GNews alternatives in 2026
No daily cap, $5 per 1,000 searches.
GNews sells a daily cap: Essential is €49.99 a month for 1,000 requests per day, up to 25 articles each. Once the day's quota is used the API returns 403 until 00:00 UTC.
SpecStream is the live web data engine. It answers GNews's own /api/v4/search call in GNews's JSON at $5 per 1,000 searches, with no daily cap and credit that never expires. It scores 97.9 on SimpleQA Verified.
New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.
SpecStream and GNews side by side
| SpecStream | GNews | |
|---|---|---|
| What you change | One line. https://api.specstream.ai in place of https://gnews.io, and a SpecStream key as apikey in the address or in the X-Api-Key header. The paths, the parameters and the reply keep their shape | GET https://gnews.io/api/v4/search and /api/v4/top-headlines, with the key as apikey in the address |
| What a call returns | On the drop-in route, GNews's totalArticles and articles[] with title, description, url, publishedAt and source.name. GET /v1/web-search returns the answer with the page it was read on, rows with the facts asked for, and every source with its published date | totalArticles and articles[] with id, title, description, content, url, image, publishedAt, lang and source |
| Price | $0.005 a search of up to 10 results, $5 per 1,000, the same rate for every call and every account. No plan to renew | Essential €49.99 a month for 1,000 requests per day. Business €99.99 a month for 5,000 per day |
| Articles per call | Up to 100 with max on every account. A call of up to 10 costs $0.005, and each started block of 10 more adds $0.006 | Set by the plan: 10 on Free, 25 on Essential, 50 on Business, up to 100 on Enterprise |
| Freshness | from and to set the window on every account, and the newest articles come first. Each search reads the live web at the moment of the call | The free plan covers the last 30 days with a 12-hour delay |
| Volume | No limit per key and no daily limit. A busy call gets 429 with Retry-After and is not charged | 429 over 1 request a second on Free and 10 on paid plans. 403 once the day's quota is used, until 00:00 UTC |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card, usable in production. That is 2,000 searches | 100 requests per day, up to 10 articles each, for non-commercial projects |
| The full article | The Extract API returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents a call, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. A page with no text is not charged | content is cut short, and truncate=content cuts it to 250 characters. Always on for Free |
| What answers the call | The whole live web, read at the moment of the call. 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct) and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks | GNews's article index, searchable with q up to 200 characters |
| Data already held | Public databases read every morning at specstream.ai/data: every company that filed a Form D since 2023 with its filing history, nearly 2 million US nonprofits, every US bank failure since 1934, federal rules, open federal contracts and grants, and local businesses. Signals such as funding rounds, new executives and layoffs at specstream.ai/signals | Articles, fetched one query at a time |
| Every match as structured rows | Deep Search: a request in plain words returns every match on the live web as rows that meet each condition you wrote, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts, and nothing runs until you approve it | One page of articles per call |
| Reruns and change labels | Hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢ | Each call is a new request, counted against the day's quota |
| Where the data goes | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks. Agents use the MCP server, the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A | A JSON response to the code that called the API |
Why teams move from GNews to SpecStream
Your GNews call, answered at a new address
SpecStream answers GET /api/v4/search and /api/v4/top-headlines in GNews's own JSON. Only the host and the key change, so the parser that reads articles[] today keeps working.
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4/search \
-d apikey=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY -d max=10 -d lang=en --data-urlencode "q=Nvidia earnings"q, lang, max up to 100, page, from, to and sortby=publishedAt keep their meaning, and on /api/v4/top-headlines so do category, q and lang. With GNews's Python client gnews-io-python 1.0.0, pass base_url="https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4".
No quota that resets at midnight
On GNews the plan decides how many requests you send a day and how many articles each returns, and the 1,001st request of the day on Essential gets 403 until 00:00 UTC. On SpecStream every call of up to 10 articles costs $0.005 and max=100 costs $0.059, paid from a balance that never expires. A busy day spends more of the balance, and the product keeps answering.
The most accurate web search API in the world
The SpecStream Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 978 correct. On WideSearch it scores 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official tasks, and the Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The scores and the method are at specstream.ai/benchmarks.
About one second a search, with no limit per key
Every drop-in route runs the fast search. On November 9, 2026 production took 1 to 20 fast searches a second and answered 718 of 720: the median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, and the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s. There is no limit per key and no daily limit; a busy call gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged.
Zero retention on any key
Set zero_retention when you create a key, or later. A search made with that key keeps no request text and no answer after the reply. spend_cap_cents is the most the key can spend.
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'News, pages and rows on one key
A GNews article carries a shortened content. On SpecStream the same key reads the full article behind each url with the Extract API, up to 20 pages a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Save a request and it reruns hourly to yearly, with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching.
