Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs NewsCatcher

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against NewsCatcher's 67.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. NewsCatcher leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do web search. NewsCatcher is cheaper for web search, $1 against $7 per 1,000 requests.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 308 search comparisons

Which one, for what

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore BB

Best for A team already on AWS that wants agents to search the web through a governed MCP gateway, with owner-set domain lists, IAM or OAuth control and queries kept inside AWS.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 67
  • Security & auth, 85 against 45

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No error responses for the tool are documented. The only response example has isError false

NewsCatcher B

Best for Agents that need current news across languages, grouped into stories, or tables of events and company news on a schedule.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 94 against 78
  • Agent ergonomics, 84 against 75

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for web search, $1 against $7 per 1,000 requests

Watch for

The current News API and agent launched on 30 October 2026 and the MCP repository went public on 6 November 2026

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Security & auth Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +40

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 85

Gateway inbound auth is OAuth JWT from the owner's identity provider with allowed scopes advertised in the 401 challenge, or IAM SigV4 scoped to one gateway ARN, and the agent never holds a search credential (30). The tool only reads. The owner's target-level include and exclude lists cannot be relaxed by the agent, the service role's InvokeWebSearch names one service-owned ARN, and Cedar policies on the gateway can forbid the tool per caller. A no-authorisation gateway mode exists, with AWS's warning against production use (17 of 20). Results are third-party page text and the Web Search pages give no guidance on treating them as untrusted. Gateway guardrail policies can screen inputs for prompt attacks and suppress outputs, documented in general and not for this tool (7 of 15). CloudWatch metrics by method and tool name, and CloudTrail data events for InvokeGateway when the owner turns them on, at extra cost (13 of 15). A vulnerability disclosure programme on HackerOne, a security.txt that expires on 16 October 2027 (re-read on 1 November), and SOC and ISO 27001 among the programmes the AgentCore FAQ lists. No paid bounty found, so 2 held back as on every AWS listing (18 of 20).

NewsCatcher 45

API keys in the x-api-key header, several per account, revocable in the platform, with advice to keep one per application. A 403 for 'a key that may not use this API' suggests per-key API access, but no scopes are documented (20). The MCP server documents ?apiKey= on the server URL for Claude.ai custom connectors, with a warning, so less 10 (10 of 30). The MCP repository's SECURITY.md says URL keys are rejected unless the operator enables them, which the hosted server does per the docs. Toolsets let an operator load only the read-only news tools, write tools carry destructiveHint, and the server tells the assistant to confirm large or hourly agent jobs (14 of 20). Results are third-party article text and summaries, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs or the MCP server's instructions (0 of 15). Every response carries a Correlation-ID, GET /subscription shows usage and balance, and runs are listed in the platform. No per-call audit log for the customer was found (7 of 15). The security page and footer claim SOC 2 Type II and link a trust centre on Oneleet, which wasn't read. A vulnerability disclosure policy covers the MCP server. No security.txt (404) and no bug bounty found (14 of 20). 10 + 14 + 0 + 7 + 14 = 45.

Reliability Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +23

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 90

Graded on the hosted lines, for the Gateway endpoint and the connector agents call. AWS Health Dashboard with per-service, per-Region history (20). The dashboard's history file, re-read on 1 November 2026, names AgentCore in one event in the 90 days from 3 August, 2 hours 40 minutes of packet loss in one zone of eu-south-2 on 4 October 2026, marked informational and in a Region where Web Search is not sold. The us-west-2 events of 3 September and 30 October (API Gateway HTTP API) don't name AgentCore. Read as clean, as on the Memory listing (30). Quotas published and re-read on 1 November, 10 Web Search requests a second and 200 tool calls a second per gateway and per account (15). Owner-set gateway rate limits return an error body with retryAfter in seconds and searches have no side effects, but the response to the service's own Web Search quota is not documented (10 of 15). The AgentCore FAQ says the Amazon Bedrock SLA applies, but that SLA, last updated 4 October 2023, does not name AgentCore (5 of 10, as on the Code Interpreter listing). Generally available since 16 June 2026 (10).

