Web search API pricing.
Prices checked
35 web search products from 16 providers, from $1 per 1,000 searches at 1,000 a month, checked .
Google results, 8
Google results APIs, per 1,000 at 1,000 searches a month, cheapest first.
- 1
Google, live
DataForSEO · pay as you go · $2 at 100k$2/1k searches - 2
Google search
Serper · Starter pack · $0.75 at 100k$8.33/1k searches - 3
Google search
SerpApi · Starter plan · $7.25 at 100k$25/1k searches - 4
Google SERP Advance
Scrapingdog · Lite plan · $0.90 at 100k$40/1k searches - 5
Google SERP Light
Scrapingdog · Lite plan · $0.90 at 100k$40/1k searches - 6
Google search
SearchApi · Developer plan · $2.50 at 100k$40/1k searches - 7
Google, standard queue
QueuedDataForSEO · pay as you go · $0.60 at 100k$0.60/1k searches - 8
Google, priority queue
QueuedDataForSEO · pay as you go · $1.20 at 100k$1.20/1k searches
Own index, 13
Web search APIs with their own index, per 1,000 at 1,000 searches a month, cheapest first.
- 1
Search, fast
Parallel · pay as you go · $1 at 100k · page text$1/1k searches - 2
Search API, fast
Perplexity · pay as you go · $1 at 100k · page text$1/1k searches - 3
Lite search
Exa · pay as you go · $4 at 100k · page text$4/1k searches - 4
Search
Brave Search API · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$5/1k searches - 5
Standard search
Linkup · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$5/1k searches - 6
Search, basic
Parallel · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$5/1k searches - 7
Search API
Perplexity · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$5/1k searches - 8
Web Search API
You.com · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$5/1k searches - 9
Auto search
Exa · pay as you go · $7 at 100k · page text$7/1k searches - 10
Basic search
Tavily · pay as you go · $5 at 100k · page text$8/1k searches - 11
Deep search
Exa · pay as you go · $12 at 100k · page text$12/1k searches - 12
Advanced search
Tavily · pay as you go · $13 at 100k · page text$16/1k searches - 13
Deep search
Linkup · pay as you go · $50 at 100k · page text$50/1k searches
Answers, 6
Answer APIs, per 1,000 at 1,000 searches a month, cheapest first.
- 1
Answer
Exa · pay as you go · $5 at 100k$5/1k searches - 2
Answer API
You.com · pay as you go · $5 at 100k$5/1k searches - 3
Standard sourced answer
Linkup · pay as you go · $6 at 100k$6/1k searches - 4
Responses API, low
Parallel · pay as you go · $10 at 100k$10/1k searches - 5
Deep sourced answer
Linkup · pay as you go · $55 at 100k$55/1k searches - 6
Answers
Tokens on topBrave Search API · pay as you go · $4 at 100k$4/1k searches
Model tools, 8
Model search tools, per 1,000 at 1,000 searches a month, cheapest first.
- 1
web_search tool, fast
Perplexity · pay as you go · $1 at 100k$1/1k searches - 2
web_search tool
Perplexity · pay as you go · $2.50 at 100k$2.50/1k searches - 3
web_search tool
xAI · pay as you go · $5 at 100k$5/1k searches - 4
Web search tool
Anthropic · pay as you go · $10 at 100k$10/1k searches - 5
Web search tool
OpenAI · pay as you go · $10 at 100k$10/1k searches - 6
Grounding, Gemini 3
Google Gemini API · pay as you go · $14 at 100k
$14/1k searches - 7
Web search preview
OpenAI · pay as you go · $25 at 100k$25/1k searches - 8
Grounding, Gemini 2.5
Google Gemini API · pay as you go · $35 at 100k
$35/1k searches
What the models behind these tools cost by the token:
Free tiers, 11
A free tier is a limit, not a price: it is listed on every page and called the cheapest on none. A limit renews each month, each day, or comes once.
- 1
Brave Search API Search
1,000 a month
free - 2
Exa Lite search
2,500 a month
free - 3
Google Gemini API Grounding, Gemini 3
5,000 a month
free - 4
Google Gemini API Grounding, Gemini 2.5
1,500 a day
free - 5
Linkup Standard search
4,000 a month
free - 6
Parallel Search, fast
5,000 a month
free - 7
SearchApi Google search
100 once
free - 8
SerpApi Google search
250 a month
free - 9
Serper Google search
2,500 once
free - 10
Tavily Basic search
1,000 a month
free - 11
You.com Web Search API
20,000 once
free
Who sells web search
How we count
Every price is per 1,000 searches, at 1,000 and at 100,000 searches a month, bought the cheapest way the provider sells them: pay as you go, a monthly plan with its overage, or a prepaid pack spread over the months it lasts. Credits are converted to searches only at the credits per search the provider states.
Google results: The Google results page as JSON, scraped and parsed for you: titles, links, snippets and the page's other blocks. Own index: Results from the provider's own web index, built for a model to read, most with the page's text. Answers: A written answer with its sources, from one call. Model tools: The search a model makes for itself inside a model call, with the model's tokens billed on top. No list mixes two of them.
Frequently asked
- What is the cheapest web search API?
- Google results: DataForSEO Google, live, $2 per 1,000 searches; Own index: Parallel Search, fast, $1 per 1,000 searches; Answers: Exa Answer, $5 per 1,000 searches, each at 1,000 searches a month, checked 21 Oct 2026. Each kind of search is ranked on its own, because they return different things.
- What replaces the Bing Search API and Google Custom Search?
- Bing's search APIs were retired in August 2025, and Google's Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and stops on 1 January 2027. For Google's results, a Google results API returns the same page as JSON; for search built for a model, an API with its own index returns pages with their text. Both are listed here with what 1,000 searches cost.
- Is a model's own web search cheaper than a search API?
- A model's search tool typically costs $10 per 1,000 searches plus the model's tokens for what it reads, against a typical $5 per 1,000 searches for a search API with its own index. A model's search tool bills the model's tokens on top of each search, so it is compared only with other model tools.
- Which search APIs have a free tier?
- Brave Search API, Exa, Google Gemini API, Linkup, Parallel, SearchApi, SerpApi, Serper, Tavily, You.com. A free tier is a limit, not a price: it is listed on every page and called the cheapest on none.
Rankings
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