Best by accuracy
- Accuracy
- 99.3%
- Mean search time
- 652ms
- Search price / 1,000 queries
- $7.00
Recorded search API price. Model and scrape costs are separate. Official docs ↗ · Pricing ↗
Independent comparison · 2026
Best Web Search API for Grounding (2026): Search Accuracy, Speed & Cost
Best web search API for grounding by accuracy: Exa fast, 99.3% at $7.00/1,000 queries. Fastest: Exa instant, 398ms. Cheapest: TinyFish, $0.00/1,000 queries within free-tier limits.
Compare 11 providers, including Exa, Tavily, Brave, Parallel and Firecrawl, across 17 configurations on 300 questions. Compare web search APIs for grounding, ranked by whether search results support the correct answer.
Fastest search
- Accuracy
- 97.7%
- Mean search time
- 398ms
- Search price / 1,000 queries
- $7.00
Recorded search API price. Model and scrape costs are separate. Official docs ↗ · Pricing ↗
Cheapest search
- Accuracy
- 92.0%
- Mean search time
- 2.62s
- Search price / 1,000 queries
- $0.00
Free-tier limits apply. Model and scrape costs are separate. Official docs ↗ · Pricing ↗
Compare all 17 configurations → · Open benchmark code ↗ · Public dataset sample ↗
Updated 21 October 2026. Last measured 21 October 2026.
Best web search API for grounding
Search accuracy on 300 company-news questions. Every API receives the same query. Accuracy is whether the results support the correct answer. Mean search time is the search request. This page orders the comparison by accuracy. 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 | ContextnumResults=10 · highlights maxCharacters=1200api.context.dev/v1/web/search | 98.0% | 15.93s | $4.402 credits / 10 results with Highlights · $2.20 per 1,000 credits | 1,972 | Official docs ↗ |
| 3 | Exa instanttype=instant/search | 97.7% | 398ms | $7.00type=instant · up to 10 results | 2,128 | Official docs ↗ |
| 4 | Perplexity lowsearch_context_size=low/search | 97.3% | 1.38s | $5.00Search API · POST /search | 476 | Official docs ↗ |
| 5 | Linkup fastdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults/v1/search | 96.7% | 1.57s | $5.00depth=fast · searchResults | 3,022 | Official docs ↗ |
| 6 | SERPlimit=10google-search74.p.rapidapi.com | 96.0% | 751ms | $3.00Pro overage $0.003/request | 497 | Official docs ↗ |
| 7 | Firecrawlfirecrawl-search/v2/search | 95.3% | 510ms | $5.002 credits / 10 results | 678 | Official docs ↗ |
| 8 | Nimble litesearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general/v2/search | 94.3% | 2.46s | $1.10search_depth=lite · full_content=false | 860 | Official docs ↗ |
| 9 | Brave Search llm-contextcount=10/res/v1/llm/context | 94.0% | 601ms | $5.00Search plan · LLM Context | 2,064 | Official docs ↗ |
| 10 | 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 ↗ |
| 11 | Nimble standardsearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general/v2/search | 93.0% | 861ms | $5.00search_depth=standard · full_content=false | 2,730 | Official docs ↗ |
| 12 | Tavily advancedsearch_depth=advanced/search | 93.0% | 4.29s | $16.002 credits · $0.008 PAYG | 2,210 | Official docs ↗ |
| 13 | Linkup standarddepth=standard · outputType=searchResults/v1/search | 92.0% | 2.55s | $5.00depth=standard · searchResults | 2,983 | Official docs ↗ |
| 14 | TinyFishfree · 30 req/min capapi.search.tinyfish.ai | 92.0% | 2.62s | $0.0030 req/min cap | 441 | Official docs ↗ |
| 15 | You highlights coreextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core/v1/search | 92.0% | 889ms | $5.00highlights · knowledge=core · same Web Search price assumption | 2,862 | Official docs ↗ |
| 16 | You highlightsextraction_mode=highlights/v1/search | 90.7% | 628ms | $5.00highlights included in Web Search | 2,837 | Official docs ↗ |
| 17 | Tavily basicsearch_depth=basic/search | 87.7% | 1.88s | $8.001 credit · $0.008 PAYG | 1,639 | Official docs ↗ |
Choose the best web search API for grounding
Grounding starts with an answer-bearing result
Accuracy means the search results support the correct answer to a current company-news question. That is the retrieval evidence for grounding an LLM answer. The model that writes the final sentence is held out of the rank; you still need to score your own answer format.
Keep the source with the passage
A grounded answer needs the URL, title and passage that support each claim. Pass those into the prompt as citations and check the claim against the cited passage. A high search score is the retrieval step. Chunk choice and the answer model still change the final text.
Latency of the search versus latency of the answer
Mean search time is the API call that returns the grounding evidence. The user-visible answer also includes prompt construction and generation. Choose a configuration that clears your accuracy bar, then compare search time and price per 1,000 queries inside that set.
Evaluate grounding on your own questions
Build a set with fresh facts, missing evidence and conflicting pages. Keep the answer model fixed and swap the search API. Score retrieval support and final-answer support separately. The company-news questions here are one public factual task, not a substitute for your domain.
Benchmark method and source data
Search accuracy on 300 company-news questions. Every API receives the same query. Accuracy is whether the results support the correct answer. Mean search time is the search request. This page orders the comparison by accuracy. Each row is one measured configuration. Missing measurements appear as a dash.
Open benchmark code ↗ · Public dataset sample ↗ · All benchmark methods →
Common questions
What is the best web search API for grounding?
Best web search API for grounding by accuracy: Exa fast, 99.3% at $7.00/1,000 queries. Fastest: Exa instant, 398ms. Cheapest: TinyFish, $0.00/1,000 queries within free-tier limits.
Which benchmark does the main ranking use?
Search accuracy on 300 company-news questions. Every API receives the same query. Accuracy is whether the results support the correct answer. Mean search time is the search request. This page orders the comparison by accuracy.
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.
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