# NewsCatcher vs Serper

> NewsCatcher scores 67.5 (B) to Serper's 24.2 (F) for search news. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-serper
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-serper.md (~5,150 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

NewsCatcher scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on payments & pricing. Both do search news.

- NewsCatcher: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #321 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/newscatcher.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/newscatcher.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

### NewsCatcher (B)

Good for: Agents that need current news across languages, grouped into stories, or tables of events and company news on a schedule.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 94 against 6
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 35
- Security & auth, 45 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 79 against 32

Watch for: The current News API and agent launched on 30 October 2026 and the MCP repository went public on 6 November 2026

### Serper (F)

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

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No status page, SLA or incident history


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: NewsCatcher +88

- NewsCatcher (94): OpenAPI 3.1 for the News API (version 1.3.9, 4 paths) and the agent (version 1.5.1, 33 paths), linked from llms.txt, and typed JSON Schema on every MCP tool through Pydantic (25). llms.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and a docs MCP server (10). MCP tool descriptions say when to use each and which tool to use instead, such as `list_articles` for older news; the REST reference explains each endpoint and the 'Choose an API' page compares them (17 of 20). Inputs are typed with enums for effort, mode and dimensions, length and range limits such as a 500-character query and limit 1 to 100, and required fields marked (13 of 15). Runnable examples in curl, Python and JavaScript, and an error table with retry advice for every status. The agent spec carries no response examples (14 of 15). Versioned APIs with a dated changelog, the latest entries on 4 November 2026, and separate changelogs for the v3 News API and CatchAll (15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 13 + 14 + 15 = 94.
- 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).

### Maintenance & community: NewsCatcher +73

- NewsCatcher (76): Read for a closed service, with the MCP repository read as code. News API 1.1.0 and Agent 1.5.0 on 4 November 2026, MCP server 0.1.0 on 6 November and v3 News API 3.25.0 on 6 November (30). In the 90 days from 8 August, the 30 October launch, News API 1.1.0, Agent 1.5.0, MCP 0.1.0 and v3 releases 3.19.0 to 3.25.0 (20). Public dated changelogs, support by email and Pylon, and a security policy with a 3-business-day target. The MCP repository is a day old, so there are no issues to judge (10 of 15). The CatchAll MCP server is in the official registry under the verified namespace com.newscatcherapi, but the new server isn't, and no official SDK for the current API was found; the Enterprise APIs list libraries (8 of 15). The MCP repository runs its test suite in CI with a read-only token; pass state not read (8 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 8 + 8 = 76.
- 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).

### Agent ergonomics: NewsCatcher +49

- NewsCatcher (84): 15 MCP tools in four toolsets, chosen per connection with `?tools=`, and tools return compact text rather than the full JSON. 15 for 11 to 30 tools plus 7 for toolsets (22 of 25). `limit`, `search_window`, effort, language, country, publisher, coverage and content-type filters, sorting, and paging on `/articles`; agent tables come back up to 200 rows at a time over MCP (20). Every status is documented with whether to retry; the agent returns stable `code` values, while the News API body has a `status_code` and a message meant for people (17 of 20). Every tool carries readOnlyHint and idempotentHint, writes carry destructiveHint, `start_research` has a free `dry_run`, and refused or failed calls aren't charged. No idempotency key for starting runs (17 of 20). Only `q` is required, with medium effort and a 7-day window as defaults. No official SDK for the current API was found; the docs show raw HTTP in three languages (8 of 15). 22 + 20 + 17 + 17 + 8 = 84.
- 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).

### Transparency & trust: NewsCatcher +47

- NewsCatcher (79): The API is closed under terms of 2 November 2026 naming NewsCatcher, Inc., and the MCP server is MIT, so between the two bands (20 of 30). The terms say inputs and generated data are not used to train models, a DPA applies automatically, and the privacy policy gives retention periods (server logs 7 days, API logs with query text 90 days, then archived indefinitely, billing records about seven years). They agree with each other, but indefinite archives of query logs hold it back (22 of 30). The terms promise 30 days' email notice before a paid product or API version is discontinued, with refunds of unused credits, and the v3 News API has a migration guide (15 of 20). A sub-processor list dated 2 November 2026 with each provider's location and the data it handles. The MCP repository deploys to Vercel and can send pseudonymised analytics to PostHog, and neither appears on the list (16 of 20). 20 + 22 + 15 + 16 = 73.
- 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).

