# Linkup vs SerpApi

> Linkup has a score of 69.1 (B) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 50 points. Linkup accepts x402. SerpApi doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpapi.md (~1,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpapi.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpapi.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

Linkup has a score of 69.1 (B) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 50 points. Linkup accepts x402. SerpApi 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
- SerpApi: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #216 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpapi.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Linkup for reliability (+10), schema & documentation (+21), payments & pricing (+50).

Pick SerpApi for agent ergonomics (+12), security & auth (+8), transparency & trust (+21).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Linkup | SerpApi | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 60 | Linkup +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 67 | Linkup +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 88 | SerpApi +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 32 | 40 | SerpApi +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 80 | 30 | Linkup +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 82 | Linkup +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 85 | SerpApi +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.1 · B** | **62.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Linkup | SerpApi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Linkup | SerpApi |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.linkup.so/v1/search` | `https://serpapi.com/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $0.01/call | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 3 |
| 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 | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `so.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server` | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 29 stars, 54k npm/wk, 84k PyPI/wk | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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`.

**SerpApi.** Over 100 engines behind one GET URL, with `json_restrictor` field selection and `output=md`. 25 incidents on the status feed from July to 1 October 2026, including an outage across all APIs on 10 September.

## 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

### SerpApi

1. Use the MCP with `Authorization: Bearer`, not the key-in-path URL the README leads with
2. Read `serpapi://engines/<engine>` before calling a new engine, since `params` isn't typed
3. Add `json_restrictor` or `output=md` to cut tokens, and `mode: compact` on the MCP
4. A 429 means either the hourly limit or an empty balance. Check the account before retrying
5. Repeat a search within the hour and the cached copy is free. Set `no_cache=true` only when freshness matters

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