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unlob vs the OpenAI web search tool

OpenAI’s built-in search tool needs no integration if you are already on the Responses API — and gives you no control over retrieval.

Verified 5 August 2026·Figures from vendors' own pages

Price

ProviderOwn index?$ / 1,000 queriesSource
unlob — Build

$29 per month for 50,000 requests.

Yes

Our own crawl and index

$0.58This page
unlob — Scale

$199 per month for 500,000 requests.

Yes

Our own crawl and index

$0.40This page
Rates are the cheapest directly comparable web search call — roughly ten results, no extraction and no summarisation — because that is the only way a table across credit systems, token pricing and per-request pricing means anything. Where a vendor does not publish a flat per-1,000 rate they are omitted from this table and covered in full on the landscape page. Figures read from each vendor’s own pricing page on 5 August 2026.

When OpenAI web search tool is the better choice

A comparison page that cannot name a scenario where the competitor wins is an advertisement. Here are the real ones.

Choose OpenAI web search tool

  • Zero integration effort inside an existing OpenAI application.
  • One vendor, one bill, one support relationship.
  • Good enough for straightforward question answering.

Choose unlob

  • Control over retrieval — around 30 filters, three modes, explicit sorting and deduplication.
  • Model independence.
  • Graph traversal and coverage auditing.
  • Predictable per-query pricing rather than a tool call billed inside a larger request.

The substantive differences

OpenAI web search toolunlob
ControlThe model decides what to search and what to use.You issue the query and the filters.
PortabilityTied to the OpenAI Responses API.Any model, any framework, or none.

Sources

Every figure on this page was read from the vendor's own pricing page or funding announcement on the date shown.

Frequently asked questions

Why use a separate search API when OpenAI has one built in?

Control and portability. A built-in tool gives you no filters, no visibility into what was excluded, and no way to keep your retrieval layer if you switch models. For a prototype that is fine; for a product whose quality depends on retrieval, it is a lot to hand over.

Check the claims yourself

The free tier is 10,000 requests a month with no card. That is enough to test coverage, latency and result quality against your own queries — which is a better comparison than this page.

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