# Perplexity Search API vs SearchAPI.io (slim)

> Perplexity Search scores 70.2 (BB) to SearchAPI.io's 50.1 (D) for web search. Perplexity Search is cheaper for web search, $1 against $4 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-searchapi-io.md (~5,950 tokens) · this version ~3,380 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-searchapi-io.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-searchapi-io
- 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)

Perplexity Search API scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against SearchAPI.io's 50.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SearchAPI.io leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do web search. Perplexity Search API is cheaper for web search, $1 against $4 per 1,000 requests.

- Perplexity Search API: BB 70.2, rank #210 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/perplexity-search-api.min.md
- SearchAPI.io: D 50.1, rank #1065 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/searchapi-io.min.md
- Perplexity Search API, good for Agents on any model that need raw ranked sources with extracted text at a low per-request price, and teams that want cited answers from the same key through the Agent API. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 59; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 52; Security & auth, 56 against 28; Maintenance & community, 82 against 0. Also Cheaper for web search, $1 against $4 per 1,000 requests; Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Runs on your own machine.
- SearchAPI.io, good for Agents that need parsed results from many engines, especially shopping, ads, travel and social sources, at a low price per search. Ahead on Reliability, 90 against 80; Payments & pricing, 30 against 25. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Perplexity Search API | SearchAPI.io |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 90 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 59 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 85 | 52 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 56 | 28 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 25 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 0 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 66 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Perplexity Search API | SearchAPI.io |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Perplexity | SearchApi |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp` | `https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $1 per 1,000 requests | $4 per 1,000 requests |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Perplexity API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the official SDKs Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `ai.perplexity/mcp-server` | `io.searchapi/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | none |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-04-11 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-04-11 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Perplexity Search API +82: Perplexity Search API 82 (Read as a closed service with official SDKs and an open-source MCP server. perplexityai 0.46.1 on PyPI on 23 October 2026 and the MCP server's last commit on 21 October, with changelog entries into November 2026 (30). In the 90 days from 8 August, perplexityai 0.43.7 to 0.46.1 (six releases from 2 October), MCP server 1.2.1 (27 August) and 1.3.0 (25 September, Fast Search on perplexity_search), and Fast Search itself in September (20). A changelog with several entries a month, a community forum with a bug-report category, a GitHub discussion repository and api@perplexity.ai. MCP issue reply times weren't read (10 of 15). The MCP server is in the official registry under the domain-verified ai.perplexity namespace, and the Python and TypeScript SDKs are current (15). The MCP repository runs tests in CI and validates its plugin manifests. Its 1.4.0, prepared on 16 October, is not on npm, which still serves 1.3.0, and the registry's latest entry is 1.2.1 of 27 August (7 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 7 = 82.); SearchAPI.io 0 (No changelog (/changelog answered 404 on 4 November 2026) and no dated API change found, so the last release can't be dated (0). No releases to count (0). No public issue tracker or changelog to judge replies by. A Discord server is linked from the footer and wasn't tested (0). The 15 for io.searchapi/mcp in the official MCP registry rested on a reading of the registry's JSON API, which this run doesn't use, and no ordinary registry page shows the entry, so the line falls to 0, as graphiti, linear-mcp and copilot-studio-mcp read it. No official SDKs were found; the footer links a GitHub organisation whose pages answered 403 (0, 15 before). No public packages or CI (0). 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.)
- Agent ergonomics, Perplexity Search API +33: Perplexity Search API 85 (`max_results` 1 to 20, `max_tokens` and `max_tokens_per_page` cap the extracted text, and results are title, url, snippet and two dates. The MCP server has four tools (23 of 25). Domain, language, recency, publication and update date filters and `country`, with up to five queries in one request. No pagination or offset (16 of 20). 429 bodies name the limit hit, the SDKs map status codes to typed errors, and 402 marks an empty balance. Search-specific error bodies beyond 422 validation are not documented (13 of 20). Searches only read, failed and rate-limited requests are not billed, and the MCP server sets readOnlyHint true, destructiveHint false and idempotentHint false on every tool (18 of 20). Only `query` is required. Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and a Python Search SDK (15). 23 + 16 + 13 + 18 + 15 = 85.); SearchAPI.io 52 (The MCP exposes over 100 tools, one or more per engine, with no toolsets or filtering documented (5). `page`, `time_period`, location, country, language and safe search. Google's `num` has been fixed at 10 since September 2025 (18). Status codes are documented, but not how to recover from each (12). Searches are reads, and only HTTP 200 responses are billed, so retries are cheap. MCP annotations aren't visible (10). Two required parameters, `engine` and `q`. No official SDKs (7).)
