# News search API for AI agents in 2026: $1 per 1,000 searches Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/news-search-api-for-ai-agents NewsAPI's Business plan costs $449 a month for 250,000 requests and returns no article text. Firecrawl charges 2 credits per 10 news results plus 1 per page scraped. Webz.io charges $0.001 a call plus $0.0005 a result. Brave charges $5 per 1,000. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. A news search of up to 10 stories costs $0.001, in the request your agent already sends, and each article's text costs $0.0008 a page. [Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-news-search-api-for-ai-agents&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 news searches. ## News search APIs for agents side by side | | SpecStream | Firecrawl | NewsAPI | Webz.io | Brave | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | The call | The news call your code already makes, on `https://api.specstream.ai`: NewsAPI's `/v2/everything`, Firecrawl `sources` `news`, Tavily `topic` `news`, Bing News, GNews, Serper, SerpApi Google News and more | `/search` with `sources: ["news"]` | `/v2/everything` to search articles and `/v2/top-headlines` for live headlines | The News Search API, also through its MCP server | `GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/news/search` | | Price | $1 per 1,000 news searches of up to 10 stories. Each started block of 10 more adds $0.0012. No plan | 2 credits per 10 results. Hobby is $19 a month for 5,000 credits | Business $449 a month for 250,000 requests, then $0.0018 a request. Advanced $1749 a month | $0.001 per call plus $0.0005 per returned result | $5 per 1,000 requests | | The article text | Extract API: the main text of up to 20 articles a call, read live, with the `published` date, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. A page with no text is not charged | Full markdown of each result with `scrapeOptions`, 1 credit per page scraped | Not on any plan: its pricing page says it cannot provide the full content | Matching article excerpts | Search results with text and LLM context | | Dates and filters | `from` and `to` on the NewsAPI call, `after:` and `before:` in any query, and `published` on each source when the page states it | `tbs` values such as `qdr:d` for the past 24 hours, and `sbd:1` for newest first | Developer: articles have a 24 hour delay and go back a month. Business: real time, 5 years back | News from the previous 30 days | `country` and `search_lang` on each call | | Free to start | $10 of credit, no card, usable in production | 1,000 credits every month, no card | 100 requests a day on Developer, for development and testing only | $5 of free API credit every month, no card | $5 in free credits every month | | Beyond a list of stories | Deep Search: describe the stories and the facts to bring back, and every match returns as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, with a source URL on every value | JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits per page | Enterprise adds 20 data points per article, by quote | Sentiment, category, country, language and domain controls through MCP | Answers at $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million tokens | ## Why agent builders choose SpecStream for news ### Keep the news call your agent makes SpecStream answers the news calls of NewsAPI, Firecrawl, Tavily, Bing News v7, GNews, Serper, SerpApi Google News, SearchApi, Kagi, Jina and Zenserp on `https://api.specstream.ai`, each in that API's own shape, with the key where that API takes it. Moving one is a change of base address and key: see the [NewsAPI](https://specstream.ai/migrate/newsapi?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents), [GNews](https://specstream.ai/migrate/gnews?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents), [Bing News](https://specstream.ai/migrate/bing-news?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents) and [Firecrawl](https://specstream.ai/migrate/firecrawl?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents) guides. ``` curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/v2/everything \ -H "X-Api-Key: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \ -d q=layoffs -d from=2026-11-05 -d language=en \ -d sortBy=publishedAt -d pageSize=10 ``` ### The article text at $0.80 per 1,000 pages An agent needs the article text to reason over. Send the `url` of each story to the [Extract API](https://specstream.ai/extract-api?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents): up to 20 pages a call, read live, as Markdown or plain text, with the date each page says it was published. A page that refuses a plain read is tried as a browser would ask for it, then in a real browser, then from the site's own feed, then from its newest public archive capture. ``` curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"urls": [""], "format": "markdown"}' ``` Ten stories and their ten articles cost $0.009 in all. ### The facts in the news, as rows When the agent needs the facts in the stories, [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents) takes the request in plain words, such as "News this week about companies cutting jobs, with the company, the number of jobs, the date and the article that reported it", and returns every match