# Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpApi (slim)

> SerpApi scores 63.5 (B) to Mojeek Web Search's 36.4 (F) for web search. Mojeek Web Search is cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $25 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpapi.md (~5,500 tokens) · this version ~3,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpapi.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpapi
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

SerpApi scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against Mojeek Web Search API's 36.4 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do web search. Mojeek Web Search API is cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $25 per 1,000 requests.

- Mojeek Web Search API: F 36.4, rank #1365 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mojeek.min.md
- SerpApi: B 63.5, rank #510 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.min.md
- Mojeek Web Search API, good for Agents and products that want a second, independent index beside Google-derived results, or European data handling with no sub-processors. Also Cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $25 per 1,000 requests.
- SerpApi, good for An agent that needs what a specific engine shows (Google verticals, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Scholar, YouTube, Amazon) parsed to JSON. Ahead on Reliability, 65 against 45; Schema & documentation, 67 against 29; Agent ergonomics, 88 against 66; Security & auth, 40 against 15; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Maintenance & community, 82 against 10; Transparency & trust, 84 against 68. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Runs on your own machine.

| Category | Mojeek Web Search API | SerpApi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 45 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 29 | 67 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 66 | 88 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 15 | 40 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 10 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 68 | 84 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Mojeek Web Search API | SerpApi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Mojeek Limited | SerpApi |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://serpapi.com/search` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $2.68 per 1,000 requests | $25 per 1,000 requests |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-08-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-02-02 | 2026-08-27 |
| Popularity | none | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, SerpApi +72: Mojeek Web Search API 10 (Read for a closed service. No API changelog, release notes or dated API change were found, and the blog's posts since 2024 are about search in general, so the last change can't be dated (0). No dated changes in the 90 days from 8 August (0). A staff member answered API questions on the community forum within a day in December 2025 and October 2026, and support is by email; no public changelog (10 of 15). No official SDKs or MCP server (0). No public packages or CI to measure (0). 0 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 10.); SerpApi 82 (Release notes carry dated entries almost daily, the latest on 2 November 2026, and serpapi-python 1.2.0 shipped on 30 October (30). Since 4 August, serpapi-python 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.2.0, MCP server 1.0.3 and 2.0.0, and serpapi-cli 0.3.0, 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, besides the release notes (20). Release notes run several entries a week and the MCP repo merged a fix on 27 October. Open issues weren't read, since GitHub's pages refuse our reader (12). The MCP server is in the official registry as io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp and the Python SDK and CLI are current, but the JavaScript SDK's last release is still 2.2.1 of 26 July 2025 (12). The MCP, Python and CLI repositories run tests in CI; pass state not read (8).)
- Schema & documentation, SerpApi +38: Mojeek Web Search API 29 (No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract (0). No llms.txt (404) and no Markdown pages for agents (0). The parameters page states what each parameter does, with notes on when not to use `reg` and `clufmt`, but nothing on when another endpoint fits better (12 of 20). Every parameter has a type, defaults and valid ranges (tlen 0 to 127, dlen 0 to 511, rbb and lbb 1 to 100, up to 25 domains), though `reg` is called an enum without listing its values (11 of 15). One curl example and annotated JSON and XML response formats; errors appear only as a `status` string with one example (6 of 15). No API version, changelog or dated release notes, and the quickstart and the parameters page give different hosts (0). 0 + 0 + 12 + 11 + 6 + 0 = 29.); SerpApi 67 (No OpenAPI or similar spec for the REST API. The MCP server publishes per-engine parameter lists as resources (`serpapi://engines/<engine>`), which we count as a partial contract (10). llms.txt, `pricing.md` and Markdown twins of the docs pages, such as search-api.md (10). Each engine page describes every parameter, and the MCP tool says when to use it but not when not to (14). Parameters list allowed values on the engine pages, but the MCP `search` tool takes one free-form `params` object (7). Examples on every engine page, and a status-and-errors page documents 400, 401, 403, 404, 410, 429 and 5xx with a JSON `error` field (14). Dated release notes with several entries a week, though the API itself isn't versioned (12).)
