---
title: "Best Web Search API for Agentic Company Research, Independently Benchmarked | Openbenchmarks"
description: "Best web search API for agentic company research: autonomous agents building company sets from live search, ranked on F1, precision and recall. Open source."
url: https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/best-web-search-api-for-agentic-company-research
---

[](https://openbenchmarks.com/) 

[← multi-turn company search](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) 

[benchmarks](https://openbenchmarks.com/) / [web-search](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) / [multi-turn company search](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) / for agentic company research 

45 questions · multi-hop · 20 configurations · updated 26 Sept 2026

# Best web search API for agentic company research

**What the benchmark found.** Parallel basic (parallel-basic) leads F1 at 46.5% across 20 configurations on 45 multi-constraint questions; 67.6s median time per task, $0.922 model cost per run. The agent is held constant, so the ranking is the search API's contribution to agentic company research.

**What this page compares.** Agentic company research is the autonomous version of the job: the agent decides what to search, reads what comes back and stops when the set is complete, with no human in the loop. The board measures the search API's share of that outcome with everything else fixed.

**How to read it.** For autonomous use, precision matters more than usual because nobody reviews the list before it is used; exact-set accuracy on the full board is the strictest view. F1 remains the ranking metric.

**Method in one paragraph.** The same agent, prompt, turn budget and tool schema run against every web search API on 45 questions that each define a company set by three or four constraints. Every returned company is resolved to a canonical identity and compared with a human-reviewed gold set; precision, recall, F1 and exact-set are averaged over three runs per question. The model-only baseline is 0.

[Most accurate](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/most-accurate-search-api) · [Fastest](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/fastest-search-api) · [Cheapest](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/cheapest-search-api) · [Find companies by criteria](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/find-companies-by-investor-location-funding) · [Search + fetch](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/search-and-fetch-api-for-ai-agents) · [Full benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) 

[open runner + judge Public in openbenchmarks-labs/multi-turn-company-search; dataset openbenchmarks/OB-Company-Websearch. github → ](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/multi-turn-company-search) 

\[01\] search only

## Ranked by F1, search-only

__Best web search API for agentic company research: search-only__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Parallel basic](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel basic in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=basic parallel-basic | **46.5 ± 1.9** | 88.7 ± 0.9 | 34.4 ± 2.0 | 3.7 ± 2.6 | 67.6 s | 7.4 | $1.120 $0.070 search $1.050 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Exa deep](https://exa.ai "Open Exa deep in a new tab") | POST /search type=deep exa-deep | **45.4 ± 2.0** | 83.2 ± 3.0 | 33.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 89.5 s | 7.4 | $0.717 $0.156 search $0.556 token cost | $0.012 / search |
| [Parallel advanced](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel advanced in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=advanced parallel-advanced | **44.2 ± 1.4** | 87.6 ± 3.4 | 32.0 ± 1.6 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 83.4 s | 7.3 | $0.625 $0.070 search $0.565 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Exa instant](https://exa.ai "Open Exa instant in a new tab") | POST /search type=instant exa-instant | **43.3 ± 1.0** | 82.6 ± 3.8 | 32.2 ± 0.5 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 49.8 s | 7.3 | $0.652 $0.091 search $0.559 token cost | $0.007 / search |
