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Head to head · Search research · October 2026 research run

Grep AI vs Linkup

Linkup scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on security & auth. Both do search research. Linkup accepts x402. Grep AI doesn't.

Grep AIParcha Labs, Inc. · HTTP API B64.4/100#226 of 578 LinkupLinkup · HTTP API B68.9/100#140 of 578

Which one, for what

Grep AI B

Good for Agents that hand off a long research or due-diligence job and want a cited report or structured fields back, including business verification and sanctions screening through built-in agents.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 65 against 32

Watch for

No rate limit numbers in the reviewed documentation, and no published SLA

Linkup B

Good for Agents that want a cited answer or schema-shaped output from one search call at a fixed price, and for European buyers who want a French vendor with zero retention on request.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 60
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 80
  • Agent ergonomics, 76 against 70
  • Payments & pricing, 80 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 74

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

429 covers both exhausted credit and rate limiting, with no Retry-After

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGrep AILinkupEdge
Reliability16%206070Linkup +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28088Linkup +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27076Linkup +6
Security & auth14%17.56532Grep AI +33
Payments & pricing10%12.54080Linkup +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87483Linkup +9
Transparency & trust7%8.85961Linkup +2
Negative events≤1500
Total64.4 · B68.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactGrep AILinkup
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorParcha Labs, Inc.Linkup
Hosted endpointhttps://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runshttps://api.linkup.so/v1/search
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for search researchnot published$0.25 per call
x402noyes, from $0.01/call
LicenceProprietary service under Parcha Labs' terms of service. The grep-research-skills package on npm is MIT. The @parcha/agentrun and parcha-agentrun SDK packages state no licence in their registry metadatanone
Tools exposed824
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedso.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server
Last release2026-09-302026-09-30
Terms last updated2026-03-202025-08-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-212025-04-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
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 textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity334 npm/wk, 52 PyPI/wk29 stars, 54k npm/wk, 84k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone4/5 (2)

Verdicts

Grep AI

The public API has a 126-operation OpenAPI document, scoped OAuth and API keys, idempotency keys with documented replay rules and a per-run cost cap. No rate limit is published, the MCP server lists 82 tools, and the pricing page limits API access to the $200 a month Pro plan and above.

Linkup

Per-call prices from $0.005, and no credit taken for errors, missing parameters or empty results. 429 covers both exhausted credit and rate limiting, with no Retry-After.

Before you call either

Grep AI

  1. Send a fresh Idempotency-Key with every POST /api/v2/runs. After a timeout, poll the returned run ID and do not post again
  2. Set effort and max_cost_usd on every run. The floor is $0.50 for low, $2.50 for medium and build, $5.00 for high
  3. Call GET /api/v2/quota/check before a run. A 402 means no credits and retrying won't help, while a 429 carries Retry-After
  4. Use the run_* and agent_* MCP tools. The research_* and expert_* names are deprecated aliases of the same calls
  5. Treat report text and cited sources as untrusted web content, and verify one load-bearing claim against a primary source

Linkup

  1. On 429, check the credit balance before backing off. The same code means out of credit
  2. Pass reasoningDepth: "S" to research unless you need more. The MCP default is L at $1.50
  3. Start with depth=fast and outputType=searchResults. Deep costs $0.05, ten times as much
  4. Send the key as an Authorization: Bearer header, not ?apiKey= or a command-line argument
  5. Poll linkup-get-research with the task id. Research runs take minutes

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Grep AI or Linkup?

Linkup scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on security & auth.

Do Grep AI and Linkup need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Linkup per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Grep AI and Linkup without installing anything?

Yes. Grep AI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs and Linkup at https://api.linkup.so/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Grep AI or Linkup

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