# SerpApi vs Valyu

> Valyu has a score of 64.6 (B) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 20 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-valyu.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

Valyu has a score of 64.6 (B) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 20 points.

- 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
- Valyu: grade B, 64.6/100, rank #179 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json

## Which one, for what

Pick SerpApi for reliability (+7), agent ergonomics (+10), transparency & trust (+6).

Pick Valyu for schema & documentation (+20), payments & pricing (+15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SerpApi | Valyu | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 53 | SerpApi +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 87 | Valyu +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 78 | SerpApi +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 44 | Valyu +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 45 | Valyu +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 80 | SerpApi +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 79 | SerpApi +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.6 · B** | **64.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SerpApi | Valyu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | SerpApi | Valyu |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://serpapi.com/search` | `https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 3 | 6 |
| 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 | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-12 |
| Popularity | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk | 19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Valyu.** Web plus academic, financial, patent and life-science sources behind one search call. No published rate limits and no Retry-After or backoff guidance.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Valyu

1. Set `max_price` and `max_num_results` on every search to bound cost
2. Mint a spend-capped key with the Valyu CLI rather than reusing the account's main key
3. Call `valyu_search`. The legacy per-vertical MCP tools stop working on 2026-12-01
4. A 206 means some sources failed. Check which before treating results as complete
5. DeepResearch is async. Poll `valyu_deepresearch_status` rather than waiting in one call

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