Yes, Google Custom Search has now replaced the old Search API, but you can still use Google Custom Search to search the entire web, although the steps are not obvious from the Custom Search setup.
To create a Google Custom Search engine that searches the entire web:
- From the Google Custom Search homepage ( http://www.google.com/cse/ ), click Create a Custom Search Engine.
- Type a name and description for your search engine.
- Under Define your search engine, in the Sites to Search box, enter at least one valid URL (For now, just put www.anyurl.com to get past this screen. More on this later ).
- Select the CSE edition you want and accept the Terms of Service, then click Next. Select the layout option you want, and then click Next.
- Click any of the links under the Next steps section to navigate to your Control panel.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Basics.
- In the Search Preferences section, select Search the entire web but emphasize included sites.
- Click Save Changes.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Sites.
- Delete the site you entered during the initial setup process.
Now your custom search engine will search the entire web.
Pricing
- Google Custom Search gives you 100 queries per day for free.
- After that you pay $5 per 1000 queries.
- There is a maximum of 10,000 queries per day.
Source: https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview#Pricing
- The search quality is much lower than normal Google search (no synonyms, "intelligence" etc.)
- It seems that Google is even planning to shut down this service completely.
Google
developers.google.com › programmable search engine › custom search json api
Custom Search JSON API | Programmable Search Engine | Google for Developers
The Custom Search JSON API allows programmatic retrieval of web and image search results from a Programmable Search Engine.
SerpApi
serpapi.com
SerpApi: Google Search API
SerpApi is a real-time API to access Google search results. We handle proxies, solve captchas, and parse all rich structured data for you.
How do I get web search results using an api? - Google Search Community
Google Search Help · Sign in · Google Help · Help Center · Community · Google Search · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Submit feedback · Send feedback on... This help content & information · General Help Center experience · Next · Help Center · More on support.google.com
Why people are paying for API to do google searches? Why people won't use simple Python scrapy/requests script instead of paying 200 dollars for 200k searches?
Why people are paying for hairdresser? They have scissor, why pay $60 then? 1\ You need residential proxy otherwise result are not accurate - you hit random cache regarding the query and location of IP (google use city level to personalize the results) - it can depends of the needs 2\ Google block / ratelimit - so you need to rotate IP / cool - learn how it's working, what's they are doing So, engineers pay + proxy pool to rent + servers to rent + time each month to maintain and so on, from a company perspective, $200 to access data instantly or invest in one month project and still have expensive every month to maintain it - that's will be way more than $200. Also service are able to scale "on demand" company needs, whereas company have to invest more to tackle scaling issue. More on reddit.com
10
1
February 1, 2022How do I set up google's custom search API?
I have created a new project in my google api dashboard, but when I use the sandbox for the API, it gives me an error. I am really stuck here. When I try to create my custom search engine ID, it expects a domain to sear… More on forum.freecodecamp.org
0
November 3, 2016Gemini AI Server using REST API with Streaming | B4X Programming Forum
This is a server example to make API call to Google Gemini using OkHttpUtils2 and Json libraries. Get API Key: https://aistudio.google.com/api-keys Learn more... More on b4x.com
What data does the Google Search API provide?
Our Google Search API provides a wealth of data including organic search results, paid search results, knowledge graph entries, local map listings, featured snippets, and related search queries. It captures real-time search engine results pages as seen by users.
searchapi.io
searchapi.io
Google Search API for real-time SERP scraping
How do I integrate the Google Search API with my application?
Integration is straightforward. Refer to our Google Search API documentation for request examples.
searchapi.io
searchapi.io
Google Search API for real-time SERP scraping
Can I use the Google Search API for keyword rank tracking?
Absolutely. The Google Search API is designed to help you monitor keyword rankings and their positions on the search results page. You can track keywords for specific locations, devices, and languages.
searchapi.io
searchapi.io
Google Search API for real-time SERP scraping
Videos
Search The Web With Google Custom Search API In Python
02:30
How To Setup Custom Search API For Google - YouTube
01:32
How To Setup Google Search API - YouTube
Getting Started With Google Search API For Beginners In Python ...
16:34
Automate Google Search API in Python - YouTube
12:43
Perplexity's NEW Search API MIGHT Replace Google - YouTube
Top answer 1 of 10
505
Yes, Google Custom Search has now replaced the old Search API, but you can still use Google Custom Search to search the entire web, although the steps are not obvious from the Custom Search setup.
To create a Google Custom Search engine that searches the entire web:
- From the Google Custom Search homepage ( http://www.google.com/cse/ ), click Create a Custom Search Engine.
- Type a name and description for your search engine.
- Under Define your search engine, in the Sites to Search box, enter at least one valid URL (For now, just put www.anyurl.com to get past this screen. More on this later ).
