SerpApi vs You.com Search API: many search engines, parsed or a free keyless MCP to start
SerpApi is an API that scrapes and parses Google and other search engines into structured JSON. You.com Search API is a web and news search API for AI apps, with optional full-page content.
The short answer
- SerpApi: Structured results from many search engines and verticals, including Google Maps and Shopping, through one API.
- You.com Search API: Trying web search in an agent with zero setup via the free keyless MCP, then scaling on a simple per-call price.
Side by side
| SerpApi | You.com Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Google (many verticals) plus Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave, and sites like Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Walmart, Tripadvisor. | The web and news (the pages read do not say whose index). |
| Returns | Structured JSON (or Markdown): organic results, maps and local results, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graph, with links, addresses, prices, ratings and reviews. | JSON web and news results with several text snippets each; optional full page content as Markdown or HTML ($1 per 1,000 pages crawled live). |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key. | An API key (X-API-Key header); the free MCP profile needs no key, account or card. |
| Free | 250 searches a month. | 100 Web Search queries a day through the MCP with no key, account or card. |
| Paid | $25/month for 1,000 searches (Starter); only successful searches count. | $5 per 1,000 calls (Web Search API, Standard); Contents $1 per 1,000 pages. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (code: https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) | Official MCP server: https://api.you.com/mcp (keyless free profile: https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free) |
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 You.com Search API?
An API key (X-API-Key header); the free MCP profile needs no key, account or card.
Is You.com Search API free?
100 Web Search queries a day through the MCP with no key, account or card.
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”
You.com Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- you.com/pricing: “No API key, no account, no credit card”
- you.com/pricing: “100 Web Search API queries/day via MCP”
- you.com/docs/guides/search: “Multiple text snippets per result for context”
- you.com/docs/guides/search: “Every request sends your API key in the X-API-Key header.”
- you.com/docs/guides/search: “https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free”
- you.com/pricing: “Web Search API $5 /1k calls”