--- title: "Best Search and Scrape API, Independently Benchmarked (2026): Token Efficiency, Quality & Cost" description: "Best search and scrape API by token efficiency: Firecrawl, 1.51 precision points per 1,000 tokens. Highest F1: Exa deep, 48.2%. Cheapest: TinyFish, $0.00/1,000 queries within free-tier limits." url: https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-and-scrape-api --- [Openbenchmarks](https://openbenchmarks.com/) [Web Search Benchmark →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [Web Search](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) / Best search and scrape API Independent comparison · 2026 # Best Search and Scrape API (2026): Token Efficiency, Quality & Cost Best search and scrape API by token efficiency: Firecrawl, 1.51 precision points per 1,000 tokens. Highest F1: Exa deep, 48.2%. Cheapest: TinyFish, $0.00/1,000 queries within free-tier limits. Compare **12 providers**, including Exa, Tavily, Brave, Parallel and Firecrawl, across **20 configurations** on **45 questions**. Compare search and scrape APIs ranked by token efficiency, measured as precision per 1,000 task tokens. ## Most token efficient [Firecrawl](#firecrawl) Precision / 1k tokens 1.51 F1 33.2% Search price / 1,000 queries $5.00 Recorded search API price. Model and scrape costs are separate. [Official docs ↗](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/api-reference/endpoint/search) · [Pricing ↗](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing) ## Best by F1 [Exa deep](#exa-deep) F1 48.2% Mean search time 47.08s Search price / 1,000 queries $12.00 Recorded search API price. Model and scrape costs are separate. [Official docs ↗](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/search) · [Pricing ↗](https://exa.ai/pricing?tab=api) ## Cheapest search [TinyFish](#tinyfish) F1 30.2% Mean search time 26.59s Search price / 1,000 queries $0.00 Free-tier limits apply. Model and scrape costs are separate. [Official docs ↗](https://docs.tinyfish.ai/search-api) · [Pricing ↗](https://www.tinyfish.ai/pricing) [Compare all 20 configurations →](#results) · [Open benchmark code ↗](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/multi-turn-company-search) · [Public dataset sample ↗](https://huggingface.co/datasets/openbenchmarks/OB-Company-Websearch) Updated 2 October 2026. Last measured 2 October 2026. [Compare results](#results) [How to choose](#choose) [Method and sources](#method) [Questions](#faq) ## Best search and scrape API, ranked by token efficiency Token efficiency on 45 company questions. The same agent can search more than once and scrape the page. Token efficiency is precision per 1,000 task tokens, and higher is better. This page orders the comparison by that figure. F1 is shown beside it. Prices are the benchmark-recorded rate basis, with the same configurations used for the quality results. __45 questions · 20 configurations · ordered by token efficiency__ | Rank | Provider & configuration | Precision / 1k tokens | F1 | Mean search time | Recorded $ / 1,000 queries | Median task time | Median task cost | Official docs | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Firecrawl firecrawl POST /v2/search | **1.51** | 33.2% | 40.23s | [$5.00](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing) 2 credits / 10 results Scrape $0.0025 per page. | 82.06s | $0.29 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/api-reference/endpoint/search) | | 2 | Brave Search brave GET /res/v1/web/search | **1.35** | 29.4% | 7.15s | [$5.00](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing) Recorded search-request rate; see official terms. Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 45.13s | $0.28 | [Official docs ↗](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/services/web-search) | | 3 | TinyFish tinyfish GET api.search.tinyfish.ai | **1.32** | 30.2% | 26.59s | [$0.00](https://www.tinyfish.ai/pricing) 30 req/min cap Scrape $0.0000 per page. | 63.37s | $0.22 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.tinyfish.ai/search-api) | | 4 | Nimble search\_depth=lite · full\_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=\[markdown\] POST /v2/search | **1.17** | 27.1% | 53.03s | [$1.10](https://www.nimbleway.com/pricing) search\_depth=lite · full\_content=false Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 71.99s | — | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.nimbleway.com/api-reference/search/search) | | 5 | Parallel turbo parallel-turbo POST /v1/search mode=turbo | **0.77** | 36.0% | 5.38s | [$1.00](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing) mode=turbo · 10 results Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 48.07s | $0.41 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.parallel.ai/api-reference/search/search) | | 6 | Perplexity search\_context\_size=high POST /search | **0.72** | 46.6% | 13.98s | [$5.00](https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/getting-started/pricing) Search API · POST /search Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 53.89s | $0.50 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.perplexity.ai/api-reference/search-post) | | 7 | Parallel fast parallel-fast POST /v1/search mode=fast | **0.69** | 39.3% | 12.27s | [$1.00](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing) mode=fast · 10 results Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 55.08s | $0.44 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.parallel.ai/api-reference/search/search) | | 8 | Nimble search\_depth=standard · full\_content=false · focus=general · extract formats=\[markdown\] POST /v2/search | **0.62** | 31.3% | 23.00s | [$5.00](https://www.nimbleway.com/pricing) search\_depth=standard · full\_content=false Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 59.23s | — | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.nimbleway.com/api-reference/search/search) | | 9 | Exa deep exa-deep POST /search type=deep | **0.61** | 48.2% | 47.08s | [$12.00](https://exa.ai/pricing?tab=api) type=deep Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 95.80s | $0.68 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/search) | | 10 | Parallel advanced parallel-advanced POST /v1/search mode=advanced | **0.58** | 42.2% | 36.66s | [$5.00](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing) mode=advanced · 10 results Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 80.87s | $0.60 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.parallel.ai/api-reference/search/search) | | 11 | Tavily basic tavily-basic POST /search search\_depth=basic | **0.57** | 38.1% | 20.30s | [$8.00](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits) 1 credit · $0.008 PAYG Scrape $0.0032 per page. | 61.97s | $0.61 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search) | | 12 | Exa instant exa-instant POST /search type=instant | **0.55** | 44.9% | 5.90s | [$7.00](https://exa.ai/pricing?tab=api) type=instant · up to 10 results Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 52.51s | $0.65 