Migrate from Google Custom Search

The call, before and after

# Before
curl "https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=$GOOGLE_KEY&cx=$CX&q=open+source+vector+databases&num=10"

# After
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1?key=$SPECSTREAM_KEY&cx=$CX&q=open+source+vector+databases&num=10"

The path, the parameters and the parser stay. The address changes, and the key. Your code reads items[].title, link and snippet exactly as it did.

Every parameter, and what the route does with it

Read and used: q, num (1 to 10), start (from 1), and the parameters a search query can carry: exactTerms, orTerms, siteSearch and hq.

Read to shape the reply: fields. The reply is cut to your selection, such as fields=items(title,link), and a selection that does not parse gets 400.

Accepted, repeated in queries.request and not used in the search: cx, safe, gl, hl, lr, cr, sort, filter, googlehost, c2coff, rights and linkSite. A client that sends them is never refused.

Refused: searchType, with 400 and the message "This route returns web results. Send the request without searchType."

Every field that comes back

The reply has kind, url.template, queries (request, and nextPage and previousPage when there is one), context, searchInformation and items. Each query object carries title, totalResults, searchTerms, count, startIndex, inputEncoding, outputEncoding, safe and cx. items is left out of a reply with no result, as on Google.

Each item has kind customsearch#result, title, htmlTitle, link, displayLink, snippet, htmlSnippet, formattedUrl and htmlFormattedUrl, with the query's words in <b> in the html fields. The route does not return pagemap, cacheId, mime, fileFormat, labels, image, spelling or promotions. context.title is "SpecStream", and cx in queries is empty unless the call sends one.

One field is added: specstream, on the reply and on each item, with what the Search API returns beyond Google's fields, including the call's price_usd and request_id. A parser that reads Google's fields never sees it.

$5 per 1,000 searches, with no daily limit

Google's paid rate is $5 per 1,000 queries and it stops at 10,000 queries a day. SpecStream charges $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results and has no daily limit: 10,000 searches a day cost $50, and search 10,001 is answered like the first. A call stopped by a 429 charges nothing, and an Idempotency-Key makes a retried call charge once. Credit you buy never expires.

The most accurate web search API, in about one second

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.

A Custom Search call runs the fast search. Measured on production on November 9, 2026, its median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s, and it answered 718 of 720. It takes up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account. A call for results past the first ten runs the default search, at the same price.

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: it is not in the history and its log lines carry neither. 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}'

Search, pages and rows on one 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 for a request in plain words as structured rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is approved before it starts. The reasons to move, without the reference, are on the Custom Search alternative page.

Vertex AI Search (Agent Search)

Google's named alternative, for searching up to 50 domains. Search Standard Edition costs $1.50 per 1,000 queries and Enterprise Edition $4.00 per 1,000, on a different API: POST to discoveryengine.googleapis.com with a serving config. SpecStream searches the whole live web on the path your code already calls, in the JSON it already reads.

Grounding with Google Search in the Gemini API

Gemini 3 and newer models bill each search query the model runs, at $14 per 1,000 search requests after 5,000 free a month. The API returns a grounded answer and search suggestions, not your list of results. SpecStream returns the results your code reads, at $5 per 1,000.

Brave Search API

A search API on Brave's own index at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 in free credits every month and 50 queries per second. Its guide says moving from Google means swapping the endpoint and updating how you read the response. On SpecStream the reply is Google's JSON, so there is nothing to update.

Parallel

A Search API that starts at $1 per 1,000 requests, with 600 Search calls a minute on the Developer plan, in Parallel's own request and reply shape. SpecStream answers Google's call as it is, and takes up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account.