as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1. A saved request reruns hourly to yearly, and new matches arrive in Slack, email, a sheet, a CRM or a signed webhook. ### One MCP server for news, pages and rows Agents connect to `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` with OAuth or an API key: `search_web` for one fact, `read_pages` for the text of known pages, and Deep Search for rows, all from one balance. Every charged call is kept in the account history, and `price_usd` on each reply says what it cost. ### The most accurate web search API The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Scores and method are on [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents). ## Other news APIs agents use ### SpecStream The live web data engine for teams and agents. News searches at $1 per 1,000 in the shape of the API your code calls, article text at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and the facts in the news as rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ### Tavily Its search takes `topic` `news` for real time updates, on credits at $0.008 each on pay as you go. SpecStream answers Tavily's own news call at `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily` for $1 per 1,000 searches. ### Firecrawl Alexandria Licensed Benzinga newswire stories on a Firecrawl key, at 30 Firecrawl credits a news search call and 15 for press releases. SpecStream searches news across the live web at $0.001 a call. ### NewsAPI.ai A news index of 150,000+ publishers with an archive back to 2014, whose pricing Firecrawl's review calls opaque on the public site. SpecStream publishes every price on its pricing page: $1 per 1,000 news searches. ## How to start 1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 10,000 news searches. 2. Point the news client your agent uses at `https://api.specstream.ai` with the SpecStream key, or call NewsAPI's shape directly. In Python: ``` import requests news = requests.get( "https://api.specstream.ai/v2/everything", headers={"X-Api-Key": SPECSTREAM_KEY}, params={"q": "layoffs", "from": "2026-11-05", "language": "en", "sortBy": "publishedAt", "pageSize": 10}, timeout=30, ).json() urls = [a["url"] for a in news["articles"]] pages = requests.post( "https://api.specstream.ai/v1/extract", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SPECSTREAM_KEY}"}, json={"urls": urls, "format": "markdown"}, timeout=60, ).json() for page in pages["data"]["results"]: print(page["url"], page.get("published"), page.get("text", "")[:200]) ``` 3. From an agent, connect the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. Choosing a search API for the rest of the agent? See [the best search API for AI agents](https://specstream.ai/best-search-api-for-ai-agents?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=news-search-api-for-ai-agents). ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the best news search API for AI agents? SpecStream, at $1 per 1,000 news searches of up to 10 stories. It answers the news call your agent already makes, reads each article's text at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and returns the facts in the news as rows through the API and MCP. ### How much does a news API cost? SpecStream costs $1 per 1,000 news searches. NewsAPI's Business plan is $449 a month for 250,000 requests, Webz.io charges $0.001 a call plus $0.0005 a result, Brave $5 per 1,000 requests, and Firecrawl 2 credits per 10 results. ### Which news APIs return the full article text? NewsAPI returns none on any plan, Firecrawl adds markdown at 1 credit per page, and Webz.io returns matching excerpts. SpecStream returns the main text of up to 20 articles a call through the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. ### Is there a free news API for agents? SpecStream gives $10 of credit with no card, which covers 10,000 news searches and can run in production. NewsAPI's free Developer plan has 100 requests a day and cannot be used in staging or production. ### Can I keep my NewsAPI or Firecrawl code? Yes: 1 base address and 1 key change. SpecStream answers NewsAPI's `/v2/everything` and `/v2/top-headlines`, Firecrawl search with `sources` `news`, Tavily with `topic` `news`, Bing News v7, GNews and more, each in that API's own shape. ### Does SpecStream have an MCP server? Yes, at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`, with OAuth or an API key. The Search API costs $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results and $1 per 1,000 on the fast tier, and the Extract API costs $0.80 per 1,000 pages, all from one balance. ## Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page, read on the day shown. - [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Firecrawl: best news API for apps and agents](https://www.firecrawl.dev/blog/best-news-api), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [NewsAPI pricing](https://newsapi.org/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Webz.io: contextual news search APIs for AI](https://webz.io/blog/news-api/best-contextual-news-search-apis-for-ai-in-2026/), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Tavily pricing](https://www.tavily.com/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Tavily search reference](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search.md), read Nov 12, 2026