| [Linkup fast](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=fast linkup-fast | **41.1 ± 1.7** | 82.8 ± 1.0 | 30.3 ± 1.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 64.2 s | 7.4 | $0.923 $0.070 search $0.853 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Tavily advanced](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily advanced in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=advanced tavily-advanced | **41.1 ± 2.3** | 83.7 ± 4.2 | 29.8 ± 1.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 92.2 s | 7.4 | $1.029 $0.224 search $0.808 token cost | $0.016 / search |
| [Linkup standard](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup standard in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=standard linkup-standard | **40.6 ± 0.9** | 84.0 ± 7.9 | 29.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 2.6 | 72.3 s | 7.3 | $0.937 $0.070 search $0.867 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [You](https://you.com "Open You in a new tab") | POST /v1/search extraction\_mode=highlights | **38.6 ± 0.8** | 79.3 ± 4.9 | 28.3 ± 0.9 | 4.4 ± 0.0 | 48.2 s | 7.5 | $0.971 $0.070 search $0.901 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [You](https://you.com "Open You in a new tab") | POST /v1/search extraction\_mode=highlights · knowledge=core | **38.1 ± 0.6** | 80.9 ± 1.6 | 27.4 ± 0.9 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 47.6 s | 7.5 | $0.895 $0.070 search $0.827 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Parallel fast](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=fast parallel-fast | **38.0 ± 2.0** | 79.9 ± 4.6 | 27.5 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 53.9 s | 7.6 | $0.460 $0.014 search $0.447 token cost | $0.001 / search |
| [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | POST /search search\_context\_size=low | **37.8 ± 2.1** | 79.3 ± 5.7 | 26.8 ± 1.4 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 48.9 s | 7.7 | $0.334 $0.070 search $0.264 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Tavily basic](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=basic tavily-basic | **36.5 ± 3.2** | 82.5 ± 1.9 | 25.7 ± 2.7 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 63.0 s | 7.7 | $0.615 $0.112 search $0.504 token cost | $0.008 / search |
| [Parallel turbo](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel turbo in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=turbo parallel-turbo | **34.7 ± 2.4** | 80.0 ± 5.2 | 24.8 ± 2.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 46.4 s | 7.6 | $0.419 $0.014 search $0.405 token cost | $0.001 / search |
| [Nimble](https://www.nimbleway.com "Open Nimble in a new tab") | POST /v2/search search\_depth=standard · full\_content=false · focus=general | **30.7 ± 1.4** | 70.3 ± 3.3 | 21.3 ± 1.1 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 53.0 s | 7.7 | $0.467 $0.070 search $0.398 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Firecrawl](https://firecrawl.dev "Open Firecrawl in a new tab") | POST /v2/search firecrawl | **30.4 ± 1.1** | 77.3 ± 4.4 | 20.7 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 75.0 s | 7.9 | $0.282 $0.070 search $0.212 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") | GET /res/v1/web/search brave | **28.0 ± 1.7** | 66.9 ± 8.5 | 19.3 ± 0.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 43.5 s | 8.0 | $0.268 $0.070 search $0.200 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [TinyFish](https://www.tinyfish.ai "Open TinyFish in a new tab") | GET api.search.tinyfish.ai tinyfish | **26.6 ± 1.3** | 64.7 ± 1.5 | 17.9 ± 0.8 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 64.2 s | 7.9 | $0.212 $0.000 search $0.212 token cost | $0 / search |
| [Nimble](https://www.nimbleway.com "Open Nimble in a new tab") | POST /v2/search search\_depth=lite · full\_content=false · focus=general | **25.3 ± 1.1** | 62.8 ± 1.9 | 17.6 ± 1.2 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 67.9 s | 7.9 | $0.234 $0.015 search $0.220 token cost | $0.0011 / search |
| [Seltz](https://seltz.ai "Open Seltz in a new tab") | POST /v1/search scope=companies seltz-companies | **14.5 ± 0.9** | 40.0 ± 3.1 | 9.4 ± 0.7 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 55.2 s | 7.3 | $1.751 $0.070 search $1.681 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [SERP](https://rapidapi.com/herosAPI/api/google-search74 "Open SERP in a new tab") | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.com serp | **0.4 ± 0.6** | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 0.3 ± 0.4 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 31.4 s | 7.8 | $0.103 $0.036 search $0.065 token cost | $0.003 / search |

