SERP API for AI agents in 2026
Prices, MCP and scores compared.
A SERP API gives an agent Google's results as JSON. SerpApi costs $25 a month for 1,000 searches, Serper $1.00 to $0.30 per 1,000 in prepaid credits, SearchApi $4 to $1 on monthly plans, and SERPHouse $0.75 on its $29.99 plan.
SpecStream is the live web data engine. Its Search API answers SerpApi's, Serper's and SearchApi's own calls at $1 per 1,000 searches, serves agents over MCP at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, and scores 97.9 on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions.
New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 10,000 searches.
SERP APIs for agents, from each company's own pages on Nov 12, 2026
| SpecStream | SerpApi | Serper | SearchApi | SERPHouse | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per 1,000 searches | $1 for up to 10 results on the SerpApi, Serper and SearchApi addresses and with speed=fast. $5 for the default search, which adds the answer and typed rows | $25 on Starter (1,000 searches a month), $15 on Developer ($75 for 5,000) | $1.00 on the 50k pack, down to $0.30 on the 12.5M pack | $4 on Developer ($40 a month for 10,000), down to $1 on Octo 5M ($5,000 a month) | $0.75 on Basic ($29.99 a month), $0.62 on Regular ($49.99 a month) |
| How you pay | From one balance, with a spending limit on each key. A call that returns no results costs nothing | A monthly plan, month to month | Prepaid credits, valid for 6 months | A monthly plan. At most 20% of the plan's credits can be used in one hour | A monthly plan of API credits, with no credit rollover |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card: 10,000 searches | 250 searches a month | 2,500 free queries, no credit card | 100 free requests, no credit card | 4,000 API credits, for 1 month with a work email or 7 days with a personal one |
| Hosted MCP server | https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, with OAuth or a Bearer key. search_web searches and read_pages reads pages | https://mcp.serpapi.com/SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp, with the key inside the address | None named on its homepage | https://www.searchapi.io/mcp, with OAuth or an X-MCP-Token header. Each tool call counts as one API request, and an account holds at most 10 MCP integrations | None named on its Web Search API page, which describes a LangChain BaseTool and a LlamaIndex BaseReader |
| SimpleQA Verified, own published score | 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official questions (978 correct) | 97.6% accuracy on 960 questions, after it excluded 40, in its post of Oct 16, 2026 | None on its homepage | None on its home or pricing page | None on its Web Search API page |
| What the agent gets back | An answer with its value, the page it was read on and seen_at when the results agree on one, ranked rows, and sources with url, title and snippet. On a drop-in address, that API's own JSON | Google's results page as JSON: organic_results with position, title, link and snippet, with search_metadata | Google results as JSON for Search, Images, News, Maps, Places, Videos, Shopping, Scholar, Patents and Autocomplete | Google's results as JSON: organic_results with position, title, link, domain and snippet | Each organic result's position, title, URL, snippet, domain and breadcrumbs, from Google, Bing or Yahoo |
| Text of the pages behind the results | passages=true adds an excerpt of each page, up to about 3,500 characters. The Extract API reads up to 20 pages a call at $0.80 per 1,000, and a page with no text is not charged | An Extract API, which its SimpleQA Verified run used to read pages | The snippet for each result | The snippet for each organic result | The snippet for each organic result |
| Moving the code you have | Change the base address to https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi, /serper or /searchapi. The request and the JSON keep their shape | GET https://serpapi.com/search.json with api_key | POST https://google.serper.dev/search with X-API-KEY | GET https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search with api_key | GET https://api.serphouse.com/serp/live with the key in the Authorization header |
| Every match as structured rows | Deep Search: a request in plain words returns every match on the live web as rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts | One results page per call | One results page per call | One results page per call | One results page per call |
Why agents run on SpecStream
The highest published score, on every question
SpecStream scored a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions: 978 correct, 20 wrong and 2 not attempted. SerpApi's post of Oct 16, 2026 reports 97.6% on 960 questions, after it excluded 40, with Google results and its Extract API. On all 200 official WideSearch tasks SpecStream scored 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1. The method and every run are on the benchmarks page.
A reply the agent can act on
A SERP API returns a results page, and the agent still has to read it. GET /v1/web-search returns the answer with the page it was read on and seen_at when the results agree on one, then ranked rows and the sources behind them. When the results disagree, answer is null and every value found stays in rows. Add passages=true and each source carries an excerpt of its page, up to about 3,500 characters, for about a second more.
Agent loops at $1 per 1,000
An agent that runs 20 searches a task spends 20,000 searches on 1,000 tasks. On SpecStream's drop-in addresses that is $20, paid from a balance with a spending limit on the key, and a call that returns no results costs nothing. The same key reads pages with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 and builds rows with Deep Search.
SERP APIs for AI agents, ranked
1. SpecStream
The live web data engine, and the most accurate web search API in the world: a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions. It answers SerpApi's, Serper's and SearchApi's own calls at $1 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results, and its own Search API at $5 per 1,000 with the answer. MCP: https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.
