# Cloudflare Web Search API vs TinyFish Search

> TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Web Search API's 61.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Web Search API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.md (~2,850 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Web Search API's 61.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Web Search API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $0.25 per 1,000 requests.

- Cloudflare Web Search API: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #408 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-web-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-web-search.json
- TinyFish Search: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #366 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json

## Which one, for what

### Cloudflare Web Search API (C)

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:
- Reliability, 55 against 50
- Security & auth, 71 against 58
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 52

Watch for: Open beta, with no SLA found for AI Gateway

### TinyFish Search (B)

Good for: Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 63
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 78 against 71

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for web search, $0 against $0.25 per 1,000 requests
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No public status page was found on the site or in the docs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare Web Search API | TinyFish Search | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 50 | Cloudflare Web Search API +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 82 | TinyFish Search +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 78 | TinyFish Search +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 58 | Cloudflare Web Search API +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 45 | TinyFish Search +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 78 | TinyFish Search +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 52 | Cloudflare Web Search API +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.9 · C** | **63.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare Web Search API | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $0.25 per 1,000 requests | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cloudflare's terms. Each search provider's own terms are linked from the providers page | Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | none | 9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**TinyFish Search.** Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training.

## 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

### TinyFish Search

1. Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header. The Search host is `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai`, not `agent.tinyfish.ai`
2. Stay under 30 requests a minute per key. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`. A 429 without `details` is upstream throttling, so back off and retry
3. Use `include_domains` and `exclude_domains` in place of `site:` operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering
4. Do not combine `recency_minutes` with `after_date` or `before_date`. For `domain_type=research_paper` use `pub_year_min` and `pub_year_max`
5. Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending
6. Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare Web Search API or TinyFish Search?

TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Web Search API's 61.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Web Search API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Which is cheaper for web search, Cloudflare Web Search API or TinyFish Search?

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

### Do Cloudflare Web Search API and TinyFish Search need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Cloudflare Web Search API and TinyFish Search without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Cloudflare Web Search API. TinyFish Search has a hosted endpoint at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cloudflare-web-search", "b": "tinyfish-search"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cloudflare-web-search tinyfish-search`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-web-search.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json

## Other comparisons with Cloudflare Web Search API or TinyFish Search

- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Cloudflare Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-cloudflare-web-search.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-exa-mcp.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-linkup.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-searchapi-io.md)
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- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Linkup vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SerpApi vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Serper vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SerpKite vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Tavily API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [TinyFish Search vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [TinyFish Search vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Grep AI vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tinyfish-search.md)