- Security & auth, SerpApi +25: Mojeek Web Search API 15 (One key per account, documented only as the `api_key` query parameter, and rotation or revocation is by email to the API team (a staff reply of 22 October 2026 on the community forum asks for the key's last 8 digits). One all-powerful key (10) less 10 for the key in the URL (0). Search is read-only and there is nothing to write, but no scoped or restricted key (10 of 20). Results are third-party titles and snippets, with no prompt-injection guidance found (0). No audit log or per-call usage view was found in the docs; the FAQ mentions budget alerts on the account (0 of 15). security.txt names security@mojeek.com, with no Expires field. No bug bounty, disclosure policy, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 found; the API page claims compliance with European rules such as the EU Data Act without a certification (5 of 20). 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 15.); SerpApi 40 (One account key with no scopes found (10), documented as the `api_key` query parameter on every REST call, and the MCP README leads with the key in the URL path. The hosted MCP also accepts `Authorization: Bearer` (minus 10). Search is read-only and the MCP tool carries read-only annotations, but there's no least-privilege key (15). SERP titles and snippets are untrusted text, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0). The Search Archive API returns any search from the last 31 days, and the security page says audit logs cover all critical parts of the service (10). The security page lists SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 as acquired and GDPR and ISO 42001 as in progress, and security@serpapi.com takes reports. serpapi.com/security.txt is valid (expires 1 January 2027), though the /.well-known/ path answers with the HTML security page. No bug bounty or public advisories found (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, SerpApi +22: Mojeek Web Search API 66 (Responses can be sized with `t` (up to 10, 40 or 100 results by plan), `tlen`, `dlen` and opt-in date and size fields (22 of 25). `s` for paging, `since` and `before`, `site`, included and excluded domains, region and language boosting and safe search (20). Errors are a free-text `status` with no documented codes, which an agent can't branch on reliably (5 of 20). Searches only read, so a retry is safe, but no page says whether failed or empty requests are billed (12 of 20). Only `q` and `api_key` are required, with recommended values for the boosts. No official SDK in any language (7 of 15). 22 + 20 + 5 + 12 + 7 = 66.); SerpApi 88 (`json_restrictor` selects fields, `output=md` returns Markdown (the MCP README claims 50 per cent fewer tokens on average) and the MCP `compact` mode drops metadata. One core MCP tool plus two opt-in UI tools (22). `start`, `num`, location, language and engine-specific filters, plus `async` with the Search Archive API (20). Documented status codes and `search_metadata.status` values, though one 429 covers both the hourly limit and an empty balance (14). Searches are read-only, failed and cached searches aren't billed, and the MCP tool sets readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false (18). Only `q` is required for most engines. llms.txt lists libraries in 11 languages, though the JavaScript one hasn't had a release since July 2025 (14).)
- Reliability, SerpApi +20: Mojeek Web Search API 45 (Read with the hosted lines. status.mojeek.com is a Site24x7 StatusIQ page with Search, Website, Blog and Community components. It is drawn by script, so only its RSS feed could be read, which shows each component's current state (Search operational since 7 September 2026) and no incident entries (15 of 20). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits are published per plan, 5 a second and 100,000 a day on Startup, 10 a second and 400,000 a day on Business (15). Over the daily limit the JSON `status` reads 'ERROR: Daily Limit Reached'; no HTTP 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance was found (0). No SLA, and the API terms say the service is provided as is and may be interrupted without notice (0). Generally available, with only the `lr` parameter marked beta (10). 15 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 45.); SerpApi 65 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.serpapi.com, with per-API components and incident history on its history pages and Atom feed (20). Between 4 August and 2 November the history lists 35 incidents active in the window. Two were wide failures that also list the general API component, each over an hour. From 7 to 9 August an outage across 37 Google and Google Light APIs, including Search, left 'a large number of requests' failing or timing out. On 10 September the vendor posted a 'service outage across all of our APIs', with degradation until 17 September. From 6 October a degradation of 15 Google and Google Light APIs, including Search, which the vendor called a 'partial service outage affecting multiple APIs', was still open on 2 November. Like the single-engine incidents, it hit part of the product and counts as minor. Two majors (5). Hourly throughput published per plan, 50 an hour free to 640,000 on Cloud 54M (15). 429 is documented as either the hourly limit or an empty search balance, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (5). The terms (updated 27 August 2026) promise a 99.95% SLA on all plans with credits up to 100% (10). GA (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 10 + 10 = 65.)
- Transparency & trust, SerpApi +16: Mojeek Web Search API 68 (Closed service with API terms naming Mojeek Limited under English law (15 of 30). The API page states 90-day retention, zero retention on request, no sub-processors and that Mojeek is the processor and the customer the controller, while the API terms say both parties are independent controllers under GDPR, and the privacy policy of 2 February 2022 covers only the website (12 of 30). The terms promise 30 days' notice of material changes and of price changes, but there is no deprecation policy or dated notices (5 of 20). The API page says there are no sub-processors and infrastructure is owned and run in Europe, in a UK data centre per the about page (18 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 18 = 50.); SerpApi 84 (The API is closed under one terms-and-privacy page, and the MCP server is MIT (18). The legal page and the security page agree that search data is deleted after 31 days, ZeroTrace mode (an enterprise parameter) stores nothing, and a DPA is available on request (26). Deprecations show up as dated release notes, such as eBay's Sold and Completed filters on 28 September 2026, but there's no notice policy, and the terms allow termination without notice (8). Named subprocessors (AWS, Cloudflare, Wasabi, Stripe, Intercom and others) and US hosting with Standard Contractual Clauses (18).)