Explainer
Is There a Google Search API? What's Left and What It Costs
Google has no general web search API you can sign up for. Here's what it still sells, what each costs at 1K to 1M queries, and which free tiers are left.
Google has no general web search API that new customers can sign up for in 2026. Its Custom Search JSON API is “closed to new customers” and stops for everyone else on January 1, 2027. Instead, use Agent Search (formerly Vertex AI Search) to search your own sites, Grounding with Google Search to give an LLM answers with sources, or a third-party SERP API if you need Google’s actual result pages. My grounding pricing guide shows what one grounded Gemini prompt costs.
Below are the documented Google routes relevant to this decision in one dated table, what each costs at 1K, 100K and 1M queries a month, and what the rules say if you go outside Google’s products. If you’re an existing Custom Search customer looking for a replacement, my Custom Search API alternatives guide is built for that move.
Short on time?
Here's my take
- Searching your own site(s)
- Agent Search (formerly Vertex AI Search)
- Google's own recommended replacement for up to 50 domains. Website search needs the Enterprise edition at $4 per 1,000 queries. If a free search box with ads is enough, the Programmable Search Element still works.
- Answers for an LLM or agent
- Grounding with Google Search
- You get a Gemini answer with citations, not a results list. Gemini 3 and newer costs $14 per 1,000 search queries after 5,000 free a month, and strict display rules apply.
- Raw Google result pages
- A third-party SERP API
- Not a Google product, and Google objects to it (see the legal section). At 100K searches a month, list prices under my upfront-cash rule run from $0.10 to $7.25 per 1,000, and only some vendors offer legal cover.
Prices verified . Prices are list prices from each official page, rechecked November 6, 2026. Re-check before you commit.
Does Google have a search API in 2026? #
Not a general web search API that new customers can sign up for. Google still sells official search products, but nothing on this list gives a new customer a JSON list of Google web results. The options below serve different jobs.
| Option | What you get back | Who can sign up today | Price | Free allowance | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Search JSON API | Google web results (or your engine’s sites) as a JSON list | Nobody new: "closed to new customers" | $5 per 1K, up to 10K/day | 100 queries/day | Ends for existing customers on 2027-01-01 |
| Site Restricted JSON API | Results from 10 or fewer sites, no daily cap | Nobody | Page still says $5 per 1K | None | Stopped serving on 2025-01-08 |
| Programmable Search Element ("Sites to search") | An embedded search box and results page over your domains | Anyone, but new engines are site-only (50 domains max) | Standard element free with ads; Non-profit element free without ads; paid ad-free element no longer listed (6 Nov 2026) | Yes, with ads | Whole-web engines end on 2027-01-01 |
| Agent Search (formerly Vertex AI Search) | Search over your websites and data stores, plus optional AI answers | Any Google Cloud billing account | General pricing: Standard $1.50/1K; Enterprise $4/1K includes Core answers; Advanced adds $4/1K | Free Trial labeled 10K/account/month; ongoing entitlement unverified | Generally available |
| Grounding with Google Search (Gemini API) | A Gemini answer with citations and required Search Suggestions | Anyone with an AI Studio key; paid tier needs billing | Gemini 3 and newer $14 per 1K search queries; Gemini 2.5 $35 per 1K prompts (plus model tokens) | Gemini 3 and newer: 5,000/month (paid tier); 2.5 Flash: 500/day (free tier) | Generally available |
| Grounding with Google Search (Google Cloud) | The same, for Google Cloud customers | Google Cloud accounts | Model-specific: Gemini 3+ $14/1K executed queries; older prompt-based rows differ | Shared 5K/month on Gemini 3/4 | Generally available |
| Web Grounding for Enterprise | Web grounding aimed at enterprise and regulated use | Supported Cloud models; check project access | Gemini 3/4 query-based $14/1K; older-model $45/prompt-1K row | Model-specific | Curated subset index; distinct controls |
| Full-web search "interest form" | An unnamed full-web search product | Via a form; replies are "best effort" | Not published | None | Open-ended |
| Search Console API | Your own site’s search performance reports | Verified site owners | Free | n/a | Not a search API |
Source: Google's Custom Search, Programmable Search, Agent Search, Gemini API and Google Cloud pricing pages, checked 6 Nov 2026. Cloud and Gemini API model rows have different allowances/terms. Agent Search’s 10K offer is labeled Free Trial, not an established perpetual grant. Scroll sideways for more columns.
Two things people often confuse with a search API: the Search Console API “provides programmatic access to the most popular reports and actions in your Search Console account”, so it reports on your own site, not on search results. And Microsoft’s Bing Search APIs were retired on August 11, 2025, so Bing isn’t a fallback either.
