<!-- twin of https://specstream.ai/alternatives/seltz -->
# Seltz alternatives in 2026: search from $1 per 1,000, pages at $0.80

Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/alternatives/seltz

Seltz charges $3 per 1,000 searches on Base and $5 on Pro, its default. Fetch costs $5 to $10 per 1,000 URLs and Answer $6 to $7 per 1,000. Every result comes from Seltz's own index, which refreshes on its own schedule.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Its Search API reads the live web when your call arrives, from $1 per 1,000 searches, and scores 97.9 on SimpleQA Verified. The Extract API reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000.

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-seltz&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=seltz&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 searches.

## SpecStream and Seltz side by side

| | SpecStream | Seltz |
|---|---|---|
| What you send | A question in everyday words, in any language, up to 2,000 characters: `GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?q=<the question>` with your key as a Bearer token. `POST` takes the same parameters in a JSON body | `POST https://api.seltz.ai/v1/search` with `query`, `max_results`, a `scope` and a `tier`, and the key in the `x-api-key` header |
| What comes back | `answer` with the value, the page it was read on and the time it was read. `rows` with each result and the facts the request asks for. `sources` in rank order, each with its `url`, `title`, `snippet` and `published` date | `documents[]`, each with `url` and `published_date`, the page `content` up to 20,000 characters by default, and `snippets` or `properties` when `fields` asks for them. Your model reads them to find the answer |
| Price per 1,000 searches | $1 for up to 10 results with `speed=fast`. $5 on the default search, which adds the answer with its page and the rows | $3 on the Base tier and $5 on the Pro tier. A search with no `tier` runs on Pro |
| Results in one call | 1 to 100 results in one search, set with `num`, and `page` (1 to 10) continues the same ranked list. Up to 10 results cost $0.001 on the fast search, and each started block of 10 more adds $0.0012, so 100 results cost $0.0118 | `max_results` defaults to 10. A search costs the same however many documents it returns |
| Where the results come from | The whole live web, read at the moment of the call. News and image searches run on the fast tier at the same price | Seltz's own index, not a live read. Its docs say the corpus refreshes on its own cadence, so a window of an hour or two can return nothing |
| Search accuracy | 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct). 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Scores and method on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz) page | Seltz's own pricing page says it topped Exa's People and Company Search benchmarks |
| Reading pages | Extract API: $0.80 per 1,000 pages, up to 20 URLs a call, PDF, Word and Excel included. A page with no text is not charged. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again in a real browser | Fetch: $5 per 1,000 URLs on Base and $10 per 1,000 on Pro, which renders pages that need a browser. Up to 20 URLs a call |
| An answer with its source | Inside the $5 default search: `answer` with the value, the page it was read on and its read time, and every source that prints it | Answer: $6 per 1,000 on Base and $7 per 1,000 on Pro |
| Research and datasets | 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 | Agent: $0.25 a run on low effort, $0.50 on medium (the default), $1.00 on high and $2.00 on max, where a run can take 30 minutes or more |
| Reruns and change labels | A saved request reruns 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¢ | Monitor reruns a saved search on a cadence and hands back what is new: $3 per 1,000 checks on Base, $5 on Pro |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card. That is 10,000 fast searches, 2,000 default searches or 12,500 pages | $20 of free requests on a new account, then pay as you go once you add a payment method. Qualified startups can apply for $1,000 in credits |
| Data already held | Public databases read every morning at [specstream.ai/data](https://specstream.ai/data?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz): 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](https://specstream.ai/signals?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz) | Search scopes for web (in beta), news, Wikipedia, people, companies and financial reports |
| Other search APIs on the same key | Calls written for Tavily, Exa, Serper, Brave, Perplexity, You.com, Linkup, Parallel, Bing v7, Google Custom Search, Firecrawl and SearXNG are answered in their own JSON at `api.specstream.ai`, at $1 per 1,000 searches. Change the base address and the key | Search, Answer, Monitor, Fetch and Agent on Seltz's own API |
| MCP, SDKs and where the data goes | MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`, the REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. Rows go to Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks | MCP server at `https://mcp.seltz.ai/mcp`, the REST API, and Python and JavaScript SDKs |

## Why teams move from Seltz to SpecStream

### Live web search from $1 per 1,000

Seltz charges $3 per 1,000 searches on Base and $5 on Pro, and Pro is what a call gets when it names no tier. A SpecStream search with `speed=fast` costs $1 per 1,000 for up to 10 results: a million searches cost $1,000, against $3,000 on Seltz Base and $5,000 on Pro.

```
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=Who is the CEO of Mistral AI" \
  -d num=10 -d speed=fast -d passages=true
```

Seltz keeps one price however many documents a search returns. SpecStream charges each started block of 10 results above the first 10, so 100 results cost $0.0118 on the fast search. For the usual call of 10 results, SpecStream costs a third of Seltz Base and a fifth of Seltz Pro.

### The live web, read when your call arrives

Seltz serves results from its own index, and its docs say the corpus refreshes on its own cadence, so a window of an hour or two can return nothing. SpecStream searches the whole live web at the moment of the call and reads the pages then. `after:` and `before:` in `q` hold on every result, and `site:` keeps the results to the domains you name.

### Pages at $0.80 per 1,000, where Fetch costs $5 to $10

Seltz Fetch costs $5 per 1,000 URLs on Base and $10 on Pro. The SpecStream Extract API reads up to 20 URLs a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, PDF, Word and Excel files included, and a page with no text is not charged. A page that refuses a plain read is tried again as a browser would ask for it, then in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture. 100,000 pages cost $80 on SpecStream, against $500 on Fetch Base and $1,000 on Fetch Pro.

