Compared on Nov 10, 2026.

Image search API

Q: Is there a Google image search API?

Google's was the Custom Search JSON API with searchType=image, which is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers that same call at https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1, in Google's JSON, at $5 per 1,000 searches.

$5 per 1,000 searches, seven APIs answered.

SpecStream's image search API costs $0.005 a call of up to 10 images, $5 per 1,000, with no plan and no daily limit. Each result carries the image, the page it is on, and its size and thumbnail when the search engines give them.

Add images=true to GET https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search. Code written for Google's searchType=image, Bing Image Search v7, SerpApi, SearchApi, Serper, Brave or SearXNG keeps its call and its parser: change the address and the key.

The same key runs web search scoring 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, and the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

Get an API key

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

Image search APIs side by side, from each company's own pages

	SpecStream	Google Custom Search, searchType=image	Bing Image Search API v7	SerpApi Google Images	Serper images	Brave image search
Open to a new developer today	Yes. $10 of credit on sign up, no card, which covers 2,000 searches	No. Closed to new customers, and discontinued on January 1, 2027	No. Retired on August 11, 2025, with existing instances decommissioned	Yes. The free plan has 250 searches a month	Yes. 2,500 free queries, no card	Yes. $5 in free credits every month
Price per 1,000 searches	$5. An image search of up to 10 results is one search at $0.005, the price of a web search	$5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free queries a day, for existing customers	No longer sold. Microsoft's named replacement, Grounding with Bing Search, costs $14 per 1,000 transactions	$25 a month for 1,000 searches on Starter, $75 a month for 5,000 on Developer	$50 for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000), down to $0.30 per 1,000 on 12.5 million credits	$5 per 1,000 requests for complete search results, images included
Volume limit	No daily limit. A busy call answers `429` with `Retry-After` and is not charged	10,000 queries a day	Grounding with Bing Search: 150 transactions a second, 1 million a day	200 searches an hour on Starter	50 queries per second on the $50 pack	50 queries per second
Images per call	10 when you name no count, up to 100. Each started block of 10 more adds $0.006	1 to 10, and never more than 100 for a query	35 by default, 150 at most	Pages by `ijn`, from 0 to 99	`num` and `page` on each request	Up to 200 images per request
What a result carries	`image_url` (the image), `url` (the page it is on), `title` and `site`, with `width`, `height`, `mime` and the thumbnail when the search engines give them	`link`, `image.contextLink` (the webpage hosting the image), sizes, `byteSize` and a thumbnail	`contentUrl` (the image on the source website), `hostPageUrl`, sizes, `contentSize` and a thumbnail	`images_results[]` with `original`, `original_width`, `original_height`, `link` and `thumbnail`	`images[]` with `imageUrl`, the direct URL to the full size image, its sizes, the thumbnail and `link`	`results[]` with the image in `properties.url` and the page in `url`
The same call on SpecStream	`GET` or `POST /v1/web-search` with `images=true`, and the six forms in this row on one key	`/customsearch/v1?searchType=image`, in Google's JSON	`/v7.0/images/search`, with the key in `Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key`	`/serpapi/search.json` with `engine=google_images` or `tbm=isch`	`/serper/images`, with the key in `X-API-KEY`	`/res/v1/images/search`, with the key in `X-Subscription-Token`

What the SpecStream image search API returns

The call

curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=red running shoes" -d images=true -d num=10

Each of sources is one image: image_url is the image, url the page it is on, with its title and site. width, height, mime, thumbnail_url, thumbnail_width and thumbnail_height are there when the search engines give them, and a reply never makes one up. The results come from the image search of several engines at once, one result for each image address. The reply carries price_usd and request_id.

num (1 to 100) and page page the results. POST /v1/web-search takes the same parameters in a JSON body and keeps the query out of every URL log. passages and news do not go with images: a call that sends both gets 422.

Seven image APIs, answered in their own JSON

Code written for another image API keeps its call and its parser. Change the address to https://api.specstream.ai and put a SpecStream key where the old key went; each route answers in that API's own shape and its own error form.

Google Custom Search searchType=image at /customsearch/v1: Google image search migration. Bing Image Search v7 at /v7.0/images/search and /bing/v7.0/images/search: Bing image search migration. SerpApi engine=google_images and tbm=isch at /serpapi/search.json: SerpApi Google Images migration. SearchApi engine=google_images at /searchapi/api/v1/search: SearchApi Google Images migration. Serper at /serper/images: Serper images migration. Brave at /res/v1/images/search: Brave image search migration. SearXNG with categories=images at /searxng/<key>/search, with img_src and thumbnail_src.

$5 per 1,000 image searches, with no plan

An image search of up to 10 results is one search at $0.005, the same price as a web search, on every one of the seven forms and on images=true. A call that names no count gets 10 results, and each started block of 10 more adds $0.006, so 100 images in one call cost $0.059. There is no monthly plan, no credit pack that runs out after six months and no daily limit. A busy call answers 429 with Retry-After and is not charged. Credit you buy never expires.

