I typically use Web Research MCP as an alternative to Brave Search MCP. While Brave Search MCP requires credit card-based account creation which I find limiting, Web Research MCP has been a great alternative. Unfortunately, Web Research MCP has stopped working recently due to Google's bot detection kicking in (https://github.com/mzxrai/mcp-webresearch/issues/10). This is a known risk when using MCP for Google searches without an API.
Fortunately, I quickly found an alternative: MCP Google Custom Search Server (https://github.com/limklister/mcp-google-custom-search-server). While this MCP requires creating a credit card-based GCP billing account to obtain the Google Custom Search API and Search Engine ID, making it less convenient than Web Research MCP, I believe the benefits are worth it.
To compare the services: Brave Search API offers 2,000 free queries per month, while Google Custom Search API provides 100 free queries per day (approximately 3,000 queries per 30 days). Additional requests cost $5 per 1,000 queries, with a limit of 10,000 queries per day (prorated). This is particularly attractive since Google Search results are generally superior to Brave Search results.
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Should I use a third-party SERP API or build my own scraper?
Use a third-party API if:
- You're scraping <1M searches/month (API cost is lower than development time)
- You need structured data and don't want to maintain parsers (Google changes SERP layout frequently)
- You lack in-house scraping expertise (proxies, anti-bot bypass, CAPTCHA solving)
- You need reliability with SLAs for production applications
Build your own scraper if:
- You're scraping >1M searches/month AND have engineering resources (DIY becomes cost-effective at scale)
- You need extreme customization that APIs don't support
- You already have scraping infrastructure for other purposes
- You have dedicated engineers to maintain scrapers when Google changes SERP structure
ROI reality: Building a production-grade SERP scraper costs ~$11,500 in the first 6 months (development + proxies + maintenance). Even expensive APIs like SerpApi break even within 6-12 months when factoring in opportunity cost.
For most teams, third-party APIs are the better choice. Only large-scale operations (1M+ searches/month) with in-house expertise should consider DIY.
Are there free SERP APIs available?
Yes, several options provide free tiers or free access to SERP data:
Free Tiers:
- Serper: 2,500 free searches/month (no credit card required)
- DataForSEO: $1 in free credits (~1,667 searches at $0.60/1K)
- Google Custom Search API: 100 queries/day for custom search indexes only
- ValueSerp: 100 free searches/month (community tier)
Unofficial Free APIs:
- DuckDuckGo Instant Answer API: Free (no rate limits published) for zero-click answers, not full SERP data
Important limitations: Free tiers typically restrict volume, features, or commercial use. For production applications scraping >10K searches/month, paid plans are necessary.
Recommendation: Start with Serper's 2,500 free searches to test your use case, then evaluate paid options based on actual volume needs.
What is a SERP API?
A SERP API allows developers to access search engine results programmatically, streamlining the process of data extraction for analysis and SEO optimization. SERP APIs scrape search engine results and return structured data one of such examples is Scrapfly's web scraping API
Hey Brave community!
I came across Brave’s search API recently and think it’s probably the best service out there from a pricing and functionality perspective.
As I’m building ML/AI apps, a python wrapper is helpful to remove repetitive boiler plate code across projects, build useful functionality on top of the API results and let more people discover and use the service.
Let me know what you think and whether you would like other features built in.
I’ve currently built in the ability to:
Use Goggles for custom search reranking
Download PDFs
Fetch product pricing data
Fetch review data
The project is fully open source, happy to collaborate with anyone on here who wants to get involved
I don't care what they say, once STRIPE gets your credit card they always sign you up for subscription which cannot be cancelled,
Free is not a credit-card, they just want real ID, ok but stripe is the service provider behind all these services, and they are hell to kill
So does anybody know how to get an API, or is it better to just stick with duckduckgo and do it for free? with no credit card?
Does anybody know of other API's for search that don't require a credit card for usage FREE??