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# Cheapest web search API: $5 per 1,000 for the answer and the top score

Compared on Nov 10, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/cheapest-web-search-api

The lowest list price for 1,000 web searches is $0.30, on Serper's $3,750 pack of 12.5 million queries. Parallel and Perplexity's fast search start at $1, Exa at $4, Brave at $5, and Tavily comes to $8 pay as you go.

SpecStream costs $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, from your balance, with no pack to buy. Each call returns the answer with the page it was read from, the results and its own price.

It is the most accurate web search API in the world: 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cheapest-web-search-api) page. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-cheapest-web-search-api&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=cheapest-web-search-api&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fsearch%3Froute%3Dgoogle) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.

## What 1,000 searches cost, and what the price buys

| | SpecStream | Serper | Exa | Tavily | Brave Search API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest price per 1,000 searches | $5 | $0.30 on the 12.5M pack, $1.00 on the 50k pack | $4 on Lite | $5 on the $500 Growth plan, $7.50 on the $30 Project plan, $8 pay as you go | $5 |
| What you pay before the first search | Nothing. Each call takes $0.005 from the balance, and credit you buy never expires | A prepaid pack: $50 for 50,000 up to $3,750 for 12.5 million. Credits are valid for 6 months | Nothing on the free tier. Lite is the lowest step; Auto costs $7 and Deep $12 | A monthly plan, or $0.008 a credit pay as you go | Prepaid credits you load and use as you go |
| What one unit is | A call of up to 10 results. Each started block of 10 more adds $0.006, so 100 results cost $0.059 | A credit for each successful query | A request with up to 10 results. Each result above 10 adds $1 per 1,000 requests | A credit for a basic search, 2 for an advanced search | A request |
| What the reply holds | The `answer` with the page it was read from and its read time, `rows` with typed facts, every source read and `price_usd` | `organic[]` results with `title`, `link`, `snippet` and `position` | `results[]` with `id`, `url`, `title`, `publishedDate` and `text` | `results[]` with `title`, `url`, `content` and `score` | `web.results[]` with `title`, `url` and `description` |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card. That is 2,000 searches | 2,500 free queries, no card | $10 of credits a month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no payment method | 1,000 credits a month, no card | $5 in free credits every month. Brave asks for a card |
| Rate | Up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account. A call over that gets a `429` and is not charged | 50 queries per second on the smallest pack, 300 on the largest | 10 search queries per second | 100 requests a minute on a development key, 1,000 on production | 50 queries per second on Search |

## Why $5 on SpecStream is the cheapest search you can buy

### One call, its price in the reply

```
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?q=who+founded+anthropic" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_KEY"
```

The reply's `data` carries the `answer` with the page it was read from and its read time, the `rows`, the `sources` read in rank order and `price_usd`. A search of up to 10 results costs $0.005, and the price is in the reply.

### The answer comes in the same call

A results page at $0.30 per 1,000 still has to be read: your code fetches the pages, pulls out the value and checks it, and each step costs more calls or model tokens. A SpecStream search returns the value and its page in the same call, at 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct) and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks.

### No pack, no plan, no expiry

Serper's $0.30 needs $3,750 up front, and its credits are valid for 6 months. Tavily's $5 needs a $500 monthly plan. On SpecStream the first search costs $0.005 and the 10,000th costs the same, credit you buy never expires, and a yearly plan turns 12 monthly fees into credit plus 20% more.

### 100 results for $0.059

One SpecStream search returns up to 100 results with `num`. Each started block of 10 results past the first 10 adds $0.006, so 1,000 searches of 100 results cost $59. On Exa each result above 10 adds $1 per 1,000 requests, so the same 1,000 searches on Lite come to $94.

### A stopped call costs nothing

A call stopped by a `429` charges nothing: wait the `Retry-After` seconds and send it again. With an `Idempotency-Key` header a retried call is charged once. The fast search had a median of 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second on production on November 9, 2026, and answered 718 of 720 calls.

### Move without rewriting your code

SpecStream answers the calls of Google Custom Search, Tavily, Exa, Brave, Serper, Bing v7, Firecrawl v2 and SearXNG in their own JSON. Change the base address and the key, for example `https://api.specstream.ai/serper` in place of `https://google.serper.dev`, and each call is one search at $5 per 1,000.

### Pages and full datasets from the same balance

The [Extract API](https://specstream.ai/extract-api?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cheapest-web-search-api) reads pages, PDF, Word and Excel files at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged. [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cheapest-web-search-api) returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, under a maximum you approve before it runs.

