Serper vs Jina AI Search for AI agents
Serper is a low-cost API that returns Google search results as JSON. Jina AI Search is a search endpoint (s.jina.ai) that searches the web and returns the top results converted to clean, LLM-friendly text.
The short answer
- Serper: The cheapest way on this list to get raw Google results in JSON.
- Jina AI Search: Getting search results already converted to clean full-page text in one call.
Side by side
| Serper | Jina AI Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Google results: web, images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar, patents, autocomplete. | The web (the provider does not name the search engine behind it). |
| Returns | JSON shaped like a Google results page: organic results with title, link and snippet, knowledge graph, People Also Ask, related searches; places with address, rating and phone. | The top five results with URL and page content as LLM-friendly text; Markdown, HTML, JSON or text formats. |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key; no credit card for the free queries. | An API key: search is blocked without one. |
| Free | 2,500 free queries, no credit card (the page does not say they renew monthly). | 10 million free tokens with every new API key; each search costs a fixed amount starting at 10,000 tokens (so roughly 1,000 searches at most). |
| Paid | $50 for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000), credits valid 6 months; down to $0.30 per 1,000 at volume. | Not stated on its pages |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| AI in its terms | Not stated on its pages | Jina says it does not use customer request data, inputs or prompts to train its models; outputs may not be used to build competing services. |
| MCP server | No official server listed | Official MCP server: mcp.jina.ai (code: https://github.com/jina-ai/MCP) |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Serper?
An account and an API key; no credit card for the free queries.
Is Serper free?
2,500 free queries, no credit card (the page does not say they renew monthly).
What do I need before I can use Jina AI Search?
An API key: search is blocked without one.
Is Jina AI Search free?
10 million free tokens with every new API key; each search costs a fixed amount starting at 10,000 tokens (so roughly 1,000 searches at most).
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Serper, read on October 15, 2026:
- serper.dev: “Get 2,500 free queries”
- serper.dev: “No credit card required”
- serper.dev: “50k credits ($1.00/1k)”
- serper.dev: “Credits valid for 6 months”
- serper.dev: “The World's Fastest & Cheapest Google Search API”
Jina AI Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- jina.ai/reader: “Every new API key comes with 10M free tokens!”
- jina.ai/reader: “Every request costs a fixed number of tokens, starting from 10,000 tokens”
- jina.ai/reader: “return the top five results with their URLs and contents, each in clean, LLM-friendly text”
- jina.ai/reader: “Add mcp.jina.ai as your MCP server to use our APIs in LLMs.”
- jina.ai/legal: “Jina AI does not use Customer request data, inputs, prompts, or uploaded content to train its models,”
- jina.ai/legal: “use any Output from the Services to develop applications or services that compete with the Services offered by Jina AI”