# Free web search APIs for AI agents: what each free tier really gives

> Which web search APIs have a free tier in 2026, what each allows and the catches: cards, monthly resets, non-commercial terms and rate limits.

- URL: https://llmwebsearch.com/guides/free-web-search-api/
- Last updated: 2026-10-22
- Publisher: LLMWebSearch (https://llmwebsearch.com)

Several search APIs give some searches away, and for a hobby agent that may be all you need. Each free tier has a catch: a card, a monthly reset, a non-commercial clause or a low rate limit. This page lists them as each vendor states them.

**Quick answer — Is there a free web search API for AI agents?**

Yes, with limits. As of October 22, 2026, Tavily gives 1,000 credits a month, Exa $10 a month, You.com 100 keyless queries a day and LangSearch free search at 5 requests per second; Brave and Parallel ask for a card. **LLMWebSearch** has no free tier: the smallest pack is 5,000 searches for $9.25, with no KYC and crypto payment.

## Which web search APIs have a free tier?

As stated on each vendor's page, read on 22 October 2026. Free tiers change often; check the source before you build on one.

| Service | Free allowance | Card or email needed? | Catch |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Tavily | 1,000 credits a month | No card | Credits reset monthly; one basic search = 1 credit |
| Exa | $10 a month (up to 2,500 lite searches) | No payment method | Lite serves cached content only; the grant resets monthly |
| You.com | $10 credit (2,000 searches), plus 100 queries a day through keyless MCP | None for keyless MCP | Pages crawled live are billed at $1 per 1,000; cached pages are not |
| Brave Search API | $5 credit a month (1,000 requests) | Card required | Default terms bar storing results and AI training |
| Parallel | $5 credit a month | Card required | Unused monthly credit expires at month end |
| Firecrawl | 1,000 credits a month (500 searches without page text) | No card | Each page read costs a further credit |
| Linkup | $20 a month top-up | Professional email | Free credit tied to a work address |
| Valyu | $10, or $20 with a company email | No card | Free credits expire after 12 months |
| LangSearch | Free web search | Not stated | 5 requests per second; 5,000 characters of text per result by default |
| Jina Search | 10M tokens per key | No card stated | Non-commercial use only; at least 10,000 tokens per search |
| DeepSeek Search and Fetch | Free through DeepSeek's harness, Claude Code or Codex | Not stated | Per-request billing starts November 1, 2026 |
| SearXNG | Free software you host yourself (AGPL-3.0) | None | No page text; search engines treat it as a bot and limit it |
| LLMWebSearch | None | No card, no ID, no email | Smallest pack 5,000 searches for $9.25; credits never expire |

## Which free tier suits a hobby agent?

One that needs no card and returns some page text. On those two criteria, Tavily's 1,000 monthly credits and Exa's $10 monthly grant are the easiest starts, as read on October 22, 2026. Tavily can add raw page content to results; Exa's auto search includes text for the first ten results.

You.com's keyless MCP is handy for trying search inside an MCP client: 100 queries a day with no account. LangSearch is free with page text capped at 5,000 characters per result by default. Both suit experiments more than products.

## What are the catches?

Four come up again and again:

- **A card on file.** Brave asks for one "to prevent abuse", and Parallel's monthly credit goes to organisations "with a credit card".
- **Monthly resets.** Tavily, Exa and Parallel reset or expire free credit each month, so unused searches are lost.
- **Usage terms.** Jina's free tokens are for non-commercial use only. Brave's default terms forbid storing results or training models on them.
- **Throughput.** LangSearch allows 5 requests per second, and keyless MCP endpoints cap daily use.

None of these is a problem for a weekend project. Each one matters once an agent serves users.

## Is self-hosting SearXNG a free alternative?

It is free software, not a free service. SearXNG is a metasearch engine released under the AGPL-3.0 licence. It sends your queries to public search engines and merges their results.

That design has limits. It returns titles, links and snippets but no page text. Its own documentation says it "is thus classified as a bot itself" by the engines it queries, which then limit or suspend it. For a personal setup it works; for an agent in production it is fragile.

## What should I avoid when looking for free search?

Three shortcuts cause more trouble than they save. Shared or leaked API keys break the vendor's terms and get revoked, often mid-project. Scraping a search engine's result pages from your own servers runs into its terms and its rate limits. Free trials opened again and again under new accounts get closed.

