among returned answers, but its response rate was 77%. SolveCaptcha answered 85% of submitted tasks with 98% accuracy. Their resulting EST values were 20.78 and 19.21 seconds, respectively.

Anti-Captcha recorded an EST of 67.34 seconds, reflecting its longer response time and lower accuracy. CapSolver results were not available in the supplied GeeTest v3 benchmark data.

Amazon WAF captcha

In the Amazon WAF test, a small lead in response time matters much less once accuracy is taken into account.

Anti-Captcha and CapSolver answered one second faster than 2Captcha and SolveCaptcha, but only half of their answers were correct. That pushed their estimated time per correct solution to 64 seconds, compared with 33.67 seconds for 2Captcha and SolveCaptcha.

Speed versus accuracy: What the results show

Three points stand out when comparing captcha solving services.

Faster responses don't always mean faster solutions. In the Amazon WAF test, Anti-Captcha and CapSolver answered one second faster than 2Captcha and SolveCaptcha. Yet their lower accuracy resulted in nearly twice the estimated time per correct solution.

Response rate and accuracy measure different things. CapSolver returned answers for every submitted image captcha task, but only 19% were correct. A completed API request does not necessarily mean the captcha was solved.

Performance varies by captcha type. The same service can produce very different results across image recognition, token-based challenges, and other verification systems. Comparing services on the specific captcha type your application needs to solve tells you more than a single advertised response time.

Effective solving time across captcha types

The table below collects the calculated EST values for all seven captcha types.

N/A indicates that EST is undefined because no correct solutions were observed. A dash indicates that benchmark data was unavailable.

No single response-time figure can describe a captcha solver's performance across different verification systems. 2Captcha, for example, recorded an EST of 4.72 seconds for reCAPTCHA v3 and 18.37 seconds for Arkose Labs. SolveCaptcha recorded 7.87 seconds for Cloudflare Turnstile and 19.21 seconds for GeeTest v3.

Compare these figures within each captcha type. Averaging them into one overall EST would give equal weight to very different challenges and would not necessarily reflect a real application's workload.

Conclusion

A fast response doesn't always mean a fast solution. The benchmark shows that differences in accuracy and response rate can significantly change the estimated time a captcha solver needs to produce a correct answer.

Effective Solving Time folds these factors into a single comparative metric:

$$
\boxed{EST = \frac{T}{R \times A}}
$$

For web scraping and browser automation, that makes it a more useful performance indicator than average response time alone.

The metric that matters is not how quickly a captcha solver returns an answer, but how efficiently it produces a correct one.