# Kagi Search API vs TinyFish Search

> TinyFish Search scores 63.2 (B) to Kagi Search's 48.7 (D) for web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $12 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search.md (~2,950 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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.

- Kagi Search API: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #807 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kagi-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kagi-search.json
- TinyFish Search: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #405 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 129 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## 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

| Category | Weight | Kagi Search API | TinyFish Search | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 8 | 50 | TinyFish Search +42 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 82 | TinyFish Search +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 78 | TinyFish Search +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 58 | Kagi Search API +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 45 | TinyFish Search +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 78 | TinyFish Search +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 52 | Kagi Search API +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.7 · D** | **63.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kagi Search API | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Kagi | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://kagi.com/api/v1/search` | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $12 per 1,000 requests | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Kagi API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the OpenAPI file states Apache-2.0 | Proprietary 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 exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-08-21 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-22 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 535 stars | 9 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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "kagi-search", "b": "tinyfish-search"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare kagi-search tinyfish-search`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kagi-search.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json

## Other comparisons with Kagi Search API or TinyFish Search

- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Grep AI vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-linkup.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-searchapi-io.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serpapi.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serper.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Linkup vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SerpApi vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Serper vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SerpKite vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Tavily API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [TinyFish Search vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [TinyFish Search vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Grep AI vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tinyfish-search.md)