# SearchApi

> SearchApi is a real-time SERP and search-data API that gives applications and AI agents structured JSON access to results from 100+ search engines — Google Search, Maps, News, Scholar, Images, Shopping, Trends, Jobs, Patents; YouTube, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo; marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay and BestBuy; travel surfaces like Google Flights, Google Hotels and Airbnb; and answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. It handles proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and geographic/locale targeting server-side, and ships a hosted MCP server plus configurable tool "bundles" so agents can be handed a capability instead of a whole catalog.

<!-- generated: 2026-08-13 | method: generated | source: apis.yml + repo artifacts.
     SearchApi serves no llms.txt of its own — https://www.searchapi.io/llms.txt returns HTTP 404 (probed 2026-08-13). -->

## API
- Base URL: https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search (single endpoint, parameterized by `engine`)
- Methods: GET and POST. POST (added January 2026) takes the same parameters as a JSON body.
- Auth: `Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>` header (preferred) or `api_key` query param
- Required params: `engine`, `q`. Common: `location`/`uule` (mutually exclusive), `gl`, `hl`, `device`, `page`, `time_period`, `safe`, `filter`, `verbatim`
- Response: JSON with `search_metadata`, `search_parameters`, `search_information`, `organic_results`, `pagination`, plus engine-specific blocks (`answer_box`, `knowledge_graph`, `ads`, `local_results`, `shopping_ads`, `related_searches`, ...)
- The response is polymorphic on the `engine` you requested and carries NO type tag in the body. Parse against the engine you asked for.
- Account API: `GET /api/v1/me` — monthly allowance, current usage, remaining credits, `searches_this_hour`, `hourly_rate_limit`
- Analytics API: `GET /api/v1/search_analytics` — per-engine success rate, error rate and latency buckets for your own traffic
- Enterprise: `zero_retention=true` disables logging and storage of the request

## Limits and errors
- Hourly cap: up to 20% of the plan's monthly credits each hour
- NO rate-limit response headers of any kind — no `X-RateLimit-*`, no `RateLimit-*`, no `Retry-After`. Headroom is visible only by polling `GET /api/v1/me`.
- Billing is pay-per-success: only HTTP 200 consumes a credit. One MCP tool call = one credit.
- Errors are a flat `{"error": "<message>"}` JSON body. Not RFC 9457 problem+json, no error codes, no published error reference page.
- Deep pagination: `next_page_token` grows to 8KB+ and will produce HTTP 413 or 414 on a GET. Switch to POST with a JSON body.
- Correlation: every response returns an `x-request-id` UUID header.

## Docs
- Documentation & API reference: https://www.searchapi.io/docs/google
- Account API: https://www.searchapi.io/docs/account-api
- Search Analytics API: https://www.searchapi.io/docs/search-analytics-api
- Pricing (8 self-serve tiers, $40–$5,000/mo, 100 free requests on sign-up): https://www.searchapi.io/pricing
- Changelog / announcements (monthly, dated): https://www.searchapi.io/announcements
- Status (human-readable only; no JSON status API): https://status.searchapi.io/
- Trust center: https://security.searchapi.io/
- Postman collection: https://www.postman.com/searchapiofficial/searchapi-official-postman-collection/
- Terms: https://www.searchapi.io/legal/terms
- Privacy: https://www.searchapi.io/legal/privacy
- Data Processing Agreement: https://www.searchapi.io/legal/dpa
- GitHub: https://github.com/SearchApi

## Agents / MCP
- Hosted MCP server: https://www.searchapi.io/mcp (streamable HTTP; remote only — there is no stdio package to install)
- Listed in the official MCP registry as `io.searchapi/mcp`, status active
- Auth: OAuth (recommended) with scope `mcp`, PKCE `S256`, dynamic client registration at https://www.searchapi.io/oauth/register — or a static `X-MCP-Token` header
- Discovery: https://www.searchapi.io/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and https://www.searchapi.io/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource
- MCP integrations & bundles (max 10 integrations per account): https://www.searchapi.io/integrations/mcp
- Setup: `claude mcp add --transport http searchapi https://www.searchapi.io/mcp`
- 80+ tools; each is the single `search` operation with `engine` pinned to one value
- Blind spot: no MCP tool exposes the Account API, so an agent on MCP alone cannot see its own remaining quota

## Compliance
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified (announced 2026-07-02)
- GDPR compliant (announced 2026-08-06); DPA published; enterprise zero-retention option
- No security.txt and no published vulnerability disclosure policy on any host

## Not published
- No machine-readable OpenAPI, Swagger or GraphQL contract (probed /openapi.json, /openapi.yaml, /swagger.json, /api-docs, /redoc — all 404)
- No A2A agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json or /.well-known/agent.json
- No first-party REST SDK in any language; no webhooks, events or AsyncAPI; no CLI
- No OpenID Connect configuration; the OAuth server serves the MCP endpoint only

## Repo artifacts (API Evangelist)
- OpenAPI (generated from docs): openapi/searchapi-search-api-openapi.yml, openapi/searchapi-account-api-openapi.yml
- Overlay: overlays/searchapi-search-api-overlay.yaml
- Authentication: authentication/searchapi-authentication.yml
- OAuth scopes (MCP): scopes/searchapi-scopes.yml
- Conventions: conventions/searchapi-conventions.yml
- Errors: errors/searchapi-problem-types.yml
- Rate limits: rate-limits/searchapi-rate-limits.yml
- Plans & pricing: plans/searchapi-plans-pricing.yml
- Data model: data-model/searchapi-data-model.yml
- MCP server: mcp/searchapi-mcp.yml — registry manifest: mcp/searchapi-server.json
- MCP tool crosswalk: mcp/searchapi-tool-crosswalk.yml
- Agent skills: skills/_index.yml
- Packages/connectors: packages/searchapi-packages.yml
- Collections: collections/searchapi-search-api.postman_collection.json, collections/searchapi-search-api.opencollection.json
- Changelog: changelog/searchapi-changelog.yml
- Lifecycle: lifecycle/searchapi-lifecycle.yml
- Conformance: conformance/searchapi-conformance.yml
- Well-known probe: well-known/searchapi-well-known.yml
- Domain security: security/searchapi-domain-security.yml
- Trust center: security/searchapi-trust-center.yml