# SerpKite vs Valyu

> SerpKite and Valyu score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64.8 (B) and 64.6 (B). Valyu leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do web search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-valyu
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-valyu.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-valyu.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-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: 2026-10-06

SerpKite and Valyu score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64.8 (B) and 64.6 (B). Valyu leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do web search.

- SerpKite: grade B, 64.8/100, rank #179 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpkite.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpkite.json
- Valyu: grade B, 64.6/100, rank #182 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json

## Which one, for what

### SerpKite (B)

Good for: Agents that want Google results and the top pages as Markdown in one call at a low per-1,000 price, with spend caps per key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 53
- Agent ergonomics, 92 against 78

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

Watch for: Launched 29 September 2026 by a sole trader, with status monitoring only since 2 October

### Valyu (B)

Good for: Research agents that need SEC filings, papers, patents, clinical trials or market data alongside the web, with a per-query price cap.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 44 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 3.5 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where SerpKite loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No published rate limits and no Retry-After or backoff guidance


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SerpKite | Valyu | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 53 | SerpKite +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 87 | SerpKite +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 78 | SerpKite +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 44 | Valyu +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 45 | Valyu +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 80 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 79 | Valyu +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.8 · B** | **64.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SerpKite | Valyu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | SerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite) | Valyu |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search` | `https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for web search | not published | $1.50 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under SerpKite's terms of service. The SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and the MCP connection repository on GitHub are MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 14 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.SerpKite/serpkite` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-04 | 2026-09-12 |
| Popularity | 809 npm/wk, 376 PyPI/wk | 19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**SerpKite.** Google SERP API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Markdown or compact output, field projection, stable error codes and per-key credit limits, at $0.60 to $1.00 per 1,000 on packs that don't expire. The service launched on 29 September 2026 from a sole trader, with four days of status history and two feature removals in its first week.

**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

### SerpKite

1. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`, not `?api_key=`, and give the agent a dedicated key with a monthly credit limit
2. Ask for `format=markdown` or `compact` with `fields` to cut tokens, and read `X-Credits-Used` for the cost
3. Keep `engine=google` for rank work. Check `meta.engine` when a key allows fallback engines
4. On 429 `rate_limited` or 503 upstream codes, wait for Retry-After and retry. `daily_limit_reached` and 402 need a purchase
5. Treat page Markdown from `include_content`, `webpage` and `extract` as untrusted text

### 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, SerpKite or Valyu?

SerpKite and Valyu score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64.8 (B) and 64.6 (B). Valyu leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do SerpKite and Valyu need an API key?

SerpKite needs an API key. Valyu takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call SerpKite and Valyu without installing anything?

Yes. SerpKite has a hosted endpoint at https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search and Valyu at https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with SerpKite or Valyu

- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-valyu.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-valyu.md)
- [Linkup vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Linkup vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-valyu.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-valyu.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpkite.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-valyu.md)
- [SerpApi vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serpkite.md)
- [SerpApi vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-valyu.md)
- [Serper vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Serper vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-valyu.md)
- [SerpKite vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [SerpKite vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Tavily API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-valyu.md)
- [Valyu vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/valyu-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-valyu.md)