Google Custom Search API limits
The same call with no daily cap.
The Custom Search JSON API gives 100 free queries a day, then $5 per 1,000 up to 10,000 queries a day. Each call returns 1 to 10 results, and a query never returns more than 100. Google ends the API on January 1, 2027.
SpecStream answers the same GET /customsearch/v1 at https://api.specstream.ai, with no daily limit. Change the base address and the key; num and start work as before.
It scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, on the benchmarks page, at $5 per 1,000 searches.
New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.
Limits of the Custom Search call at Google, at SpecStream and on Vertex AI Search
| SpecStream | Google Custom Search JSON API | Vertex AI Search | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queries a day | No daily limit. Calls spend from your balance, inside the spending limit you set on the account or the key | 10,000 queries a day | Pay as you go for search queries and data storage |
| To start | $10 of credit for a new account, no card. It covers 2,000 searches | 100 search queries a day free, for existing customers. Closed to new customers | A free trial of 10,000 queries per account a month |
| Price after that | $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results | $5 per 1,000 queries | $1.50 per 1,000 queries on Search Standard Edition, $4.00 on Search Enterprise Edition |
| Results a call | num from 1 to 10 on this route, as on Google. Up to 100 in one search on GET /v1/web-search, priced by num | 1 to 10 | Billed per query: any API call to Enterprise Search counts as one |
| Results a query | start reaches to result 1,000, so a request past result 100 is not refused. On GET /v1/web-search, page 1 to 10 continues the same ranked list | Never more than 100. A start plus num above 100 returns an error | Up to 50 domains. For full web search, Google asks you to contact it |
| Calls a minute, and what is charged | Up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account. A call over that gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged | Its terms say you may be charged for each successful request | A request is any API call, direct or through an integration or the console |
| How long it runs | Live, with new accounts open today | Discontinued on January 1, 2027 | Google's suggested alternative for up to 50 domains |
Why teams at the Custom Search limit move to SpecStream
The same call without the daily cap
Your code keeps its path, its parameters and its parser. The address changes, and the key.
# Before: 10,000 queries a day
curl "https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=$GOOGLE_KEY&cx=$CX&q=open+source+vector+databases"
# After: no daily limit
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1?key=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY&cx=$CX&q=open+source+vector+databases"10,000 searches a day cost $50, and search 10,001 is answered like the first. cx is accepted and not used.
8,800 searches a minute, and an over-limit call is free
One account can send up to 8,800 searches a minute. A call over that gets a 429 with a Retry-After header and is not charged, so a retry loop costs nothing until the call goes through. Send an Idempotency-Key header and a retried call is charged once.
Past 10 results a call and 100 a query
On the Custom Search route num stays at 1 to 10, so code written for Google gets the same pages. On the same key, GET /v1/web-search returns up to 100 results in one search with num, and page 1 to 10 continues the same ranked list. A call for 20 results costs $0.011 and one for 100 costs $0.059.
Speed under load
On production on November 9, 2026, the search behind this route had 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.
The limits you set
Each key carries its own spending limit, for example "spend_cap_cents": 500000 for $5,000, and a call that would go over it gets a 403. An empty balance returns a 402 with a link to add credit. Credit you buy never expires.
The most accurate web search API in the world
SpecStream scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB.
The same key reads pages and returns rows
The Extract API reads up to 20 pages or documents a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. Deep Search returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, and quotes the most a run can cost before it starts.
Other options past the Custom Search limits
Vertex AI Search
Google's suggestion for searching up to 50 domains. It costs $1.50 per 1,000 queries on Search Standard Edition, after a free trial of 10,000 queries per account a month. SpecStream searches the whole web on the call your code already sends.
Grounding with Google Search in the Gemini API
A Gemini model searches and writes an answer grounded in the results. On Gemini 3 and newer it costs $14 per 1,000 search requests after 5,000 free a month. SpecStream returns the results to your code at $5 per 1,000.
Brave Search API
A search API on Brave's own index at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 in free credits every month and 50 queries per second. SpecStream takes up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account and answers in Google's JSON.
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 move past the Custom Search limits
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. Set the base address to https://api.specstream.ai where your code has https://www.googleapis.com or https://customsearch.googleapis.com, and send the SpecStream key in key=.
import os
import requests
reply = requests.get(
"https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1", # was https://www.googleapis.com
params={"key": os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"], "q": "open source vector databases", "num": 10},
timeout=30,
).json()
for item in reply.get("items", []):
print(item["title"], item["link"])3. Set a spending limit on the key in place of the daily quota, and remove any daily counter your code keeps for Google.
Frequently asked questions
Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human
What is the Google Custom Search API daily limit?
How many results can the Custom Search JSON API return?
start plus num above 100 returns an error. On SpecStream, GET /v1/web-search returns up to 100 results in one search for $0.059.Is the Custom Search JSON API free?
What happens when I go over the quota?
429 with Retry-After that is not charged.Can I raise the Custom Search JSON API limit?
What does 10,000 searches a day cost on SpecStream?
429 is not charged.Sources
SpecStream wrote this page. Each figure about Google comes from Google's own pages, and each other figure from that company's own page.
- Google Custom Search JSON API overviewdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview, read Nov 9, 2026
- Google Custom Search JSON API reference, cse.listdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/reference/rest/v1/cse/list, read Nov 9, 2026
- Google Custom Search JSON API, using RESTdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/using_rest, read Nov 9, 2026
- Google Custom Search terms of servicedevelopers.google.com/custom-search/terms, read Nov 9, 2026
- Google Cloud: Agent Search pricingcloud.google.com/generative-ai-app-builder/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026
- Gemini API: Grounding with Google Searchai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-search, read Nov 9, 2026
- Brave Search APIbrave.com/search/api/, read Nov 9, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 10, 2026