### Reliability: NewsCatcher +37

- NewsCatcher (67): Read with the hosted lines, for the News API, the agent and the hosted MCP server. status.newscatcherapi.com (Hyperping) shows one News API component with 99.820% uptime from August to November 2026 and an incident history. The agent and the MCP server have no component of their own (20). In the 90 days from 8 August, one incident, on 1 September 2026, when the vendor wrote that for about four hours a higher-than-usual number of requests to the production News API timed out because of one client's queries. Read as one major (10). Rate limits published per plan, 1 request a second free and up to 10 on pay as you go, with exact limits from the free `GET /subscription` (15). 429 carries Retry-After with instructions to retry the same request, 503 carries Retry-After, and failed or refused requests are not charged. Agent runs and monitor creation have no idempotency keys (12 of 15). An uptime SLA exists only in signed Enterprise agreements; none is published (0). Generally available since 30 October 2026, with OAuth for the MCP server announced as coming soon (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 67.
- 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).

### Security & auth: NewsCatcher +25

- NewsCatcher (45): API keys in the `x-api-key` header, several per account, revocable in the platform, with advice to keep one per application. A 403 for 'a key that may not use this API' suggests per-key API access, but no scopes are documented (20). The MCP server documents `?apiKey=` on the server URL for Claude.ai custom connectors, with a warning, so less 10 (10 of 30). The MCP repository's SECURITY.md says URL keys are rejected unless the operator enables them, which the hosted server does per the docs. Toolsets let an operator load only the read-only `news` tools, write tools carry destructiveHint, and the server tells the assistant to confirm large or hourly agent jobs (14 of 20). Results are third-party article text and summaries, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs or the MCP server's instructions (0 of 15). Every response carries a Correlation-ID, `GET /subscription` shows usage and balance, and runs are listed in the platform. No per-call audit log for the customer was found (7 of 15). The security page and footer claim SOC 2 Type II and link a trust centre on Oneleet, which wasn't read. A vulnerability disclosure policy covers the MCP server. No security.txt (404) and no bug bounty found (14 of 20). 10 + 14 + 0 + 7 + 14 = 45.
- Serper (20): API key in the `X-API-KEY` header, never in the URL. No scopes, multiple keys or rotation found (10). Read-only search with no write surface, but no MCP annotations or least-privilege mode (10). Returns third-party titles and snippets with no prompt-injection guidance (0). No per-call log or audit trail found outside the logged-in dashboard, which we couldn't see (0). serper.dev/.well-known/security.txt returns 404, and we found no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | NewsCatcher | Serper | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 30 | NewsCatcher +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 94 | 6 | NewsCatcher +88 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 35 | NewsCatcher +49 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 20 | NewsCatcher +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Serper +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 3 | NewsCatcher +73 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 32 | NewsCatcher +47 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.5 · B** | **24.2 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | NewsCatcher | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | NewsCatcher, Inc. | Serper |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.newscatcherapi.com/mcp` | `https://google.serper.dev/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for search news | $1 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 15 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-11-02 | 2024-05-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-05 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | 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 | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### NewsCatcher

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

**NewsCatcher.** One key and one credit balance cover a ranked news search, a background research agent and a hosted MCP server with toolsets and annotated tools, under OpenAPI 3.1 specs and a dated changelog. The current API launched on 30 October 2026, the MCP server accepts the key in its URL, and no SLA is published below Enterprise.

**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

### NewsCatcher

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header, and use a separate key for the MCP server so it can be revoked alone
2. Call `start_research` with `dry_run` first, since agent runs cost 1,000 to 6,000 credits
3. Use `effort=low` for quick lookups; the default `medium` costs five times as much
4. Use `/articles` or `list_articles` for news older than 30 days or exact counts; `/search` covers 30 days only
5. On 429 or 503 wait for Retry-After, and quote the Correlation-ID header to support

### 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, NewsCatcher or Serper?

NewsCatcher scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on payments & pricing.

### Do NewsCatcher and Serper need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call NewsCatcher and Serper without installing anything?

Yes. NewsCatcher has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.newscatcherapi.com/mcp and Serper at https://google.serper.dev/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with NewsCatcher or Serper

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