You decide what is kept, on each key

Create the key with zero_retention and a search made with it keeps no request text and no answer after the reply. spend_cap_cents is the most the key can spend.

curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'

Images, web, news and pages on one key

SpecStream is the live web data engine. The key that searches images also answers web and news search on the same address: code written for Google's web call moves with the Custom Search migration guide. Web search scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks, on the benchmarks page.

The same balance pays for the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and for Deep Search, which returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

Other image search APIs, and what each costs

Google Custom Search JSON API

Its searchType=image call costs existing customers $5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day, up to 10,000 a day. It is closed to new customers and Google discontinues it on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers that same call at the same price, with no daily limit.

Bing Image Search API

Retired on August 11, 2025. Microsoft's named replacement, Grounding with Bing Search, costs $14 per 1,000 transactions and returns a model's answer, not a list of images. SpecStream answers the v7 image call in Bing's JSON at $5 per 1,000.

SerpApi Google Images

Sold on monthly plans: $25 a month for 1,000 searches on Starter and $75 for 5,000 on Developer, with 250 free searches a month. SpecStream answers engine=google_images in SerpApi's JSON at $5 per 1,000 with no plan.

Serper images

Credit packs from $50 for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000), valid for 6 months, with 2,500 free queries. SpecStream answers /serper/images in Serper's JSON, and credit you buy never expires.

Brave image search

$5 per 1,000 requests for complete search results, images included, with $5 in free credits every month and 50 queries per second. SpecStream answers Brave's /res/v1/images/search call at the same price per call.

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

Search images with SpecStream, step by step

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 /v1/web-search with images=true. In Python:

import requests

reply = requests.get(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
    params={"q": "red running shoes", "images": "true", "num": 10},
    timeout=30,
)
reply.raise_for_status()
for image in reply.json()["data"]["sources"]:
    print(image["image_url"], image["url"], image.get("width"), image.get("height"))

3. In JavaScript:

const params = new URLSearchParams({ q: "red running shoes", images: "true", num: "10" });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search?${params}`, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SPECSTREAM_KEY}` },
});
const { data } = await res.json();
for (const image of data.sources) console.log(image.image_url, image.url);

4. If your code already calls Google, Bing, SerpApi, SearchApi, Serper, Brave or SearXNG for images, keep it: set the address to https://api.specstream.ai and the key where the old one went. Google's Python client, SerpApi's two Python clients and Microsoft's image search SDK each ran an image search this way on November 10, 2026. To page, send page on /v1/web-search, or each API's own paging parameter on its route. On a 429, wait the seconds in Retry-After and send the call again; nothing was charged.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

What is the best image search API?

SpecStream, at $5 per 1,000 searches with no plan and no daily limit. It returns the image, the page it is on, and its size and thumbnail when the search engines give them, and it answers seven other image APIs' calls in their own JSON.

Is there a Google image search API?

Google's was the Custom Search JSON API with searchType=image, which is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers that same call at https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1, in Google's JSON, at $5 per 1,000 searches.

Is the Bing Image Search API still available?

No. Microsoft retired the Bing Search APIs on August 11, 2025. SpecStream answers the v7 image call at https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/images/search in Bing's JSON.

How much does an image search API cost?

On SpecStream $0.005 a call of up to 10 images, $5 per 1,000. SerpApi's Starter plan is $25 a month for 1,000 searches, Brave lists $5 per 1,000 requests, and Microsoft's Grounding with Bing Search costs $14 per 1,000 transactions.

Which image search API works for AI agents?

SpecStream: one key gives an agent image search, web search and page reads, at $5 per 1,000 searches with no daily limit. MCP clients connect at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.

Does SpecStream have a reverse image search API?

No. SpecStream searches images by words: you send a query in q and get images back. It does not search by an image.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each figure for another API comes from that company's own pages. SpecStream's routes are described from their code.

Google Custom Search JSON API overviewdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview, read Nov 10, 2026
Google Custom Search JSON API reference, cse.listdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/reference/rest/v1/cse/list, read Nov 10, 2026
Google Custom Search JSON API reference, Searchdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/reference/rest/v1/Search, read Nov 10, 2026
Microsoft, Bing Search APIs retiring on August 11, 2025learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement, read Nov 10, 2026
Bing Image Search API v7, query parameterslearn.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/bing-image-search/reference/query-parameters, read Nov 10, 2026
Bing Image Search API v7, response objectslearn.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/bing-image-search/reference/response-objects, read Nov 10, 2026
Microsoft, Bing APIs and Grounding with Bing pricingmicrosoft.com/en-us/bing/apis, read Nov 10, 2026
SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
SerpApi Google Images APIserpapi.com/google-images-api, read Nov 10, 2026
Serperserper.dev/, read Nov 10, 2026
Serper images API descriptionartifacts.apis.io/serper/openapi/serper-images-api-openapi.yml, read Nov 10, 2026
Brave Search APIbrave.com/search/api/, read Nov 10, 2026
Brave Image Search API, get startedapi-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/documentation/image-search/get-started, read Nov 10, 2026
SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 10, 2026
SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 10, 2026