Fastest web search API for research agents: time per task quality
Ranked on the multi-hop search task of the web search benchmark. Each question combines three or four constraints.
Exa instant (exa-instant) is fastest at 115.0s time / task quality on this run.
Ranked by time / task quality: median agent time divided by F1 (task completion quality). A fast incomplete set costs more.
Most accurate · Fastest · Cheapest · Find companies by criteria · Search + fetch · Full benchmark
Ranking, sorted by time / task quality
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | Time / task quality | Task quality (F1) | Median time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa instant | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 115.0 s | 43.3% | 49.8 s |
| You | POST /v1/searchextraction_mode=highlights | 124.7 s | 38.6% | 48.2 s |
| You | POST /v1/searchextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core | 125.0 s | 38.1% | 47.6 s |
| Perplexity | POST /searchsearch_context_size=low | 129.4 s | 37.8% | 48.9 s |
| Parallel turbo | POST /v1/search mode=turboparallel-turbo | 133.6 s | 34.7% | 46.4 s |
| Parallel fast | POST /v1/search mode=fastparallel-fast | 141.8 s | 38.0% | 53.9 s |
| Parallel basic | POST /v1/search mode=basicparallel-basic | 145.4 s | 46.5% | 67.6 s |
| Brave Search | GET /res/v1/web/searchbrave | 155.5 s | 28.0% | 43.5 s |
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 156.0 s | 41.1% | 64.2 s |
| Nimble | POST /v2/searchsearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general | 172.4 s | 30.7% | 53.0 s |
| Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basictavily-basic | 172.7 s | 36.5% | 63.0 s |
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 178.2 s | 40.6% | 72.3 s |
| Parallel advanced | POST /v1/search mode=advancedparallel-advanced | 188.9 s | 44.2% | 83.4 s |
| Exa deep | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 197.2 s | 45.4% | 89.5 s |
| Tavily advanced | POST /search search_depth=advancedtavily-advanced | 224.4 s | 41.1% | 92.2 s |
| TinyFish | GET api.search.tinyfish.aitinyfish | 241.0 s | 26.6% | 64.2 s |
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 246.6 s | 30.4% | 75.0 s |
| Nimble | POST /v2/searchsearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general | 278.4 s | 24.1% | 67.2 s |
| Seltz | POST /v1/search scope=companiesseltz-companies | 379.7 s | 14.5% | 55.2 s |
| SERP (RapidAPI) | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.comserp | 8480.0 s | 0.4% | 31.4 s |
Time / task quality is median agent time divided by F1 (task completion quality). Ranked by time / task quality so a fast incomplete set costs more.
Search plus fetch, same sort
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | Time / task quality | Task quality (F1) | Median time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | POST /searchsearch_context_size=high | 115.7 s | 46.6% | 53.9 s |
| Exa instant | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 117.0 s | 44.9% | 52.5 s |
| You | POST /v1/searchextraction_mode=highlights | 118.4 s | 38.5% | 45.6 s |
| You | POST /v1/searchextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core | 126.0 s | 38.5% | 48.5 s |
| Parallel turbo | POST /v1/search mode=turboparallel-turbo | 133.4 s | 36.0% | 48.1 s |
| Parallel fast | POST /v1/search mode=fastparallel-fast | 140.3 s | 39.3% | 55.1 s |
| Brave Search | GET /res/v1/web/searchbrave | 153.4 s | 29.4% | 45.1 s |
| Parallel basic | POST /v1/search mode=basicparallel-basic | 162.2 s | 42.3% | 68.6 s |
| Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basictavily-basic | 162.4 s | 38.1% | 62.0 s |
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 170.5 s | 39.9% | 68.0 s |
| Nimble | POST /v2/searchsearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=[markdown] | 189.1 s | 31.3% | 59.2 s |
| Parallel advanced | POST /v1/search mode=advancedparallel-advanced | 191.6 s | 42.2% | 80.9 s |
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 192.8 s | 42.0% | 81.0 s |
| Exa deep | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 198.9 s | 48.2% | 95.8 s |
| TinyFish | GET api.search.tinyfish.aitinyfish | 209.6 s | 30.2% | 63.4 s |
| Tavily advanced | POST /search search_depth=advancedtavily-advanced | 225.9 s | 41.0% | 92.6 s |
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 247.2 s | 33.2% | 82.1 s |
| Nimble | POST /v2/searchsearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=[markdown] | 280.3 s | 25.8% | 72.4 s |
| Seltz | POST /v1/search scope=companiesseltz-companies | 369.4 s | 16.3% | 60.1 s |
| SERP (RapidAPI) | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.comserp | — | 0.0% | 33.4 s |
Time / task quality is median agent time divided by F1 (task completion quality). Ranked by time / task quality so a fast incomplete set costs more.
Common questions
What is the fastest web search API for research agents?
Exa instant (exa-instant) is fastest at 115.0s time / task quality (search-only): median agent time divided by F1. Raw latency without quality would reward APIs that return quickly and incompletely.