{
  "$schema": "https://schema.org/Dataset",
  "name": "Web search API landscape 2026",
  "description": "A sourced, vendor-neutral comparison of web search APIs for AI agents: index ownership, price per 1,000 queries, capabilities, funding and status. Every figure was read from the vendor’s own pricing page or funding announcement on the date recorded.",
  "url": "https://www.unlob.com/landscape",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "unlob",
    "url": "https://www.unlob.com"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-08-05",
  "license": "https://www.unlob.com/legal/terms",
  "disclosure": "This dataset is published by unlob, which sells one of the products it compares. The figures are sourced and checkable; the framing is not neutral and should not be treated as such.",
  "methodology": {
    "normalisation": "usdPer1k is the cheapest directly comparable web search call — roughly ten results, no extraction, no summarisation. Vendors without a comparable flat rate have usdPer1k: null and a pricingNote explaining why.",
    "graphTools": "True only where the API exposes traversal of relationships between documents in an open-web index, not where a graph can be built over your own documents.",
    "coverageTransparency": "True only where the API will explain why a specific URL is absent from the index."
  },
  "providers": [
    {
      "slug": "unlob",
      "name": "unlob",
      "vendor": "unlob",
      "category": "own-index",
      "categoryLabel": "Own-index search APIs",
      "summary": "Agent-first web search on its own index, with a coverage graph and queryable coverage transparency.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Own crawl and own serving tier, with no upstream search provider. Bounded by design rather than exhaustive.",
      "usdPer1k": 0.398,
      "pricingNote": "Free $0/mo for 10,000 requests; Build $29/mo for 50,000 requests ($0.58/1k); Scale $199/mo for 500,000 requests ($0.40/1k); Archive $799/mo for 2,000,000 requests ($0.40/1k).",
      "freeTier": "10,000 requests per month, no card",
      "rateLimit": "1–200 requests/second by plan, enforced per replica",
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": true,
      "coverageTransparency": true,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "isPublisher": true,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "unlob pricing",
          "url": "https://www.unlob.com/pricing",
          "fetched": "2026-08-05"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "exa",
      "name": "Exa",
      "vendor": "Exa Labs",
      "category": "own-index",
      "categoryLabel": "Own-index search APIs",
      "summary": "Neural, embeddings-first search over a proprietary index, sold alongside content extraction, answers and agentic research products.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Proprietary AI-native semantic index",
      "usdPer1k": 7,
      "pricingNote": "Base search is $7 per 1,000 requests. Results beyond the first 10 add $1 per 1,000, contents add $1 per 1,000 pages, and AI summaries another $1 per 1,000 — so a realistic RAG call costs more than the headline.",
      "freeTier": "$20 in credits at signup, then $10 in credits per month",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": {
        "total": "$335M+",
        "lastRound": "$250M (2026)",
        "valuation": "$2.2B",
        "investors": [
          "Andreessen Horowitz",
          "Benchmark",
          "Lightspeed",
          "Y Combinator",
          "NVentures (NVIDIA)"
        ],
        "date": "May 2026"
      },
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Exa pricing",
          "url": "https://exa.ai/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Exa Labs raises $250M at $2.2B valuation",
          "url": "https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/20/exa-labs-raises-250m-2-2b-valuation-ai-search-tools/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Announcing our Series B",
          "url": "https://exa.ai/blog/announcing-series-b",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/exa",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-exa"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "parallel",
      "name": "Parallel Search",
      "vendor": "Parallel Web Systems",
      "category": "own-index",
      "categoryLabel": "Own-index search APIs",
      "summary": "A suite of web search, extraction and research APIs on a proprietary index, from the former Twitter CEO. The closest competitor to unlob by thesis.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Proprietary web index and retrieval infrastructure",
      "usdPer1k": 1,
      "pricingNote": "The Turbo search processor is $1 per 1,000; Basic and Advanced are both $5 per 1,000. The Task API, which is what most agent workloads actually use, runs $5 to $2,400 per 1,000 depending on processor.",
      "freeTier": "5,000 requests per month",
      "rateLimit": "600 requests / min (Search API)",
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": {
        "total": "$230M",
        "lastRound": "$100M Series B",
        "valuation": "$2.0B",
        "investors": [
          "Sequoia Capital",
          "Kleiner Perkins",
          "Index Ventures",
          "Khosla Ventures",
          "First Round",
          "Spark Capital"
        ],
        "date": "April 2026"
      },
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Parallel pricing",
          "url": "https://parallel.ai/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation",
          "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/29/parallel-web-systems-hits-2b-valuation-five-months-after-its-last-big-raise/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/parallel",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-parallel"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "brave-search-api",
      "name": "Brave Search API",
      "vendor": "Brave Software",
      "category": "own-index",
      "categoryLabel": "Own-index search APIs",
      "summary": "A genuinely independent index of 40B+ pages, sold as a conventional search API with an LLM-context option. Long the default independent choice.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "40B+ pages, no Google or Bing dependency",
      "usdPer1k": 5,
      "pricingNote": "Search is $5 per 1,000 requests. The Answers plan is $4 per 1,000 plus $5 per million tokens.",