A naming note: Google’s release notes say “Vertex AI Search product has been renamed as Agent Search” in April 2026, and Vertex AI itself is now “Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform”. Google’s own Custom Search page still says “Vertex AI Search”, so you’ll see both names.
Can you still sign up for Custom Search? #
No. Google’s Custom Search JSON API overview says it plainly: “The Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers,” and existing customers have until January 1, 2027 to move to something else. Its sibling, the Site Restricted JSON API, already stopped serving traffic on January 8, 2025, and its page now points to Agent Search.
Google’s notice doesn’t give the date it closed to new customers, and I haven’t used a GitHub issue date as a stand-in.
Still on Custom Search? It stops January 1, 2027
If your app still calls the Custom Search JSON API or a “Search the entire web” Programmable Search engine, both stop on January 1, 2027. My Google Custom Search API alternatives guide compares the replacements and covers the migration.
Is the Google Search API free? #
Mostly no. The old free tier of 100 queries a day only exists for existing Custom Search JSON API customers, and it ends with the API.
What’s left for free is narrower. The Programmable Search Engine help page lists a Standard Search Element that is free but shows ads, and a free ad-free element for non-profits. Since January 20, 2026, new engines are limited to “Sites to search”, and Google’s wording is exact: “Your URL patterns cannot be from more than 50 distinct domains.”
Keep your expectations modest, though. Google’s own help page says results from these engines are “unlikely to match those returned by Google Web Search”, so the free element isn’t a way to get google.com rankings. If you need those rankings, there are free SERP APIs that return Google results, though none of them is a Google product.
The other free allowances belong to paid products, and they’re set per model generation or per account:
What Google still gives you for free
Verified
| Plan | Free allowance | Who gets it | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Search JSON API | 100 queries/day | Existing customers only, until 2027-01-01 | $5 per 1,000, up to 10K/day |
| Programmable Search Element (Standard) | Free, with ads | Anyone; new engines search 50 domains max | No per-query fee |
| Grounding, Gemini 3 and newer (Gemini API) | 5,000 search queries/month | Paid tier; "Not available" on the free tier for most models (Live models excepted) | $14 per 1,000 search queries |
| Grounding, Gemini 2.5 Flash / Flash-Lite | 500 prompts/day (free tier), 1,500/day (paid tier) | Anyone with an AI Studio key | $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts |
| Grounding, Gemini 2.5 Pro | 1,500 prompts/day | Paid tier only | $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts |
| Agent Search | 10,000 queries/account/month (Free Trial wording) | Trial eligibility/duration unresolved; Advanced excluded | General Standard $1.50/1K or Enterprise $4/1K |
Source: Custom Search overview, Programmable Search help, Gemini API pricing and Agent Search pricing, checked 6 Nov 2026. The Agent Search headline is labeled Free Trial; its annual example subtracts 10K only once. I do not assume a permanent recurring grant.
The Gemini API pricing page gives Gemini 3+ models a shared 5,000-search monthly allowance on the paid tier, then charges $14 per 1,000 executed queries. Model availability changes; check the exact row you will use. Other providers’ allowances are in my roundup of free web search built into LLM APIs.
How much does the Google Search API cost? #
It depends on the product. Agent Search lists $1.50 per 1,000 queries (Standard) or $4 per 1,000 (Enterprise), and Grounding with Google Search costs $14 per 1,000 search queries on Gemini 3 and newer or $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts on Gemini 2.5, after the free allowances. The closing JSON API is $5 per 1,000, for existing customers only.
Here’s what each costs a month at three volumes, using list prices only.
| Workload/month (one executed query per 3+ prompt) | Gemini 3 and newer grounding | Gemini API 2.5 Flash paid grounding | Agent Search Standard | Agent Search Enterprise (with Advanced) | Custom Search JSON (existing only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0 | $0 | $1.50 | $4 ($8) | $0 |
| 100,000 | $1,330 | $1,925 | $150 | $400 ($800) | $485 |
| 1,000,000 | $13,930 | $33,425 | $1,500 | $4,000 ($8,000) | Not possible |
Source: My arithmetic from Google's list prices, 6 Nov 2026, with usage spread across 30 days. Gemini columns exclude model tokens and other shared-account use; the 3+ example assumes one executed search per prompt. Gemini 3 and newer: 5,000 free, then $14 per 1,000. Gemini 2.5: 1,500 free prompts a day, then $35 per 1,000. Agent Search: General list pricing before any uncertain Free Trial deduction; Core answers included in Enterprise, Advanced adds $4/1K. Custom Search: 100 free a day, then $5 per 1,000, capped at 10,000 a day. Scroll sideways for more columns.
