SerpApi vs Perplexity Search API for AI agents
SerpApi is an API that scrapes and parses Google and other search engines into structured JSON. Perplexity Search API is raw ranked web results from Perplexity's own index (Search API), plus Sonar models that return cited AI answers.
The short answer
- SerpApi: Structured results from many search engines and verticals, including Google Maps and Shopping, through one API.
- Perplexity Search API: Fresh, ranked web snippets from a large independent index, or a cited answer when you want one.
Side by side
| SerpApi | Perplexity Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Google (many verticals) plus Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave, and sites like Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Walmart, Tripadvisor. | Perplexity's own web index, which it says covers hundreds of billions of webpages. |
| Returns | Structured JSON (or Markdown): organic results, maps and local results, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graph, with links, addresses, prices, ratings and reviews. | Search API: JSON results with title, URL, ranked snippet text and date. Sonar: an LLM answer with citations. |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key. | An account and an API key from the API console; pay-as-you-go, no subscription. |
| Free | 250 searches a month. | Not stated on its pages |
| Paid | $25/month for 1,000 searches (Starter); only successful searches count. | Search API $5 per 1,000 requests ($1 per 1,000 with Fast Search), no token costs; Sonar models are priced per token plus a per-request fee. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Not stated on its pages | Output may be displayed only within your own applications; rights are non-sublicensable and non-transferable. |
| AI in its terms | Not stated on its pages | Perplexity says it will not use customer content to train or fine-tune generative AI models. |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (code: https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) | Official MCP server: https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol (npm @perplexity-ai/mcp-server) |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use SerpApi?
An account and an API key.
Is SerpApi free?
250 searches a month.
What do I need before I can use Perplexity Search API?
An account and an API key from the API console; pay-as-you-go, no subscription.
Is Perplexity Search API free?
Its pages listed no free use when we read them on October 15, 2026.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
SerpApi, read on October 15, 2026:
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Only successful searches are counted toward your monthly searches. Cached, errored, and failed searches are not.”
- serpapi.com: “Regular organic results are available as well as Maps, Local, Stories, Shopping, Direct Answer, and Knowledge Graph.”
- github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp: “A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation that integrates with SerpApi”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Free $ 0 / month Get Started 250 searches per month”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Starter $ 25 / month Get Started 1,000 searches per month”
Perplexity Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “The Search API charges per successful request, including a successful request with multiple queries, with no token costs.”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Total cost per query = token costs + a per-request fee (Sonar, Sonar Pro, and Sonar Reasoning Pro)”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/quickstart: “Pay-as-you-go pricing for all APIs. No subscription required.”
- perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-the-perplexity-search-api: “With an index covering hundreds of billions of webpages”
- docs.perplexity.ai/guides/search-quickstart: “real-time, ranked web results as structured data”
- perplexity.ai/hub/legal/perplexity-api-terms-of-service: “display such Output, in each case, solely within the Customer Applications”
- perplexity.ai/hub/legal/perplexity-api-terms-of-service: “Perplexity shall not use (or authorize third parties to use) Customer Content to train, retrain, fine-tune”
- docs.perplexity.ai/guides/mcp-server: “https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Search API $5.00 Raw web search results with advanced filtering”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Search API with Fast Search $1”