      "freeTier": "$5 in monthly credits — the perpetual free tier was retired in February 2026",
      "rateLimit": "50 queries / sec (Search); 2 / sec (Answers)",
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": "Free developer tier removed February 2026",
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Brave Search API pricing",
          "url": "https://brave.com/search/api/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/brave-search-api",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-brave-search-api"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "mojeek",
      "name": "Mojeek",
      "vendor": "Mojeek Ltd",
      "category": "own-index",
      "categoryLabel": "Own-index search APIs",
      "summary": "A UK independent crawler and index, running since 2004. Small by comparison, but genuinely its own — and the oldest independent index still standing.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Fully in-house index, crawling since 2004",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "API pricing is quoted per plan rather than as a public flat per-1,000 rate.",
      "freeTier": "Limited free API access on request",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Mojeek",
          "url": "https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/web-search-api/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/mojeek",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-mojeek"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "tavily",
      "name": "Tavily",
      "vendor": "Nebius Group",
      "category": "retrieval-layer",
      "categoryLabel": "Retrieval layers",
      "summary": "An LLM-shaped retrieval layer returning cleaned, ranked, cited chunks rather than raw SERPs. Acquired by Nebius in February 2026.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "No publicly documented independent web index",
      "usdPer1k": 8,
      "pricingNote": "Credit-based at $0.008 per credit pay-as-you-go. A basic search is 1 credit (~$8 per 1,000), an advanced search 2 credits (~$16 per 1,000), and a deep research request 4 to 250 credits.",
      "freeTier": "1,000 credits per month, no card required",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": {
        "total": "$25M",
        "lastRound": "$20M Series A",
        "investors": [
          "Insight Partners",
          "Alpha Wave Global"
        ],
        "date": "August 2025"
      },
      "status": "acquired",
      "statusNote": "Acquired by Nebius Group for $275M, February 2026",
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Tavily pricing",
          "url": "https://www.tavily.com/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Tavily raises $25M",
          "url": "https://www.insightpartners.com/ideas/tavily-raises-25-million-to-power-the-internet-of-agents/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Tavily company profile",
          "url": "https://sacra.com/c/tavily/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/tavily",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-tavily"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "linkup",
      "name": "Linkup",
      "vendor": "Linkup",
      "category": "retrieval-layer",
      "categoryLabel": "Retrieval layers",
      "summary": "A French grounding API returning structured, citation-carrying content for LLMs, with a sub-second \"fast\" tier and native parallel search.",
      "ownIndex": "partial",
      "indexNote": "Own retrieval layer over partner and web sources",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Priced per plan and per search depth rather than a single public per-1,000 rate.",
      "freeTier": "Free developer credits on signup",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": {
        "total": "$10M+",
        "lastRound": "$10M seed",
        "investors": [
          "Gradient",
          "Elaia",
          "Seedcamp",
          "Axeleo Capital",
          "Motier Ventures"
        ],
        "date": "February 2026"
      },
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Linkup",
          "url": "https://www.linkup.so/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Linkup raises $10M seed",
          "url": "https://www.linkup.so/blog/linkup-raises-10m-seed-to-build-web-search-for-ai",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/linkup",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-linkup"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "valyu",
      "name": "Valyu",
      "vendor": "Valyu",
      "category": "retrieval-layer",
      "categoryLabel": "Retrieval layers",
      "summary": "A London deep-search API spanning web plus licensed proprietary sources, with content attribution and pay-per-use monetisation for publishers.",
      "ownIndex": "partial",
      "indexNote": "Web plus licensed proprietary corpora",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Usage-based, quoted per source and depth.",
      "freeTier": "Free credits on signup",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Valyu",
          "url": "https://www.valyu.ai/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/valyu",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-valyu"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "serpapi",
      "name": "SerpAPI",
      "vendor": "SerpApi, LLC",
      "category": "serp-reseller",
      "categoryLabel": "SERP resellers",
      "summary": "The mature multi-engine SERP API. Returns real Google, Bing and Baidu result pages with all their features — at SERP-scraping prices.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "Scrapes Google, Bing, Baidu and others",
      "usdPer1k": 25,
      "pricingNote": "Approximately $25 per 1,000 searches on the Starter plan; the rate falls on higher-volume plans.",
      "freeTier": "100 searches per month",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "SerpApi pricing",
          "url": "https://serpapi.com/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/serpapi",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-serpapi"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "serper",
      "name": "Serper",
      "vendor": "Serper",
      "category": "serp-reseller",
      "categoryLabel": "SERP resellers",
      "summary": "The cheapest way to get raw Google results into an agent. Fast, minimal, and entirely dependent on Google continuing to be scrapeable.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "Google SERP wrapper",