F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search endpoint the harness calls.

\[02\] search + fetch

## Same sort, with a page-reading tool enabled

__Best web search API for agentic company research: search + fetch__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Exa deep](https://exa.ai "Open Exa deep in a new tab") | POST /search type=deep exa-deep | **48.2 ± 2.1** | 89.4 ± 1.2 | 36.0 ± 2.2 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 95.8 s | 7.5 | $0.683 $0.156 search+fetch $0.526 token cost | $0.012 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | POST /search search\_context\_size=high | **46.6 ± 2.0** | 87.7 ± 5.9 | 34.7 ± 1.1 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 53.9 s | 7.5 | $0.504 $0.070 search+fetch $0.441 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Exa instant](https://exa.ai "Open Exa instant in a new tab") | POST /search type=instant exa-instant | **44.9 ± 0.9** | 85.9 ± 2.5 | 33.5 ± 0.9 | 5.2 ± 1.3 | 52.5 s | 7.5 | $0.653 $0.091 search+fetch $0.557 token cost | $0.007 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Parallel basic](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel basic in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=basic parallel-basic | **42.3 ± 1.1** | 81.3 ± 2.8 | 31.3 ± 1.1 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 68.6 s | 7.5 | $1.089 $0.061 search+fetch $1.033 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Parallel advanced](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel advanced in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=advanced parallel-advanced | **42.2 ± 1.1** | 87.6 ± 0.3 | 30.1 ± 1.1 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 80.9 s | 7.4 | $0.599 $0.061 search+fetch $0.538 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Linkup standard](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup standard in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=standard linkup-standard | **42.0 ± 1.8** | 90.7 ± 2.0 | 30.5 ± 2.0 | 3.0 ± 3.4 | 81.0 s | 7.5 | $0.911 $0.070 search+fetch $0.848 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Tavily advanced](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily advanced in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=advanced tavily-advanced | **41.0 ± 1.3** | 89.4 ± 6.0 | 29.1 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 92.6 s | 7.3 | $0.898 $0.195 search+fetch $0.685 token cost | $0.016 / search $0.0032 / fetch |
| [Linkup fast](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=fast linkup-fast | **39.9 ± 1.3** | 85.3 ± 3.6 | 28.6 ± 1.3 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 68.0 s | 7.3 | $0.903 $0.061 search+fetch $0.837 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Parallel fast](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=fast parallel-fast | **39.3 ± 3.3** | 82.3 ± 6.6 | 28.2 ± 2.0 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 55.1 s | 7.6 | $0.441 $0.014 search+fetch $0.427 token cost | $0.001 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [You](https://you.com "Open You in a new tab") | POST /v1/search extraction\_mode=highlights | **38.5 ± 1.6** | 85.2 ± 2.7 | 26.9 ± 1.7 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 45.6 s | 7.4 | $0.864 $0.065 search+fetch $0.795 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [You](https://you.com "Open You in a new tab") | POST /v1/search extraction\_mode=highlights · knowledge=core | **38.5 ± 2.4** | 78.2 ± 2.5 | 28.3 ± 3.0 | 3.7 ± 1.3 | 48.5 s | 7.4 | $0.894 $0.065 search+fetch $0.830 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Tavily basic](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=basic tavily-basic | **38.1 ± 1.4** | 81.2 ± 5.9 | 27.8 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 62.0 s | 7.8 | $0.610 $0.112 search+fetch $0.507 token cost | $0.008 / search $0.0032 / fetch |
| [Parallel turbo](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel turbo in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=turbo parallel-turbo | **36.0 ± 3.5** | 83.6 ± 4.0 | 25.0 ± 2.6 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 48.1 s | 7.7 | $0.414 $0.013 search+fetch $0.400 token cost | $0.001 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Firecrawl](https://firecrawl.dev "Open Firecrawl in a new tab") | POST /v2/search firecrawl | **33.2 ± 2.1** | 83.3 ± 0.8 | 22.7 ± 1.8 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 82.1 s | 7.9 | $0.295 $0.063 search+fetch $0.230 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.0025 / fetch |
| [Nimble](https://www.nimbleway.com "Open Nimble in a new tab") | POST /v2/search search\_depth=standard · full\_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=\[markdown\] | **31.3 ± 1.8** | 73.2 ± 1.9 | 21.7 ± 1.6 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 59.2 s | 7.9 | $0.424 $0.424 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [TinyFish](https://www.tinyfish.ai "Open TinyFish in a new tab") | GET api.search.tinyfish.ai tinyfish | **30.2 ± 3.5** | 70.9 ± 11.3 | 20.9 ± 2.5 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 63.4 s | 7.9 | $0.219 $0.000 search+fetch $0.219 token cost | $0 / search $0 / fetch |
| [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") | GET /res/v1/web/search brave | **29.4 ± 1.6** | 73.5 ± 5.8 | 20.4 ± 0.9 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 45.1 s | 8.0 | $0.285 $0.060 search+fetch $0.222 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [Nimble](https://www.nimbleway.com "Open Nimble in a new tab") | POST /v2/search search\_depth=lite · full\_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=\[markdown\] | **27.1 ± 1.5** | 68.5 ± 4.4 | 18.7 ± 0.9 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 72.0 s | 8.0 | $0.237 $0.237 token cost | $0.0011 / search |
| [Seltz](https://seltz.ai "Open Seltz in a new tab") | POST /v1/search scope=companies seltz-companies | **16.3 ± 1.5** | 49.5 ± 2.4 | 10.2 ± 1.2 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 60.1 s | 7.5 | $1.741 $0.070 search+fetch $1.671 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| [SERP](https://rapidapi.com/herosAPI/api/google-search74 "Open SERP in a new tab") | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.com serp | **0.0 ± 0.0** | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 33.4 s | 7.8 | $0.102 $0.039 search+fetch $0.066 token cost | $0.003 / search |

F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.

\[03\] faq

## Common questions

### What is the best web search API for agentic company research?

Parallel basic (parallel-basic) leads F1 at 46.5% across 20 configurations on 45 multi-constraint questions; 67.6s median time per task, $0.922 model cost per run. The agent is held constant, so the ranking is the search API's contribution to agentic company research.

### Does the F1 leader also win on speed for agentic company research?

No. Exa instant (exa-instant) has the best time per task quality at 115.0s (median time divided by F1) against 145.4s for the F1 leader Parallel basic (parallel-basic). Pick by the constraint that binds your agent.

### How is agentic company research different from one-shot lookup?

Lookup is one query, one fact, scored on answer accuracy; that board is on the web search hub. Agentic company research here means recovering a complete company set defined by three or four constraints, which takes several searches and is scored on precision, recall and F1\. The model-only baseline is 0: none of these sets is in training data.

\[04\] same run, other pages

[Best web search API for company research →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/best-web-search-api-for-company-research)  · [Best web search API for deep research →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/best-web-search-api-for-deep-research)  · [Best web search API for multi-turn search →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/best-web-search-api-for-multi-turn-search)  · [Best web search API for research agents →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search/best-web-search-api-for-research-agents) 

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