# Web search APIs for AI agents (slim)

> 11 web search APIs ranked by the Anchor benchmark. Leader Tavily API + MCP (BB). Search engines, SERP APIs and research endpoints that give agents fresh knowledge of the web, plus the MCP servers that wrap them. Compared on price per 1,000 queries, freshness, whether results come back as snippets, full text or a written answer, and what the terms let you keep.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/search.md (~3,500 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/search.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/search
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-05

- Tools: 11 · agent-ready (BB+): 3 · accept x402: 6 · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools.json · by capability: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/capabilities.json
- Capabilities: web.search, web.fetch, search.serp, search.answer, search.research

| # | Tool | Grade | Score | Confidence | x402 | Auth | Where | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 20 | Tavily API + MCP | BB | 77.2 | medium | payer | OAuth or key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tavily-mcp.min.md |
| 24 | You.com APIs | BB | 76.9 | medium | payer | OAuth or key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/you-com-api.min.md |
| 51 | Parallel Search and Task APIs | BB | 74.1 | medium | payer | OAuth or key | hosted | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/parallel-search-api.min.md |
| 116 | Linkup | B | 69.1 | medium | yes | OAuth or key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/linkup.min.md |
| 132 | Brave Search API + MCP | B | 68.1 | medium | payer | OAuth or key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.min.md |
| 163 | Exa API + MCP | B | 66.1 | medium | yes | OAuth or key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.min.md |
| 179 | Valyu | B | 64.6 | medium | no | OAuth or key | hosted | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.min.md |
| 216 | SerpApi | B | 62.6 | medium | no | API key | hosted + local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.min.md |
| 290 | Fetch (MCP reference server) | C | 57.6 | medium | no | None | local | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fetch-reference-server.min.md |
| 351 | SearchAPI.io | D | 51.4 | medium | no | OAuth or key | hosted | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/searchapi-io.min.md |
| 446 | Serper | F | 24.3 | medium | no | API key | hosted | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.min.md |