I price Agent Search before its uncertain trial allowance. The pricing page labels 10K queries/account/month as Free Trial, but subtracts only 10K once in its 10M annual example. That inconsistency does not establish an ongoing monthly entitlement; confirm the account offer before deducting it from recurring forecasts.
The billing unit matters more than the headline price. Gemini 3+ models are billed per search the model actually runs: Google’s grounding docs say two searches in one call “counts as two billable uses”, and the pricing page says “You will be charged for each individual search query performed”. Gemini 2.5 and older are billed once per grounded prompt, however many searches run.
If a Gemini 3+ model executes two searches per prompt, 100K prompts generate 200K queries; after the assumed full 5K grant that costs $2,730 in search fees, versus $1,330 for one query/prompt. Model tokens are additional. The example describes arithmetic, not an observed average.
What about rate limits? #
Agent Search’s default quota is 300 search requests per minute per project per location, under General pricing; higher throughput uses Configurable pricing with a subscribed QPM threshold. The JSON API’s 10,000-a-day cap works out to about 300,000 a month, which is why it can’t reach 1M.
Agent Search is for searching your own sites #
Agent Search (formerly Vertex AI Search) is the product Google’s Custom Search page recommends for “searching up to 50 domains”. It searches websites and data stores you point it at, and it can add AI-generated answers on top of the results.
Two details change the real price. Google’s migration guide says Enterprise edition features must be on because “This is required for website search”, so CSE-style site search costs $4 per 1,000 queries, not the $1.50 Standard rate some guides quote. And advanced website indexing is billed for storage, with Google’s size estimate assuming “each page is 500 KB”.
The migration guide documents OAuth 2.0 for most Agent Search requests. It does not supply a parameter-for-parameter promise of Custom Search parity. The general Enterprise edition includes Core answers; Advanced features are a separate paid add-on, and website indexing/storage can add cost.
What do you get from grounding with Google Search? #
Grounding lets a Gemini model search Google and answer your prompt with citations, under display and reuse rules covered below. What comes back, per Google’s docs, is the model’s answer with URL citations, the search queries it ran, and a search_suggestions HTML snippet.
It isn’t a ranked list of results, so it can’t stand in for a SERP API if you need positions, snippets or ads. If you’re weighing it against a search API for an agent, I compared how built-in LLM search compares with a search API in the hub.
For the Gemini API, the Additional Terms, currently effective 23 March 2026, impose display, reuse and data rules. These do not replace the separate Cloud service terms:
- Display and tracking: show the associated suggestions to the initiating user. Modification, interstitials and tracking individual results/suggestions are restricted; general interface monitoring is treated separately. The Client Application Guidelines also apply.
- Reuse: grounding is for answering that user’s prompt, not extracting links to build a separate index or crawler list. General caching/training/reuse is restricted, with narrow exceptions: specified text storage up to two years, minimum legal retention, permitted user copies and tightly limited follow-up processing.
- Data: the grounding clause says Google retains prompts, supplied context and output 30 days for creating/debugging/testing grounded results. Paid-service data processing and unpaid-service data use are distinct; I have not reviewed an account-specific agreement.
On Google Cloud, model pricing now groups ordinary Search grounding and Web Grounding for Enterprise for Gemini 3/4 at $14/1K executed grounding queries after a shared 5K monthly allowance. Older-model rows retain prompt-based prices, including $45/1K for Enterprise grounding. One blanket $45 rate or one shared allowance across both channels would be misleading.
Google’s Enterprise grounding docs describe a curated subset of Google’s index and additional controls, with supported models listed. It is still a grounded-answer product, not a substitute for raw Google ranking observations.
Does Google sell a full-web search API? #
I could not verify a public self-service full-web tariff. Google’s Custom Search page says that if “your use case necessitates full web search, contact us”.
The link goes to a Google Form titled “Web Search Products Interest Form”, which asks for your estimated daily search queries and warns that “REPLIES ARE ON A BEST EFFORT BASIS”. It names no product and no price.
I did not establish a public self-service price or universal eligibility from that form. One open-source project that asked has published the answer it got: on 2 November 2026 its maintainer posted an excerpt of a Programmable Search team reply quoting “USD $15 CPM” with “a minimum monthly fee of USD $30,000” (creativecommons/quantifying#293). That is one customer’s self-reported quote, not a published price list.
If you’re an existing Custom Search user, start with my Custom Search API alternatives guide before the January 1 deadline.
