Linkup vs Firecrawl: web search API comparison
Linkup and Firecrawl 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.
Linkup or Firecrawl — winner per task
Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below.
| Task | Linkup | Firecrawl | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual lookup (accuracy) | 96.7% | 95.3% | Linkup |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search+fetch) | 48.3% | 76.0% | Firecrawl |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 42.0% | 28.7% | Linkup |
Linkup and Firecrawl on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Linkup | Firecrawl | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 96.7% | 95.3% | Linkup |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 94.7% | 96.7% | Firecrawl |
| Speed (mean latency) | 1.57s | 510ms | Firecrawl |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $5.00 | $5.00 | tie |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults | $5.17 | 96.7% | 79.0% | 94.7% | 1.57s | 3,022 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kdepth=fast · searchResults |
| 2 | Firecrawlweb search | POST /v2/search | $5.24 | 95.3% | 77.7% | 96.7% | 510ms | 678 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1k2 credits / 10 results |
| 3 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=standard · outputType=searchResults | $5.43 | 92.0% | 67.3% | 90.3% | 2.55s | 2,983 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kdepth=standard · searchResults |
$ / 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.
Linkup and Firecrawl on coding-agent docs
Grounded task completion on 100 documentation tickets. A pass needs a # source: URL from that run. Full coding-agent board →
Firecrawl leads at 76.0%. Median task time: Linkup 48s vs Firecrawl 34s.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardPOST /v1/fetch mode=standard | 48.3 ± 4.9 | 48s | $0.147$0.038 search+fetch$0.108 token cost | 2.00s | 57,791 | $0.005 / search$0.005 / fetch |
| 2 | 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 |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fast | 43.3 ± 1.1 | 27s | $0.100$0.025 search$0.075 token cost | 1.39s | 24,057 | $0.005 / search |
| 2 | 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 |
Linkup and Firecrawl 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 →
Linkup leads F1 at 42.0%. Median agent time: Linkup 63.76s vs Firecrawl 74.01s. Median task cost: Linkup $0.923 vs Firecrawl $0.265.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 42.0 ± 2.1 | 85.9 ± 7.6 | 31.0 ± 2.6 | 2.0 ± 3.5 | 72.1 s | 7.3 | $0.932$0.070 search$0.862 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 41.3 ± 1.8 | 82.9 ± 0.9 | 30.6 ± 1.6 | 0.9 ± 1.5 | 63.8 s | 7.4 | $0.923$0.070 search$0.853 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 28.7 ± 5.1 | 68.9 ± 3.7 | 19.6 ± 4.2 | 1.3 ± 2.1 | 74.0 s | 7.9 | $0.265$0.070 search$0.196 token cost | $0.005 / 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 API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search endpoint the harness calls.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 42.1 ± 1.4 | 89.9 ± 2.0 | 30.6 ± 1.6 | 3.0 ± 3.3 | 80.5 s | 7.5 | $0.927$0.070 search+fetch$0.866 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 39.2 ± 1.3 | 84.3 ± 4.1 | 28.2 ± 1.4 | 0.8 ± 1.5 | 67.8 s | 7.4 | $0.907$0.061 search+fetch$0.839 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchfirecrawl | 35.8 ± 4.3 | 82.2 ± 2.5 | 25.4 ± 3.6 | 3.0 ± 2.6 | 82.1 s | 7.9 | $0.291$0.063 search+fetch$0.229 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.0025 / 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.
Linkup vs Firecrawl — common questions
Linkup vs Firecrawl: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Linkup leads accuracy (Linkup 96.7% vs Firecrawl 95.3%). Hard retrieval: Firecrawl leads task completion (Linkup 48.3% vs Firecrawl 76.0%). Multi-hop: Linkup leads F1 (Linkup 42.0% vs Firecrawl 28.7%).
Is Linkup or Firecrawl cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Linkup $5.00 per 1,000 queries vs Firecrawl $5.00 — effectively tied. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.