Best Free Search API for AI Agents, 2026
Best Free Search API for AI Agents: Exa fast leads 6 free-tier search APIs at 99.3% accuracy on 300 company-news questions, independently benchmarked Sep 26, 2026.
What this page compares. This page ranks measured results from company-news factual lookup (APIs with a free tier).
How to read the result. The table ranks every complete run by its score on the same questions. Latency and cost are shown beside it and not blended into the score.
Company-news factual lookup, APIs with a free tier, ranked by accuracy
Every row ran the same 300 questions. Provider names link to the official docs for the configuration measured.
| Rank | Provider | Accuracy | Answer recall @5 | Median search time | $ / 1k queries | $ / 1k correct | Result tokens | Accuracy / 1k tokens | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa fasttype=fast | 99.3% | 99.3% | 569 ms | $7.00 | $7.05 | 1,987 | 50.0 | $20 signup credit + $10/month |
| 2 | Exa instanttype=instant | 97.7% | 97.3% | 386 ms | $7.00 | $7.17 | 2,128 | 45.9 | $20 signup credit + $10/month |
| 3 | Firecrawlfirecrawl-search | 95.3% | 96.7% | 471 ms | $5.00 | $5.24 | 678 | 141 | 1,000 credits/month |
| 4 | Brave Search llm-contextcount=10 | 94.0% | 94.7% | 590 ms | $5.00 | $5.32 | 2,064 | 45.6 | $5/month |
| 5 | Brave Search webcount=10 · result_filter=web | 93.3% | 91.7% | 613 ms | $5.00 | $5.36 | 817 | 114 | $5/month |
| 6 | Parallel basicmode=basic | 93.3% | 92.0% | 1.8 s | $5.00 | $5.36 | 2,330 | 40.1 | $5/month for eligible organizations |
| 7 | Tavily advancedsearch_depth=advanced | 93.0% | 92.7% | 4.2 s | $16.00 | $17.20 | 2,210 | 42.1 | 1,000 credits/month |
| 8 | TinyFishfree · 30 req/min cap | 92.0% | 90.7% | 2.3 s | $0 | $0 | 441 | 208 | $0 per Search request |
| 9 | Tavily basicsearch_depth=basic | 87.7% | 87.7% | 1.7 s | $8.00 | $9.13 | 1,639 | 53.5 | 1,000 credits/month |
| 10 | Parallel fastmode=fast | 86.0% | 79.0% | 861 ms | $1.00 | $1.16 | 1,839 | 46.8 | $5/month for eligible organizations |
| 11 | Parallel turbomode=turbo | 71.3% | 66.0% | 315 ms | $1.00 | $1.40 | 1,853 | 38.5 | $5/month for eligible organizations |
How the ranking was measured
- Every API received the same natural-language question about a recent company event, one search per question, up to 10 results.
- Each answer is a single verifiable value pinned to an official wire or newsroom URL, fixed before any vendor ran.
- Accuracy is whether the returned results let the same answering model extract the correct value.
- Latency is the search request time. Cost is the recorded list price for the calls made, per 1,000 queries and per 1,000 correct answers.
- The runner and published data are open in openbenchmarks-labs/factual-lookup-company-news-search ↗ and openbenchmarks/OB-News-Websearch ↗. The full methodology is on the Web Search Benchmark →
Questions answered by this comparison
Which provider leads best Free Search API for AI Agents?
Exa fast leads this table at 99.3% accuracy, on 300 company-news questions.
How was this measured?
Every API received the same natural-language question about a recent company event, one search per question, up to 10 results. Each answer is a single verifiable value pinned to an official wire or newsroom URL, fixed before any vendor ran. Accuracy is whether the returned results let the same answering model extract the correct value. Latency is the search request time. Cost is the recorded list price for the calls made, per 1,000 queries and per 1,000 correct answers.
How should speed and cost be read beside the score?
Exa fast recorded 569 ms median search time and $7.00 per 1,000 queries. The most accurate configuration is rarely the fastest or the cheapest, so each is reported in its own column.
Do vendors pay to be ranked?
No. Inclusion and rank do not depend on vendor payments. Every API used the same questions, answering model and scoring.
What does this page not test?
This page ranks measured results from company-news factual lookup (APIs with a free tier).