Serper news compatible

The call, before and after

# Before
curl https://google.serper.dev/news \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SERPER_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q": "Nvidia earnings", "num": 10}'

# After
curl https://api.specstream.ai/serper/news \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q": "Nvidia earnings", "num": 10}'

In Serper's own Python call the change is the address and the key: requests.post("https://api.specstream.ai/serper/news", headers={"X-API-KEY": SPECSTREAM_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json"}, data=payload).

What the route reads, and what it refuses

Read and applied: q, num (up to 100), page, and tbs with a qdr window such as qdr:w, or sbd:1 for the newest first. A GET with apiKey in the address is answered as the POST is.

Refused: a call with no X-API-KEY gets 401 in Serper's error form. Every parameter was measured on production on Nov 10, 2026, and the full pass table lists each one and its result.

Every field that comes back

The reply has searchParameters with q, type (news), num, page and engine, then news[] with title, link, snippet, date in Google's words ("3 hours ago"), source, the publisher, and position, then credits.

imageUrl is not returned. One field is added, specstream, with the call's price_usd.

Credit that never expires

Serper's credits are valid for 6 months. On SpecStream every call of up to 10 results costs $0.005, each started block of 10 more adds $0.006, and the credit you top up never expires. A busy call gets 429 with Retry-After and charges nothing.

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.

Every drop-in route 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. One account can send up to 26,666 searches a minute.

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}'

Search, pages and rows on one key

The same key answers Serper's web search at https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search, and reads the full article behind each link with the Extract API, up to 20 pages a call at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. 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 full comparison is on the Serper alternative page.

SerpApi

Google News and Google results on monthly plans: Starter is $25 for 1,000 searches with 200 an hour, Developer $75 for 5,000. SpecStream charges $0.005 a news search with no plan, and answers SerpApi's Google News call at /serpapi-news.

GNews

A news API sold as a daily cap: Essential is €49.99 a month for 1,000 requests per day and up to 25 articles a request. SpecStream answers GNews's own /api/v4/search call at $0.005, with no daily cap to reset.