Compared on Nov 12, 2026.

Linkup pricing in 2026

Q: How much is a Linkup deep search?

$0.05 with searchResults and $0.055 with sourcedAnswer or structured, which is $50 to $55 per 1,000. A deep call on SpecStream's Linkup address costs $0.005.

Q: Is there a cheaper Linkup compatible API?

Yes. SpecStream answers Linkup's /v1/search at https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 in Linkup's JSON for $0.001 a search of up to 10 results at flash, fast and standard, and $0.005 at deep or with sourcedAnswer.

$5 per 1,000 searches, and every rate.

Linkup bills each call from a prepaid balance: $0.005 a search at flash, fast or standard depth, $0.05 at deep, $0.001 to $0.011 a fetch and $0.25 to $2.50 a research call. A professional email gets $20 of credit.

SpecStream answers Linkup's own /v1/search call at https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 for $0.001 a search of up to 10 results, a fifth of Linkup's price. Change the base address and the key, and keep your code.

Get an API key

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

What each Linkup call costs, and the same call on SpecStream

	SpecStream	Linkup
Search at flash, fast or standard	$0.001 with `searchResults`, which is $1 per 1,000. $0.005 with `sourcedAnswer`	$0.005 with `searchResults`, and $0.006 with `sourcedAnswer` or `structured`
Search at deep	$0.005, with `searchResults` or `sourcedAnswer`	$0.05 with `searchResults`, and $0.055 with `sourcedAnswer` or `structured`
Reading a page	Extract API: $0.80 per 1,000 pages, up to 20 URLs a call, web pages, PDF, Word and Excel. A page that gives no text is not charged	Fetch: $0.001 a call in standard mode, $0.005 with `renderJs` or in pro mode, $0.01 with both. A `schema` adds $0.001
Research	Deep Search: every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with the most a run can cost quoted before it starts	Research: $0.25, $0.50, $1.50 or $2.50 a call for `reasoningDepth` S, M, L or XL
Free to start	$10 of credit once, no card, which covers 10,000 searches	$20 at sign up with a professional email address, topped back up to $20 each month on eligible accounts. The pricing page says 4,000 queries free
Large top-ups	A top-up of $1,000 or more adds 20% more credit, and credit you buy never expires	A top-up of $1,000 or more adds free credits to the account
Paying with no account	An agent can buy one request with no account, by card or in USDC	x402 in USDC on Base, at the same rates, with a minimum of $0.01 a request
Errors and an empty balance	Not charged. An empty balance answers `429` `INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS_CREDITS`, as Linkup does, and a busy call answers `429` with `Retry-After`	No credit is subtracted on an error or when nothing relevant is found. An empty balance answers `429`
Rate limit	No limit per key and no daily limit	10 queries per second per organization
Search accuracy	97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks. Scores and method on the benchmarks page	Its docs give Search a 94% F-score on Verified SimpleQA, ranked among web search APIs that answer in under a second

What 1,000 Linkup calls cost

The pricing page shows the low end of each range

linkup.so/pricing lists search at $0.005 to $0.006 and fetch at $0.001 to $0.006 a request. The docs add the rest: deep search at $0.05 and $0.055, and pro fetch with JavaScript rendering at $0.01, or $0.011 with a schema.

1,000 calls on each

1,000 standard searches cost $5 on Linkup and $1 on SpecStream. 1,000 deep searches cost $50 on Linkup and $5 on SpecStream. 1,000 sourced answers cost $6 on Linkup and $5 on SpecStream. 1,000 page reads cost $1 to $11 on Linkup Fetch and $0.80 on the SpecStream Extract API.

The call, before and after

# Before
curl -s https://api.linkup.so/v1/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINKUP_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q": "linkup api pricing", "depth": "standard", "outputType": "searchResults"}'

# After
curl -s https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q": "linkup api pricing", "depth": "standard", "outputType": "searchResults"}'

q, maxResults, depth, outputType, includeDomains, excludeDomains, fromDate and toDate keep their meaning, and the reply keeps results[] with type, name, url and content. Every parameter is on the Linkup compatible page.

