7 Best Search APIs for AI Agents (2026)

Quick comparison table

API	Free tier	Engines	MCP	BYOK	Paid from
ContextWire	1,000/mo	105	Yes	Yes	$10/mo
Tavily	1,000/mo	1	Yes	No	$50/mo
Brave Search	2,000/mo	1	No	N/A	$3/1K queries
SerpAPI	100/mo	1	No	N/A	$50/mo
Perplexity	5/day	~5	No	N/A	$20/mo
Google CSE	100/day	1	No	N/A	$5/1K queries
Bing Search	1,000/mo	1	No	N/A	$7/1K queries

1. ContextWire

Best for: AI agents that need broad, accurate search with MCP support

ContextWire is a search API built specifically for AI agents. It aggregates results from 105 search engines — Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, StackOverflow, GitHub, arXiv, PubMed, and dozens more — into a single API call.

Standout features:

• 105 search engines across 22 profiles (code, academic, news, finance, etc.)
• 94.3% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark
• MCP server at contextwire.dev/mcp — one-line setup
• BYOK: bring your own LLM key to save credits
• 5 tools: ask, search, extract, research, batch_search
• $0 LLM cost on the default tier (uses free Trinity model)
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 1,000 queries/month. No credit card required.

Pricing: $10/mo for 3,500 queries, $30/mo for 15,000.

curl "https://contextwire.dev/api/ask" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -d '{"q": "What is the latest version of Node.js?"}'

2. Tavily

Best for: Teams already using LangChain or CrewAI

Tavily is the most popular search API in the AI agent space. It's well-integrated with LangChain, CrewAI, and AutoGen. The API returns clean, AI-optimized results with optional answer synthesis.

Pros:

• Deep LangChain/CrewAI integration
• Clean, well-structured results
• MCP server available
• Good documentation
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Single search engine (proprietary web index)
• $50/mo for the paid tier (expensive jump from free)
• No BYOK support
• No academic/code/news profiles
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 1,000 queries/month.

Pricing: $50/mo for 5,000 queries.

3. Brave Search API

Best for: Privacy-focused applications with moderate volume

Brave's independent web index powers their search API. It's fast, private, and reasonably priced. The Web Search API returns standard results; the AI Summarizer adds LLM-generated answers.

Pros:

• Independent index (not Google/Bing dependent)
• Strong privacy posture
• Generous free tier (2,000/mo)
• Pay-per-query pricing
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Single index — no multi-engine aggregation
• No MCP server
• No academic or specialized search
• AI Summarizer costs extra
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 2,000 queries/month.

Pricing: $3 per 1,000 queries.

4. SerpAPI

Best for: SERP scraping and structured Google results

SerpAPI has been around the longest. It scrapes Google (and other engines) and returns structured JSON. It's reliable but positioned more as a scraping tool than an AI-native API.

Pros:

• Battle-tested, very reliable
• Structured Google SERP data (rich snippets, knowledge panels)
• Multiple engine support (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu)
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Expensive ($50/mo for 5,000 queries)
• Tiny free tier (100/mo)
• No AI synthesis or answer generation
• No MCP server
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 100 queries/month.

Pricing: $50/mo for 5,000 queries.

5. Perplexity API

Best for: Answer-first applications that don't need raw results

Perplexity's Sonar API provides AI-generated answers with citations. It's not really a search API — it's an answer API. You get synthesized responses, not a list of links.

Pros:

• High-quality synthesized answers
• Built-in source citations
• Uses multiple sources behind the scenes
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Tiny free tier (5 queries/day)
• No raw search results available
• No MCP server
• Can't control which engines are used
• Per-query pricing gets expensive at scale
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 5 queries/day (~150/month).

Pricing: $20/mo for 1,000 queries.

6. Google Custom Search JSON API

Best for: Applications that specifically need Google results

Google's official search API. You create a Custom Search Engine, then query it programmatically. Results are pure Google, but the free tier is restrictive and the setup is complex.

Pros:

• It's Google — the gold standard of web search
• Structured data (knowledge graph, rich snippets)
• Site-restricted search available
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Complex setup (CSE config + API key + billing)
• 100 free queries/day, then $5/1K
• No AI synthesis
• No MCP server
• Results are Google-only
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 100 queries/day (~3,000/month).

Pricing: $5 per 1,000 queries.

7. Bing Web Search API

Best for: Microsoft ecosystem integration

Microsoft's Bing Web Search API through Azure Cognitive Services. Good results, decent pricing, and deep Azure integration. It's solid but requires an Azure account.

Pros:

• Good result quality (Bing has improved significantly)
• Azure integration
• Multiple search types (web, image, video, news)
• Generous free tier
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Cons:

• Requires Azure account setup
• Single engine
• No AI synthesis
• No MCP server
• Pricing can be confusing (Azure billing)
• Add Web Search to Cursor IDE via MCP

Free tier: 1,000 transactions/month.

Pricing: $7 per 1,000 queries.

Which should you pick?

For AI agents with MCP: ContextWire — it's the only option with a hosted MCP server, 105 engines, and a meaningful free tier. One line of config and your agent can search the web.

For LangChain/CrewAI projects: Tavily has the best framework integration, though ContextWire works with any HTTP client.

For raw SERP data: SerpAPI if you need structured Google SERP features (knowledge panels, rich snippets, etc.).

For privacy-first: Brave Search — independent index, strong privacy, generous free tier.

For answer-first UX: Perplexity Sonar if you only need synthesized answers, not raw results.