The cheapest web search tool for a model.
Prices checked
Perplexity web_search tool, fast leads 5 providers at $1 per 1,000 searches when you make 1,000 searches a month, checked .
Top 5
all 93 prices- 1
web_search tool, fast
Perplexity · pay as you go · $1 at 100k$1/1k searches - 2
web_search tool
xAI · pay as you go · $5 at 100k$5/1k searches - 3
Web search tool
Anthropic · pay as you go · $10 at 100k$10/1k searches - 4
Web search tool
OpenAI · pay as you go · $10 at 100k$10/1k searches - 5
Grounding, Gemini 3
Google Gemini API · pay as you go · $14 at 100k
$14/1k searches
How we count
The floor is the search a model makes inside a model call, billed per search. A model's search tool bills the model's tokens on top of each search, so it is compared only with other model tools. 5 providers clear it, from $1 per 1,000 searches, against a typical $10 per 1,000 searches.
Frequently asked
- What is the cheapest of the model search tools right now?
- Perplexity web_search tool, fast, $1 per 1,000 searches when you make 1,000 searches a month, paying as you go. Read on 21 Oct 2026.
- Why does the volume change the order?
- Pay as you go costs the same per search at any volume, while a monthly plan or a large pack gets cheaper per search the more of it you use. A provider that is dear at 1,000 searches a month can be the cheapest at 100,000, so each ranking says its volume.
- What does the price leave out?
- Tax, and anything billed beside the search: a model's tokens where a model reads the results, extra results past the first ten where a provider charges for them, and page contents fetched by a separate call. Each provider's page lists what it adds.
- How is this ranked, and how current is it?
- Prices are read every morning from 16 providers' own pricing pages, and this list recomputes with them. A price read for the first time, or held while a second reading checks it, says so on its row and gives first place to a price that is confirmed or a week old whenever the list has one. Last refresh: 21 Oct 2026.