What if you need Google’s real result pages? #
To get them as data, you need a third-party SERP API. It fetches a Google results page for you and returns it as structured JSON: titles, links, snippets and features such as AI Overviews. None of these are Google products, and Google’s terms object to the practice (next section).
Here are six documented scenarios at 100,000 one-page searches a month. My cheapest SERP API breakdown has the full dataset at three volumes, and my SerpApi alternatives guide compares features. If it’s down to the two best-known names, I’ve set Serper against SerpApi on price and legal terms.
If AI Overviews or AI Mode are the part you need, my guide to AI Overview and AI Mode APIs covers how each provider collects and bills them.
| Vendor | Documented entry commitment | Per 1,000 at 100K/month | Free tier | Legal cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SerpApi | $25/month (Starter) | $7.25 (Searcher, $725/month) | 250 searches/month | Conditional US-law/US-court collection cover up to $2M; Production+ |
| SearchApi | $40/month (Developer) | $2.50 (BigData, $250/month) | 100 requests, one time | Conditional $2M aggregate/12 months; active Production+ |
| Bright Data SERP API | Pay as you go | $1.50 | 5,000/month | None stated (unverified) |
| Serper | $50 pack (50K credits) | $0.75 ($375 pack; credits last 6 months) | 2,500, one time | None found |
| DataForSEO | $50 minimum deposit | $0.60 standard queue (about 5 min); $2.00 live | $1 trial credit | None found |
| apiserpent.com (SerpentAPI) | $10 minimum deposit | $0.10 after one $500 Scale deposit (new credit, 6 Nov 2026) | 10 free calls, one time | No provider scraping indemnity/public PAYG SLA verified; customer indemnity |
Source: Each vendor's pricing and legal pages, checked 6 Nov 2026. Prepaid prices are the pack or tier rate; Serper's is adjusted for its 6-month credit expiry. SerpApi uses ordinary BestEffort pricing, excluding optional speed/add-ons. Same data and method as the cheapest SERP API dataset. Scroll sideways for more columns.
SearchApi is the cheapest option here with legal cover, per its pricing and terms. SerpApi costs nearly three times as much at this volume, but its legal terms add a Legal Shield of up to $2M from the Production plan up, plus a 99.95% SLA on all plans. If I needed indemnity at 100K a month, I’d start with SearchApi and compare SerpApi’s terms side by side.
SerpentAPI (apiserpent.com, not the unrelated serpentapi.com) has the lowest list price in this set under the 12-month entry-rate cash rule: $0.10 per 1,000 at 100K on Scale. Its pricing page, rechecked 6 November 2026, lists $0.60 per 1K by default, $0.30 after a qualifying $100 deposit, $0.10 after $500, $0.05 after $1,000 (Enterprise) and $0.03 after $1,250 (Enterprise Plus), with a $10 first minimum deposit ($100 for top-ups once lifetime deposits reach $50) and no subscription. Each deposit is priced by its size, your best deposit in a calendar month sets that month’s price, and credit you hold keeps the price you bought it at.
Its FAQ describes AI Overviews on paid eligible Deep Search calls with include_aio=true. Quick bills one Web unit/call; Deep bills requested pages up to ten. Purchased credit does not expire, promotional bonuses expire after 30 days, and the 12-month inactivity rule applies only to unused free calls.
Optional AI Mode adds $0.004/call plus page units; Google-UI provenance remains unverified.
The trade-offs are real, and they come straight from its own pages. The FAQ says “No public SLA is currently published for pay-as-you-go accounts”, and the terms provide the service “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE”, generally make credit purchases non-refundable subject to stated exceptions/law, cap liability at 12 months of fees, fall under Indian law, and make you indemnify the vendor rather than the reverse. I have no permitted independent service measurements here.
These are the new-credit rates shown on 6 November 2026; between my 16 October and 6 November checks, Enterprise moved from $0.03 to $0.05 per 1K and a new Enterprise Plus tier took the $0.03 rate. Scale requires $500 up front, Enterprise $1,000 and Enterprise Plus $1,250; the smaller bill comes with more cash parked with the vendor. I would evaluate it for a cost-sensitive workload only after confirming fields, permitted use and funded-account limits; low Web-unit prices do not establish equivalent service behavior.
Is it legal to get Google results without Google’s API? #
There’s no settled answer yet. Google’s terms object to the practice, and the cited records in Google v. SerpApi do not establish a final outcome.
Google’s general terms restrict automated access that violates machine-readable instructions, and its robots file disallows /search for general crawlers. Its spam policy explicitly addresses unpermitted automated Google queries, including rank checks. These policies are not a universal legal ruling on every collection or reuse.
