# Linkup vs Parallel Search and Task APIs

> Parallel Search and Task APIs has a score of 74.1 (BB) against Linkup's 69.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is security & auth, 13 points. Linkup accepts x402. Parallel Search and Task APIs doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-parallel-search-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-parallel-search-api.md (~1,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-parallel-search-api.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-parallel-search-api.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: 2026-10-05

Parallel Search and Task APIs has a score of 74.1 (BB) against Linkup's 69.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is security & auth, 13 points. Linkup accepts x402. Parallel Search and Task APIs doesn't.

- Linkup: grade B, 69.1/100, rank #116 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/linkup.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/linkup.json
- Parallel Search and Task APIs: grade BB, 74.1/100, rank #51 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/parallel-search-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/parallel-search-api.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Linkup for payments & pricing (+5).

Pick Parallel Search and Task APIs for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+6), agent ergonomics (+5), security & auth (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Linkup | Parallel Search and Task APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 75 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 94 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 81 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 32 | 45 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 80 | 75 | Linkup +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 87 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 66 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.1 · B** | **74.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Linkup | Parallel Search and Task APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Linkup | Parallel Web Systems |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.linkup.so/v1/search` | `https://api.parallel.ai/v1/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $0.01/call | payer tooling only |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 6 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `so.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server` | `ai.parallel/search-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-29 |
| Popularity | 29 stars, 54k npm/wk, 84k PyPI/wk | 28 stars, 250k npm/wk, 994k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3.6/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**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`.

**Parallel Search and Task APIs.** Fast-mode search at $1 per 1,000 with 10 excerpted results, and Extract at $1 per 1,000 URLs. Search defaults to advanced mode at $5 per 1,000 when `mode` is left out.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Parallel Search and Task APIs

1. Pass `mode: "fast"` on every search. Without it you pay the advanced rate
2. Create Task runs with `max_retries=0` and check for an existing run before retrying
3. Give an `objective` plus two or three short `search_queries`. That's what ranks the excerpts
4. On 402, check available balance rather than total. Running tasks reserve credit
5. Prefer natural-language source guidance to domain filters. The docs say filters can cut result quality

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