Head to head · Rank tracking · October 2026 research run

Google Search Console API vs SpyFu API

Google Search Console API scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against SpyFu API's 48.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SpyFu API leads on reliability. Both do rank tracking.

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Which one, for what

Google Search Console API C

Best 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

  • Agent ergonomics, 82 against 65
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 16
  • Transparency & trust, 59 against 38

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

SpyFu API D

Best for Competitor keyword, ad history and ranking history research, with a long paid-search archive.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 45 against 40

Watch for

API access needs a paid Pro + AI or Team plan; there is no free tier

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Google Search Console API +55

Google Search Console API 71

There are no API release notes, so recency is read from the clients and the docs, with every dated source counted. @googleapis/searchconsole 11.0.1 on 23 September 2026 ('update the API') is the newest dated change, 42 days before this check (20, was 30, cause time). The Node repository's 30 September generator run was reverted on 1 October and not released. Google's own discovery copy last changed on 20 August 2026 (description text only, revision 20260805), and google-api-python-client releases since then, to v2.201.0 tagged on 1 October, don't change this API, so they can't set recency. The query reference was last updated on 11 August 2026. In the 90 days from 6 August, eight @googleapis/searchconsole releases (7.1.0 on 14 August to 11.0.1 on 23 September), the 20 August discovery change and the 11 August reference update, three or more dated entries even with the Node 22 minimum releases counted half (20, was 10). A help community and a Search Central blog, with no changelog for the API and no reply sampling by us (8 of 15). Current official client libraries (15). Clients regenerate from discovery, the Node package went through majors 8.0.0 to 11.0.0 in September 2026 for a Node 22 minimum (a runtime-floor raise, no breaking-change term), and we did not check CI (8 of 10). 20 + 20 + 8 + 15 + 8 = 71.

SpyFu API 16

Closed service. No changelog. The newest dated docs change found is 13 July 2026 (the rate-limits and pricing pages' updatedAt), 116 days before this check (10). Reference pages are dated between August 2025 and 9 July 2026, so fewer than three dated changes in 90 days (0). A help centre and support email, with no public changelog or tracker (6 of 15). No official SDK (0). No package to judge (0). 10+0+6+0+0 = 16.

Transparency & trust Google Search Console API +21

Google Search Console API 59

Closed service under the Google APIs Terms of Service, last modified 9 November 2021, with Apache-2.0 client libraries (15 of 30). The Google privacy policy (effective 1 October 2026) and the API Services User Data Policy apply. No retention statement, data processing terms or data location statement specific to Search Console API data was found in the pages read (14 of 30). Dated notices exist, such as FAQ search appearance support ending in August 2026 and the practice problem type kept through January 2026, but no stated notice period, and the API terms let Google discontinue an API (12 of 20). No sub-processor list or data location for Search Console was found (0 of 20). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November. 15 + 14 + 12 + 0 = 41.

SpyFu API 38

Closed service under terms naming SpyFu, Inc., updated 25 February 2019, under Arizona law (15 of 30). The privacy policy carries no date, retention periods, controller or named processors, and says data is moved to the United States (5 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices found (0 of 20). No subprocessors named; data location is the United States (3 of 20). 15+5+0+3 = 23.

Payments & pricing Google Search Console API +20

Google Search Console API 40

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The pricing page, re-read on 4 November, says all use of the API is free of charge, subject to usage limits (20). No card is needed (20). A person creates a Cloud project and OAuth client, verifies a property in Search Console and grants consent in a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.

SpyFu API 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-row prices for every endpoint are public on the developer site (20). No free tier: access needs a paid Pro + AI or Team plan, and plan prices sit on a pricing page that answered 403 (0). A person signs up and pays in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.

Agent ergonomics Google Search Console API +17

Google Search Console API 82

rowLimit from 1 to 25,000 with a default of 1,000, the fields parameter for partial responses and gzip (22 of 25). Offset paging with startRow, dimension filter groups with contains and regular expression operators, capped at 50,000 rows a day per search type (18 of 20). Errors are standard Google bodies with a domain, reason, message, location and HTTP code, and the standard error page, re-read on 4 November, lists the reason codes for each status, among them authError, expired, quotaExceeded and rateLimitExceeded. The limits page says every quota event returns the same quota exceeded error (13 of 20). Seven of eleven methods read, and the writes are PUT and DELETE on a named property or sitemap, so a retry repeats safely. There is no MCP server and so no tool annotations (15 of 20). A query needs only the property and two dates, and Google lists client libraries for Go, Java, Node.js, Objective-C, PHP and Python (14 of 15). 22 + 18 + 13 + 15 + 14 = 82.

