Bing Search API has been the default choice for developers who need programmatic web search, largely because it ships with Azure. But in 2025, the landscape has changed significantly. Bing's pricing has crept up, Azure's resource management adds complexity, and a new generation of search APIs offers better developer experience and lower costs.
This guide compares the best Bing Search API tools and alternatives, covering pricing, features, and when each makes sense.
Key Takeaways
- Bing Search API is now Azure-only, which adds complexity and minimum monthly spend requirements
- SearchHive costs 80-90% less than Bing at every volume tier, with a simpler pricing model
- SerpAPI and Serper.dev remain solid alternatives but charge significantly more per search
- For pure web search, newer APIs like SearchHive offer better results, simpler auth, and pay-as-you-go pricing without Azure overhead
1. Bing Web Search API (via Azure)
Microsoft's Bing Search API is now exclusively available through Azure Cognitive Services. It provides web, news, image, and video search capabilities.
How it works: Provision an Azure resource, get an endpoint key, and make REST calls. The API returns ranked search results with titles, snippets, and URLs.
Pricing (per 1,000 transactions):
- Free tier (S1): $1/1K (1K transactions/month included free)
- S2: $2/1K (up to 50K/month)
- S3: $3/1K (unlimited)
Pricing note: Bing's free tier gives you 1,000 searches per month. After that, minimum spend starts at $2/1K.
Pros: Backed by Microsoft, good global coverage, includes news/images/video endpoints. Cons: Azure provisioning is complex, pricing increases at higher tiers, rate limits can be aggressive.
2. SearchHive SwiftSearch
SearchHive provides programmatic web search through its SwiftSearch API. It is designed specifically for developers who need search results in their applications.
How it works: Sign up, get an API key, make REST calls. No Azure account needed.
Pricing:
- Free: 500 credits/month
- Starter: $9/month for 5,000 credits ($1.80/1K)
- Builder: $49/month for 100,000 credits ($0.49/1K)
- Unicorn: $199/month for 500,000 credits ($0.398/1K)
At the Builder tier, SearchHive is 75% cheaper than Bing S2 ($0.49 vs $2.00 per 1K searches).
import httpx
response = httpx.get(
"https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/search/web",
params={"q": "python web scraping tutorials", "limit": 10},
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
results = response.json()
for r in results["results"]:
print(r["title"], r["url"])
Pros: Simple API, cheap at scale, includes scraping and analysis tools, pay-as-you-go. Cons: Smaller brand recognition compared to Bing/Google.
3. SerpAPI
SerpAPI is one of the oldest search API providers. It supports Google, Bing, YouTube, and other search engines.
Pricing:
- Free: 100 searches/month
- Bronze: $50/month for 5,000 searches ($10/1K)
- Silver: $75/month for 15,000 searches ($5/1K)
- Gold: $150/month for 30,000 searches ($5/1K)
- Platinum: $275/month for 100,000 searches ($2.75/1K)
Pros: Supports multiple search engines, good documentation, reliable. Cons: Expensive at low volumes, Google search results are subject to scraping risks.
4. Serper.dev
Serper.dev offers a fast Google search API with clean free JSON formatter responses.
Pricing:
- Free: 2,500 searches on signup
- Pay-as-you-go: $50/50K ($1/1K), $375/500K ($0.75/1K), $1,250/2.5M ($0.50/1K)
Credits are valid for 6 months. At scale ($0.50/1K), Serper is competitive with SearchHive but only provides Google search results.
Pros: Fast response times, clean JSON, good Google coverage. Cons: Google-only, credits expire after 6 months, no scraping tools included.
5. Brave Search API
Brave's search API uses their independent search index (not Google or Bing).
Pricing:
- Free: $5 search credits/month (1,000 searches)
- Search: $5/1K searches
- AI Answers: $4/1K queries
Pros: Independent index, privacy-focused, fast. Cons: Smaller index than Google/Bing, search quality can vary by query type.
6. Tavily
Tavily positions itself as a search API optimized for AI agents and LLM applications.
Pricing:
- Free: 1,000 searches/month
- Pay-as-you-go: $0.008/search ($8/1K)
Pros: Purpose-built for AI agents, includes answer extraction, source citations. Cons: Expensive compared to alternatives, limited search engine options.
7. Google Custom Search JSON API
Google's official search API. Being deprecated -- closed to new customers since 2025, with existing customers having until January 2027 to migrate.
Pricing (legacy):
- Free: 100 queries/day
- Paid: $5/1K queries
Do not recommend for new projects. If you need Google results, use SerpAPI or Serper.dev instead.
Comparison Table
| Provider | Cost per 1K | Free Tier | Multi-Engine | Scrape Tools | Auth Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bing (Azure) | $1-3 | 1K/mo | Bing only | No | Azure endpoint key |
| SearchHive | $0.398-1.80 | 500/mo | Web + News | Yes (ScrapeForge, DeepDive) | API key |
| SerpAPI | $2.75-10 | 100/mo | Google, Bing, YouTube | Yes (basic) | API key |
| Serper.dev | $0.50-1.00 | 2,500 signup | Google only | No | API key |
| Brave | $5.00 | 1K/mo | Brave only | No | API key |
| Tavily | $8.00 | 1K/mo | Web only | No | API key |
| Google (legacy) | $5.00 | 100/day | Google only | No | API key |
When to Use Bing Search API
Bing still makes sense in specific scenarios:
- You are already on Azure and want unified billing
- You need Microsoft's compliance certifications (SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP)
- You need enterprise SLAs with dedicated support
- Your compliance team mandates a major cloud provider
For everything else -- startups, side projects, agent builders, data pipelines -- the alternatives are cheaper, simpler, and often faster.
SearchHive vs Bing: Cost Comparison
At common usage levels:
| Monthly Volume | Bing (S2) | SearchHive (Builder) | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 searches | $20 | $49 (includes 100K) | N/A (SH has more) |
| 50,000 searches | $100 | $49 | $51 (51%) |
| 100,000 searches | $200 | $49 | $151 (75%) |
| 500,000 searches | $1,000+ | $199 | $801+ (80%) |
SearchHive's Builder plan ($49/month) includes 100,000 credits and covers most application needs. At scale, the Unicorn plan ($199/month) delivers 500,000 credits at $0.398/1K -- a fraction of Bing's per-search cost.
Recommendation
- Already on Azure with existing infrastructure? Stick with Bing -- the integration cost is zero.
- Building a new application or agent? Start with SearchHive. The free tier gives you 500 credits to prototype, and the Builder plan at $49/month is cheaper than Bing at any meaningful volume.
- Need Google specifically? Serper.dev at $0.50-1.00/1K is the best value.
- Building an AI agent? Tavily is optimized for agents, but SearchHive offers agent search plus scraping and analysis in one API.
Get started with SearchHive's free tier -- 500 credits per month, no Azure account required, no credit card needed. See the documentation for integration examples.