Alternatives
Google Custom Search JSON API alternatives
Google's own programmable search endpoint. Real Google results, a hard 10,000/day ceiling, and terms written for site search rather than agents.
Verified 7 October 2026·Figures from vendors' own pages
Closed to new customers; Google discontinues it on 1 January 2027 and points site search to Vertex AI SearchGoogle Custom Search JSON API at a glance
- Vendor
- Category
- SERP resellers
- Own index
- Yes — Google's index, via Programmable Search Engine
- Price per 1,000
- $5
- Free tier
- 100 queries per day (existing customers only)
- Rate limit
- 10,000 queries / day
- MCP server
- No
- Graph traversal
- No
- Coverage transparency
- No
Pricing detail. $5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day, up to 10,000 queries a day — for existing customers only. The API is closed to new customers and is discontinued on 1 January 2027.
Why teams look for a Google Custom Search JSON API alternative
The daily quota is the wall almost everyone hits. The free allowance is small and the paid tier is capped in a way that makes it unsuitable for anything with real traffic, so the product works beautifully in a prototype and cannot be scaled into.
The second reason is that it was designed to search a site or a curated set of sites rather than to answer arbitrary questions over the open web. Used as a general web search API it is being pushed well outside its purpose, and the result quality reflects that.
Where Google Custom Search JSON API beats us
It is Google's index, reachable with a straightforward JSON API and no scraping in the middle, and for its actual purpose — search restricted to a site or a defined collection of sites — it is excellent and almost free at small volume. If that is the job, this is the tool, and an independent web index is not a substitute for it.
Every page in this section names this. A comparison that cannot say where the other product wins is an advertisement.
The alternatives
unlob
$0.40/1kWe return passages from an index we operate, not a parsed copy of somebody else's result page. That means no dependency on a search engine remaining scrapeable, and results shaped for an agent — metadata first, trust signals attached, page text only for the passages you select. It also means these are not Google rankings, and if that is what you need, a reseller is the right tool.
SerpAPI
$25/1kThe mature multi-engine SERP API. Returns real Google, Bing and Baidu result pages with all their features — at SERP-scraping prices.
Serper
$1/1kThe cheapest way to get raw Google results into an agent. Fast, minimal, and entirely dependent on Google continuing to be scrapeable.
DataForSEO
$0.60/1kIndustrial SERP infrastructure built for SEO tooling rather than agents. The cheapest per query in the field, with the lowest-level API to match.
Parallel Search
$1/1kA suite of web search, extraction and research APIs on a proprietary index, from the former Twitter CEO. The closest competitor to unlob by thesis.
Perplexity
$1/1kRaw web search over its own index through the Search API, and search with synthesis through the Agent API, which replaced Sonar Chat Completions in September 2026.
Bright Data
$1.50/1kProxy and unblocking infrastructure with a scraping suite and an agent-facing MCP server. Built for volume collection, priced accordingly.
Exa
$4/1kNeural, embeddings-first search over a proprietary index, sold alongside content extraction, answers and agentic research products.
Brave Search API
$5/1kA genuinely independent index of 40B+ pages, sold as a conventional search API with an LLM-context option. Long the default independent choice.
Free developer tier removed February 2026
Sources
- Custom Search JSON API pricingread 7 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Google Custom Search JSON API?
It depends what you are replacing. If you need an independent index at the lowest price, unlob is $0.40 per 1,000 searches against $5 for Google Custom Search JSON API's paid queries (existing customers only). If you need Google's exact ranking, Google Custom Search JSON API may still be the right tool — we say so on our comparison page rather than pretending otherwise.
Can I still start on Google Custom Search JSON API?
No. Closed to new customers; Google discontinues it on 1 January 2027 and points site search to Vertex AI Search. Existing customers keep access until then, so anything built on it needs a migration plan now rather than at the deadline.
Does Google Custom Search JSON API own its own web index?
Yes — Google's index, via Programmable Search Engine. That matters because a provider without its own index inherits the deprecation and repricing risk of whoever it depends on.
How much does Google Custom Search JSON API cost?
$5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day, up to 10,000 queries a day — for existing customers only. The API is closed to new customers and is discontinued on 1 January 2027.
Try the cheapest own-index alternative
10,000 free credits a month, no card. Test coverage and latency against your own queries before you commit to anything.