Firecrawl vs Parallel: web search API comparison
Firecrawl and Parallel measured on the same three jobs: factual lookup, hard retrieval for coding agents, and multi-hop company search. Winner per task is in the table below.
Firecrawl or Parallel — winner per task
Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below.
| Task | Firecrawl | Parallel | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual lookup (accuracy) | 95.3% | 93.3% | Firecrawl |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search+fetch) | 76.0% | 77.0% | Parallel |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 30.4% | 46.5% | Parallel |
Firecrawl and Parallel on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Firecrawl | Parallel | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 95.3% | 93.3% | Firecrawl |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 96.7% | 92.0% | Firecrawl |
| Speed (mean latency) | 510ms | 348ms | Parallel |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $5.00 | $1.00 | Parallel |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=fast | $1.16 | 86.0% | 44.3% | 79.0% | 942ms | 1,839 | $0.30 | Official docs | $1 / 1kmode=fast · 10 results |
| 2 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=turbo | $1.40 | 71.3% | 45.3% | 66.0% | 348ms | 1,853 | $0.30 | Official docs | $1 / 1kmode=turbo · 10 results |
| 3 | Firecrawlweb search | POST /v2/search | $5.24 | 95.3% | 77.7% | 96.7% | 510ms | 678 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1k2 credits / 10 results |
| 4 | Parallelweb search | POST /v1/searchmode=basic | $5.36 | 93.3% | 55.0% | 92.0% | 1.68s | 2,330 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kmode=basic · 10 results |
$ / 1k correct is $ / 1k queries divided by extracted-answer accuracy. Ranked by $ / 1k correct. Cost per 1,000 queries is the published PAYG list price, linked to the vendor pricing page. Not promotional packs or volume discounts. TinyFish Search is free with a 30 requests/min cap — $0 is not unlimited throughput.
Firecrawl and Parallel on coding-agent docs
Grounded task completion on 100 documentation tickets. A pass needs a # source: URL from that run. Full coding-agent board →
Parallel leads at 77.0%. Median task time: Firecrawl 34s vs Parallel 30s.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchPOST /v2/scrape | 76.0 ± 1.0 | 34s | $0.082$0.028 search+fetch$0.055 token cost | 2.81s | 17,379 | $0.005 / search$0.0025 / fetch |
| 2 | Parallel advanced | POST /v1/search mode=advancedPOST /v1/extract | 77.0 ± 1.0 | 33s | $0.096$0.019 search+fetch$0.077 token cost | 3.11s | 27,092 | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| 3 | Parallel basic | POST /v1/search mode=basicPOST /v1/extract | 76.0 ± 0.0 | 30s | $0.107$0.023 search+fetch$0.084 token cost | 1.59s | 32,809 | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firecrawl | POST /v2/search | 70.3 ± 1.5 | 28s | $0.059$0.025 search$0.034 token cost | 2.87s | 7,456 | $0.005 / search |
| 2 | Parallel fast | POST /v1/search mode=fast | 66.7 ± 1.5 | 22s | $0.054$0.005 search$0.049 token cost | 953ms | 12,460 | $0.001 / search |
| 3 | Parallel turbo | POST /v1/search mode=turbo | 64.7 ± 2.1 | 19s | $0.059$0.005 search$0.054 token cost | 333ms | 14,130 | $0.001 / search |
Firecrawl and Parallel on multi-turn company search
45 questions, each with three or four constraints. Scored on precision, recall, F1, and exact-set. Full multi-turn board →
Parallel leads F1 at 46.5%. Median agent time: Firecrawl 74.98s vs Parallel 46.40s. Median task cost: Firecrawl $0.282 vs Parallel $0.419.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 30.4 ± 1.1 | 77.3 ± 4.4 | 20.7 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 75.0 s | 7.9 | $0.282$0.070 search$0.212 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Parallel basic | POST /v1/search mode=basicparallel-basic | 46.5 ± 1.9 | 88.7 ± 0.9 | 34.4 ± 2.0 | 3.7 ± 2.6 | 67.6 s | 7.4 | $1.120$0.070 search$1.050 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Parallel advanced | POST /v1/search mode=advancedparallel-advanced | 44.2 ± 1.4 | 87.6 ± 3.4 | 32.0 ± 1.6 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 83.4 s | 7.3 | $0.625$0.070 search$0.565 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Parallel fast | POST /v1/search mode=fastparallel-fast | 38.0 ± 2.0 | 79.9 ± 4.6 | 27.5 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 53.9 s | 7.6 | $0.460$0.014 search$0.447 token cost | $0.001 / search |
| Parallel turbo | POST /v1/search mode=turboparallel-turbo | 34.7 ± 2.4 | 80.0 ± 5.2 | 24.8 ± 2.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 46.4 s | 7.6 | $0.419$0.014 search$0.405 token cost | $0.001 / search |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 33.2 ± 2.1 | 83.3 ± 0.8 | 22.7 ± 1.8 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 82.1 s | 7.9 | $0.295$0.063 search+fetch$0.230 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.0025 / fetch |
| Parallel basic | POST /v1/search mode=basicparallel-basic | 42.3 ± 1.1 | 81.3 ± 2.8 | 31.3 ± 1.1 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 68.6 s | 7.5 | $1.089$0.061 search+fetch$1.033 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Parallel advanced | POST /v1/search mode=advancedparallel-advanced | 42.2 ± 1.1 | 87.6 ± 0.3 | 30.1 ± 1.1 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 80.9 s | 7.4 | $0.599$0.061 search+fetch$0.538 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Parallel fast | POST /v1/search mode=fastparallel-fast | 39.3 ± 3.3 | 82.3 ± 6.6 | 28.2 ± 2.0 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 55.1 s | 7.6 | $0.441$0.014 search+fetch$0.427 token cost | $0.001 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Parallel turbo | POST /v1/search mode=turboparallel-turbo | 36.0 ± 3.5 | 83.6 ± 4.0 | 25.0 ± 2.6 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 48.1 s | 7.7 | $0.414$0.013 search+fetch$0.400 token cost | $0.001 / search$0.001 / fetch |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.
Firecrawl vs Parallel — common questions
Firecrawl vs Parallel: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Firecrawl leads accuracy (Firecrawl 95.3% vs Parallel 93.3%). Hard retrieval: Parallel leads task completion (Firecrawl 76.0% vs Parallel 77.0%). Multi-hop: Parallel leads F1 (Firecrawl 30.4% vs Parallel 46.5%).
Is Firecrawl or Parallel cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Firecrawl $5.00 per 1,000 queries vs Parallel $1.00 — Parallel is cheaper. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.