- Select the CSE edition you want and accept the Terms of Service, then click Next. Select the layout option you want, and then click Next.
- Click any of the links under the Next steps section to navigate to your Control panel.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Basics.
- In the Search Preferences section, select Search the entire web but emphasize included sites.
- Click Save Changes.
- In the left-hand menu, under Control Panel, click Sites.
- Delete the site you entered during the initial setup process.
Now your custom search engine will search the entire web.
Pricing
- Google Custom Search gives you 100 queries per day for free.
- After that you pay $5 per 1000 queries.
- There is a maximum of 10,000 queries per day.
Source: https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview#Pricing
- The search quality is much lower than normal Google search (no synonyms, "intelligence" etc.)
- It seems that Google is even planning to shut down this service completely.
2 of 10
59
Google Custom Search (as advocated in the top rated answers) works well, but is very expensive, compared to its competitors (below) or compared to other Google API's. It has a small free tier (100 queries/day) and a very high price of $5 per 1000 query.
They offer the option to upgrade to Site Search, which has slightly better prices, but that is meant for searching one site (your own), so it is really something quite different - not an upgrade.
The main alternatives seem to be:
Bing Search API
https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/5BA839F1-12CE-4CCE-BF57-A49D98D29A44
Which has a free tier of 5000q/month, and prices starting at 5 query per penny, and no hard limit.
UPDATE: At the end of 2016 this API was shutdown in favour of its Azure counterpart "Cognitive Services Bing Search API":
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/search/
See here for a pricing chart, which starts at US$3/m for 1,000 transactions. Unless I'm missing something it is quite expensive.
Yahoo BOSS Search API
UPDATE: Was discontinued on March 31, 2016.
http://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/
With prices starting at about 12 queries/penny for whole web searches.
And some I haven't heard of before:
http://www.gigablast.com/searchfeed.html
http://www.faroo.com/hp/api/api.html
http://www.commoncrawl.org/
http://www.entireweb.com/search_api/implementation/
[discontinued - as pointed out below]
There is a bit of discussion of some of these on this SO post.
[got closed for being off-topic and is now gone]
Google AI
ai.google.dev › gemini api › grounding with google search
Grounding with Google Search | Gemini API | Google AI for Developers
Google Search: If needed, the model automatically generates one or multiple search queries and executes them. Search Results Processing: The model processes the search results, synthesizes the information, and formulates a response. Grounded Response: The API returns a final, user-friendly response that is grounded in the search results.
Google Support
support.google.com › websearch › thread › 135474043 › how-do-i-get-web-search-results-using-an-api
How do I get web search results using an api? - Google Search Community
Google Search · false · Search · Clear search · Close search · Google apps · Main menu · 2487167249338290810 · true · Search Help Center · false · true · true · true · true · true · 100334 · false ·
Google Cloud
console.cloud.google.com › marketplace › product › google › customsearch.googleapis.com
Custom Search API – Marketplace
Spend smart, procure faster and retire committed Google Cloud spend with Google Cloud Marketplace. Browse the catalog of over 2000 SaaS, VMs, development stacks, and Kubernetes apps optimized to run on Google Cloud.
SearchApi
searchapi.io
Google Search API for real-time SERP scraping
Our Google Search API provides a wealth of data including organic search results, paid search results, knowledge graph entries, local map listings, featured snippets, and related search queries.
Google
developers.google.com › webmaster-tools
Search Console API | Google for Developers
The Search Console API provides programmatic access to the most popular reports and actions in your Search Console account.
Medium
medium.com › @TerryFrederick › google-search-api-everything-you-need-to-know-fd1e24cfca45
Google Search API: Everything You Need To Know | Medium
October 10, 2023 - Beyond limiting the domains, the API also offers the flexibility of prioritizing or excluding specific keywords, ensuring that the search results always align with the business’s goals or the application’s purpose. It’s not just about crafting the description of a search query; it’s about defining the essence of the search itself. Google’s Programmable Search Engine serves as a testament to this ideology.
Google
developers.google.com › programmable search engine › custom search json api: introduction
Custom Search JSON API: Introduction | Programmable Search Engine | Google for Developers
Programmable Search Engine (free edition) users: Get a Key · After you have an API key, your application can append the query parameter key=yourAPIKey to all request URLs. The API key is safe for embedding in URLs, it doesn't need any encoding.
Google Cloud
console.cloud.google.com › apis › library › cloudaicompanion.googleapis.com
APIs & Services
Google Cloud Console has failed to load JavaScript sources from www.gstatic.com. Possible reasons are:www.gstatic.com or its IP addresses are blocked by your network administratorGoogle has temporarily blocked your account or network due to excessive automated requestsPlease contact your network ...
