Search API comparison
Serpex returns search results and the full page content behind them as LLM-ready markdown in one request, from $0.50 – $0.65 per 1,000 searches. Below is how that compares to the other APIs teams use to give models live web data.
Every price is taken from the vendor’s own pricing page or docs, with the date it was checked on each comparison page. Where a vendor publishes a range, the range is shown rather than the number that flatters us most. Prices change — check theirs before deciding.
Search APIs
| API | Search / 1,000 | Page content | vs Serpex |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serpex | $0.50 – $0.65 | Included on the same request | — |
| Exa | $7.00 standard, up to $15.00 for deep search | $1 per 1,000 pages per content type — text, highlights and summary are billed separately, so text + summary is $2 per 1,000 | 14× higher |
| Tavily | $5.00 – $8.00 | Extraction is a separate /extract endpoint: 1 credit per 5 URLs on basic, 2 credits per 5 on advanced — roughly $1.60 per 1,000 pages at pay-as-you-go rates | 10× higher |
| Parallel | $1.00 – $5.00 | A separate Extract API at $1 per 1,000 URLs. Extra page results and excerpts on a search also bill at $1 per 1,000 | 2× higher |
| Linkup | $5.00 – $6.00 | A separate Fetch endpoint at $1 – $10 per 1,000 pages, depending on JavaScript rendering and mode. Deep search is a different thing again, at $50 – $55 per 1,000 queries | 10× higher |
| Brave Search API | $5.00 | The LLM Context endpoint is priced the same per call | 10× higher |
| Perplexity Sonar API | $5 – $14 in request fees, plus token costs | Token billing on top of the request fee: $1 per million in and out on Sonar, $3 in / $15 out on Sonar Pro | 10× higher |
| SerpApi | $3.75 – $25.00 depending on plan size | None. SerpApi returns the search results page itself — it can serve that page as markdown, but it does not fetch the content of the sites it links to | 7.5× higher |
Content and crawling APIs
These do not run a search. They turn a URL you already have into text, so they solve a different half of the problem — teams often pair one with a search API.
| API | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Firecrawl | $0.75 – $3.80 per 1,000 pages on monthly billing ($0.60 – $3.20 annual). Structured JSON output adds 4 credits per page |
| Jina Reader | Token-based on the response: $0.050 per million tokens, dropping to $0.045 at volume. Cost varies with page size, so it does not reduce cleanly to a per-page price |