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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Firecrawl MCP vs Kagi Search API

Firecrawl MCP scores 75.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do web search.

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Firecrawl MCPFirecrawl (Mendable) · MCP server BB75.3/100#50 of 950 Kagi Search APIKagi · HTTP API D48.7/100#807 of 950

Which one, for what

Firecrawl MCP BB

Good for Agents that need the whole pipeline (find URLs, scrape to markdown, crawl, monitor) from one server, and for trying without an account.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 8
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 71
  • Agent ergonomics, 92 against 75
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 41
  • Transparency & trust, 74 against 69

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Open source

Watch for

No x402 or other machine payment

Kagi Search API D

Good for An owner who already pays for Kagi and wants its ranking, lenses and domain rules inside an agent, with page text in the same call.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Public preview since 21 May 2026. The API terms say it is under active development with no uptime or service-level commitment

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runFirecrawl MCPKagi Search APIEdge
Reliability16%20708Firecrawl MCP +62
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28871Firecrawl MCP +17
Agent ergonomics13%16.29275Firecrawl MCP +17
Security & auth14%17.56764Firecrawl MCP +3
Payments & pricing10%12.55020Firecrawl MCP +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88741Firecrawl MCP +46
Transparency & trust7%8.87469Firecrawl MCP +5
Negative events≤1500
Total75.3 · BB48.7 · D

Facts side by side

FactFirecrawl MCPKagi Search API
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorFirecrawl (Mendable)Kagi
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcphttps://kagi.com/api/v1/search
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for web searchnot published$12 per 1,000 requests
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary service under the Kagi API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the OpenAPI file states Apache-2.0
Tools exposed26none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registryio.github.firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-servernot listed
Last release2026-10-012026-08-21
Terms last updated2024-11-052026-09-22
Privacy policy last updated2024-12-26no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity7.5k stars, 29k npm/wk535 stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (8)none

Verdicts

Firecrawl MCP

Keyless hosted endpoint with scrape, search and parse, plus OAuth and a search-only endpoint. No x402 or other machine payment.

Kagi Search API

A public OpenAPI file, typed filters and API keys that can be limited by product and IP address make the API simple to call, at $12 per 1,000 searches. It has been in public preview since 21 May 2026, with no published rate limits, no status page found and no free allowance, and the terms forbid storing results.

Before you call either

Firecrawl MCP

  1. Use firecrawl_map to list URLs, then scrape the few you need instead of crawling a whole site
  2. On the keyless endpoint only scrape, search and parse work. A 429 carries a signup_url for the human
  3. Ask for markdown only. JSON, question and highlight formats add 4 credits a page
  4. Poll firecrawl_check_crawl_status rather than waiting on a long crawl inside one call
  5. Check the URL before scraping. Dead pages still cost a credit

Kagi Search API

  1. Send POST https://kagi.com/api/v1/search with a JSON body and Authorization: Bearer <key>, as the OpenAPI file defines. Only query is required
  2. Set limit to cap results returned. In the mixed search workflow the MCP tool applies the cap to each result category separately
  3. Use extract.count (1 to 10) only when page text is needed. Extraction is billed at the Extract rate on top of the search
  4. Do not store results. The API terms allow only the transient caching an application needs, and require deletion on termination
  5. On 429 back off before retrying. The response covers both rate limiting and an exhausted usage limit, and no Retry-After header is documented

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Firecrawl MCP or Kagi Search API?

Firecrawl MCP scores 75.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Do Firecrawl MCP and Kagi Search API need an API key?

Firecrawl MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Kagi Search API needs an API key.

Can an agent call Firecrawl MCP and Kagi Search API without installing anything?

Yes. Firecrawl MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp and Kagi Search API at https://kagi.com/api/v1/search.

Are Firecrawl MCP and Kagi Search API open source?

Firecrawl MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Kagi Search API.

Other comparisons with Firecrawl MCP or Kagi Search API

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