Google Custom Search images (searchType=image)

The call, before and after

# Before
curl "https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=$GOOGLE_KEY&cx=$CX&searchType=image&q=red+running+shoes&num=10"

# After
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/customsearch/v1?key=$SPECSTREAM_KEY&cx=$CX&searchType=image&q=red+running+shoes&num=10"

The path, the parameters and the parser stay. The address changes, and the key. Your code reads items[].link for the image and items[].image.contextLink for the page it is on, as it did on Google.

The parameters the route reads

Read and used: q, searchType=image, num (1 to 10), start (from 1), and siteSearch, exactTerms, orTerms and hq, which are added to the query as search operators. fields cuts the reply to your selection, such as fields=items(link,image/contextLink), and a selection that does not parse gets 400.

cx is accepted and not used, so a call that sends it works unchanged. searchType takes one value, image: any other value gets 400 with the message "Invalid value '<value>'. Values must match: searchType=image."

Every field that comes back

The reply has kind customsearch#search, url.template, queries (request, and nextPage and previousPage when there is one), context, searchInformation with searchTime, formattedSearchTime, totalResults and formattedTotalResults, and items. items is left out of a reply with no result, as on Google.

Each image item has kind customsearch#result, title, htmlTitle, link (the image), displayLink (the site of the page it is on), snippet and htmlSnippet (the title), and image with contextLink. image.width, image.height, image.thumbnailLink, image.thumbnailWidth, image.thumbnailHeight, mime and fileFormat are there when the search engines give them, and a reply never makes one up.

Left out: image.byteSize, because no engine gives it. Image items carry no pagemap, cacheId or labels. One field is added: specstream, on the reply and on each item, with the call's price_usd and request_id. A parser that reads Google's fields never sees it.

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

An image search of up to 10 results is one search at $0.005, the same price as a web search, and a call that names no num gets 10 results. There is no plan to buy and no daily limit, where Google stops at 10,000 queries a day. A busy call answers 429 in Google's error form 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 answers searchType=image also answers Google's web call on the same path: the Custom Search migration guide covers it parameter by parameter. Web search scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks; the method is on the benchmarks page.

The same key reads pages with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Code written for Bing's image API moves the same way: see Bing Image Search API, and every image API SpecStream answers is on the image search API 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 with a serving config you set up. SpecStream searches images across the 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. It returns a grounded answer, not a list of images with their pages. SpecStream returns the image list your code reads, at $5 per 1,000.

Brave Search API

Brave sells complete search results, images included, at $5 per 1,000 requests with $5 in free credits every month, in Brave's own reply shape. SpecStream answers in Google's shape, so the items[].link loop you wrote stays, and the same key also answers Brave's image call if you need it.