Search APIs

Search APIs give software the ability to search. Instead of a results page for a person, they return structured data that an app or AI agent can use: page titles and links, snippets, the cleaned text of each page, or the full layout of a search results page. They sit behind many AI assistants that answer questions about current events, and behind SEO tools, price trackers and research apps.

The options fall into a few groups. Exa and Tavily are built for AI agents and can return page contents along with results, so a model can read the sources in one step. The Brave Search API gives access to Brave's independent web index. SerpApi and DataForSEO return the results pages of Google and other engines as structured data, which is what rank trackers and SEO tools need. Google's Programmable Search Engine searches a set of sites you choose, and Jina AI offers tools that turn web pages into clean text for models.

Compare them on your own queries. Freshness matters for news and prices. Coverage matters for niche topics and other languages. For agents, check how page content is returned and how much cleanup it needs before a model can use it. Also check rate limits, response times and pricing at the volume you expect, since costs that look small in a test can add up quickly in production.

Read the terms carefully. Providers differ on whether you may store results, show them to your users, combine them with other data or use them to train models. If your product shows answers built from search results, keep the links to the sources visible so users can check them, and handle cases where the API returns nothing useful.

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7 AI search tools in search apis

Exa

Web search API built for AI applications, returning results by meaning plus the page contents for an agent to read.

  • Developer API

Tavily

Search API for AI agents that returns relevant web results and extracted page content in one call.

  • Developer API

Brave Search API

by Brave Software

Developer access to Brave's independent web index, with web, news, image and AI-grounding endpoints.

  • Developer API

SerpApi

API that returns search engine result pages from Google and other engines as structured JSON.

  • Developer API

Programmable Search Engine

by Google

Google tool for adding a search box over chosen sites to your own pages, with a JSON API for developers.

  • Free to use or free plan
  • Developer API

DataForSEO

APIs for search result data, keywords and backlinks, used by SEO tools and developers who need SERP data at scale.

  • Developer API

Jina AI

Tools for search developers, including a reader that turns a web page into clean text for language models.

  • Developer API

Many teams use two providers: one as the main source and a second as a fallback, or one for web results and another for page extraction.

Plan for failure from the start. APIs time out, change their response format, hit rate limits or return thin results for unusual queries. Cache results where the terms allow it, log the queries that return nothing useful, and keep the code that calls the search provider separate from the rest of your app, so switching providers later is a contained change instead of a rewrite.

Keep a small set of benchmark queries and rerun them before renewing a contract or switching plans.

Questions about search apis

Which search API is best for an AI agent?

It depends on what the agent needs. Some APIs return page contents along with links, which saves a step. Test a few on your real queries and compare freshness, content quality, speed and cost at your volume.

Can I store and show search API results?

Terms differ by provider. Some limit storage, display or use for training models. Read the terms before building, especially if results will be shown to your users or kept in a database.

What is a SERP API?

A SERP API returns a search engine results page as structured data, including rankings, ads and special result blocks. SEO tools and rank trackers use them. SerpApi and DataForSEO are examples.

Do search APIs have free tiers?

Several offer free credits or a small free allowance for testing, and Google's Programmable Search Engine is free for basic use. Check current limits on each provider's pricing page.

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