Cloudflare pricing and alternatives: web search API, Web search, linkup

Cloudflare's site llms.txt Best web search API in 2026

17% complete: 1 of the 6 key fields we checkSee the 6 fields

$5.25per 1,000 searchesHalf of the 260 plans we rank by price cost $3.212 per 1,000 searches or less. This plan is cheaper than 33% of the 260 plans.The cheapest plan we rank by price is Keenable, free, Keyless, at $0.00 per 1,000 searches.Context.dev, Serpex and Search1API are the best web search API providers in our benchmark.

Plan: AI Gateway credits Cloudflare's only plan

Top-up, AI Gateway creditsAI Gateway credits$5.25 per 1,000

Call: POST /accounts/{account_id}/ai/websearch/, Web search, linkup one of Cloudflare's 3 calls

API: Web search API Cloudflare's only API

Web search API

About this item

Freshness. We don't know how fresh this plan's data is.
1 of the 6 key fields we check. Text.
A balance you top up. You pay any amount. You spend all of it on calls.
One call. You call POST /accounts/{account_id}/ai/websearch/. You send account_id, query and options.gateway.id. You set provider to "linkup" and the Content-Type header to "application/json". You can also send limit and byokAlias. The call returns the matching web pages.
Who can get it: with conditions. Keep data: with conditions. Use data: with conditions.

Cloudflare: web search API alternatives

We list other providers' plans closest to this plan in price per 1,000 searches.

	This planCloudflare, top-up, AI Gateway credits, POST /accounts/{account_id}/ai/websearch/, Web search, linkup	Search1API, $99 pack, Pay as you go, $99 (+20% bonus), POST /search, Search, full	Firecrawl, top-up from $5, Pay-as-you-go on Standard, POST /v2/search	You.com, top-up, Pay as you go, POST /v1/search, Search	Linkup, top-up, Pay as you go, POST /v1/search, Search, standard
$ per 1,000 searches	$5.25	$5.00	$5.00	$5.00	$5.00
Completeness	17%	33%	33%	33%	17%
Billing	pay first	pay first	pay first	pay first	pay first
Pay	any amount	$99	$5	any amount	any amount
Enough for	as many as you pay for	19,800 calls	1,000 calls	as many as you pay for	as many as you pay for
Freshness	unknown	live	unknown	unknown	unknown
Who can get it	anyone with a Cloudflare account, an AI Gateway and AI Gateway credits loaded, not anyone subject to sanctions or on a list of prohibited or restricted parties	anyone	anyone at least 18 years old, or 13 years or older with the express permission of a parent or guardian	anyone	anyone

Every web search API provider we score, ranked

Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-10-27.

Product details

The key fields this plan's answer can hold, then each filled column in its row on the sheet.

Date, not in the answer
Author, not in the answer
Text
Summary, not in the answer
Links, not in the answer
Answer, not in the answer

Price
$ per 1,000 searches	$5.25
Per	call
Billing	pay first

Aggregators
Aggregators	none

Charges
Most per search	10
Also pays for	from the same budget: Web search, ceramic · Web search, exa

In their words
Their pitch	This makes Linkup a good fit for agent tool calls that need quick, cited results from trusted sources.

Data
Keep data	Cloudflare sets no time limit: "images, text, and other types of data that you provide as inputs to the Service (“Inputs”) and outputs received from the Services based on your Input (“Outputs”) constitute Customer Content and you retain all applicable intellectual property or other proprietary rights in Inputs and Outputs to or from the Services", the standard terms of the search service provider bind you too where you have agreed none with it
Use data	Unless otherwise expressly permitted in writing by Cloudflare, you will not and you have no right to: (a) rent, lease, loan, export, or sell access to the Services to any third party, or sign up for the Services on behalf of a third party, (b) interfere with, disrupt, alter, or modify the Services or any part thereof, or create an undue burden on the Services or the networks (including Cloudflare’s peering partners’ networks) or services connected to the Services [...], (c) access or use the Services in a manner that violates or is intended to circumvent Service-specific usage limits, quotas, or other restrictions set forth in the Agreement, [...] (e) introduce software or automated agents or scripts into the Services so as to produce multiple accounts, generate automated searches, requests or queries, or to strip or mine data from the Services, [...] (g) reverse engineer the Services, [...] You agree not to, and not to allow third parties to use the Services to: (a) falsely imply any sponsorship or association with Cloudflare, (b) post, transmit, store or link to any files, materials, data, text, audio, video, images or other content that infringe on any person’s intellectual property rights or that are otherwise unlawful, (c) distribute viruses, worms, time bombs, Trojan horses, or other malicious code, files, scripts, software agents and programs, (d) facilitate phishing, spamming, or other technical abuse, or (e) engage in any activities that are illegal [...]. Where you have not agreed other terms with the model or search service provider, by using such Third-Party Products, you agree to comply with all restrictions, including any acceptable use policies, in the standard terms of the model or search service provider.

Rate limit
Per second	3.33
Batch	1

Speed
Answer	in the call

The call
You send	account_id, query, provider "linkup", options.gateway.id, Content-Type header "application/json". Optional: limit, byokAlias
Method	POST
Path	/accounts/{account_id}/ai/websearch/

About the plan
Plan	AI Gateway credits
Who can get it	anyone with a Cloudflare account, an AI Gateway and AI Gateway credits loaded, not anyone subject to sanctions or on a list of prohibited or restricted parties

The 9 fields the plan's answer can hold

URL, page title, description, image, favicon, last modified date, query, request ID, latency

Cloudflare pricing and alternatives: web search API, Web search, linkup

About this item

Cloudflare: web search API alternatives

Sources

Product details

Best GTM APIs