2. SerpApi
Google results pages by monthly plan: 250 free searches a month, $25 for 1,000 on Starter, $75 for 5,000 on Developer. Its own post reports 97.6% on 960 SimpleQA Verified questions. MCP: https://mcp.serpapi.com/SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp, with the key in the address. SpecStream answers search.json in SerpApi's JSON at $1 per 1,000 (SerpApi migration).
3. Serper
Google results in prepaid credits, valid for 6 months: $1.00 per 1,000 on the 50k pack down to $0.30 on the 12.5M pack, with 2,500 free queries. Its homepage names no MCP server and prints no score. SpecStream answers POST /search in Serper's JSON at $1 per 1,000, with no pack to buy (Serper migration).
4. SearchApi
Google results by monthly plan, from $40 for 10,000 searches to $5,000 for 5,000,000, with at most 20% of a plan's credits in one hour and 100 free requests. MCP: https://www.searchapi.io/mcp, where each tool call counts as one API request. SpecStream answers /api/v1/search in SearchApi's JSON at $1 per 1,000 (SearchApi migration).
5. SERPHouse
Google, Bing and Yahoo results by monthly plan: $0.75 per 1,000 on Basic at $29.99 a month and $0.62 on Regular at $49.99, with 4,000 free API credits and no credit rollover. Its Web Search API page names no MCP server. SpecStream serves agents over MCP and reads the pages behind the results at $0.80 per 1,000.
6. Bright Data SERP API
A SERP API billed per 1,000 successful requests, with parsing and unlocking included. Its MCP server includes 5,000 free requests a month, shared across a team account. SpecStream starts with $10 of credit, which covers 10,000 searches, and publishes its SimpleQA Verified score.
How SpecStream scores
The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.
| SpecStream |  Parallel |  Exa |  Tavily |  Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web researchWideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 |
| Factual accuracySimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 |
How to switch
Agents that speak MCP add https://api.specstream.ai/mcp and call the search_web tool. In Claude Code it is one command:
claude mcp add --transport http specstream https://api.specstream.ai/mcpCode written for SerpApi, Serper or SearchApi changes one line: the base address. Send a SpecStream key where that API takes its key, and the request and the JSON keep their shape. Each call of up to 10 results costs $0.001.
# SerpApi
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi/search.json?engine=google&q=$QUERY&api_key=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"
# Serper
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/serper/search \
-H "X-API-KEY: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"q": "Who is the CEO of Stripe?", "num": 10}'
# SearchApi
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/searchapi/api/v1/search?engine=google&q=$QUERY&api_key=$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"For the answer with its page and typed rows, call SpecStream's own Search API at $5 per 1,000. Guides for the OpenAI API, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI and the Vercel AI SDK are in the framework docs.
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/v1/web-search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "q=Who is the CEO of Stripe?"Frequently asked questions
Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human
What is the best SERP API for AI agents?
https://api.specstream.ai/mcp.How much does a SERP API cost per 1,000 searches?
Which SERP APIs have an MCP server?
https://api.specstream.ai/mcp, SerpApi at https://mcp.serpapi.com/SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp and SearchApi at https://www.searchapi.io/mcp. Bright Data runs one with 5,000 free requests a month. Serper's homepage and SERPHouse's Web Search API page name none.Is SerpApi's 97.6% on SimpleQA Verified the same test as SpecStream's 97.9?
Can I keep my SerpApi, Serper or SearchApi code?
https://api.specstream.ai/serpapi, /serper or /searchapi and send a SpecStream key where that API takes its key. Each call of up to 10 results costs $0.001.What is the difference between a SERP API and a search API?
passages=true.Is there a free SERP API for agents?
Sources
SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page, read on Nov 12, 2026.
- SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 12, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 12, 2026
- SerpApi pricingserpapi.com/pricing.md, read Nov 12, 2026
- SerpApi MCP serverserpapi.com/blog/introducing-serpapis-mcp-server/, read Nov 12, 2026
- SerpApi on SimpleQA Verifiedserpapi.com/blog/serpapi-achieves-97-6-accuracy-on-simpleqa-verified.md, read Nov 12, 2026
- Serper homepage and pricingserper.dev/, read Nov 12, 2026
- SearchApi pricingsearchapi.io/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
- SearchApi homepagesearchapi.io/, read Nov 12, 2026
- SearchApi MCPsearchapi.io/integrations/mcp, read Nov 12, 2026
- SERPHouse pricingserphouse.com/pricing, read Nov 12, 2026
- SERPHouse Web Search APIserphouse.com/web-search-api, read Nov 12, 2026
- Bright Data SERP API pricing and billingdocs.brightdata.com/products/serp-api/pricing-and-billing, read Nov 12, 2026
- Bright Data MCP serverdocs.brightdata.com/mcp-server/overview, read Nov 12, 2026