The 5 October 2026 court order vacated Google v. SerpApi’s planned hearing and left a new date or written decision possible. It did not decide the dismissal motion.
On 6 November 2026 the public docket still showed Google’s 12 October notice (ECF 61) as the last known filing, with no ruling on the motion. Public mirrors can lag PACER, so check before relying on this; the case explainer covers individual filings.
SerpApi’s contract limits its collection shield to eligible lawful collection claims under US law in a US court; SearchApi’s terms exclude downstream use/storage/redistribution and cap covered amounts at $2M aggregate per 12 months. Neither makes every proposed use lawful. This is document research, not legal advice.
Which one should you pick? #
- You need search on your own website: start with the free Programmable Search Element if ads are acceptable. Move to Agent Search Enterprise ($4 per 1,000) if you need an API, no ads, or AI answers.
- You’re building an LLM app or agent that needs fresh facts: Grounding with Google Search, on a Gemini 3 and newer model if you want the lower rate. Budget for several searches per prompt, and read the display rules before you design your UI.
- You need Google result pages as data (rank tracking, SEO tools, datasets): a third-party SERP API. Pick SearchApi or SerpApi if you want legal cover, or a cheaper vendor such as apiserpent.com, Serper or DataForSEO if cost matters more than an SLA.
- You’re an existing Custom Search JSON API customer: plan the move now, not in December. My guide to Custom Search API replacements walks through the options.
For the wider picture, including AI search APIs with their own index, see my guide to web search APIs for AI agents.
FAQ
Is there an API for Google search?
Not a general web search API that new customers can sign up for. The Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers, and existing users must migrate by January 1, 2027. Official alternatives serve different jobs: site/data-store search, grounded Gemini answers, or an unpublished full-web interest route. Third-party SERP APIs are not Google products. If you are replacing Custom Search, see the Custom Search API alternatives guide on this site.
Is the Google Custom Search API free?
Existing customers receive 100 queries/day, then pay $5/1K up to 10K/day until closure. New users can use a Standard Search Element with ads for site search; it is not google.com ranking data.
How much does the Google Search API cost?
Agent Search General Standard is $1.50/1K and Enterprise $4/1K with Core answers; Advanced adds $4/1K. Gemini 3+ grounding bills executed searches, while Gemini 2.5 uses grounded prompts. Model tokens and storage are separate.
Is Agent Search free for 10,000 queries every month?
I could not establish that. The pricing headline labels 10K/account/month as Free Trial, but its annual example deducts 10K once. Confirm the actual trial entitlement before reducing recurring forecasts.
Does grounding give you Google rankings?
No. It generates a model answer with citations and suggestion metadata. It is not a ranked Google SERP dataset, and display/reuse terms depend on the Gemini API or Cloud channel.
What's the Agent Search rate limit?
The documented General-pricing regional default is 300 search requests/minute/project/location. Higher traffic uses Configurable pricing and a subscribed QPM threshold; actual project quotas still require account verification.
Sources
31 sources, accessed to .
Official pricing, docs, changelogs and status pages 30
- Google: Custom Search JSON API overview (closed to new customers, pricing)
- Google: Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API
- Programmable Search Engine help: Sites to search and the 50-domain limit
- Programmable Search Engine help: Search Element and JSON API offerings
- Programmable Search Engine help: why results differ from Google Web Search
- Google PSE blog: Updates to our Web Search Products (2026-01-20)
- Google: Web Search Products Interest Form
- Google Cloud: Agent Search release notes (renamed from Vertex AI Search)
- Google Cloud: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI)
- Google Cloud: Migrate from Custom Search to Agent Search
- Google Cloud: Agent Search pricing
- Google Cloud: Agent Search quotas and limits
- Google Cloud: Estimate the size of website data
- Gemini API pricing (grounding with Google Search)
- Gemini API docs: Grounding with Google Search
- Gemini API Additional Terms of Service (Grounded Results rules)
- Google Cloud: Agent Platform generative AI pricing (grounding)
- Google Cloud: Web Grounding for Enterprise
- Google Terms of Service
- google.com robots.txt
- Google Search spam policies: machine-generated traffic
- Google Search Console API
- Microsoft: Bing Search API retirement announcement
- SerpApi legal terms (U.S. Legal Shield)
- SearchApi pricing
- SearchApi terms (legal protection)
- apiserpent.com (SerpentAPI) pricing
- apiserpent.com terms of service (updated 2026-09-16)
- apiserpent.com FAQ (SLA, AI Overviews)
- Google Client Application Guidelines
