Skip to the page
Get started free

Linkup Research alternative in 2026

A cited report from $0.10.

Linkup Research costs $0.25, $0.50, $1.50 or $2.50 a request by reasoning depth, and the default depth is L at $1.50. Linkup's docs give a couple of minutes to twenty minutes a request.

SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. POST /v1/research returns a written report with the page, the read time and the passage behind each cited sentence, at $0.10, $0.30 or $1.00 a report, in about one to five minutes.

Get an API key

New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 100 quick reports, 33 standard reports or 10 deep reports.

SpecStream research reports and Linkup Research side by side

SpecStreamLinkup
Price of one report$0.10 quick, $0.30 standard, $1.00 deep. One flat price per depth$0.25 at depth S, $0.50 at M, $1.50 at L, $2.50 at XL
Price of the default$0.30. standard is the default depth$1.50. Omitting reasoningDepth defaults to L
1,000 reports$100 quick, $300 standard, $1,000 deep$250 at S, $500 at M, $1,500 at L, $2,500 at XL
How long a report takesAbout one minute quick, about four minutes standard, about five minutes deepA couple of minutes for shallow configurations to twenty minutes for exhaustive ones. The pricing page says 1 to 10 minutes
What comes backreport.content with [1] markers, report.citations with the page, the read time and the passage of each cited sentence, and report.sources with every page readsourcedAnswer: a natural-language answer with inline citations, with a sources list
JSON in place of text"output": {"type": "json", "schema": {...}} with your JSON SchemaoutputType structured with structuredOutputSchema
How you get the resultPoll GET /v1/research/{id}, follow GET /v1/research/{id}/events as server-sent events, or name a webhook that is called when the report endsPoll GET /v1/research/:id until status is completed or failed
When you payOnce, when the report is delivered. The reply to the POST shows price_usd, and a cancelled report is not chargedEach successful request subtracts its amount from a prepaid balance
Search and pages on the same keySearch API at $5 per 1,000 searches and $1 on the fast tier, Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, Deep Search rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 eachSearch from $0.005 a request and fetch from $0.001 a request
Starting credit$10 of credit on a new account, no card: 100 quick reports$20 of credit when you sign up with a professional email address

Why Linkup Research users move to SpecStream

The same budget buys more reports

Linkup prices Research at $0.25 to $2.50 a request, and a call with no reasoningDepth runs at L for $1.50. A SpecStream report costs $0.10, $0.30 or $1.00, and the default is standard at $0.30. $100 pays for 1,000 quick reports on SpecStream and 400 requests at Linkup's S depth.

A report in one to five minutes

A quick report takes about a minute, a standard report about four and a deep report about five. Linkup's docs give a couple of minutes for shallow configurations and twenty minutes for exhaustive ones. GET /v1/research/{id}/events shows the progress while your agent waits.

Each cited sentence shows its page and when it was read

report.content holds the text with [1] markers. report.citations gives each cited sentence the URL of its page, the time SpecStream read it and the passage that supports it. report.sources lists every page read in the run. Your reviewer opens the page and finds the passage in seconds.

Search, pages, rows and reports on one key

A report is one of the calls the key runs. The same key runs the Search API, which scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions, and the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. The benchmarks page shows each run. When the answer is a table, Deep Search returns every match as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1. See research reports and pricing.

Other Linkup Research alternatives

Parallel Task API

SpecStream writes a cited report for $0.10 to $1.00 in about one to five minutes. Parallel prices Task runs per 1,000 by processor, from $5 to $2,400. Its deep research runs on pro at $100 per 1,000 runs, in 2 to 10 minutes, and on ultra at $300, in 5 to 25 minutes. A SpecStream quick report costs the same $0.10 as a pro run and takes about a minute.

Exa Deep search and Exa Agent

Exa's deep search type costs $12 per 1,000 requests and returns in 4 to 15 seconds. For long-running research Exa points to Exa Agent, at $0.012 to $1.00 a request at a fixed effort. SpecStream sets three report prices, $0.10, $0.30 and $1.00, and shows the price in the reply before any charge.

Tavily Research

Tavily Research bills 4 to 110 credits a request on mini and 15 to 250 on pro, at $0.008 a credit pay as you go. That is $0.032 to $0.88 on mini and $0.12 to $2.00 on pro, known after the run. A SpecStream report has one price per depth, shown as price_usd when the report starts.

How SpecStream scores

The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.

SpecStreamParallelExaTavilyPerplexity
Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna60.945.553.047.947.0
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna9694919494
Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol9997919295

How to move a Linkup Research call

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

2. Send the question as input where Linkup takes q, and choose depth: quick, standard or deep. The call answers 202 at once with the report's id.

curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/research \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"input": "Compare the 2024 cloud revenue growth of Microsoft, Amazon and Google.", "depth": "standard"}'

# 202 at once, with the report's id and price_usd. Then read it:
curl https://api.specstream.ai/v1/research/<id> \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"

3. Read status until it is completed, as your Linkup loop does today. The text is in report.content and the cited sentences are in report.citations.

4. For outputType structured, send your schema as "output": {"type": "json", "schema": {...}}. includeDomains and excludeDomains become include_domains and exclude_domains. Add an Idempotency-Key header to retry safely: the same key and body return the same report.

From an agent, connect the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp: research_price shows the price of each depth, start_research starts the report, and get_research reads it. The research reports guide has every field. For plain search calls, the Linkup migration guide keeps your /v1/search code at $0.001 a search.

Get an API key

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

How much does Linkup Research cost?
$0.25 to $2.50 a request: $0.25 at depth S, $0.50 at M, $1.50 at L and $2.50 at XL. A request with no reasoningDepth runs at L, so it costs $1.50.
What is the best Linkup Research alternative?
SpecStream, at $0.10, $0.30 or $1.00 a report. Each report comes back in about one to five minutes, and each cited sentence carries the URL of its page, the time it was read and the passage.
How long does a research report take?
About one minute for a quick report, four minutes for a standard report and five minutes for a deep report on SpecStream. Linkup's docs give a couple of minutes to twenty minutes for a Research request.
What does a failed or cancelled report cost on SpecStream?
$0. The price is taken once, when the report is delivered, and a cancelled report is not charged.
Can a SpecStream report return JSON?
Yes, with one field: send "output": {"type": "json", "schema": {...}} with your JSON Schema. length sets the size of a text report to short, standard or long.
Does SpecStream have an MCP server for research?
Yes, at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, with 3 tools for reports: research_price, start_research and get_research. start_research runs only after your person approves the price as confirm_max_cents.
Does SpecStream answer Linkup's search call?
Yes, for $0.001 a search of up to 10 results. Set the base address to https://api.specstream.ai/linkup/v1 and keep your code.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each figure about another provider comes from that company's own page, read on the date shown.

  1. Linkup pricinglinkup.so/pricing, read Nov 13, 2026
  2. Linkup pricing docsdocs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/development/pricing.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  3. Linkup Research overviewdocs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/endpoints/research/overview.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  4. Parallel pricingdocs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  5. Parallel Deep Researchdocs.parallel.ai/task-api/task-deep-research.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  6. Exa pricingexa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  7. Exa changelogexa.ai/docs/changelog/pricing-update.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  8. Tavily API creditsdocs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md, read Nov 13, 2026
  9. SpecStream research reportsspecstream.ai/docs/research, read Nov 13, 2026
  10. SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 13, 2026
  11. SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 13, 2026
  12. SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 13, 2026