# DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs Serper

> DeepSeek Search and Fetch scores 53.2 (D) to Serper's 24.1 (F) for web search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

DeepSeek Search and Fetch API scores 53.2 (D) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on payments & pricing. Both do web search.

- DeepSeek Search and Fetch API: grade D, 53.2/100, rank #795 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-search-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-search-api.json
- Serper: grade F, 24.1/100, rank #1090 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serper.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 163 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### DeepSeek Search and Fetch API (D)

Good for: Cheap per-request web search with model-ready summaries and an authority signal, plus page fetching, for agents already on a DeepSeek key and comfortable with data held in the PRC.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 55 against 6
- Agent ergonomics, 81 against 35
- Security & auth, 38 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 42 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 60 against 31

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: Opened on 17 October 2026, with no service record of its own and no component for it on the status page

### Serper (F)

Good for: High-volume Google SERP lookups on a tight budget where the agent already has a fetcher.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No status page, SLA or incident history


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API | Serper | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 30 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 6 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +49 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 35 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +46 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 20 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Serper +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 42 | 3 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 31 | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API +29 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53.2 · D** | **24.1 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek Search and Fetch API | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Serper |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.deepseek.com/v1/tools/search` | `https://google.serper.dev/search` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $0.75 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | none |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2024-05-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-11-05 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**DeepSeek Search and Fetch API.** Search returns up to 50 results with a model-length summary, an authority tier and optional full text, and only successful non-empty calls are billed, at $0.75 per 1,000. It opened on 17 October 2026, with 5 requests a second per account, no OpenAPI file, no free tier, and data held in the PRC under a policy that permits training.

**Serper.** $0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 queries on prepaid packs, with no subscription. No status page, SLA or incident history.

## Before you call either

### DeepSeek Search and Fetch API

1. Keep `query` to 128 characters and put filters in it as operators, such as `site:github.com lang:en after:2026-01-01`
2. Leave `need_content` false and read `summary` first, then call Fetch on the URLs you keep
3. Stay under 5 requests a second per account across all keys. On 408, 429 or 5xx wait and retry, since no Retry-After is documented
4. Don't retry a Fetch 403 or 404 unchanged. The page is blocked by policy, unreachable or has no Markdown
5. Don't send private queries or an end user's IP in `localization`. Data is stored in the PRC

### Serper

1. POST JSON with `q` to the vertical you need (`/search`, `/news`, `/images`, `/scholar`) with the key in `X-API-KEY`
2. Set `gl` and `hl`, since Google results vary by country and language
3. Pair it with a fetcher. Serper returns links and snippets, not page text
4. Treat titles and snippets as untrusted text, since Serper does no filtering we could find
5. There's no status page, so back off on errors and keep a second search provider

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek Search and Fetch API or Serper?

DeepSeek Search and Fetch API scores 53.2 (D) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on payments & pricing.

### Do DeepSeek Search and Fetch API and Serper need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call DeepSeek Search and Fetch API and Serper without installing anything?

Yes. DeepSeek Search and Fetch API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepseek.com/v1/tools/search and Serper at https://google.serper.dev/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with DeepSeek Search and Fetch API or Serper

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

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