119 questions · 12 endpoints
Fastest search API
Every endpoint gets the same user query and can retrieve max 10 results. There is no single best web search API. It is a tradeoff between accuracy, latency, cost, and retrieval quality.
Seltz has the lowest mean latency at 321ms on this run.
Fastest for a realtime loop. Read Latency. Prefer the Fast row of a pair.
Most accurate · Fastest · Cheapest · Full benchmark
[01] latency
Ranking, sorted by latency
12 endpoints. This table is Latency only.
latency onlyFastest for a realtime loop. Read Latency. Prefer the Fast row of a pair.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seltznews index | POST /v1/searchscope=news | 321ms |
| 2 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=instant | 444ms |
| 3 | PredictLeadscompany news events | GET /api/v3/companies/{domain}/news_events | 668ms |
| 4 | Brave Searchweb search | GET /res/v1/web/searchcount=10 · result_filter=web | 697ms |
| 5 | Firecrawlweb search | POST /v2/search | 1.10s |
| 6 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=basic | 1.40s |
| 7 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults | 1.84s |
| 8 | SERPgoogle search | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.comlimit=10 | 2.14s |
| 9 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=standard · outputType=searchResults | 2.34s |
| 10 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=deep | 2.95s |
| 11 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=advanced | 3.33s |
| 12 | Tavilyweb search | POST /searchsearch_depth=advanced · chunks_per_source=3 | 4.34s |
[02] full ranking
All metrics
Same order. Accuracy, AR@1, AR@5, speed, snippet tokens, and cost.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seltznews index | POST /v1/searchscope=news | 68.9% | 31.9% | 64.7% | 321ms | 2,913 | $0.76 | Official docs |
| 2 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=instant | 99.2% | 84.9% | 97.5% | 444ms | 2,053 | $0.96 | Official docs |
| 3 | PredictLeadscompany news events | GET /api/v3/companies/{domain}/news_events | 63.0% | 47.9% | 63.0% | 668ms | 411 | $4.81 | Official docs |
| 4 | Brave Searchweb search | GET /res/v1/web/searchcount=10 · result_filter=web | 95.0% | 85.7% | 95.0% | 697ms | 727 | $0.67 | Official docs |
| 5 | Firecrawlweb search | POST /v2/search | 94.1% | 77.3% | 93.3% | 1.10s | 672 | $0.67 | Official docs |
| 6 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=basic | 97.5% | 68.9% | 93.3% | 1.40s | 2,413 | $0.75 | Official docs |
| 7 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults | 96.6% | 89.1% | 96.6% | 1.84s | 2,846 | $0.76 | Official docs |
| 8 | SERPgoogle search | GET google-search74.p.rapidapi.comlimit=10 | 94.1% | 76.5% | 93.3% | 2.14s | 468 | $0.42 | Official docs |
| 9 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=standard · outputType=searchResults | 97.5% | 84.9% | 95.0% | 2.34s | 2,936 | $0.76 | Official docs |
| 10 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=deep | 99.2% | 98.3% | 99.2% | 2.95s | 1,293 | $1.51 | Official docs |
| 11 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=advanced | 98.3% | 63.0% | 98.3% | 3.33s | 2,143 | $0.74 | Official docs |
| 12 | Tavilyweb search | POST /searchsearch_depth=advanced · chunks_per_source=3 | 95.0% | 84.0% | 95.0% | 4.34s | 3,035 | $2.08 | Official docs |
[03] faq
Most accurate, fastest, and cheapest search API
What is the most accurate search API?
Exa (type=instant) leads extracted-answer accuracy at 99.2% on 119 lookup questions.
What is the fastest search API?
Seltz has the lowest mean latency at 321ms on this run.
What is the cheapest search API?
SERP (RapidAPI) has the lowest list-price search cost on this run ($0.42). Free tiers and volume discounts are not included.