Programmable Search Engine API alternative

Your engine call, answered at a new address

Keep the path, the parameters and the parser. Change the host and the key.

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

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

The reply carries kind customsearch#search, queries with request and nextPage, searchInformation and items, so the code that reads it does not change.

No engine to configure

A Programmable Search Engine answers from the sites you set up under cx. SpecStream searches the whole live web and reads it at the moment of the call. cx is accepted and not used, so your request still works. Send siteSearch to keep a search to one site.

What stays the same

q, num (1 to 10) and start work as before. exactTerms, orTerms, siteSearch and hq shape the search as they do on Google. The key goes in key=, in the X-Goog-Api-Key header or as a Bearer token.

$5 per 1,000, with no cap of 10,000 a day

Google charges $5 per 1,000 queries and stops at 10,000 a day. SpecStream charges $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, up to 8,800 searches a minute on one account. A call stopped by a 429 charges nothing, and credit you buy never expires.

The most accurate web search API in the world

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.

About one second a search, measured under load

The Custom Search route runs on the fast search. On November 9, 2026 production took 1, 5, 10 and 20 fast searches a second and answered 718 of 720. The median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, and the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s. One account can send up to 8,800 searches a minute; a call over that gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged.

You decide what is kept, on each key

Create a 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. The charge keeps the account, the key, the request ID, the price and the time. 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 takes a request in plain words and returns every match on the live web as structured rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts, and a saved request reruns hourly to yearly.

Vertex AI Search (Agent Search)

Google's named alternative for up to 50 domains, at $1.50 per 1,000 queries on Standard and $4.00 on Enterprise, plus data storage, on a different endpoint. SpecStream answers your current call across the whole live web, at $5 per 1,000.

Programmable Search Element

The search box Google keeps for your own websites, free for up to 50 domains. Google's blog says it is being simplified for focused search on your own websites. SpecStream returns Google's JSON from the whole live web to the code that calls it.

Brave Search API

$5 per 1,000 requests, up to 50 queries a second, with $5 in free credits every month. Brave's own guide says moving to it means updating how you read the response. On SpecStream your parser stays.

Perplexity Search API

Ranked web results as JSON at $5 per 1,000 requests, in Perplexity's own request and reply. SpecStream costs the same $5 per 1,000 and answers the Custom Search call you send today.