Google Cloud
cloud.google.com › apis
Cloud APIs | Google Cloud
Google-quality search and product recommendations for retailers. ... AI assistants for application development, coding, and more. ... Transform content creation and discovery, research, customer service, and developer efficiency with the power of generative AI. ... Speed up the pace of innovation without coding, using APIs, apps, and automation.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › why people are paying for api to do google searches? why people won't use simple python scrapy/requests script instead of paying 200 dollars for 200k searches?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Why people are paying for API to do google searches? Why people won't use simple Python scrapy/requests script instead of paying 200 dollars for 200k searches?
February 1, 2022 -
Hi. I am going currently through different SaaS's things and I found business that is selling access to API to do google searches. And I don't understand who is paying for this.
First of all, I thought that google is selling access to their own search through their own API, but apparently it was deleted for some reason?
Out of curiosity, I checked out how hard it would be with Python and Scrapy and it is around 10 lines of code to get search response from google.
I am wondering what am I missing? I was thinking about 2 obvious(?) problems:
How well would Scrapy/Requests with let's say FastAPI scale. How slow it would be.
How much would google tolerate. I can only guess that if 1 ip will be making new search every 3 - 5 seconds non-stop. Google would ban this ip. So the more requests, the biggest IP pool would be needed?
But other than that, what am I missing? Why someone is paying 200 dollars for 200k google searches?
Top answer 1 of 5
5
Why people are paying for hairdresser? They have scissor, why pay $60 then? 1\ You need residential proxy otherwise result are not accurate - you hit random cache regarding the query and location of IP (google use city level to personalize the results) - it can depends of the needs 2\ Google block / ratelimit - so you need to rotate IP / cool - learn how it's working, what's they are doing So, engineers pay + proxy pool to rent + servers to rent + time each month to maintain and so on, from a company perspective, $200 to access data instantly or invest in one month project and still have expensive every month to maintain it - that's will be way more than $200. Also service are able to scale "on demand" company needs, whereas company have to invest more to tackle scaling issue.
2 of 5
4
Have you calculated what it would cost you for the infrastructure and infra maintenance to avoid google blocking you, which they'll do if you try to do 200k searches. 200 dollars is barely 2 hours of sw engineer work, the actual infra cost on top of that. There is still a google seach api btw, just under different name, it's 5 dollar/1000 searches with 10k limit per day.
Google
programmablesearchengine.google.com › about
Programmable Search Engine by Google
You program your search engine, so you decide what content it searches and how it looks.
Bright Data
brightdata.com › products › serp-api › google-search
Google Search API - Free Trial
December 18, 2023 - Multi-engine support Works with Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex. One API for all engines. Easy integration Clean, structured data available in JSON, HTML, or Markdown, ready to use. ... Get Google’s top 100 search results in a single API call, with full control over location and language
freeCodeCamp
forum.freecodecamp.org › code feedback
How do I set up google's custom search API? - Code Feedback - The freeCodeCamp Forum
November 3, 2016 - I have created a new project in my google api dashboard, but when I use the sandbox for the API, it gives me an error. I am really stuck here. When I try to create my custom search engine ID, it expects a domain to search, but I want to search google… { "error": { "errors": [ { "domain": "global", "reason": "conditionNotMet", "message": "Need to provide a Custom Search Engine ID.
B4X
b4x.com › home › forums › b4j - desktop, server and raspberry pi › b4j share your creations
Gemini AI Server using REST API with Streaming | B4X Programming Forum
2 weeks ago - After hours and days of vibe coding, solving problems due to my lack of understanding in Server Sent Events (SSE), making countless trials and errors on different combinations of http headers, finally I got a working project with the help of DeepSeek and old school google search. Adding event to SSE: https://medium.com/ @thiagosalvatore/the-line-break-problem-when-using-server-sent-events-sse-1159632d09a0 For B4J UI app without "streaming", check: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/gemini-ai-example-using-rest-api-ui.169487/
Google Cloud
console.cloud.google.com › apis › library › customsearch.googleapis.com
Custom Search API – APIs and services
Google Cloud Console has failed to load JavaScript sources from www.gstatic.com. Possible reasons are:www.gstatic.com or its IP addresses are blocked by your network administratorGoogle has temporarily blocked your account or network due to excessive automated requestsPlease contact your network ...
OpenAI
platform.openai.com › docs › guides › tools-web-search
Web search | OpenAI API
Web search is currently not supported in gpt-5 with minimal reasoning, and gpt-4.1-nano. When used as a tool in the Responses API, web search has the same tiered rate limits as the models above.
You.com
you.com › apis
AI-Ready APIs | You.com
November 11, 2025 - Explore our full suite of APIs, from our leading Web Search API to our Advanced Agent API. Made by developers, for developers.