If the free tiers above are too small, a small paid pack is usually cheaper than the time spent working around limits.

## Why does LLMWebSearch have no free tier?

Because every search we run costs us a live search and up to three page reads. Instead of a monthly allowance that expires, we sell small packs that do not. There is no free tier: the 5,000-search pack is the way to try it, bought from the minimum top-up; whatever you added only to reach that minimum comes back on request within 30 days, in USDT or USDC, as long as it is unspent.

The smallest pack, 5,000 searches for $9.25, lasts a hobby agent several months. There is no card to enter and no ID to upload. See [pricing](https://llmwebsearch.com/pricing/) for every pack.

## Small packs instead of a free tier

One credit pays for one search: up to 20 ranked results, with the pages of the first 3 read and returned as Markdown. Reading 4 to 10 pages makes it 2 credits. A call that ends in an error costs nothing. Search credits have no expiry date: what you do not use this month is still there next year.

| Plan | Quantity | Price | Price per unit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Try | 5,000 searches | $9.25 | $1.85/1K searches |
| Builder | 25,000 searches | $41.25 | $1.65/1K searches |

In every plan: Top 3 pages read as Markdown · Country, language, time and domain filters · Failed calls not charged · Credits never expire

**Before you pay**

- Minimum top-up $25. Top up once in crypto, then buy any plan from your balance.
- Money on your balance does not expire and buys search credits whenever you want. When a pack is cheaper than the minimum top-up, the part you paid only to reach that minimum comes back to you on request within 30 days of payment, in USDT or USDC, provided it is still unspent. The rest of a balance is not returned unless the law requires it.
- Credited once your payment is checked on the blockchain. Typical network confirmation time: BTC ≈ 20 min · USDT TRC-20 ≈ 1 min · USDT ERC-20 ≈ 5 min · USDC ERC-20 ≈ 5 min · ETH ≈ 5 min · SOL ≈ 1 min · LTC ≈ 15 min

## Free web search APIs: common questions

### Which free web search API needs no credit card?

As read on October 22, 2026: Tavily, Exa, Firecrawl and Valyu need no card for their free tiers, and You.com's keyless MCP needs no account. Brave and Parallel require a card.

### Can I use a free tier in a commercial product?

It depends on the vendor. Jina's free tokens are non-commercial only. Read each vendor's terms, especially rules on storing results.

### Is DeepSeek's search API free?

Until November 1, 2026, tool calls through DeepSeek's harness, Claude Code or Codex are free, according to its pricing page. Billing then starts at $0.75 per 1,000 searches.

### Does LLMWebSearch offer a trial?

No free tier. There is no free tier: the 5,000-search pack is the way to try it, bought from the minimum top-up; whatever you added only to reach that minimum comes back on request within 30 days, in USDT or USDC, as long as it is unspent.

## Sources

1. [API credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits) — Tavily (read 2026-10-22)
2. [Billing](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/billing) — Exa (read 2026-10-22)
3. [API pricing](https://you.com/pricing) — You.com (read 2026-10-22)
4. [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/) — Brave Software (read 2026-10-22)
5. [Brave Search API terms of service](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/terms-of-service) — Brave Software (read 2026-10-22)
6. [Free tier](https://parallel.ai/blog/free-tier-parallel.md) — Parallel Web Systems (read 2026-10-22)
7. [Search](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/search) — Firecrawl (read 2026-10-22)
8. [Pricing](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/development/pricing) — Linkup (read 2026-10-22)
9. [Pricing](https://docs.valyu.ai/pricing) — Valyu (read 2026-10-22)
10. [Pricing](https://langsearch.com/pricing) — LangSearch (read 2026-10-22)
11. [Reader and search API](https://jina.ai/reader/) — Jina AI (Elastic) (read 2026-10-22)
12. [Models and pricing](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing) — DeepSeek (read 2026-10-22)
13. [Limiter](https://docs.searxng.org/admin/searx.limiter.html) — SearXNG (read 2026-10-22)

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LLMWebSearch: LLMWebSearch is a web search API for AI agents that returns ranked results with the content of the top pages in Markdown, paid in crypto with no ID upload. Prepaid credits from $1.20/1K searches never expire. No KYC — no ID, no selfie, no documents. Pay in crypto.