Compared on Nov 10, 2026.

Free web search API

$10 of credit, no card, 2,000 searches.

A new SpecStream account gets $10 of credit with no card, which covers 2,000 searches. Tavily gives 1,000 credits a month, Serper 2,500 queries, Exa $10 of credits a month, and Brave $5 a month with a card.

Sign up, create a key under Agents & API, and call GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?q=.... The $10 also runs the Extract API and Deep Search, and it does not expire.

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 page. After the credit, $5 per 1,000 searches.

Get an API key

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.

What each web search API gives free, from each company's own page

	SpecStream	Tavily	Exa	Serper	Brave Search API	Firecrawl
What you get free	$10 of credit on a new account. It does not expire	1,000 API credits a month, reset on the first day of each month	$10 of credits a month plus a $10 onboarding bonus	2,500 free queries	$5 in free credits every month	1,000 credits every month
Searches it covers	2,000 searches of up to 10 results	1,000 basic searches, or 500 advanced at 2 credits each	Up to 2,500 Lite searches on the sign-up credit	2,500 queries	1,000 requests at $5 per 1,000	500 searches
Card needed	No	No	No payment method required	No	Yes. Brave asks for a card	No
Price after the free step, per 1,000	$5, from your balance, with no plan to buy	$8 pay as you go at $0.008 a credit	$4 on Lite, $7 on Auto, $12 on Deep	$1.00 on the $50 pack of 50,000	$5	About $7.60 on the $19 Hobby plan of 2,500 searches
What a search returns	The `answer` with the page it was read from and its read time, `rows` with typed facts, every source read and `price_usd`	`results[]` with `title`, `url`, `content` and `score`	`results[]` with `id`, `url`, `title`, `publishedDate` and `text`	`organic[]` with `title`, `link`, `snippet` and `position`	`web.results[]` with `title`, `url` and `description`	`data.web[]` with `url`, `title` and `description`
What else the free amount runs	The Extract API, 12,500 pages for $10, and Deep Search rows on the live web	Extract and crawl requests, billed in the same credits	Contents at $1 per 1,000 pages	Search queries, a credit for each successful response	The Answers plan at $4 per 1,000 requests plus tokens	1,000 pages scraped in place of 500 searches

Why start free on SpecStream

Your first free search

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

The reply's data holds the answer with the page it was read from and its read time, the rows, the sources read and price_usd, which is $0.005 for a search of up to 10 results. Each call shows what it took from the $10.

No card, and the credit stays

The $10 comes with a new account, with no card. It covers 2,000 searches or 12,500 pages read with the Extract API, and it does not expire, so a project you build this month still has its credit next month. When you top up, that credit never expires either.

The top score on the free credit

A free search is the same search a paying account gets: 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks, and 0.908 F1 on WCXB for the Extract API. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

The same speed and limits as a paid account

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. One account takes up to 8,800 fast searches a minute, and a call over that gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged.

Try it in the client you already have

SpecStream answers the calls of Google Custom Search, Tavily, Exa, Brave, Serper, Bing v7, Firecrawl v2 and SearXNG in their own JSON, and Open WebUI's external search and loader. Change the base address and the key, for example https://api.specstream.ai/tavily in place of https://api.tavily.com, and spend the free credit from there.

Search, pages and datasets on one key

The same key reads pages, PDF, Word and Excel files 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, under a maximum you approve before it runs.

Other free web search APIs

Google Custom Search JSON API

100 free queries a day, then $5 per 1,000, for existing customers only: the API is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers the same GET /customsearch/v1 call in Google's JSON, and a new account gets $10 of credit.

Gemini grounding with Google Search

5,000 free search requests a month across Gemini 3 and newer, then $14 per 1,000, and the reply is a model answer grounded in the results. SpecStream works with any model through the API or the search_web tool on its MCP server, at $5 per 1,000 after the free credit.

SerpApi

250 free searches a month at 50 an hour, then $25 a month for 1,000. The $10 SpecStream credit covers 2,000 searches, and the fast search takes 8,800 a minute on one account.

Linkup

4,000 free queries, then $0.005 to $0.006 a search request. A SpecStream search costs $0.005 and returns the answer with the page it was read from in the same call.

Parallel

$5 free monthly with a card on file, plus up to $80 at signup, and search from $1 per 1,000 requests. SpecStream asks for no card for its $10 of credit.

You.com

$10 of free credit, which You.com says is 2,000 searches, then $5 per 1,000 calls. SpecStream gives the same 2,000 searches with no card, at 97.9 F-score on SimpleQA Verified, and the same credit runs the Extract API and Deep Search.

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 start for free

1. Sign up at specstream.ai. The account starts with $10 of credit, no card.

2. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace, and give it a spending limit.

3. Make your first search.

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"])

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);

4. In an MCP client, add the server https://api.specstream.ai/mcp with OAuth or the key, and call the search_web tool with {"q": "<the question>"}.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

Is there a free web search API?

Yes. A new SpecStream account gets $10 of credit with no card, which covers 2,000 searches. Tavily gives 1,000 credits a month, Serper 2,500 queries, Exa $10 of credits a month, and Brave $5 of credits a month with a card.

What is the best free web search API for LLMs?

SpecStream: its $10 of free credit covers 2,000 searches at 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, and each call returns the answer with its page and typed rows a model can read. It works through the API and the MCP server.

Does the Brave Search API have a free tier?

Brave includes $5 in free credits every month on its Search plan, which is 1,000 requests at $5 per 1,000, and it asks for a card. SpecStream gives $10 of credit, 2,000 searches, with no card.

Is the Google Custom Search API free?

It gives 100 queries a day free, for existing customers only, and is closed to new customers until it ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers the same call with a key you create today and $10 of credit.

How many free searches does Tavily give?

1,000 API credits a month with no card, which is 1,000 basic searches or 500 advanced. When the credits run out, requests stop until the credits reset or you upgrade.

Does the free SpecStream credit expire?

No. The $10 on a new account does not expire, and credit you top up never expires either. After it, a search costs $5 per 1,000.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each free tier comes from that company's own page.

Tavily pricingtavily.com/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
Tavily API creditsdocs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md, read Nov 10, 2026
Exa pricingexa.ai/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
Exa pricing docsexa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md, read Nov 10, 2026
Serperserper.dev/, read Nov 10, 2026
Brave Search APIbrave.com/search/api/, read Nov 10, 2026
Firecrawl pricingfirecrawl.dev/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
Google Custom Search JSON API overviewdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview, read Nov 10, 2026
Grounding with Google Search, Gemini APIai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-search, read Nov 10, 2026
SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
Linkup pricinglinkup.so/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
Parallel pricingparallel.ai/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
You.com plansyou.com/plans, read Nov 10, 2026
SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 10, 2026
SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 10, 2026