# Best cached web search API in 2026

> We benchmarked 3 cached web search API providers. We list all three, ranked by score. For each one, we show its top scoring plan, each part of the plan's score and what 1,000 searches cost. We rank 60 plans by price. The cheapest plan is [ContextFetch, $499 monthly, Scale](https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-apis/contextfetch/499-monthly-scale-post-v1-search), at $0.384 per 1,000 searches.

1. [Exa, top-up from $5, Developer (pay as you go): Cached web search API](https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-apis/exa/top-up-from-5-developer-pay-as-you-go-post-search-search): Overall score 77.3 (Price 50, Data 94, Cost to get started 93, Bundle 83, Performance 100), $7.00 per 1,000 searches
   - It returns all 6 key fields we check. 5 are in the plan's price: Date, Author, Text, Links, Answer. 1 costs extra: Summary.
   - On 27 October 2026, we sent this provider all 80 searches in our benchmark.
   - We scored this plan 0.9375 out of 1 in our benchmark, so its Data score is 94.
2. [Parallel, top-up, Pay as you go: Cached web search API](https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-apis/parallel/top-up-pay-as-you-go-post-v1-search-search-advanced): Overall score 72.8 (Price 55, Data 84, Cost to get started 93, Bundle 89, Performance 62), $5.00 per 1,000 searches
   - It returns 2 of the 6 key fields we check: Date, Text.
   - On 27 October 2026, we sent this provider all 80 searches in our benchmark.
   - We scored this plan 0.8375 out of 1 in our benchmark, so its Data score is 84.
3. [Firecrawl, top-up from $5, Pay-as-you-go on Scale: Cached web search API](https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-apis/firecrawl/top-up-from-5-pay-as-you-go-on-scale): Overall score 60.2 (Price 39, Data 79, Cost to get started 93, Bundle 89, Performance 6), $12.00 per 1,000 searches
   - It returns 1 of the 6 key fields we check: Date.
   - We scored this provider on 20 of the 80 searches in our benchmark. We sent it those 20 on 27 October 2026.
   - We scored this plan 0.7896 out of 1 in our benchmark, so its Data score is 79.

The Data score on cached web search APIs: Out of 100: the percent of searches that returned the page we asked for. We searched for each data provider's API pricing page. The right page is the pricing page on the provider's own site. Each search API here uses its own copy of the web for some or all of its answers. If a provider ran on fewer searches, we compare it with how the others did on those same searches. That way, easy searches can't raise its score.

Last updated: October 27, 2026. The page: https://datacircle.dev/best-cached-web-search-api. Every plan: https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-api-pricing. The benchmark: https://datacircle.dev/cached-web-search-api-pricing/benchmark.csv.