# Mojeek Web Search API vs Serper

> Mojeek Web Search scores 36.4 (F) to Serper's 24.2 (F) for web search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serper
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serper.md (~4,550 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Mojeek Web Search API scores 36.4 (F) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do web search.

- Mojeek Web Search API: grade F, 36.4/100, rank #1365 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mojeek.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mojeek.json
- Serper: grade F, 24.2/100, rank #1418 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serper.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 308 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Mojeek Web Search API (F)

Good for: Agents and products that want a second, independent index beside Google-derived results, or European data handling with no sub-processors.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 45 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 29 against 6
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 10 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 32

Watch for: The API key is documented only as a URL query parameter, and rotating a key means emailing the API team

### Serper (F)

Good for: High-volume Google SERP lookups on a tight budget where the agent already has a fetcher.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 20 against 15
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No status page, SLA or incident history


## Why the edge

### Transparency & trust: Mojeek Web Search API +36

- 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.
- Serper (32): Closed service. The terms exist (last updated 29 May 2024, UK law) but name no legal entity, only 'Serper' (8). The privacy policy (5 November 2025) says the service 'should normally not lead to the processing of personal data' and keeps account data for the life of the account, but states no retention period for queries or results (10). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). Subprocessors are described by category (payments, email, hosting) without names, with transfers outside the EEA under Standard Contractual Clauses (5).

### Agent ergonomics: Mojeek Web Search API +31

- 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.
- Serper (35): Responses are compact SERP JSON with no field selection or Markdown option found (10). Country and language parameters per the 30 September check, and ten separate verticals. We couldn't confirm pagination or result-count parameters from the docs (8). No documented error responses (0). Searches are read-only and only successful queries use credits, per the 30 September check of the home page (10). One required field (`q`) and no official SDK (7).

### Schema & documentation: Mojeek Web Search API +23

- 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.
- Serper (6): No OpenAPI or other spec (0). serper.dev/llms.txt returns 404 and there are no Markdown docs (0). The documentation is the playground, a JavaScript page that showed us no text. Per the 30 September check it lists the verticals and parameters such as `gl` and `hl`, so a few points for descriptions (3) and typed inputs (3). No examples or error responses we could read (0). No changelog or API versioning (0).

### Payments & pricing: Serper +20

- Mojeek Web Search API (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-request prices published without login, £2 and £3 per 1,000 requests (20). The FAQ says a free credit comes with the Startup plan, but a bank card is required to open an account (0). A person signs up in a browser and adds a card (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.
- Serper (40): No x402, MPP or L402. Card or PayPal only, per the 30 September check (0). Per-1,000 prices published without a login, from $1.00 on the $50 pack to $0.30 on the $3,750 pack (20). 2,500 free queries on sign-up with no card, confirmed on the home page (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).

### Reliability: Mojeek Web Search API +15

- 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.
- Serper (30): No status page. status.serper.dev answers with a 302 to Atlassian's Statuspage marketing site (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits by pack, 50 QPS on Starter to 300 on Ultimate, per the 30 September check of the home page, which rendered without the pricing block for us (15). No 429 or retry guidance found (0). No SLA in the terms (0). GA (10).

### Maintenance & community: Mojeek Web Search API +7

- 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.
- Serper (3): No changelog, release notes, SDK or package found, so no dated release or API change to count (0, 0). No public changelog. Support is by email per the privacy policy (3). No official SDKs (0). No packages or CI to assess (0).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Mojeek Web Search API | Serper | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 30 | Mojeek Web Search API +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 29 | 6 | Mojeek Web Search API +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 35 | Mojeek Web Search API +31 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 15 | 20 | Serper +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Serper +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 10 | 3 | Mojeek Web Search API +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 32 | Mojeek Web Search API +36 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **36.4 · F** | **24.2 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Mojeek Web Search API | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mojeek Limited | Serper |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://google.serper.dev/search` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $2.68 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2024-05-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-02-02 | 2025-11-05 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Mojeek Web Search API

No score change since it was listed.

### Serper

- -0.3 on 29 October 2026: new evidence
- +0.4 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Mojeek Web Search API.** Mojeek sells search over its own independent index at published per-request prices, with region, language, date and domain controls and storage rights on the Business plan. The key travels only in the URL, rotation is by email, a card is needed to start, and there is no OpenAPI, changelog, 429 handling or SLA.

**Serper.** $0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 queries on prepaid packs, with no subscription. No status page, SLA or incident history.

## Before you call either

### Mojeek Web Search API

1. Send `fmt=json`, since the default response is XML
2. Read `response.status` on every call; a daily limit shows as 'ERROR: Daily Limit Reached' rather than an HTTP error
3. Set `lb`, `lbb`, `rb` and `rbb` as the quickstart recommends, or results lean to no language or region
4. Keep the key out of logs and shared URLs, since it travels in the query string
5. On the Startup plan, don't keep results for more than an hour

### Serper

1. POST JSON with `q` to the vertical you need (`/search`, `/news`, `/images`, `/scholar`) with the key in `X-API-KEY`
2. Set `gl` and `hl`, since Google results vary by country and language
3. Pair it with a fetcher. Serper returns links and snippets, not page text
4. Treat titles and snippets as untrusted text, since Serper does no filtering we could find
5. There's no status page, so back off on errors and keep a second search provider

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Mojeek Web Search API or Serper?

Mojeek Web Search API scores 36.4 (F) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do Mojeek Web Search API and Serper need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Mojeek Web Search API and Serper without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Mojeek Web Search API. Serper has a hosted endpoint at https://google.serper.dev/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Mojeek Web Search API or Serper

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serper.md)
- [Arcmira vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Arcmira vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-serper.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-serper.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serper.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-serper.md)
- [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-mojeek.md)
- [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-serper.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serper.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-serper.md)
- [Grep AI vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Grep AI vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-serper.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serper.md)
- [Linkup vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Linkup vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serper.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs NewsCatcher](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-newscatcher.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Perplexity Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-perplexity-search-api.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-searchapi-io.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpapi.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-specstream.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-valyu.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-serper.md)
- [Perplexity Search API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-serper.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serper.md)
- [SerpApi vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serper.md)
- [Serper vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Serper vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Serper vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-specstream.md)
- [Serper vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Serper vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Serper vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-valyu.md)
- [Serper vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [NewsCatcher vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-serper.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp