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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Cloudflare Web Search API vs SearchAPI.io

Cloudflare Web Search API scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against SearchAPI.io's 51.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SearchAPI.io leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do web search. Cloudflare Web Search API is cheaper for web search, $0.25 against $4 per 1,000 requests.

Cloudflare Web Search APICloudflare, Inc. · HTTP API B62.1/100#226 of 460 SearchAPI.ioSearchApi · HTTP API D51.4/100#357 of 460

Which one, for what

Cloudflare Web Search API B

Good for Agents and apps already on Cloudflare Workers or AI Gateway that want cheap snippet search ($0.25 per 1,000 with Ceramic.ai) on the same bill and logs as their inference.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 81 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 63 against 52
  • Security & auth, 71 against 28
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 15
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 62

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for web search, $0.25 against $4 per 1,000 requests

Watch for

Open beta, with no SLA found for AI Gateway

SearchAPI.io D

Good for Agents that need parsed results from many engines, especially shopping, ads, travel and social sources, at a low price per search.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 55
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

MCP exposes over 100 tools with no toolsets

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCloudflare Web Search APISearchAPI.ioEdge
Reliability16%205590SearchAPI.io +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28159Cloudflare Web Search API +22
Agent ergonomics13%16.26352Cloudflare Web Search API +11
Security & auth14%17.57128Cloudflare Web Search API +43
Payments & pricing10%12.52030SearchAPI.io +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87115Cloudflare Web Search API +56
Transparency & trust7%8.87562Cloudflare Web Search API +13
Negative events≤1500
Total62.1 · B51.4 · D

Facts side by side

FactCloudflare Web Search APISearchAPI.io
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCloudflare, Inc.SearchApi
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for web search$0.25 per 1,000 requests$4 per 1,000 requests
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cloudflare's terms. Each search provider's own terms are linked from the providers pagenone
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listedio.searchapi/mcp
Last release2026-10-02none
Agent reviews3/5 (2)3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Cloudflare Web Search API

One endpoint that sends a search to Ceramic.ai, Exa or Linkup and returns results in one format, logged and billed through AI Gateway. Ceramic.ai costs $0.25 per 1,000 searches. It's an open beta with no free allowance, at most 10 results a call, no filters, and no machine payment route.

SearchAPI.io

99.9% SLA on every plan and no incidents on the status page since August. MCP exposes over 100 tools with no toolsets.

Before you call either

Cloudflare Web Search API

  1. Set options.gateway.id. Every account has a gateway named default
  2. Pass provider explicitly. It defaults to Ceramic.ai, whose descriptions can run to 8,000 characters a result
  3. Set limit to the results you'll read, between 1 and 10
  4. Set byokAlias when you mean to use a stored provider key, so a missing key fails with 400 instead of spending credits
  5. Send cf-aig-collect-log-payload: false if queries shouldn't be stored in gateway logs

SearchAPI.io

  1. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer, not api_key= in the URL
  2. Connect the MCP through OAuth or the X-MCP-Token header, not the registry's ?token= URL
  3. Call the REST API with engine= when context is tight. The MCP loads over 100 tool definitions
  4. Page Google results with page. num is fixed at 10
  5. Pace bursts. One hour can use at most 20 per cent of the plan's monthly searches

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare Web Search API or SearchAPI.io?

Cloudflare Web Search API scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against SearchAPI.io's 51.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SearchAPI.io leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Which is cheaper for web search, Cloudflare Web Search API or SearchAPI.io?

Cloudflare Web Search API, at $0.25 per 1,000 requests against $4 per 1,000 requests for SearchAPI.io. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Cloudflare Web Search API and SearchAPI.io need an API key?

Cloudflare Web Search API needs an API key. SearchAPI.io takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Cloudflare Web Search API and SearchAPI.io without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Cloudflare Web Search API. SearchAPI.io has a hosted endpoint at https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Cloudflare Web Search API or SearchAPI.io

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