      "usdPer1k": 1,
      "pricingNote": "$1 per 1,000 on the Starter plan, falling to about $0.30 per 1,000 at high volume.",
      "freeTier": "2,500 free queries on signup",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Serper pricing",
          "url": "https://serper.dev/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/serper",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-serper"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "dataforseo",
      "name": "DataForSEO",
      "vendor": "DataForSEO",
      "category": "serp-reseller",
      "categoryLabel": "SERP resellers",
      "summary": "Industrial SERP infrastructure built for SEO tooling rather than agents. The cheapest per query in the field, with the lowest-level API to match.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "SERP data collection at scale",
      "usdPer1k": 0.6,
      "pricingNote": "Roughly $0.60 to $1 per 1,000 SERPs depending on endpoint, priority and volume.",
      "freeTier": "Free trial credit",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "DataForSEO pricing",
          "url": "https://dataforseo.com/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/dataforseo",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-dataforseo"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "google-custom-search",
      "name": "Google Custom Search JSON API",
      "vendor": "Google",
      "category": "serp-reseller",
      "categoryLabel": "SERP resellers",
      "summary": "Google's own programmable search endpoint. Real Google results, a hard 10,000/day ceiling, and terms written for site search rather than agents.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Google's index, via Programmable Search Engine",
      "usdPer1k": 5,
      "pricingNote": "$5 per 1,000 queries after the free allowance, capped at 10,000 queries per day.",
      "freeTier": "100 queries per day",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Custom Search JSON API pricing",
          "url": "https://developers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/google-custom-search",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-google-custom-search"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "gemini-grounding",
      "name": "Grounding with Google Search",
      "vendor": "Google",
      "category": "platform-grounding",
      "categoryLabel": "Platform grounding",
      "summary": "Google's first-party grounding for Gemini. The best index in the world, billed per search query on top of tokens, and only usable from Gemini.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Google's index",
      "usdPer1k": 14,
      "pricingNote": "$14 per 1,000 search queries on Gemini 3.x after 5,000 free prompts per month. Gemini 2.5 models use the older scheme at $35 per 1,000. One prompt can trigger several billed queries.",
      "freeTier": "5,000 prompts per month (Gemini 3.x)",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Gemini API pricing",
          "url": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/gemini-grounding",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-gemini-grounding"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "perplexity-sonar",
      "name": "Perplexity Sonar",
      "vendor": "Perplexity AI",
      "category": "platform-grounding",
      "categoryLabel": "Platform grounding",
      "summary": "Search and synthesis in one call. You get an answer rather than results, which is convenient until you need to control retrieval yourself.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Perplexity index",
      "usdPer1k": 14,
      "pricingNote": "A per-request search fee of roughly $5 to $14 per 1,000 on top of token charges ($1/$1 per million on Sonar, $3/$15 on Sonar Pro). Pro Search mode runs $14 to $22 per 1,000.",
      "freeTier": "API credits included with Perplexity Pro",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Perplexity API pricing",
          "url": "https://docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/perplexity-sonar",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-perplexity-sonar"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "azure-grounding-with-bing",
      "name": "Grounding with Bing Search",
      "vendor": "Microsoft",
      "category": "platform-grounding",
      "categoryLabel": "Platform grounding",
      "summary": "Microsoft's designated successor to the retired Bing Search API, available only inside Azure AI Foundry. A platform commitment, not an API swap.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Bing index, via Azure AI Foundry",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Billed through Azure AI Foundry as part of an agent deployment rather than as a standalone per-1,000 search rate.",
      "freeTier": "Azure free credits only",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Grounding with Bing Search",
          "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-grounding",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/azure-grounding-with-bing",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-azure-grounding-with-bing"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "bing-web-search-api",
      "name": "Bing Web Search API",
      "vendor": "Microsoft",
      "category": "platform-grounding",
      "categoryLabel": "Platform grounding",
      "summary": "For a decade the default independent web search API. Retired on 11 August 2025, taking Web, Image, News, Video, Entity and Custom Search with it.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Bing index",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "No longer sold. API creation was disabled in March 2025 and the service retired that August.",
      "freeTier": "None — retired",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "retired",
      "statusNote": "Retired 11 August 2025",
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Bing Search API retirement",
          "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/bing-web-search/overview",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/bing-web-search-api",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-bing-web-search-api"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "openai-web-search",
      "name": "OpenAI web search tool",
      "vendor": "OpenAI",
      "category": "platform-grounding",
      "categoryLabel": "Platform grounding",
