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Head to head · Seo rankings · October 2026 research run

Google Search Console API vs Moz API

Google Search Console API scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Moz API's 45.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Moz API leads on reliability. Both do seo rankings.

Google Search Console APIGoogle · HTTP API C59/100#508 of 841 Moz APISEOmoz, Inc. · HTTP API E45.3/100#769 of 841

Which one, for what

Google Search Console API C

Good for An agent reporting on or monitoring search performance and index status for sites its user owns, with first-party click and impression counts.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 75 against 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 82 against 74
  • Security & auth, 56 against 38
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 28

Watch for

Data covers only properties the signed-in user has owner, full or read access to. It cannot be asked about any other domain

Moz API E

Good for Agents that need Domain Authority, backlink lists, link intersects, keyword volume and difficulty, search intent and ranking keywords at a low entry price, on a read-only data set.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 42 against 37

Watch for

No working public status page was found, and moz.statuspage.io reports the Moz Status page as inactive

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGoogle Search Console APIMoz APIEdge
Reliability16%203742Moz API +5
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27550Google Search Console API +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.28274Google Search Console API +8
Security & auth14%17.55638Google Search Console API +18
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Google Search Console API +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87128Google Search Console API +43
Transparency & trust7%8.85859Moz API +1
Negative events≤1500
Total59 · C45.3 · E

Facts side by side

FactGoogle Search Console APIMoz API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGoogleSEOmoz, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://searchconsole.googleapis.comhttps://api.moz.com/jsonrpc
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuthAPI key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0Proprietary service under the Moz API General Conditions (effective 12 August 2026 for new subscribers). Displaying Moz data to others requires attribution under the API legal page
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-232026-08-14
Terms last updated2021-11-092026-08-12
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012025-04-08
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity12k stars, 70k npm/wk, 31.8M PyPI/wknone

Verdicts

Google Search Console API

The API is free, with published quotas of 1,200 Search Analytics queries a minute per site and typed filters that accept regular expressions. It covers only properties the signed-in user manages, returns at most 50,000 rows a day per search type, and has no status page, SLA or dedicated changelog. A person must complete OAuth consent first.

Moz API

The JSON-RPC API documents every error code, its rate limits and the row cost of each method, and failed validation uses no quota. No working status page, SLA, machine-readable spec or official SDK was found. Tokens carry no scopes, and the free plan needs a credit card.

Before you call either

Google Search Console API

  1. URL-encode the property in the path. A URL-prefix property needs its trailing slash, and a Domain property is written sc-domain:example.com
  2. Query one day at a time and page with startRow in steps of 25,000 until a response has no rows
  3. Leave page and query out of dimensions when totals must be accurate. Grouping by either drops some data
  4. Ask for webmasters.readonly unless the task adds or deletes properties or sitemaps
  5. After a quota exceeded error wait 15 minutes. If it repeats, the daily load quota is spent, so shorten date ranges and drop page or query grouping

Moz API

  1. Send a request id of at least 24 characters (letters, numbers and hyphens). A UUID works. Shorter ids are rejected with -32654.
  2. Stop on a 401. Ten 401 or 403 responses in five minutes block the caller for 30 minutes.
  3. On 429 with code -32658 wait the Retry-After seconds. On code -32650 no wait time is given, so back off exponentially.
  4. Call quota.lookup (free) before large pulls. List methods charge one row per result, and limit is capped at 50 on link lists.
  5. Poll async.call.lookup for data.keyword.serp.generate, and collect the result within 20 seconds of first seeing it complete.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Google Search Console API or Moz API?

Google Search Console API scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Moz API's 45.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Moz API leads on reliability.

Do Google Search Console API and Moz API need an API key?

Google Search Console API uses an OAuth sign-in. Moz API needs an API key.

Can an agent call Google Search Console API and Moz API without installing anything?

Yes. Google Search Console API has a hosted endpoint at https://searchconsole.googleapis.com and Moz API at https://api.moz.com/jsonrpc.

Other comparisons with Google Search Console API or Moz API

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