## Other web search APIs and their price per 1,000

### Parallel

The Search API starts at $1 per 1,000 requests, its lowest published tier, with 10 results a request and $1 per 1,000 additional results. The free $5 a month needs a card on file. SpecStream gives $10 of credit with no card, and each $0.005 search returns the answer with its page.

### Perplexity Search API

$5 per 1,000 requests, or $1 with fast search. A successful response is billed even when it returns no results. At the same $5 per 1,000, a SpecStream search returns the answer value with its page and scores 97.9 on SimpleQA Verified.

### SerpApi

Monthly plans: $25 for 1,000 searches and $75 for 5,000, which is $25 and $15 per 1,000. On SpecStream $25 pays for 5,000 searches, with no plan to renew.

### Linkup and You.com

Linkup lists $0.005 to $0.006 a search request, and You.com's Web Search API costs $5 per 1,000 calls. SpecStream costs the same $5 per 1,000 and returns the answer with the page it was read from in the same call.

### Firecrawl

Search costs 2 credits per 10 results. The Hobby plan costs $19 a month for 5,000 credits, which is 2,500 searches, or about $7.60 per 1,000. A SpecStream search of 10 results costs $0.005, and pages read with the Extract API cost $0.80 per 1,000.

### OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini search tools

OpenAI's web search tool costs $10 per 1,000 calls plus search content tokens, Anthropic's $10 per 1,000 searches plus token costs, and Gemini grounding $14 per 1,000 after 5,000 free a month. SpecStream costs $5 per 1,000 with no token charge, for any model, through the API or the `search_web` tool on its MCP server.

## How to start searching at $5 per 1,000

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. Call the Search API.

```
import requests

reply = requests.get(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search",
    params={"q": "who founded anthropic", "num": 10},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
).json()["data"]

print(reply["answer"], reply["price_usd"])
for source in reply["sources"]:
    print(source["title"], source["url"])
```

```
const reply = await fetch(
  "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?q=" + encodeURIComponent("who founded anthropic"),
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${SPECSTREAM_KEY}` } }
).then((r) => r.json());
console.log(reply.data.answer, reply.data.price_usd);
```

3. Already on Serper, Tavily, Exa, Brave or Google Custom Search? Keep your client and change its base address to SpecStream's route for it, with a SpecStream key.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the cheapest web search API?

The lowest list price is $0.30 per 1,000 queries, on Serper's $3,750 pack of 12.5 million. Parallel and Perplexity's fast search start at $1. SpecStream costs $5 per 1,000 with no pack to buy, and each call returns the answer with its page at 97.9 F-score on SimpleQA Verified.

### What is the cheapest web search API for LLMs?

SpecStream at $5 per 1,000 searches, because the call returns the answer with its page and the `rows` a model can read, with no token charge. OpenAI and Anthropic charge $10 per 1,000 plus tokens, and Gemini grounding $14 after 5,000 free a month.

### What is the cheapest Google search API?

Serper sells Google results from $0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 by pack size, and Google's own Custom Search JSON API charged $5 per 1,000 but is closed to new customers. SpecStream answers Google's `GET /customsearch/v1` call in Google's JSON at $5 per 1,000.

### How much does Exa cost per 1,000 searches?

$4 on Lite, $7 on Auto and $12 on Deep, each with up to 10 results, and each result above 10 adds $1 per 1,000 requests. SpecStream costs $5 per 1,000 searches of 10 results and $59 per 1,000 searches of 100 results.

### How much does Tavily cost per 1,000 searches?

$8 pay as you go at $0.008 a credit for basic searches, $16 for advanced searches at 2 credits each, and $7.50 on the $30 Project plan. SpecStream costs $5 per 1,000 at one rate.

### Is there a web search API with no monthly plan?

Yes. SpecStream takes $0.005 a search from your balance, with no plan or pack to buy, and credit you buy never expires. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

## Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival price comes from that company's own page; a price per 1,000 worked out from a pack or a credit rate is that page's own numbers divided.

- [Serper](https://serper.dev/), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Exa pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Exa pricing docs](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily pricing](https://www.tavily.com/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily API credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily rate limits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/rate-limits), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Parallel pricing](https://parallel.ai/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Perplexity pricing](https://docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SerpApi pricing](https://serpapi.com/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Linkup pricing](https://www.linkup.so/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [You.com plans](https://you.com/plans), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [OpenAI API pricing](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Anthropic web search tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-search-tool), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Gemini API pricing](https://aistudio.google.com/docs/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 10, 2026