Best Google search APIs, 2026Every main way to get Google search results.Google’s Custom Search JSON API and Grounding with Google Search, plus the main SERP APIs, compared on what they return, how they charge and how you connect.
An editorial comparison of what each vendor publishes, checked 25 Sept 2026. Monocrawl is ours and listed first. How we compared
What are you building?
Where pages rank for a keyword, city by city and on mobileAn option that sets a location below country level and returns mobile results. They differ most in how they charge.
News and web results for the brands and topics you followAn option with news search as well as web search.
Web, news, image, maps and shopping results from one APIAn option that covers all five. Monocrawl, HasData and SearchApi also return Google Trends data.
An AI agent that searches GoogleAn option with an MCP server that has a Google search tool, so the agent can call it directly.
Cited answers from Google Search, shown to your app’s usersGrounding with Google Search, in the Gemini API or Agent Platform, for answers shown inside your own app.
12options compared
8with an MCP server
11free to start
46sources, checked 25 Sept 2026
Three routes
Google’s Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and ends on 1 January 2027. Grounding with Google Search lets Gemini answer from Google Search inside your own app. SERP APIs return Google’s public results as structured data with an API key.
Google Custom Search JSON API
Grounding with Google Search, in the Gemini API and Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI)
Monocrawl and the vendors below
Google ShoppingGoogle MapsWhat they return
What each option lists on its own pages, and how you connect.
| Google Search data | Connect | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option | Web results | News | Images | Maps | Shopping | Trends | City targeting | Mobile results | REST API | MCP server | Sources |
| MonocrawlOur product | Our API | ||||||||||
| Google Custom Search JSON APIOfficial, closed to new customers | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 12 | |||
| Grounding with Google SearchOfficial, for Gemini apps | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 34567 | ||
| ApifyGoogle Search Results Scraper actor | – | – | – | – | – | 89101112 | |||||
| Bright DataSERP API | 1314151617 | ||||||||||
| DecodoWeb Scraping API | – | – | 1819202122 | ||||||||
| HasDataGoogle SERP API | 2324252627 | ||||||||||
| Scrape.doGoogle Scraper API | – | – | 28293031 | ||||||||
| ScraperAPIScraping API | – | – | – | 3233343536 | |||||||
| ScrapingBeeGoogle Search API | – | 373839 | |||||||||
| SearchApiSearch results API | 4041424344 | ||||||||||
| SerperGoogle Search API | – | – | – | 4546 | |||||||
Pricing
A request, a result, a record and a unit are not the same size, and allowances reset on different schedules. Price your own workload with each vendor.
One key and one response format across 70+ platforms, with monitors for alerts.
Monthly plans
$5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day, existing customers only
Up to 10,000 queries a day. Google discontinues the API on 1 January 2027.
Worth knowingNew Programmable Search Engines search up to 50 domains; engines already set to search the entire web keep that until 1 January 2027.
100 queries a day, existing customers only
$14 per 1,000 search queries on Gemini 3 models
The first 5,000 queries a month are free on a paid account. Gemini’s token prices apply on top.
Worth knowingThe Gemini API terms bar caching, analysing or reselling grounded answers, or collecting their links to build an index.
5,000 search queries a month, paid tier
$4.50 per 1,000 results pages on the free plan
From $1.80 on higher plans. Starter plan $19 a month.
Worth knowingCharges per results page scraped; Google AI Overviews and AI Mode answers are paid add-ons.
$5 of usage a month
$1.50 per 1,000 requests, pay as you go
$499 a month includes 380,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,000.
Worth knowingReturns Google’s top 100 results in one billable request, and charges only for successful requests.
5,000 requests a month
$1 per 1,000 Google requests on its $19 plan
Google templates use its premium proxies; the $19 plan covers 19,000 such requests, billed monthly plus VAT.
Worth knowingIts Google Search template also returns AI Overviews, and a separate template covers Google AI Mode.
Free plan with 1,000 premium-proxy requests
$59 a month for 200,000 credits, billed monthly
A Google SERP call costs 10 credits. $590 a year billed yearly.
Worth knowingSeparate Google SERP, News, Images, Maps and Trends APIs draw on one credit balance, and unused credits don’t roll over.
1,000 credits a month
$29 a month for 250,000 credits
Enough for 25,000 Google calls at 10 credits each. Only successful requests use credits.
Worth knowingSeparate endpoints cover Google Search, Maps, Shopping, News and Trends, and most cost 10 credits a call.
1,000 credits a month
$49 a month for 100,000 API credits
A Google request costs 25 credits. $44.10 a month billed yearly.
