Web search API with clean LLM-ready output
For output you can feed straight to an LLM, Exa returns clean page contents for the top results rather than raw SERP listings, and it pairs that with an unusually generous free tier. Tavily, Linkup and Perplexity also return LLM-ready output, while Brave and SerpAPI return SERP-style results that still need extraction. A light estimate from provider documentation, June 2026.
DefaultExallm_clean_outputExa
Provider offerings
| Offering | Price ($/1000 queries) | Relevance | Latency | Free/mo | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Search API (Data for AI)Brave Software | 5 | 14.89 | 669 ms | 1000 | — |
| ExaExa Labs | 7 | 14.39 | 1200 ms | 20000 | LLM-ready |
| Tavily Search APITavily (acquired by Nebius, Feb 2026) | 8 | 13.67 | 998 ms | 1000 | LLM-ready |
| LinkupLinkup | 5 | — | — | 4000 | LLM-ready |
| Perplexity Sonar / Search APIPerplexity AI | 5* | 12.96 | 11000 ms | — | LLM-ready |
| SerpAPI (Google SERP API)SerpApi LLC | 25* | 12.28 | 2400 ms | 250 | — |
* token-/credit-priced — the headline understates real per-unit cost, so it is excluded from the cheapest ranking.
Sources
- Brave Search API — Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- Exa — API Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- Tavily — Credits & Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- Linkup — Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- Perplexity — API Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- SerpApi — Plans and Pricing (provider docs)2026-06-22
- AImultiple — Agentic Search: Benchmark 8 Search APIs for Agents (independent eval, updated 2026-05-25)2026-06-22
- Nebius announces agreement to acquire Tavily2026-02-10