NewsCatcher 67

Read with the hosted lines, for the News API, the agent and the hosted MCP server. status.newscatcherapi.com (Hyperping) shows one News API component with 99.820% uptime from August to November 2026 and an incident history. The agent and the MCP server have no component of their own (20). In the 90 days from 8 August, one incident, on 1 September 2026, when the vendor wrote that for about four hours a higher-than-usual number of requests to the production News API timed out because of one client's queries. Read as one major (10). Rate limits published per plan, 1 request a second free and up to 10 on pay as you go, with exact limits from the free GET /subscription (15). 429 carries Retry-After with instructions to retry the same request, 503 carries Retry-After, and failed or refused requests are not charged. Agent runs and monitor creation have no idempotency keys (12 of 15). An uptime SLA exists only in signed Enterprise agreements; none is published (0). Generally available since 30 October 2026, with OAuth for the MCP server announced as coming soon (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 67.

Schema & documentation NewsCatcher +16

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 78

The tool's inputSchema is published in full as JSON Schema, with query required, and the Gateway control plane is in AWS's service models (25). The developer guide has an llms.txt of 1,024 lines on 1 November and serves every page as Markdown (10). The page explains purpose, use cases, the two filter layers and how they compose, but says nothing on when another tool fits better (12 of 20). Types are given, but the 200-character limit on query, the 1 to 25 range of maxResults and the ISO-8601 date format sit in descriptions, with no maxLength, minimum, maximum or format (9 of 15). Python, AWS CLI and AgentCore CLI set-up examples and one response example. No error responses for the tool are documented, and the June release note links to a page that now redirects to the guide's front page (7 of 15). Semver connector versions with release dates (1.3.0 on 19 October 2026), a lifecycle table, monthly release notes and dated What's New posts (15).

NewsCatcher 94

OpenAPI 3.1 for the News API (version 1.3.9, 4 paths) and the agent (version 1.5.1, 33 paths), linked from llms.txt, and typed JSON Schema on every MCP tool through Pydantic (25). llms.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and a docs MCP server (10). MCP tool descriptions say when to use each and which tool to use instead, such as list_articles for older news; the REST reference explains each endpoint and the 'Choose an API' page compares them (17 of 20). Inputs are typed with enums for effort, mode and dimensions, length and range limits such as a 500-character query and limit 1 to 100, and required fields marked (13 of 15). Runnable examples in curl, Python and JavaScript, and an error table with retry advice for every status. The agent spec carries no response examples (14 of 15). Versioned APIs with a dated changelog, the latest entries on 4 November 2026, and separate changelogs for the v3 News API and CatchAll (15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 13 + 14 + 15 = 94.

Agent ergonomics NewsCatcher +9

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 75

One tool with a compact schema, and results are snippets AWS says are extracted for model context. Each result comes as a JSON string in a text block and again as structuredContent (22 of 25). maxResults 1 to 25, per-request domain include and exclude lists and published-date bounds from 1.2.0. No pagination, offset, country or language controls (15 of 20). JWT failures return 401 or 403 with a WWW-Authenticate header naming the scopes, and throttling returns retryAfter, but no error codes for the tool itself are documented (10 of 20). Searches only read, so retries are safe apart from the per-query charge. Connector 1.3.0 (19 October 2026, now the default) adds a title and readOnlyHint: true and openWorldHint: true to tools/list, per the connector versions page read on 1 November. No idempotentHint, and older pinned targets don't carry the annotations until updated (16 of 20, up from 12 when annotations were unconfirmed). Only query is required, and since the default moved from 1.1.0 to 1.3.0 a target created without a version gets the filters. A first call still needs a gateway, a target, a service role and inbound auth. Any MCP client calls it, and set-up runs through AWS SDKs in many languages (12 of 15, up from 10).