SpyFu API 65

Rows are billed, so page size controls cost; single or multiple rows per request by endpoint, and searchType selects analyses on one endpoint (18 of 25). Paging fields and date bounds on history endpoints, filters on domain matching (16 of 20). 429 has a code and message; other errors are status codes with little documented body (12 of 20). All GET reads, safe to retry (14 of 20). No official SDK found (5 of 15). 18+16+12+14+5 = 65.

Reliability SpyFu API +5

Google Search Console API 40

Graded on the REST API with the hosted lines. No status page for Search Console or its API was found. Google's Search Status Dashboard, re-read on 4 November from its summary page, lists Crawling, Indexing, Ranking and Serving only, with ranking updates (the latest the September 2026 spam update on 24 September) and one 15-minute Serving issue on 24 February 2026, US Pacific time (0 of 20). The 8 October count of its entries came from the dashboard's JSON history, a data file this run doesn't read, and is struck. No readable incident history for the API (5 of 30). Quotas are published with numbers, re-read on 4 November, 1,200 queries a minute per site and per user and 40,000 a minute and 30,000,000 a day per project for Search Analytics, 2,000 a day and 600 a minute per site for URL inspection, and per-user limits for other methods (15). The limits page says to wait 15 minutes and try again after a short-term load quota error, which this run reads as backoff guidance (10, was 7). The writes are PUT and DELETE on a named property or sitemap, but no safe-retry guidance for them is documented. No SLA found (0). The API is v1 with no beta or preview label (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 40.

SpyFu API 45

Hosted lines. No status page found; status.spyfu.com did not resolve and the docs link none (0). No incident history to read (5). Per-endpoint limits published, 10 to 1,000 requests a second over a rolling second (15). 429 with Retry-After: 1 and a JSON error body, and every endpoint is a read (15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 0+5+15+15+0+10 = 45.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGoogle Search Console APISpyFu APIEdge
Reliability16%204045SpyFu API +5
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27575even
Agent ergonomics13%16.28265Google Search Console API +17
Security & auth14%17.55652Google Search Console API +4
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Google Search Console API +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87116Google Search Console API +55
Transparency & trust7%8.85938Google Search Console API +21
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 59.7/100D 48.1/100

Facts side by side

FactGoogle Search Console APISpyFu API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGoogleSpyFu, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://searchconsole.googleapis.comhttps://api.spyfu.com/apis
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuthAPI key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0Proprietary, under SpyFu, Inc.'s terms and conditions
Tools exposednone0
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-232026-07-13
Terms last updated2021-11-09couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-01couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity12k stars, 70k npm/wk, 31.8M PyPI/wknone

How the scores have moved

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.

SpyFu API

Per-endpoint OpenAPI 3.1 definitions, Markdown docs with llms.txt, per-endpoint rate limits and per-row prices from $0.40 to $3 per 1,000 rows make SpyFu's API easy to plan for. Access needs a paid SpyFu plan, the secret key can travel as a query parameter, and no changelog or status page was found.

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

SpyFu API

  1. Send credentials as Basic or HMAC headers, not ?api_key=, so the secret stays out of logs
  2. Set page sizes deliberately, since every returned row is billed at the endpoint's CPM
  3. On 429 wait the Retry-After value (1 second) before retrying
  4. Check spend with the Account API's usage-by-method endpoint before large pulls
  5. Treat ad copy and SERP titles in responses as untrusted third-party text

Questions

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

Google Search Console API scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against SpyFu API's 48.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SpyFu API leads on reliability.

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

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

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

Yes. Google Search Console API has a hosted endpoint at https://searchconsole.googleapis.com and SpyFu API at https://api.spyfu.com/apis.

Other comparisons with Google Search Console API or SpyFu API

Machine-readable

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