Top 5 Metasearch API Tools for Developers

Metasearch APIs aggregate results from multiple search engines into a single response. Whether you are building a search comparison tool, an AI agent that needs diverse results, or a price comparison engine, metasearch APIs save you from integrating each search engine separately. This guide compares the top 5 metasearch API tools based on pricing, data quality, speed, and developer experience.

Key Takeaways

• SearchHive SwiftSearch is the cheapest multi-engine option at $9/month for 5K searches across Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo
• SerpApi has the broadest engine coverage (Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, etc.) but starts at $25/month
• Serpstat is a full SEO suite with search data, but API access requires a $100/month minimum
• Brave Search API offers a clean per-query pricing model at $5/1K searches
• For AI agents, SearchHive + ScrapeForge + DeepDive provides the most complete toolkit (search + scrape + extract)

1. SearchHive SwiftSearch

SearchHive's SwiftSearch API provides real-time search results from multiple engines with clean, structured free JSON formatter responses designed for programmatic use.

Engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo

Pricing:

• Free: 500 credits (no expiry)
• Starter: $9/month (5K credits)
• Builder: $49/month (100K credits)
• Unicorn: $199/month (500K credits)

import httpx
import json

response = httpx.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/swiftsearch",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer sh_live_..."},
    json={
        "query": "best project management tools",
        "engine": "google",
        "num_results": 10
    }
)

for result in response.json().get("results", []):
    print(f"#{result['position']} {result['title']}")
    print(f"   {result['url']}")
    print(f"   {result['snippet'][:100]}...")

Strengths: Cheapest multi-engine API, clean JSON, no vendor lock-in, includes scraping tools.

Weaknesses: Fewer engines than SerpApi (no YouTube, Amazon, etc.).

2. SerpApi

SerpApi is the most established search API provider, supporting 20+ search engines including Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Google Maps, and more.

Engines: Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and 15+ more

Pricing:

• Starter: $25/month (1K searches)
• Developer: $75/month (5K searches)
• Production: $150/month (15K searches)
• Enterprise: $275-$3,750/month (30K-1M searches)

import serpapi

search = serpapi.GoogleSearch({
    "q": "best project management tools",
    "api_key": "your_key",
    "num": 10
})
results = search.get_dict()
for organic in results.get("organic_results", []):
    print(f"#{organic['position']} {organic['title']}")

Strengths: Most engines, excellent documentation, U.S. Legal Shield (compliance protection).

Weaknesses: Expensive at scale ($0.025-$0.004/search), Google searches only at entry level.

3. Serpstat

Serpstat is primarily an SEO platform, but its API provides search analytics data, keyword research, and competitive analysis. It is not a real-time search API -- it provides aggregated SEO metrics.

Engines: Google, Yandex, Bing (SEO data, not real-time SERP)

Pricing:

• Individual: $50/month (no API)
• Team: $100/month (200K API credits)
• Agency: $410/month (2M API credits)

Strengths: Comprehensive SEO data, keyword databases, backlink analysis.

Weaknesses: No real-time search results, API locked behind $100/month, designed for SEO teams not developers.

See /blog/searchhive-vs-serpstat-data-quality-compared for a detailed comparison.

4. Brave Search API

Brave's search API provides access to the Brave search index. It is a straightforward REST API with per-query pricing.

Engines: Brave Search only

Pricing:

• Free: $5 credits/month
• Standard: $5/1K queries (web search)
• AI Answers: $4/1K queries (AI-generated answers)

import httpx

response = httpx.get(
    "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search",
    params={"q": "best project management tools", "count": 10},
    headers={"X-Subscription-Token": "your_key"}
)
data = response.json()
for result in data.get("web", {}).get("results", []):
    print(f"{result['title']}: {result['url']}")

Strengths: Simple pricing, privacy-focused index, fast responses.

Weaknesses: Single engine (Brave only), smaller index than Google, no scraping capabilities.

5. Exa (formerly Metaphor)

Exa provides AI-powered semantic search that returns relevant web pages based on meaning rather than keyword matching. It is designed for AI and RAG applications.

Engines: Exa's own neural index

Pricing:

• Search: $7/1K queries
• Deep Search: $12/1K queries
• Answer: $5/1K queries
• Contents: $1/1K pages

import httpx

response = httpx.post(
    "https://api.exa.ai/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": "your_key"},
    json={
        "query": "best project management tools for startups",
        "num_results": 10,
        "type": "auto"
    }
)
for result in response.json().get("results", []):
    print(f"{result['title']}: {result['url']}")

Strengths: Semantic search, excellent for RAG, returns high-quality relevant pages.

Weaknesses: Expensive ($7-$12/search), no traditional keyword search, smaller index.

Comparison Table

Recommendation

For most developers, SearchHive SwiftSearch offers the best balance of price, multi-engine coverage, and developer experience. At $9/month for 5K searches across Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, it is cheaper than every alternative except Brave (which only searches Brave's index). The added ScrapeForge and DeepDive APIs make it the only tool that covers search, scraping, and extraction in one platform.

Choose SerpApi if you need specialized engines (YouTube, Amazon, Google Maps, etc.) and can justify the higher cost.

Choose Exa for semantic search in RAG pipelines where keyword matching does not capture the nuance you need.

Choose Brave if you want a simple, privacy-focused search API with predictable per-query pricing.

Skip Serpstat for metasearch -- it is an SEO analytics platform, not a real-time search API. Its search data is aggregated and delayed, making it unsuitable for live applications.

Get started with 500 free SearchHive credits at searchhive.dev -- enough to evaluate all three search engines before committing.

See also: /compare/serpapi for a head-to-head with SerpApi, or /blog/top-7-llm-function-calling-tools for integrating search APIs into AI agents.