- Schema & documentation, Perplexity Search API +30: Perplexity Search API 89 (OpenAPI 3.1.0 at docs.perplexity.ai/openapi.json describes `POST /search` with typed request and response schemas, listed in llms.txt (25). llms.txt indexes every page, each with a Markdown twin (10). The overview says what a result holds, that snippets can be empty, when to use the Search API instead of the Agent API, and that it takes queries not URLs and does not re-fetch pages (19 of 20). `search_type` is an enum, `max_results`, `max_tokens` and `max_tokens_per_page` carry minimum and maximum, country and language codes carry lengths, and `query` is a string or an array. The recency filter is an enum in the docs, and date filters are `MM/DD/YYYY` strings (14 of 15). Python, TypeScript and cURL examples with a recorded response. The spec documents only 200 and 422 for `/search`, and status codes are listed on the SDK error-handling page and the rate-limit page rather than for Search (11 of 15). A public changelog with several entries a month, dated by month only, and an unversioned `/search` path (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 19 + 14 + 11 + 10 = 89.); SearchAPI.io 59 (OpenAPI 3.0 for the Google engine at /openapi/google.yaml with 25 typed parameters. We found no index of specs for the other engines, so 20 of 25. No llms.txt (404 on 4 November 2026) and no Markdown docs for agents (0). The API reference explains each parameter, and the MCP tool definitions aren't public (10). Enums for device, country, language, safe search and time period (14). Examples and a Postman collection, and the spec documents 400, 401, 403, 429 and 500 (12). /api/v1 in the path and no changelog anywhere we looked (3).)
- Security & auth, Perplexity Search API +28: Perplexity Search API 56 (Project API keys, shown once, revocable, and generated and revoked through two documented endpoints with a rotation guide. No per-key scopes or spending limits were found. The hosted MCP server also takes Sign in with Perplexity (OAuth). Keys go in the Authorization header only (22 of 30, as on the Decisions API listing). Search only reads, and MCP clients can disable tools, but any key reaches every API on the account, including the Agent API's sandbox and MCP tools (8 of 20). Snippets are third-party page text, and no guidance on treating them as untrusted was found in the docs, the MCP server or its SECURITY.md (0 of 15). Responses carry a request `id`, and the console shows usage by key. The Audit API covers enterprise organisations' web app events with its own keys, not API calls (8 of 15). security.txt valid until 31 December 2027 linking a security page, a SOC 2 Type II report, a 2025 HIPAA gap assessment and a CAIQlite listed on the trust centre, and a SECURITY.md on the MCP server that takes private reports through GitHub advisories or security@perplexity.ai. The trust centre is drawn by script and wasn't read (18 of 20). 22 + 8 + 0 + 8 + 18 = 56.); SearchAPI.io 28 (API keys with a documented `api_key` query-string option, and OAuth with expiring, rotating tokens for the MCP. The MCP page, re-read on 4 November 2026, now tells clients to send the token in the `X-MCP-Token` header and not in a URL. The registry's `?token=` reading came from a JSON API this run doesn't use and is struck. The `api_key` query option stays documented in the API reference. 20 less 10 (10). Every action is a read, and there are no tool subsets (15). Results are third-party snippets and scraped AI answers, with no injection guidance (0). No per-call audit log found. The privacy policy says account logins are logged by IP (0). The trust centre at security.searchapi.io answers robots.txt with an app page, so it was left unread on 4 November 2026. No certifications, bounty or security.txt (404 on 4 November 2026) found. The partial 3 is kept pending the founder's rule on in-between values (3).)
- Reliability, SearchAPI.io +10: Perplexity Search API 80 (Graded on the hosted lines, for `POST /search` and the hosted MCP server. status.perplexity.com, on incident.io since 10 September 2026, has an API component with an RSS feed and a JSON summary. There is no separate Search component (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the feed lists 'Investigating API issue' on 13 August, resolved with no detail, a usage-based billing issue on 3 September, and on 9 October elevated errors on the website, app and Computer, where the API 'remained operational throughout'. Minor only, with the caveat that history before the migration may be incomplete (20). The Search API is limited to 50 query units a second with a burst of 50 on every tier, and the other APIs publish QPS and token limits per tier (15). 429 carries Retry-After and an `error.type`, the SDKs retry 429 and 5xx twice honouring Retry-After, the Search best-practices page shows backoff, and failed or rate-limited searches are not billed. Searches have no side effects (15). The FAQ says Perplexity does not guarantee uptime, failure frequency or recovery time, and the terms carry no SLA (0). No beta label on the Search API, launched on 25 September 2025 (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 80.); SearchAPI.io 90 (Honeybadger status page at status.searchapi.io with Landing Page and API components and monthly history (20). Re-read on 4 November 2026, it shows no incidents in September, October or November 2026, and its incident feed's newest entry is the 11 February 2026 partial outage, so the window from 6 August is clean (30). The hourly cap is published, 20 per cent of the plan's monthly searches in any hour (15). The OpenAPI file lists a 429 response with an error string, but no `Retry-After` or backoff guidance was found. The partial 5 is kept pending the founder's rule on in-between values (5). The terms of 11 April 2026 give a 99.9% SLA for all plans with a credit of 100% of the monthly price, and the pricing page lists it on every plan (10). GA (10). 20 + 30 + 15 + 5 + 10 + 10 = 90.)
- Payments & pricing, SearchAPI.io +5: Perplexity Search API 25 (No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, pricing page, OpenAPI or llms.txt (0). $5 per 1,000 successful requests, $1 with Fast Search, published without a login, with failed and rate-limited requests not billed (20). Usage is prepaid with a card on the billing page, and no free allowance was found. The console playground needs no key but is a page for a person, not an API allowance (0). A person signs up in the console. The Stripe Projects route provisions a project, key and credits from a terminal, but needs a person's Stripe account with a payment method and a $10 minimum purchase (5 of 20, as on the Decisions API listing). 0 + 20 + 0 + 5 = 25.); SearchAPI.io 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Monthly plans only, priced in public, from $40 for 10,000 searches to $5,000 for 5 million (10). 100 free requests with no card (20). A person has to sign up in a browser (0).)