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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Kagi Search API vs TinyFish Search

TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Kagi Search API leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $12 per 1,000 requests.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 129 search comparisons

Kagi Search APIKagi · HTTP API D48.7/100#807 of 950 TinyFish SearchTinyFish · HTTP API B63.2/100#405 of 950

Which one, for what

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.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 64 against 58
  • Transparency & trust, 69 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

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

TinyFish Search B

Good for Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 8
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 71
  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 78 against 41

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for web search, $0 against $12 per 1,000 requests
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No public status page was found on the site or in the docs

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKagi Search APITinyFish SearchEdge
Reliability16%20850TinyFish Search +42
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27182TinyFish Search +11
Agent ergonomics13%16.27578TinyFish Search +3
Security & auth14%17.56458Kagi Search API +6
Payments & pricing10%12.52045TinyFish Search +25
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84178TinyFish Search +37
Transparency & trust7%8.86952Kagi Search API +17
Negative events≤1500
Total48.7 · D63.2 · B

Facts side by side

FactKagi Search APITinyFish Search
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorKagiTinyFish
Hosted endpointhttps://kagi.com/api/v1/searchhttps://api.search.tinyfish.ai
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for web search$12 per 1,000 requestsfree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Kagi API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the OpenAPI file states Apache-2.0Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy @tiny-fish/mcp is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata
Tools exposednone28
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listedai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent
Last release2026-08-212026-09-29
Terms last updated2026-09-222026-08-17
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2025-12-14
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity535 stars9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk

Verdicts

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.

TinyFish Search

Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training.

Before you call either

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

TinyFish Search

  1. Send the key in the X-API-Key header. The Search host is https://api.search.tinyfish.ai, not agent.tinyfish.ai
  2. Stay under 30 requests a minute per key. On 429, wait for Retry-After. A 429 without details is upstream throttling, so back off and retry
  3. Use include_domains and exclude_domains in place of site: operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering
  4. Do not combine recency_minutes with after_date or before_date. For domain_type=research_paper use pub_year_min and pub_year_max
  5. Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending
  6. Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds

Questions

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

TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Kagi Search API leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.

Which is cheaper for web search, Kagi Search API or TinyFish Search?

TinyFish Search, at free against $12 per 1,000 requests for Kagi Search API. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Kagi Search API and TinyFish Search need an API key?

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

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

Yes. Kagi Search API has a hosted endpoint at https://kagi.com/api/v1/search and TinyFish Search at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.

Other comparisons with Kagi Search API or TinyFish Search

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