# Parallel Search and Task APIs vs TinyFish Search

> Parallel Search and Task APIs scores 74 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security & auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $1 per 1,000 requests.…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.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: 2026-10-09

Parallel Search and Task APIs scores 74 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security & auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $1 per 1,000 requests.

- Parallel Search and Task APIs: grade BB, 74/100, rank #77 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/parallel-search-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/parallel-search-api.json
- TinyFish Search: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #366 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json

## Which one, for what

### Parallel Search and Task APIs (BB)

Good for: Agents that mix quick search with long research or enrichment jobs and want one vendor and one bill.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 94 against 82
- Payments & pricing, 75 against 45
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 78
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 52

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Search defaults to advanced mode at $5 per 1,000 when `mode` is left out

### TinyFish Search (B)

Good for: Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 58 against 45

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for web search, $0 against $1 per 1,000 requests
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No public status page was found on the site or in the docs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Parallel Search and Task APIs | TinyFish Search | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 50 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 94 | 82 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 78 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 58 | TinyFish Search +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 75 | 45 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 78 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 52 | Parallel Search and Task APIs +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74 · BB** | **63.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Parallel Search and Task APIs | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Parallel Web Systems | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.parallel.ai/v1/search` | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $1 per 1,000 requests | free |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata |
| Tools exposed | 6 | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.parallel/search-mcp` | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-11 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-11 | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 28 stars, 250k npm/wk, 994k PyPI/wk | 9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.6/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**TinyFish Search.** Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training.

## Before you call either

### 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

### TinyFish Search

1. Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header. The Search host is `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai`, not `agent.tinyfish.ai`
2. Stay under 30 requests a minute per key. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`. A 429 without `details` is upstream throttling, so back off and retry
3. Use `include_domains` and `exclude_domains` in place of `site:` operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering
4. Do not combine `recency_minutes` with `after_date` or `before_date`. For `domain_type=research_paper` use `pub_year_min` and `pub_year_max`
5. Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending
6. Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Parallel Search and Task APIs or TinyFish Search?

Parallel Search and Task APIs scores 74 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security & auth.

### Which is cheaper for web search, Parallel Search and Task APIs or TinyFish Search?

TinyFish Search, at free against $1 per 1,000 requests for Parallel Search and Task APIs. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Parallel Search and Task APIs and TinyFish Search need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Parallel Search and Task APIs and TinyFish Search without installing anything?

Yes. Parallel Search and Task APIs has a hosted endpoint at https://api.parallel.ai/v1/search and TinyFish Search at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.


## For agents

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

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