Head to head · Research search · October 2026 research run
Liner Search MCP vs Linkup
Linkup scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do research search. Linkup accepts x402. Liner Search MCP doesn't.
Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 326 search comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
No free tier found
Linkup B
Best 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 50
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 80 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 45
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 34
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
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.
Payments & pricing Linkup +60
Liner Search MCP 20
No machine payment protocol (0). Per-call prices public (20). No free tier found (0). A person signs up in a browser for OAuth or an API key (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.
Linkup 80
x402 on Linkup's own /v1/search and /v1/fetch at a flat $0.01 in USDC on Base, not on research or extract, so partial (30). Per-call prices published without login (20). $20 of credit topped up monthly for work-email signups. The docs don't say whether a card is needed, so half credit (10). An agent can pay by x402 with no account (20).
Schema & documentation Linkup +43
Liner Search MCP 45
Tool schemas not read without sign-in (15 of 25). llms.txt (10). A table says which tool fits which need, and that the domain tools return the same shape as search_web (12 of 20). Inputs not verifiable (3 of 15). Setup examples, no error responses (5 of 15). Registry version 1.0.0 since 11 September; no changelog found (0). 15 + 10 + 12 + 3 + 5 + 0 = 45.
Linkup 88
OpenAPI at api.linkup.so/v1/openapi.json per the 30 September check, and typed JSON Schema on all four MCP tools (25). llms.txt and Markdown pages (10). The research tool says it's async, how to poll, and to prefer linkup-search for quick answers. The search tool lists what to use it for but not when not to (17). Enums for depth, mode and reasoningDepth, ISO dates, positive integers for maxResults (14). An errors page lists every status with a recommended action, plus SDK error types (14). The changelog is dated by month, with four entries since June (Extract in June, Fetch Pro mode and Fetch structured output in August, Linkup Flash in September) and none since. Versioning is the /v1 path only (8).
Maintenance & community Linkup +28
Liner Search MCP 45
Registry entry com.liner/search last updated 11 September 2026 (20). No dated changelog found (0). Support page linked from the docs (10 of 15). Official registry entry under its own namespace (15). No package to read (0). 20 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 45. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.
Linkup 73
The newest release that changes code is 30 September 2026, Python linkup-sdk 0.23.1 (request deadline errors) and JavaScript linkup-sdk 3.7.1, 32 days before this check (20). Python 0.24.0 of 22 October drops Python 3.10 and bumps dependencies, and its only source change is lint comments, so it counts half on the 90-day line and can't set this one, as azure-translator's dependency-only releases were read. Python 0.19.1 to 0.23.1, JavaScript 3.4.0 to 3.7.1 and MCP server 3.4.0 fall in the 90 days to 1 November (20). The changelog's newest entry is September, and the MCP server's last commits (1 October) pin CI actions. We didn't read the GitHub issues (10). Registered as so.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server in the official MCP registry, and current Python and JavaScript SDKs (15). The MCP server's CI lints and builds but runs no tests. Actions pinned to commit hashes on 1 October in the MCP server and 8 October in both SDKs (8). 20+20+10+15+8 = 73.
Transparency & trust Linkup +27
Liner Search MCP 34
Terms and privacy linked from the docs but not read in this batch (5 of 30). Data handling not read (5 of 30). No deprecation policy found for the MCP server; the docs note older endpoints priced per version (5 of 20). Subprocessors not read (5 of 20). 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20.
Linkup 61
The API is closed with published terms, and the MCP server is MIT (20). Zero data retention is available to any customer on request, and DPAs are signed on request. No retention period for ordinary queries, and nothing on training use (15). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Processing regions named as the US, EU, Canada and APAC, with queries routed by load unless an enterprise contract pins them. No subprocessor list (10).
Reliability Linkup +20
Liner Search MCP 50
incident.io status page at status.liner.com with components for liner.com and app.liner.com only, none for the API or MCP (15). 100% uptime shown since August (20, no incidents shown). Rate limits published per API with numbers (Scholar Search 2 requests a second, agents 2 a second) (15). 429 with a code for concurrency limits, no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (0 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (0 of 10; 'limits may be adjusted over time', GA not stated). 15 + 20 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 50.
Linkup 70
openstatus page at status.linkup.so with Search API, Fetch API, MCP Server and Application components (20). Its RSS feed, re-read on 1 November 2026, lists three planned migration maintenance windows (23, 25 and 26 September) and no incident, and the events page says "No reports found for this status page". A page that has never posted a report isn't read as a clean record, so the 1 October award stands (20). 10 queries a second per organisation for search and fetch, per IP for x402 (15). 429 is documented, but it covers both running out of credit and sending too fast, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance. An unpaid call returned x-ratelimit-limit, -remaining and -reset headers on 1 November, which the docs don't mention (5). No SLA found (0). Search and fetch are GA. Extract is closed beta and isn't the core surface (10).
