Microsoft Web IQ alternative in 2026

The call, before and after

A Web IQ web search is POST https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/search/web with the key in x-apikey. The same search on SpecStream is one GET or POST to /v1/web-search with the key as a Bearer token. passages=true asks for page text as contentFormat passage does.

# Before: Microsoft Web IQ, $7 per 1,000 calls
curl -X POST https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/search/web \
  -H "x-apikey: $WEBIQ_API_KEY" -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "latest developments in retrieval augmented generation", "maxResults": 10, "contentFormat": "passage", "maxLength": 3000}'

# After: SpecStream, $1 per 1,000 searches with speed=fast
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q": "latest developments in retrieval augmented generation", "num": 10, "passages": true, "speed": "fast"}'

Your code reads data.sources[] in place of webResults[]: title and url keep their names, and the page text is in excerpt where Web IQ puts it in content. Each source also has site and snippet, and published when the page states its date.

From $1 per 1,000, a seventh of Web IQ's $7

100,000 web searches cost $700 on Web IQ. On SpecStream they cost $100 with speed=fast, page text included, or $500 on the default search, which adds the answer and its page. 100,000 page reads cost $100 on Web IQ Browse and $80 on the Extract API, where a page that gives no text is not charged.

Start today, without an Azure subscription

Web IQ is billed through a Web IQ resource in a paid Azure subscription, and Azure credits do not pay for it. A SpecStream account starts with $10 of credit and no card, enough for 10,000 fast searches. Keys carry their own spending limit, and X-End-User-Id with X-End-User-Cap-Cents caps what each of your own users spends in a month.

Results your product can show and keep

Web IQ's terms limit what reaches your users to 200 characters from any single source and prohibit storing or caching the Content. A SpecStream search returns answer with the page it was read on and its read time in seen_at, rows with the facts the request asks for, and sources in rank order. Every charged search stays in the account's history, at no cost to read.

Set zero_retention on a key when your users' searches must leave no trace: no request text and no answer is kept after the reply. Set eu_egress_only and every search leaves from our server in Madrid, in the EU.

The most accurate web search API in the world

The SpecStream Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 978 correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Scores and method are at specstream.ai/benchmarks. Web IQ's published figure is grounding satisfaction on Microsoft's own production sample.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents, and the best alternative to Microsoft Web IQ. The Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches, or $1 with speed=fast, and scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions. The Extract API costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages. Deep Search returns every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

Grounding with Bing Search

Microsoft's earlier grounding tool in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service, at $14 per 1,000 transactions, and its output does not reach developers or end users. SpecStream returns the results to your code from $1 per 1,000 searches. Grounding with Bing Search alternative.

Brave Search API

A search API on Brave's own index at $5 per 1,000 requests. SpecStream answers Brave's own call for $1 per 1,000 when you change the base address. SpecStream vs Brave.

Exa

A search API on Exa's own index at $7 per 1,000 requests on auto for up to 10 results. SpecStream answers Exa's call too, at $1 per 1,000. SpecStream vs Exa.

Tavily

A search API sold in credits at $0.008 each pay as you go, with a basic search at 1 credit. SpecStream answers Tavily's POST /search for $0.001 a basic search. SpecStream vs Tavily.