# SearchAPI.io vs SerpApi

> SerpApi has a score of 62.6 (B) against SearchAPI.io's 51.4 (D). Both do web search. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 67 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpapi.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpapi.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpapi.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: 2026-10-05

SerpApi has a score of 62.6 (B) against SearchAPI.io's 51.4 (D). Both do web search. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 67 points.

- SearchAPI.io: grade D, 51.4/100, rank #351 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/searchapi-io.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/searchapi-io.json
- SerpApi: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #216 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpapi.json

## Which one, for what

Pick SearchAPI.io for reliability (+30).

Pick SerpApi for schema & documentation (+8), agent ergonomics (+36), security & auth (+12), maintenance & community (+67), transparency & trust (+23).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SearchAPI.io | SerpApi | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 60 | SearchAPI.io +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 67 | SerpApi +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 88 | SerpApi +36 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 28 | 40 | SerpApi +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 82 | SerpApi +67 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 85 | SerpApi +23 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **51.4 · D** | **62.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SearchAPI.io | SerpApi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | SearchApi | SerpApi |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search` | `https://serpapi.com/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 3 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.searchapi/mcp` | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | none | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**SearchAPI.io.** 99.9% SLA on every plan and no incidents on the status page since August. MCP exposes over 100 tools with no toolsets.

**SerpApi.** Over 100 engines behind one GET URL, with `json_restrictor` field selection and `output=md`. 25 incidents on the status feed from July to 1 October 2026, including an outage across all APIs on 10 September.

## Before you call either

### SearchAPI.io

1. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`, not `api_key=` in the URL
2. Connect the MCP through OAuth or the `X-MCP-Token` header, not the registry's `?token=` URL
3. Call the REST API with `engine=` when context is tight. The MCP loads over 100 tool definitions
4. Page Google results with `page`. `num` is fixed at 10
5. Pace bursts. One hour can use at most 20 per cent of the plan's monthly searches

### SerpApi

1. Use the MCP with `Authorization: Bearer`, not the key-in-path URL the README leads with
2. Read `serpapi://engines/<engine>` before calling a new engine, since `params` isn't typed
3. Add `json_restrictor` or `output=md` to cut tokens, and `mode: compact` on the MCP
4. A 429 means either the hourly limit or an empty balance. Check the account before retrying
5. Repeat a search within the hour and the cached copy is free. Set `no_cache=true` only when freshness matters

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- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.md)
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