Best free web search API for zero-priced requests: TinyFish, $0 per 1,000 queries within 30 requests/minute and 500/hour, with 92.0% search accuracy. Highest measured search accuracy among these free-access providers: Exa fast, 99.3%. Fastest search: Parallel turbo, 348ms (71.3% accuracy).
Compare TinyFish’s free Search endpoint with monthly credits from Exa, Tavily, Brave, Parallel and Firecrawl. Compare 6 providers across 11 configurations, including TinyFish, Exa, Tavily, Brave, Parallel and Firecrawl, on the same questions.
Updated 20 September 2026. Last measured 12 September 2026.
Official terms checked 20 September 2026 (UTC). TinyFish offers a zero-priced Search endpoint. The other providers offer credits for metered endpoints. The quality table below compares their measured configurations; throughput on free accounts can differ from benchmark conditions.
| Provider | Free allowance | Renewal | Card required | Limits and billing unit | After the allowance | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TinyFish | $0 per Search request | Rate-limited access | No | 30 requests/minute; 500/hour. Search works at a $0 Wallet balance. | Search remains free within these caps. Agent and Browser have separate charges. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
| Exa | $20 signup credit + $10/month | Monthly credit plus signup grant | No | Starter lists 10 search queries/second. Calls consume dollars at the chosen endpoint’s rate. | Paid usage follows endpoint rates; Search is currently listed at $7/1,000 requests. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
| Tavily | 1,000 credits/month | Monthly | No | Basic uses 1 credit/search; advanced uses 2. Other endpoints share the credit balance. | Pay-as-you-go: $0.008/credit. Basic: $8/1,000; advanced: $16/1,000 at that rate. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
| Parallel | $5/month for eligible organizations | Monthly; unused credit expires | Yes, for monthly credits | One allowance per eligible organization/card. Marketplace and postpaid organizations are excluded. | Usage above the credit is billed at standard rates. Mode and other API usage determine capacity. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
| Brave Search | $5/month | Monthly | Yes | Search lists $5/1,000 requests and 50 queries/second. $5 covers 1,000 Search calls if used only there. | Search is metered at the listed request rate. Check the account’s current billing settings. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
| Firecrawl | 1,000 credits/month | Monthly | No | 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results; 10 search requests/minute. Scraping uses the same balance. | Hobby: $19/month billed monthly for 5,000 credits. Additional scrape features consume extra credits. | Pricing & terms ↗ |
For ongoing zero-priced search calls, start with TinyFish’s limits and measured quality. For a small project, recurring credits can make a different provider practical. Paid configuration prices remain visible below so you can compare the cost when your usage grows.
Search accuracy on 300 current company-fact questions, using a fixed extraction process. Latency is mean search-request time. Prices are the benchmark-recorded rate basis, with the same configurations used for the quality results.
| Rank | Provider & configuration | Accuracy | Mean search time | Recorded $ / 1,000 queries | Mean snippet tokens | Official docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa fasttype=fast/search | 99.3% | 652ms | $7.00type=fast · up to 10 results | 1,987 | Official docs ↗ |
| 2 | Exa instanttype=instant/search | 97.7% | 398ms | $7.00type=instant · up to 10 results | 2,128 | Official docs ↗ |
| 3 | Firecrawlfirecrawl-search/v2/search | 95.3% | 510ms | $5.002 credits / 10 results | 678 | Official docs ↗ |
| 4 | Brave Search llm-contextcount=10/res/v1/llm/context | 94.0% | 601ms | $5.00Search plan · LLM Context | 2,064 | Official docs ↗ |
| 5 | Brave Search webcount=10 · result_filter=web/res/v1/web/search | 93.3% | 630ms | $5.00Recorded search-request rate; see official terms. | 817 | Official docs ↗ |
| 6 | Parallel basicmode=basic/v1/search | 93.3% | 1.68s | $5.00mode=basic · 10 results | 2,330 | Official docs ↗ |
| 7 | Tavily advancedsearch_depth=advanced/search | 93.0% | 4.29s | $16.002 credits · $0.008 PAYG | 2,210 | Official docs ↗ |
| 8 | TinyFishfree · 30 req/min capapi.search.tinyfish.ai | 92.0% | 2.62s | $0.0030 req/min cap | 441 | Official docs ↗ |
| 9 | Tavily basicsearch_depth=basic/search | 87.7% | 1.88s | $8.001 credit · $0.008 PAYG | 1,639 | Official docs ↗ |
| 10 | Parallel fastmode=fast/v1/search | 86.0% | 942ms | $1.00mode=fast · 10 results | 1,839 | Official docs ↗ |
| 11 | Parallel turbomode=turbo/v1/search | 71.3% | 348ms | $1.00mode=turbo · 10 results | 1,853 | Official docs ↗ |
TinyFish lists Search at $0 per request within minute and hourly caps. Exa, Tavily, Brave, Parallel and Firecrawl offer allowances that reset monthly. A dollar allowance buys different numbers of requests at different modes; shared scrape and research usage can consume the same balance. Check the exact endpoint before estimating capacity.
The table ranks search configurations from the six providers whose free access is documented above. Accuracy measures whether search results support the correct answer on the same questions. These benchmark runs measure endpoint quality; account-tier throughput and free-credit exhaustion are separate buying checks.
Free search removes the search-request charge within the offer’s limits. Your model, hosting and optional scraping still have their own costs. For an agent that searches four times per question, 1,000 search requests cover roughly 250 questions before retries. Count actual calls and cap concurrency to fit the documented rate limits.
Move to a paid plan when your allowance, request rate or required support becomes the constraint. Compare the exact mode’s paid rate with its measured accuracy and latency. The benchmark table preserves recorded prices; the free-access table links current official terms and states when they were checked.
Search accuracy on 300 current company-fact questions, using a fixed extraction process. Latency is mean search-request time. Each row is one measured configuration. Missing measurements appear as a dash.
Open benchmark code ↗ · Public dataset sample ↗ · All benchmark methods →
Best free web search API for zero-priced requests: TinyFish, $0 per 1,000 queries within 30 requests/minute and 500/hour, with 92.0% search accuracy. Highest measured search accuracy among these free-access providers: Exa fast, 99.3%. Fastest search: Parallel turbo, 348ms (71.3% accuracy).
Search accuracy on 300 current company-fact questions, using a fixed extraction process. Latency is mean search-request time.
The recorded search endpoint's request price. Model-token spend, optional scraping and plan conditions are separate. For rows with task measurements, median task cost is shown in its own column. Check the linked provider terms for current pricing.
TinyFish lists Search at $0 per request, capped at 30 requests per minute and 500 per hour, with no card required. Search continues at a zero Wallet balance. Model and hosting charges remain separate.