SearchApi alternatives in 2026
Answers and sources at $5 per 1,000.
SearchApi sells Google results by monthly plan, from $40 for 10,000 searches to $1,500 for 1,000,000. A Google call returns 10 results, and a plan can spend at most 20% of its searches in one hour.
SpecStream is the live web data engine. Its Search API returns the answer with its page and up to 100 results a call, at $5 per 1,000 searches from a balance 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 SearchApi side by side
| SpecStream | SearchApi | |
|---|---|---|
| What you change | One line. https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi/api/v1/search in place of https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search, and a SpecStream key as api_key in the address or as a Bearer token. The request and the reply keep their shape | GET /api/v1/search with a SearchApi key as the api_key parameter |
| What a call returns | GET /v1/web-search returns an answer with the value, the page it was read on and the time it was read, rows with the facts the request asks for, and sources in rank order with url, title, snippet and the published date when the result gives one | Google's results page as JSON from GET /api/v1/search?engine=google, with organic_results and the other blocks of the page |
| Price per 1,000 searches | $5 for up to 10 results, the same rate on every plan. num=100 costs $0.059 a call | Monthly plans: Developer $40 for 10,000 searches ($4 per 1,000), Production $100 for 35,000 ($3), BigData $250 for 100,000 ($2.5), Scale $500 for 250,000 ($2), Octo 1M $1,500 for 1,000,000 ($1.5) |
| Results per call | Up to 100 with num. A call of up to 10 results costs $0.005, and each started block of 10 more adds $0.006 | Its docs say Google phased out num in September 2025, and a Google call now returns a constant 10 |
| Volume | The fast search takes up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account. A call over that gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged | Up to 20% of the plan's searches in any hour |
| When the searches run out | Calls spend from your balance, inside the spending limit you set on the key. A top-up never expires | No overage rate is printed on the pricing page |
| Failed calls | A 429 with Retry-After charges nothing. With an Idempotency-Key, a retried call is charged once | Only searches with a 200 status code are charged |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card. That is 2,000 searches, or up to 200 rows at 5¢ | 100 free requests on sign up, no credit card |
| 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 | Google and the other engines SearchApi reads, one engine per call |
| The text of the pages | Add passages=true and each source carries an excerpt of its page, up to about 3,500 characters. The Extract API returns the main text of up to 20 pages or documents (PDF, Word, Excel) a call, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages | The snippet Google shows for each organic result |
| 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 | Search engine results pages, 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 results page 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 search, counted against the month's plan |
| 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 SearchApi to SpecStream
One call returns the answer, the rows and 100 results
A SearchApi call returns what Google shows for a query, 10 results at a time. A SpecStream call takes the question in everyday words and returns the value with the page it was read on, the rows the question asks for, and up to 100 sources in rank order.
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?q=Who+is+the+CEO+of+Mistral+AI&num=100" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"num=100 costs $0.059 for one call. When your product reads a Google style results list, POST https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search returns organic[] with position, title, link and snippet at $0.005 for 10 results.
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.
$5 per 1,000 searches from a balance that does not expire
SearchApi's Developer plan is $40 a month for 10,000 searches, and the searches belong to that month. On SpecStream $40 pays for 8,000 searches that never expire, with no hourly share: one account can send up to 8,800 fast searches a minute. A call stopped by a 429 charges nothing.
About one second a search, at up to 8,800 a minute
Every drop-in route runs the fast search unless the call asks for page text or results past the first ten. 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. One account takes up to 8,800 searches a minute, and a call over that 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: it is not in the history, its answer is not reused for another call, and its log lines carry neither. The charge keeps the account, the key, the request ID, the price and the time.
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}'Search, pages and rows on one key
A product that calls SearchApi still has to read the pages and build its own records. On SpecStream the same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. 10,000 rows with 5 facts each cost $500, and the most a run can cost is approved before it starts. Save a request and it reruns hourly to yearly, with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching.
Other SearchApi alternatives
SpecStream
The live web data engine for teams and agents. Its Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches, returns the answer with its page and every source, and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions. The Extract API costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search returns every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.
SerpApi
A results page API for Google and other engines, sold by monthly plan: Starter at $25 for 1,000 searches with 200 an hour, Developer at $75 for 5,000. Cached, errored and failed searches are not counted. On SpecStream $25 pays for 5,000 searches, and the balance never expires.
Zenserp
A results page API sold by monthly plan: the Small plan costs $49.99 a month for 25,000 searches, and the Free plan has 50 searches a month. SpecStream returns the answer with its page and up to 100 results a call, at $5 per 1,000 searches.
Serper
Google results sold as prepaid credits with no monthly subscription, from $1.00 per 1,000 on the 50k pack. The first 2,500 queries are free, no credit card. SpecStream answers Serper's own call at https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search, in Serper's JSON, for $5 per 1,000 searches.
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 SearchApi
Change one line. https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi/api/v1/search answers the call your code sends to https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search today, in the same JSON, so your parser stays as it is. Send a SpecStream key as api_key in the address or as a Bearer token. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches.
# Before
curl -G "https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search" -d engine=google --data-urlencode "q=$QUERY" -d "api_key=$VENDOR_API_KEY"
# After
curl -G "https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi/api/v1/search" -d engine=google --data-urlencode "q=$QUERY" -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"q, page, num, time_period, time_period_min and time_period_max work as before, and the reply keeps organic_results[] with position, title, link, domain, snippet and date. A call of up to 10 results is one search at $0.005. Every parameter and reply field is in the SearchApi migration guide.
Your code can also call SpecStream's own Search API, at the same price. The steps:
1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches.
2. Send the question to GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search with the key as a Bearer token, where your code sends engine=google&q= to SearchApi today. num sets the results from 1 to 100.
import requests
reply = requests.get(
"https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search",
params={"q": "Who is the CEO of Mistral AI", "num": 10},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
).json()["data"]
print(reply["answer"])
for source in reply["sources"]:
print(source["url"], source["title"], source["snippet"])3. Where your code reads organic_results, read sources (each with url, title and snippet), or call POST https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search and read organic[], whose items carry position, title, link and snippet.
import requests
reply = requests.post(
"https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search",
headers={"X-API-KEY": SPECSTREAM_KEY},
json={"q": "Who is the CEO of Mistral AI", "num": 10, "page": 1},
).json()
for result in reply["organic"]:
print(result["position"], result["title"], result["link"], result["snippet"])4. Set a spending limit on the key. A call of up to 10 results costs $0.005, and num=100 costs $0.059.
When your product needs the whole dataset in place of a results page, 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 SearchApi cost?
How do I migrate from SearchApi.io to SpecStream?
https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi/api/v1/search in place of https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search, with a SpecStream key as api_key in the address or as a Bearer token. The request and the reply keep their shape, and each call of up to 10 results costs $0.005.What is the best SearchApi alternative?
How many results does a SearchApi call return?
num parameter in September 2025 and the count is now a constant 10. A SpecStream call returns up to 100 results with num, for $0.059.Does SearchApi have a rate limit?
429 and is not charged.Is there a free SearchApi alternative?
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 9, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream signalsspecstream.ai/signals, read Nov 9, 2026
- SearchApi pricingsearchapi.io/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- SearchApi Google Search API docssearchapi.io/docs/google, read Nov 9, 2026
- SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Zenserp pricingzenserp.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Serper homepage and pricingserper.dev/, read Nov 9, 2026