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. Rankings do not transfer. 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) | 96.1% | 92.3% | Linkup |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search+fetch) | 48.3% | 76.0% | Firecrawl |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 41.1% | 30.4% | Linkup |
Linkup and Firecrawl on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 129 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Linkup | Firecrawl | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 96.1% | 92.3% | Linkup |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 95.3% | 92.3% | Linkup |
| Speed (mean latency) | 1.82s | 1.42s | Firecrawl |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $6.38 | $5.65 | Firecrawl |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=standard · outputType=searchResults | 96.1% | 80.6% | 93.0% | 2.34s | 2,926 | $0.83 | Official docs |
| 2 | Linkupweb search | POST /v1/searchdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults | 94.6% | 88.4% | 95.3% | 1.82s | 2,838 | $0.82 | Official docs |
| 3 | Firecrawlweb search | POST /v2/search | 92.3% | 74.4% | 92.3% | 1.42s | 672 | $0.73 | Official docs |
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 | Avg search time | Median task tokens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardPOST /v1/fetch mode=standard | 48.3 ± 4.9 | 48s | 2.00s | 57,791 |
| 2 | Firecrawl | POST /v2/searchPOST /v2/scrape | 76.0 ± 1.0 | 34s | 2.81s | 17,379 |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Avg search time | Median task tokens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fast | 43.3 ± 1.1 | 27s | 1.39s | 24,057 |
| 2 | Firecrawl | POST /v2/search | 70.3 ± 1.5 | 28s | 2.87s | 7,456 |
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 41.1%. Median agent time: Linkup 64.20s vs Firecrawl 74.98s. Cost / agent run: Linkup $0.837 vs Firecrawl $0.278.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Cost / agent run | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 41.1 ± 1.7 | 82.8 ± 1.0 | 30.3 ± 1.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 64.2 s | 7.4 | $0.837 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Linkup | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 40.6 ± 0.9 | 84.0 ± 7.9 | 29.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 2.6 | 72.3 s | 7.3 | $0.837 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| 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 | $0.278 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
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.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Cost / agent run | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 42.0 ± 1.8 | 90.7 ± 2.0 | 30.5 ± 2.0 | 3.0 ± 3.4 | 81.0 s | 7.5 | $0.846 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Linkup | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 39.9 ± 1.3 | 85.3 ± 3.6 | 28.6 ± 1.3 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 68.0 s | 7.3 | $0.822 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| 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 | $0.294 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
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.
Linkup vs Firecrawl — common questions
Linkup vs Firecrawl: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Linkup leads accuracy (Linkup 96.1% vs Firecrawl 92.3%). Hard retrieval: Firecrawl leads task completion (Linkup 48.3% vs Firecrawl 76.0%). Multi-hop: Linkup leads F1 (Linkup 41.1% vs Firecrawl 30.4%). Rankings do not transfer across tasks.
Is Linkup or Firecrawl cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Linkup $6.38 per 1,000 queries vs Firecrawl $5.65 — Firecrawl is cheaper. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.