Web search APIs — compare pricing, reliability & setup
Generated 2026-11-03 03:53 UTC · JSON
For web search for agents / rag, the current pick is Exa (score 67). $0/mo at 10k searches.
Ranking — Web search for agents / RAG
| Vendor | Score | 1k/mo | 10k/mo | 100k/mo | Free | Agent-friction | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | 67 | $0 | $63 | $693 | yes | 90 | 2026-11-02 |
| Tavily | 65.7 | $0 | $72 | $792 | yes | 90 | 2026-11-02 |
| Serper | 47.5 | $0 | $7.50 | $97.50 | yes | 70 | 2026-11-02 |
| Brave Search API | 40.59 | $0 | $45 | $495 | yes | 60 | 2026-11-02 |
| SerpApi | 26.5 | $11.25 | $146.25 | $1496.25 | yes | 90 | 2026-11-02 |
Agent-friction — can a service be set up without a human?
Each check and its weight is published; the column total is the 0–100 agent-friction score.
| Check | Exa | Tavily | Serper | Brave Search API | SerpApi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test credentials without a credit card (20) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | × | ✓ |
| Sandbox or test mode (15) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Setup with no human-only steps (15) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Official CLI (10) | × | × | × | × | × |
| Official MCP server (10) | ✓ | ✓ | × | ✓ | ✓ |
| Markdown docs, current with the SDK (10) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Typed SDK for main languages (10) | ✓ | ✓ | × | × | ✓ |
| Error messages that name the fix (10) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Score | 90 | 90 | 70 | 60 | 90 |
How this category is scored
Per use case, weights published in the data: fit 25% · cost 20% · integration 20% · agent_friction 15% · health 10% · lock_in 10%. Affiliate status is never an input.