Google official search API in 2026

The official call, at a new address

# Before: Google, closed to new customers, ends January 1, 2027
curl "https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=$GOOGLE_KEY&cx=$CX&q=who+founded+anthropic"

# After: SpecStream, the whole live web
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1?key=$SPECSTREAM_KEY&cx=$CX&q=who+founded+anthropic"

The reply has Google's shape, field for field: kind, queries with request and nextPage, searchInformation and items. q, num and start work as on Google, and exactTerms, orTerms, siteSearch and hq shape the search as they do there. cx is accepted and not used. The key goes in key=, in the X-Goog-Api-Key header or as a Bearer token.

The whole web, which Google's successors leave out

Google names Vertex AI Search as the alternative for up to 50 domains, and for full web search its page asks you to contact Google. Grounding with Google Search searches the whole web but hands back a Gemini answer, billed for each query the model runs. SpecStream gives your code the results themselves, from the whole live web, on the call it already sends.

$1 per 1,000, with no cap of 10,000 a day

Google charges existing customers $5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day and stops at 10,000 a day. On SpecStream a search of up to 10 results costs $0.001: 10,000 searches cost $10, and search 10,001 is answered like the first. Each started block of 10 more results adds $0.0012. A call stopped by a 429 costs nothing, and credit you buy never expires.

The most accurate web search API in the world

On SimpleQA Verified the SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official questions, 978 of them 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. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

About one second a search, measured under load

Google's route runs on the fast search. On November 9, 2026 production took 1, 5, 10 and 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.

Pages and full datasets on the same key

The same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged. Deep Search returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with the most a run can cost approved before it starts. Agents connect to https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, as the MCP docs show.

Custom Search JSON API

Google's one API for web results, from a Programmable Search Engine you configure, at $5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day and up to 10,000 a day. It is closed to new customers, and Google's blog post of January 20, 2026 says existing customers must move by January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers the same call at its own address, on the whole live web, at $1 per 1,000.

Vertex AI Search (Agent Search)

Google's named successor for searching up to 50 domains, at $1.50 per 1,000 queries on Standard and $4.00 on Enterprise, with a free trial of 10,000 queries a month. Its pricing page counts any API call to Enterprise Search as a query, console use included. SpecStream searches the whole live web from the first call at $1 per 1,000.

Grounding with Google Search

A tool of the Gemini API: the model runs Google searches and returns a grounded answer with search suggestions as HTML. Gemini 3 and newer bill each query the model runs, at $14 per 1,000 after 5,000 free a month. SpecStream works with any model, through the API or the search_web tool on its MCP server, at $1 per 1,000 on Google's route.

Search Console API

An official API that reports how often your own property appears in Google results, with the queries and devices behind it. It needs owner, full or read access to the Search Console account, so it does not search the web. To search the web on Google's call, SpecStream answers GET /customsearch/v1.

Programmable Search Element

The search box Google keeps for your own website: a free feature for site search over at most 50 domains. It is a widget for your pages, with no JSON for your server. SpecStream returns JSON to your server from the whole web.

SerpApi and Serper, which are not Google's

Separate companies sell Google results through their own APIs, keys and JSON. SerpApi costs $25 a month for 1,000 searches on Starter, and Serper sells a 50k pack at $1.00 per 1,000, with credits valid for 6 months. SpecStream answers both calls too, at https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi and https://api.specstream.ai/serper, at $1 per 1,000 (SerpApi move, Serper move).