Other GNews alternatives
SpecStream
The live web data engine for teams and agents. It answers GNews, NewsAPI, Bing News, Serper news and SerpApi Google News calls on their own paths at $5 per 1,000 searches, and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions. The Extract API reads full articles at $0.80 per 1,000 pages.
NewsAPI
A news API whose production use starts with Business at $449 a month for 250,000 requests, then $0.0018 per extra request. Its free Developer plan has 100 requests per day and cannot be used in production. SpecStream answers NewsAPI's /v2/everything at $0.005 a call with no plan.
Bing News Search v7
Microsoft retired the Bing Search APIs on August 11, 2025. Its named replacement, Grounding with Bing Search, costs $14 per 1,000 transactions and gives developers no raw results. SpecStream answers Bing's /v7.0/news/search at $0.005 a search.
SerpApi
Google News and Google results on monthly plans: Starter is $25 for 1,000 searches with 200 an hour, Developer $75 for 5,000. SpecStream answers SerpApi's Google News call at /serpapi-news/search.json for $0.005 a search, with no plan.
Serper
Google results in credit packs from $1.00 per 1,000 on the 50k pack, valid for 6 months, with 2,500 free queries. SpecStream credit never expires, and the same key answers Serper's news call at /serper/news.
How SpecStream scores
The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.
| SpecStream |  Parallel |  Exa |  Tavily |  Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 |
How to switch from GNews
Change one line. https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4/search answers the call your code sends to https://gnews.io/api/v4/search today, in the same JSON. Send a SpecStream key as apikey. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches.
# Before
curl -G https://gnews.io/api/v4/search \
-d apikey=$GNEWS_API_KEY -d max=10 --data-urlencode "q=Nvidia earnings"
# After
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4/search \
-d apikey=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY -d max=10 --data-urlencode "q=Nvidia earnings"Every parameter and every field that comes back is in the GNews migration guide. The steps:
1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace, and set a spending limit on it.
2. Point the address at https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4 where your code has https://gnews.io/api/v4. In Python:
import requests
reply = requests.get(
"https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4/search", # was https://gnews.io/api/v4/search
params={"apikey": SPECSTREAM_KEY, "q": "Nvidia earnings", "lang": "en", "max": 10},
timeout=30,
)
reply.raise_for_status()
for article in reply.json()["articles"]:
print(article["publishedAt"], article["source"]["name"], article["title"], article["url"])3. In JavaScript:
const url = new URL("https://api.specstream.ai/api/v4/top-headlines");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({ apikey: process.env.SPECSTREAM_KEY, category: "business", lang: "en" });
const data = await (await fetch(url)).json();
for (const article of data.articles) console.log(article.publishedAt, article.title, article.url);4. Read 429 as a call to send again after Retry-After. It is not charged, and there is no 403 for a used up day.
When your product needs the facts inside the news (who raised, how much, who led), write the request in plain words. SpecStream reads it back as the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, quotes the most it can cost, and delivers the rows after you approve.
Frequently asked questions
Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human
How much does the GNews API cost?
What is the best GNews API alternative?
/api/v4/search call in the same JSON and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, shown on the benchmarks page. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.What happens when I reach the GNews daily quota?
403 until the quota resets at 00:00 UTC. SpecStream has no daily quota and no limit per key, and each search is paid from a balance that never expires.How do I switch from GNews to SpecStream?
https://gnews.io becomes https://api.specstream.ai, and a SpecStream key goes in apikey. The paths /api/v4/search and /api/v4/top-headlines and the reply's articles[] keep their shape, and a call of up to 10 articles costs $0.005.How many articles does a GNews call return?
max, for $0.059.Does SpecStream have an API?
GET /v1/web-search at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results. The Extract API is POST /v1/extract at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. Deep Search takes a request in plain words and returns structured rows. Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A cover the same calls.Does SpecStream have an MCP server?
https://api.specstream.ai/mcp over Streamable HTTP, with OAuth or an API key. The search_web tool runs a search for $0.005, and the agent spends from the same balance as your team, inside the limits you set on its key.Sources
SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page.
- SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 10, 2026
- GNews pricinggnews.io/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- GNews search endpointdocs.gnews.io/endpoints/search-endpoint, read Nov 10, 2026
- GNews errorsdocs.gnews.io/error-handling, read Nov 10, 2026
- GNews JSON responsedocs.gnews.io/json-response, read Nov 10, 2026
- NewsAPI pricingnewsapi.org/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- Bing Search API retirementlearn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement, read Nov 10, 2026
- Grounding with Bing Searchlearn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools, read Nov 10, 2026
- Bing APIs pricingmicrosoft.com/en-us/bing/apis, read Nov 10, 2026
- SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- Serper homepage and pricingserper.dev/, read Nov 10, 2026