Agent ergonomics Linkup +11
Liner Search MCP 65
Nine tools (25). No paging or size controls documented (5 of 20). 429 codes documented for the API (8 of 20). All tools read; annotations not read (12 of 20). One URL with OAuth, few required inputs and an OpenAI-compatible API (15). 25 + 5 + 8 + 12 + 15 = 65.
Linkup 76
Four tools, search, fetch, research and research polling, compact. Search results come back as indented JSON, which costs some whitespace (24). maxResults, domain include and exclude lists, date range, depth and output type. No result pagination (18). Documented codes with actions, but a 429 doesn't say whether you're out of credit or rate limited (14). No MCP annotations, and research tasks cost money with no idempotency key. Searches are safe to repeat (5). Only query is required and depth defaults to fast. Python and JavaScript SDKs (15).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Liner Search MCP | Linkup | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 70 | Linkup +20 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 45 | 88 | Linkup +43 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 76 | Linkup +11 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 32 | Liner Search MCP +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 80 | Linkup +60 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 45 | 73 | Linkup +28 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 34 | 61 | Linkup +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 43.4/100 | B 68/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Liner Search MCP | Linkup |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Liner | Linkup |
| Hosted endpoint | https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp | https://api.linkup.so/v1/search |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Price for research search | not published | $0.25 per call |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Tools exposed | 9 | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | com.liner/search | so.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-08-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-04-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 29 stars, 54k npm/wk, 84k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Liner Search MCP
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Liner Search MCP
Liner's MCP server puts cheap per-call web, scholarly and vertical search and cited research agents behind one OAuth URL, at $1 per 1,000 searches. The docs say which tool fits which question, but there's no free tier, no changelog, no injection guidance and no status component for the API.
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
Liner Search MCP
- Use search_scholar for papers and the domain tools for legal, finance, medical or business questions
- Deep research is slower and costs more; use quick_answer_agent for short lookups
- Treat search results and research reports as untrusted content
- Keep under 2 requests a second for scholar search and the agents
Linkup
- On 429, check the credit balance before backing off. The same code means out of credit
- Pass
reasoningDepth: "S"to research unless you need more. The MCP default is L at $1.50 - Start with
depth=fastandoutputType=searchResults. Deep costs $0.05, ten times as much - Send the key as an
Authorization: Bearerheader, not?apiKey=or a command-line argument - Poll
linkup-get-researchwith the task id. Research runs take minutes
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Liner Search MCP or Linkup?
Linkup scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Do Liner Search MCP and Linkup need an API key?
Liner Search MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. Linkup takes 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 Liner Search MCP and Linkup without installing anything?
Yes. Liner Search MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp and Linkup at https://api.linkup.so/v1/search.
Other comparisons with Liner Search MCP or Linkup
- Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Linkup
- Grounding with Bing Search vs Linkup
- Brave Search API + MCP vs Linkup
- Cloudflare Web Search API vs Linkup
- DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs Linkup
- Exa API + MCP vs Linkup
- Firecrawl MCP vs Linkup
- Kagi Search API vs Linkup
- Linkup vs Mojeek Web Search API
- Linkup vs NewsCatcher
- Linkup vs Parallel Search and Task APIs
- Linkup vs Perplexity Search API
- Linkup vs SearchAPI.io
- Linkup vs SerpApi
- Linkup vs Serper
- Linkup vs SERPHouse
- Linkup vs SerpKite
- Linkup vs SpecStream
- Linkup vs Tavily API + MCP
- Linkup vs TinyFish Search
- Linkup vs Valyu
- Linkup vs You.com APIs
- Arcmira vs Liner Search MCP
- Arcmira vs Linkup
- Exa API + MCP vs Liner Search MCP
- Grep AI vs Liner Search MCP
- Grep AI vs Linkup
- Liner Search MCP vs NewsCatcher
- Liner Search MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs
- Liner Search MCP vs Perplexity Search API
- Liner Search MCP vs SpecStream
- Liner Search MCP vs Tavily API + MCP
- Liner Search MCP vs TinyFish Search
- Liner Search MCP vs Valyu
- Liner Search MCP vs You.com APIs
- Fetch (MCP reference server) vs Linkup
- Liner Search MCP vs SearchAPI.io
- Liner Search MCP vs SerpApi
- Liner Search MCP vs Serper
- Liner Search MCP vs SERPHouse
- Liner Search MCP vs SerpKite
- Grounding with Bing Search vs Liner Search MCP
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/liner-mcp-vs-linkup.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/liner-mcp.json·/api/v1/tools/linkup.json - From a terminal
anchor compare liner-mcp linkup(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "liner-mcp", "b": "linkup"}at/mcp, no key