Worth knowingIts Hobby and Startup plans geotarget the US and EU only; Business, at $299 a month, is global.
7-day trial with 5,000 credits; free plan of 1,000 credits
$19 a month for 75,000 API credits
A Google search costs 10 credits, or 15 as a full browser request, which AI Overviews need. Prices exclude VAT.
Worth knowingAlso searches Google Lens and AI Mode, and can filter shopping results by price.
1,000 free API credits
$40 a month for 10,000 searches
From $1 per 1,000 on its largest listed plan. Only successful searches are billed.
Worth knowingIts main Google API now returns 10 results a page; a separate Rank Tracking API returns up to 100.
100 free requests
$50 for 50,000 credits, one time
The pack covers 50,000 queries. Larger packs go down to $0.30 per 1,000. Prices exclude sales tax and VAT.
Worth knowingSells prepaid credits with no subscription, and the credits stay valid for 6 months.
2,500 free queries
Try a call
The same request in cURL, TypeScript or Python, and the recorded response for a Google search for “open source llm”: nine results, including “The Best Open-Source LLMs in 2026” from bentoml.com at position 3. No Google account, no Google Cloud project and no search engine ID.
GET /v1/google_search/searchcurl "https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/google_search/search?query=open%20source%20llm&limit=10" \
-H "x-api-key: mn_your_key_here"The Best Open-Source LLMs in 2026
www.bentoml.com
Selected public fields from the recorded response. Live values will differ.
Web search4 creditsNews search4 creditsImage search4 creditsMaps search4 creditsShopping search5 creditsTrends interest over time4 creditsRelated queries on Trends4 credits2.1sMedian response in our benchmark. 22 September 2026 catalogue benchmark. Median of recorded endpoint timings across 636 operations with a successful HTTP response. Includes network time; individual requests vary.
Questions
Not one open to new customers. Google’s Custom Search JSON API returns web and image results from a Programmable Search Engine, but it is closed to new customers, and existing customers have until 1 January 2027 to move. For searching up to 50 domains Google suggests Vertex AI Search, now called Agent Search, and for full web search it asks you to contact it. Its Search Console API reports clicks, impressions and average position only for sites you manage.
Only to show answers, not to collect results. Gemini decides whether a search would help, runs its own queries and returns an answer with cited links. The Gemini API terms say grounded results may be shown only with their search suggestions, to the user who asked, and bar caching, analysing or reselling them, or collecting their links to build an index. On Gemini 3 models it costs $14 per 1,000 search queries after 5,000 free a month on a paid account.
Google’s Custom Search JSON API gives existing customers 100 free queries a day, but it is closed to new customers, and Grounding with Google Search includes 5,000 search queries a month on a paid Gemini account. For SERP data, Monocrawl gives 1,000 credits every month, Bright Data 5,000 requests a month, HasData and Scrape.do 1,000 credits a month, and Apify $5 of usage a month. Serper starts you with 2,500 free queries, ScrapingBee with 1,000 credits, Decodo with a free plan of 1,000 premium-proxy requests and SearchApi with 100 requests. ScraperAPI offers a free trial.
Some can. Google phased out its num parameter in September 2025, and a results page now holds about 10 results. Monocrawl’s web search takes a limit of up to 100 results, Bright Data returns the top 100 in one billable request, and SearchApi’s Rank Tracking API returns up to 100 organic results. SearchApi’s main Google API returns about 10 a page, so you page through the rest.
Monocrawl, Apify, Bright Data, Decodo, HasData, ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee and SearchApi publish their own MCP servers with a Google search tool, so assistants such as Claude or Cursor can call them directly. For a Gemini app, Grounding with Google Search is built into the Gemini API instead, within Google’s terms.
No. They return their own search results rather than Google’s results pages. The Brave Search API runs on Brave’s own independent web index, Exa builds and maintains its own index and search models, and Tavily describes its search as a search engine for LLM agents. Use a SERP API when you need what Google itself shows for a query.
Method
What’s includedGoogle’s Custom Search JSON API and Grounding with Google Search, plus widely used SERP APIs that come up across Google search API and SERP API searches and comparison lists, return Google results as structured data and publish their pricing or offer a trial. Search APIs with their own index, such as Brave, Exa and Tavily, don’t return Google’s results pages, so the FAQ covers them.
What we comparedWhat each vendor publishes about its Google search data, pricing, free allowance and access, read on its own pages. “Best” here means worth comparing, not a ranking from tests: we have not run their APIs.
About MonocrawlMonocrawl is our product and is listed first. Its details come from our live plans and catalogue.
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