      "summary": "The built-in search tool in the Responses API. Zero integration work if you are already on OpenAI, and no control over retrieval whatsoever.",
      "ownIndex": "partial",
      "indexNote": "Third-party index behind an OpenAI tool",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Billed as a tool call within the Responses API rather than as a standalone search rate.",
      "freeTier": "None separate from API credit",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "OpenAI pricing",
          "url": "https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/openai-web-search",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-openai-web-search"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "firecrawl",
      "name": "Firecrawl",
      "vendor": "Firecrawl",
      "category": "crawl-extract",
      "categoryLabel": "Crawl & extraction",
      "summary": "Crawl, scrape and clean any URL into markdown for an LLM. A complement to a search API rather than a replacement — it needs URLs to start from.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "Crawl and extraction, not an index",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Credit-based per page crawled or scraped, not per search.",
      "freeTier": "500 credits on signup",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": {
        "total": "$16.2M",
        "lastRound": "$14.5M Series A",
        "investors": [
          "Nexus Venture Partners",
          "Y Combinator",
          "Tobias Lütke"
        ],
        "date": "August 2025"
      },
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Firecrawl pricing",
          "url": "https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Firecrawl Series A",
          "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/firecrawl-announces-14-5-million-110000451.html",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/firecrawl",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-firecrawl"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "jina-reader",
      "name": "Jina Reader",
      "vendor": "Jina AI",
      "category": "crawl-extract",
      "categoryLabel": "Crawl & extraction",
      "summary": "Prefix any URL and get clean markdown back. The lowest-friction extraction tool there is, and priced per token rather than per page.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "URL-to-markdown extraction",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Token-based billing on extracted content; a search endpoint exists but is not an independent index.",
      "freeTier": "Generous free tier, no key required for basic use",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Jina Reader",
          "url": "https://jina.ai/reader/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/jina-reader",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-jina-reader"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "diffbot",
      "name": "Diffbot",
      "vendor": "Diffbot",
      "category": "crawl-extract",
      "categoryLabel": "Crawl & extraction",
      "summary": "One of the very few independent commercial web crawls, feeding a structured Knowledge Graph. Entity-shaped rather than passage-shaped.",
      "ownIndex": true,
      "indexNote": "Independent crawl plus a Knowledge Graph",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Subscription plans with credit allowances, priced per extraction and per Knowledge Graph query.",
      "freeTier": "Two-week trial",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": false,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Diffbot pricing",
          "url": "https://www.diffbot.com/pricing/",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/diffbot",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-diffbot"
      }
    },
    {
      "slug": "bright-data",
      "name": "Bright Data",
      "vendor": "Bright Data",
      "category": "crawl-extract",
      "categoryLabel": "Crawl & extraction",
      "summary": "Proxy and unblocking infrastructure with a scraping suite and an agent-facing MCP server. Built for volume collection, priced accordingly.",
      "ownIndex": false,
      "indexNote": "Proxy, unblocking and scraping infrastructure",
      "usdPer1k": null,
      "pricingNote": "Priced per request and per GB across several products rather than as a single search rate.",
      "freeTier": "Free tier on the Web MCP server",
      "rateLimit": null,
      "mcpServer": true,
      "graphTools": false,
      "coverageTransparency": false,
      "funding": null,
      "status": "active",
      "statusNote": null,
      "isPublisher": false,
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Bright Data pricing",
          "url": "https://brightdata.com/pricing",
          "fetched": "5 August 2026"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
        "alternatives": "https://www.unlob.com/alternatives/bright-data",
        "comparison": "https://www.unlob.com/compare/unlob-vs-bright-data"
      }
    }
  ],
  "marketEvents": [
    {
      "date": "2025-08-11",
      "event": "Microsoft retired the Bing Web Search API",
      "detail": "The whole family — Web, Image, News, Video, Entity, Autosuggest, Spell Check and Custom Search. API creation was silently disabled in March 2025, so the retirement was already irreversible by the time it was announced."
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-02",
      "event": "Brave retired its perpetual free developer tier",
      "detail": "Replaced with a $5 monthly credit against paid usage. The index is unchanged; what changed is that a hobby project now needs a card on file."
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-02",
      "event": "Nebius Group acquired Tavily for $275 million",
      "detail": "Tavily had raised $25M across a seed and a $20M Series A led by Insight Partners. Its search still runs on an upstream provider rather than an index it owns."
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-04-29",
      "event": "Parallel Web Systems reached a $2.0B valuation",
      "detail": "$100M Series B led by Sequoia, bringing total raised to $230M. Founded by Parag Agrawal, and running its own index."
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-05-20",
      "event": "Exa Labs raised $250M at a $2.2B valuation",
      "detail": "Led by Andreessen Horowitz, after an $85M Series B at $700M in September 2025 — roughly tripling the valuation in eight months."
    }
  ]
}