Pages, search and rows on one key

The same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API, runs SpecStream's own Search API at $5 per 1,000 with the answer or $1 with speed=fast, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows.

What other search APIs for agents cost

Tavily

$0.008 a credit pay as you go, a basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search 2, with 1,000 free credits a month. SpecStream answers Tavily's call at https://api.specstream.ai/tavily for $1 per 1,000 searches.

Exa

/search at $7 per 1,000 requests with auto or fast, and $4 with lite or instant. SpecStream answers Exa's call at https://api.specstream.ai/exa for $1 per 1,000 searches.

Brave Search API

$5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 of free credits every month. SpecStream answers Brave's call at https://api.specstream.ai/res/v1/web/search for $1 per 1,000 searches.

Parallel

Search from $1 per 1,000 requests. SpecStream answers Parallel's call at https://api.specstream.ai/parallel at $1 per 1,000, and returns structured rows for a whole dataset through 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 pay $0.001 a search for the same Linkup call

1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 10,000 searches.

2. Set the base address to https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 where your code has https://api.linkup.so/v1, and send the SpecStream key as the Bearer token. With the linkup-sdk Python client, pass base_url="https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1". In Python with requests:

import requests

BASE = "https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1"  # was https://api.linkup.so/v1

reply = requests.post(
    f"{BASE}/search",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"},
    json={"q": "linkup api pricing", "depth": "standard", "outputType": "searchResults", "maxResults": 10},
    timeout=60,
)
reply.raise_for_status()
for result in reply.json()["results"]:
    print(result["name"], result["url"], result["content"][:200])

3. Linkup's MCP server takes the same address: set LINKUP_BASE_URL to https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 and put your SpecStream key in LINKUP_API_KEY. Or connect the SpecStream MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.

4. Read 429 with Retry-After as a call to send again. It is not charged. outputType structured gets 400 with the reason. For structured data, send the request in plain words to Deep Search.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

How much does Linkup cost?

Linkup charges $0.005 a search at flash, fast or standard depth with searchResults, $0.006 with an answer or structured output, and $0.05 to $0.055 at deep. Fetch costs $0.001 to $0.011 a call and Research $0.25 to $2.50 a call.

Does Linkup have a free plan?

Linkup credits $20 to a new account that signs up with a professional email address, and tops eligible accounts back up to $20 each month. A new SpecStream account gets $10 of credit once, no card, which covers 10,000 searches.

How much is a Linkup deep search?

$0.05 with searchResults and $0.055 with sourcedAnswer or structured, which is $50 to $55 per 1,000. A deep call on SpecStream's Linkup address costs $0.005.

Does Linkup charge for failed calls?

No. No credit is subtracted on an error or when nothing relevant is found, and an empty balance answers 429. SpecStream charges nothing for a busy call or an empty balance either.

Is there a cheaper Linkup compatible API?

Yes. SpecStream answers Linkup's /v1/search at https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 in Linkup's JSON for $0.001 a search of up to 10 results at flash, fast and standard, and $0.005 at deep or with sourcedAnswer.

What is Linkup's rate limit?

10 queries per second per organization. SpecStream sets no limit per key and no daily limit, and a busy call answers 429 with Retry-After.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each figure about Linkup and other providers comes from that company's own page, read on the date shown.

Linkup pricinglinkup.so/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
Linkup pricing docsdocs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
Linkup rate limitsdocs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/rate-limits.md, read Nov 12, 2026
Linkup introductiondocs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/get-started/introduction, read Nov 12, 2026
Tavily API creditsdocs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md, read Nov 12, 2026
Exa pricing docsexa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
Brave Search APIbrave.com/search/api/, read Nov 12, 2026
Parallel pricingparallel.ai/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
SpecStream Linkup pass tablespecstream.ai/specstream/dialects/linkup.md, read Nov 12, 2026
SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 12, 2026
SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 12, 2026