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/search) | | 13 | Tavily advanced tavily-advanced POST /search search\_depth=advanced | **0.43** | 41.0% | 44.65s | [$16.00](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits) 2 credits · $0.008 PAYG Scrape $0.0032 per page. | 92.63s | $0.90 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search) | | 14 | Linkup standard linkup-standard POST /v1/search depth=standard | **0.36** | 42.0% | 27.77s | [$5.00](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing) depth=standard · searchResults Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 81.01s | $0.91 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/endpoints/search/overview) | | 15 | You extraction\_mode=highlights POST /v1/search | **0.35** | 38.5% | 7.55s | [$5.00](https://you.com/docs/administration/billing) highlights included in Web Search Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 45.63s | $0.86 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.you.com/) | | 16 | Linkup fast linkup-fast POST /v1/search depth=fast | **0.35** | 39.9% | 17.28s | [$5.00](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing) depth=fast · searchResults Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 68.02s | $0.90 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/endpoints/search/overview) | | 17 | You extraction\_mode=highlights · knowledge=core POST /v1/search | **0.31** | 38.5% | 9.18s | [$5.00](https://you.com/docs/administration/billing) highlights · knowledge=core · same Web Search price assumption Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 48.52s | $0.89 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.you.com/) | | 18 | Parallel basic parallel-basic POST /v1/search mode=basic | **0.27** | 42.3% | 21.58s | [$5.00](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing) mode=basic · 10 results Scrape $0.0010 per page. | 68.62s | $1.09 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.parallel.ai/api-reference/search/search) | | 19 | Seltz seltz-companies POST /v1/search scope=companies | **0.10** | 16.3% | 9.30s | [$5.00](https://seltz.ai/pricing) Recorded search-request rate; see official terms. Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 60.10s | $1.74 | [Official docs ↗](https://docs.seltz.ai/) | | 20 | SERP serp GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.com | **0.00** | 0.0% | 3.50s | [$3.00](https://rapidapi.com/herosAPI/api/google-search74/pricing) Pro overage $0.003/request Scrape included in the measured task cost when the provider billed it. | 33.44s | $0.10 | [Official docs ↗](https://rapidapi.com/herosAPI/api/google-search74) | ## Choose the best search and scrape API ### Search and scrape is one measured workflow This page ranks configurations where the agent may issue several searches and then scrape a page for the full text. The order is token efficiency: precision per 1,000 task tokens. F1, which balances precision and recall, is shown beside that rank. ### How F1 sits beside token efficiency Precision is the share of returned companies that match the question. Recall is the share of expected companies the agent found. F1 requires both. Token efficiency divides precision by the tokens the task used, so a high F1 that spends a very large context ranks below a precise result that uses fewer tokens. ### Token efficiency, task time and scrape cost Token efficiency on this board is precision per 1,000 task tokens. Higher is better. Median task tokens are the model context used to finish a question, including the scraped page. Mean search time stays in the table as the search call, and median task time includes later searches, the scrape, and the agent. Recorded search price is per 1,000 search queries. Scrape charges, when the provider prices them separately, are called out on the row. ### Choose a search and scrape API for the evidence you need Use this board when the agent must open the page. Keep the agent, question set and scrape format fixed while changing providers. Check that cited claims still point at a URL returned during the run. Official docs linked from the table are the request contract for the measured configuration. ## Benchmark method and source data Token efficiency on 45 company questions. The same agent can search more than once and scrape the page. Token efficiency is precision per 1,000 task tokens, and higher is better. This page orders the comparison by that figure. F1 is shown beside it. Each row is one measured configuration. Missing measurements appear as a dash. [Open benchmark code ↗](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/multi-turn-company-search) · [Public dataset sample ↗](https://huggingface.co/datasets/openbenchmarks/OB-Company-Websearch) · [All benchmark methods →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [Compare search and search-and-scrape results →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) ## Common questions ### What is the best search and scrape API? Best search and scrape API by token efficiency: Firecrawl, 1.51 precision points per 1,000 tokens. Highest F1: Exa deep, 48.2%. Cheapest: TinyFish, $0.00/1,000 queries within free-tier limits. ### Which benchmark does the main ranking use? Token efficiency on 45 company questions. The same agent can search more than once and scrape the page. Token efficiency is precision per 1,000 task tokens, and higher is better. This page orders the comparison by that figure. F1 is shown beside it. ### What does the price per 1,000 queries include? The recorded search endpoint’s request price. Model-token spend, page scrape and plan conditions are separate. Rows with a task measurement show median task cost in its own column. Check the linked provider terms for current pricing. ## Related search API comparisons [Best fast web search API →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-fast-web-search-api) [Best scrape API for AI agents →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-scrape-api-for-ai-agents) [Best search API for deep research agents →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-deep-research-agents) [Best search API for company research →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-company-research) [Best search API for sales agents →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-sales-agents) [Best search API for coding documentation →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-coding-documentation) [Best web search API for grounding →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-web-search-api-for-grounding) [Best search API for news →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-news) [Web search APIs for RAG →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-web-search-api-for-rag) [Search APIs for coding agents →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/best-search-api-for-coding-agents) [Fastest search API →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/fastest-search-api) [← Web Search Benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search)