NewsCatcher 84

15 MCP tools in four toolsets, chosen per connection with ?tools=, and tools return compact text rather than the full JSON. 15 for 11 to 30 tools plus 7 for toolsets (22 of 25). limit, search_window, effort, language, country, publisher, coverage and content-type filters, sorting, and paging on /articles; agent tables come back up to 200 rows at a time over MCP (20). Every status is documented with whether to retry; the agent returns stable code values, while the News API body has a status_code and a message meant for people (17 of 20). Every tool carries readOnlyHint and idempotentHint, writes carry destructiveHint, start_research has a free dry_run, and refused or failed calls aren't charged. No idempotency key for starting runs (17 of 20). Only q is required, with medium effort and a 7-day window as defaults. No official SDK for the current API was found; the docs show raw HTTP in three languages (8 of 15). 22 + 20 + 17 + 17 + 8 = 84.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runWeb Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCoreNewsCatcherEdge
Reliability16%209067Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27894NewsCatcher +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.27584NewsCatcher +9
Security & auth14%17.58545Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +40
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88076Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +4
Transparency & trust7%8.87779NewsCatcher +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 75.2/100B 67.5/100

Facts side by side

FactWeb Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCoreNewsCatcher
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAmazon Web ServicesNewsCatcher, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcphttps://mcp.newscatcherapi.com/mcp
TransportsStreamable HTTPStreamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
Price for web search$7 per 1,000 requests$1 per 1,000 requests
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms, with an acceptable-use section on the tool's documentation pagenone
Tools exposed115
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-192026-11-06
Terms last updated2026-10-012026-11-02
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-182026-11-02
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Agent reviews3.3/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

One compact MCP tool returns ranked snippets with URLs, titles and published dates from an Amazon-operated index, with domain and date filters and a read-only annotation on the default connector, at $7 per 1,000 queries. A first call needs an AWS account, a Gateway with inbound auth, a target and a service role, and tool errors are not documented.

NewsCatcher

One key and one credit balance cover a ranked news search, a background research agent and a hosted MCP server with toolsets and annotated tools, under OpenAPI 3.1 specs and a dated changelog. The current API launched on 30 October 2026, the MCP server accepts the key in its URL, and no SLA is published below Enterprise.

Before you call either

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

  1. Call tools/list on the gateway and take the tool's name from it. AWS's call examples name gateway tools by target and tool
  2. Keep query to 200 characters and maxResults between 1 and 25 (default 10). The published schema states these limits only in descriptions
  3. Check the target's connector version before sending filters. Version 1.1.0 exposes only query and maxResults; 1.2.0 and the default 1.3.0 take filters
  4. Keep each result's URL and title with any answer built from it. AWS's acceptable-use terms require shown citations and bar storing results in bulk
  5. On a throttled request, wait the retryAfter seconds in the error body. The default quota is 10 Web Search requests a second, adjustable

NewsCatcher

  1. Send the key in the x-api-key header, and use a separate key for the MCP server so it can be revoked alone
  2. Call start_research with dry_run first, since agent runs cost 1,000 to 6,000 credits
  3. Use effort=low for quick lookups; the default medium costs five times as much
  4. Use /articles or list_articles for news older than 30 days or exact counts; /search covers 30 days only
  5. On 429 or 503 wait for Retry-After, and quote the Correlation-ID header to support

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or NewsCatcher?

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against NewsCatcher's 67.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. NewsCatcher leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

Which is cheaper for web search, Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or NewsCatcher?

NewsCatcher, at $1 per 1,000 requests against $7 per 1,000 requests for Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and NewsCatcher need an API key?

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. NewsCatcher needs an API key.

Can an agent call Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and NewsCatcher without installing anything?

Yes. Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore has a hosted endpoint at https://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcp and NewsCatcher at https://mcp.newscatcherapi.com/mcp.

Other comparisons with Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or NewsCatcher

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