### The answer with its page, at $5 per 1,000

Seltz sells a cited answer through a second endpoint, Answer, at $6 to $7 per 1,000. A SpecStream default search returns the answer in the same call, at $5 per 1,000: the value as the page prints it, the page it was read on, the time it was read and every source that prints it, then the ranked sources and a row for each result.

### 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. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The scores and the method are at [specstream.ai/benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

### Fast at 1 search a second and at 20

The fast search was measured on production on November 9, 2026: a median of 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, with the 95th percentile between 1.09 and 1.73 s. It answered 718 of 720 calls. Every reply carries `took_ms`, so your code sees the time of each call.

### One request returns the whole dataset

A Seltz Agent run costs $0.25 to $2.00 and returns research for one question. On SpecStream you write the request once, for companies, places, filings, tenders or products, and [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz) reads it back as the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back. It searches the live web, reads each page and joins what it finds into one record per match. A row with up to 5 facts costs 5¢, so 10,000 rows cost $500, the searches and pages behind them are not billed, and the most a run can cost is approved before it starts.

### Keys with their own limits and zero retention

Each API key carries its own limits: total, per run and monthly, and the operations it allows. Set `zero_retention` on a key and a search made with it keeps no request text and no answer after the reply. Every other charged search stays in the account's history at `GET /v1/web-search/answers`, with its answer and the pages it came from.

## Other Seltz alternatives

### SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Its Search API costs $1 per 1,000 searches with `speed=fast`, returns the answer with its page for $5 per 1,000 and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions. The Extract API costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages. Deep Search returns every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

### Exa

A search API with its own index. Search costs $4 per 1,000 requests on lite and $7 on auto, and the base price covers the first 10 results. Contents costs $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. SpecStream answers Exa's call too, at `https://api.specstream.ai/exa/search`, for $1 per 1,000 searches. [Exa alternatives](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/exa?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

### Tavily

A search API for agents, billed in credits at $0.008 each pay as you go, with 1,000 free credits a month. A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search 2. SpecStream answers Tavily's call too, at `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily/search`, for $0.001 a search. [Tavily alternatives](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/tavily?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

### Brave Search API

A search API on Brave's own index. Search costs $5 per 1,000 requests at up to 50 queries per second, with $5 in free credits every month. SpecStream answers Brave's call too, at `https://api.specstream.ai/res/v1/web/search`, in Brave's JSON, for $1 per 1,000 searches. [Brave Search API alternatives](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/brave?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

### Linkup

A search API billed per call: $0.005 for a fast or standard search that returns results, and $0.05 for a deep one. A sign up with a work email gets $20 of credit. SpecStream answers Linkup's call too, at `https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1/search`, for $1 per 1,000 searches. [Linkup alternatives](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/linkup?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

## How to switch from Seltz

1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 10,000 fast searches. Give the key a spending limit.

2. Replace `POST https://api.seltz.ai/v1/search` with `GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search`. `query` becomes `q`, `max_results` becomes `num`, and the key goes as a Bearer token in place of `x-api-key`. Add `speed=fast` for $1 per 1,000 searches, and `passages=true` for the text of each page.

```
import requests

reply = requests.get(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search",  # was POST https://api.seltz.ai/v1/search
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},  # was x-api-key
    params={"q": "Who is the CEO of Mistral AI", "num": 10, "speed": "fast", "passages": "true"},
).json()["data"]

for source in reply["sources"]:  # was documents
    print(source["url"], source.get("published"), source.get("excerpt") or source["snippet"])
```

3. Map the fields. `documents[].url` is `sources[].url`, `published_date` is `published`, and `content` is `excerpt`, up to about 3,500 characters of the page closest to the question. `include_domains` becomes `site:` in `q`, and `from_date` becomes `after:` in `q`. Drop `tier` and `scope`: the default search, with no `speed`, returns the answer with its page at $5 per 1,000.

4. Move Fetch to the Extract API: `POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract` with `{"urls": ["<page>"]}`, up to 20 URLs a call. Each result in `data.results` has its `url`, `status`, `title` and `text`, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages.

5. Connect an agent through the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` in place of `https://mcp.seltz.ai/mcp`. Its `search_web` tool runs a search for $0.005, from the same balance and inside the limits of its key. Setup for each client is in the [MCP docs](https://specstream.ai/docs/mcp?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz).

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does Seltz cost?

Search costs $3 per 1,000 on Base and $5 on Pro, the default. Fetch costs $5 or $10 per 1,000 URLs, Answer $6 or $7 per 1,000, Monitor $3 or $5 per 1,000 checks, and an Agent run $0.25 to $2.00 by effort. New accounts get $20 of free requests.

### What is the best Seltz alternative?

SpecStream, from $1 per 1,000 searches. It searches the live web at the moment of the call, returns the answer with the page it was read on for $5 per 1,000, reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000, and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

### Does Seltz search the live web?

No. Seltz serves results from its own index, and its docs say the corpus refreshes on its own cadence. SpecStream searches the whole live web when the call arrives, for $1 per 1,000 searches with `speed=fast`.

### What is the cheapest alternative to Seltz Fetch?

The SpecStream Extract API, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages against $5 to $10 per 1,000 URLs on Fetch. It takes up to 20 URLs a call, reads PDF, Word and Excel files, and does not charge a page with no text.

### How accurate is the SpecStream Search API?

It scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 978 correct, and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The scores and the method are on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=seltz) page.

### Does SpecStream have an MCP server?

Yes, at `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.

- [Seltz pricing (docs)](https://docs.seltz.ai/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Seltz pricing page](https://seltz.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Seltz Search API reference](https://docs.seltz.ai/api-reference/search.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Exa pricing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Tavily credits and pricing](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 12, 2026
- [Linkup pricing](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026
- [SpecStream data](https://specstream.ai/data), read Nov 12, 2026