# Crustdata, free, $20 free credits: Web search API

> Perform a web search query and return results from multiple sources including web, news, academic articles, academic author profiles, deep research results, and social media.

Crustdata's web search API on its $20 free credits plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 searches. It returns 2 of the 6 key fields we check: Author, Text.
We rank 379 plans by price. [Octen's top-up from $5](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/top-up-from-5-base-post-pulse-search-pulse-search/llms.txt) is the cheapest paid plan per 1,000 searches: $0.10.
[Context.dev](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/context-dev/500-monthly/llms.txt), [Desearch](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/desearch/top-up/llms.txt) and [ContextFetch](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/contextfetch/top-up-from-10-pay-as-you-go-post-tavily-search-tavily-compatible-search-basic/llms.txt) are the best web search API providers in our benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits
- [Best web search API in 2026](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://crustdata.com/pricing
- Request: `POST https://api.crustdata.com/web/search/live`
- API key: with the plan, on https://crustdata.com/pricing
- Its API docs: https://docs.crustdata.com/api-reference/web-apis/web-search
- Sold by: Crustdata (https://crustdata.com)
- Checked: 2026-10-27

## In the answer

- Completeness: 33%
- Author: ✓
- Text: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 searches: $0.00
- Per: call
- Billing: free

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: from the same budget: People enrich (/person/enrich) · People search (/person/search) · People identify (/person/identify) · Person verify (/batch/person/verify) · Company enrich (/company/enrich) · Job search (/job/search) · Web fetch (/web/enrich/live) · Social post search (/social_post/search) · People search watcher (/watch/person/search) · Job search watcher (/watch/job/search) · Social post search watcher (/watch/social_post/search) · Person watcher (/watch/person) · Company watcher (/watch/company) · Company search (/company/search) · Company search watcher (/watch/company/search)

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Perform a web search query and return results from multiple sources including web, news, academic articles, academic author profiles, deep research results, and social media.

## Data

- Freshness: live
- Keep data: no API terms
- Use data: no API terms

## Plan

- Pay: $0

## Rate limit

- Per second: 0.17
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: query, and x-api-version header "2025-11-01". Optional: location, sources, site, start_date, end_date, human_mode, page
- Method: POST
- Path: /web/search/live

## About the plan

- Plan: $20 free credits
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 27 fields the plan's answer can hold

success, query, timestamp, total results, failed pages, empty pages, source, page title, URL, snippet, position, citation string, PDF URL, authors, citation count, author name, author affiliation, author website, author interests, author thumbnail, author citation counts, h-index, i10-index, top articles, AI overview text, AI overview references, AI overview images

## Crustdata's plans (4)

- [Crustdata, free, $20 free credits](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 33% complete, live
- [Crustdata, free, Crustdata University Program](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/free-crustdata-university-program/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 33% complete, live
- [Crustdata, contact us, Real-time API access](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access/llms.txt): 33% complete, live
- [Crustdata, contact us, In-DB API access](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/contact-us-in-db-api-access/llms.txt): 33% complete, live

## Crustdata's calls for this API (1)

- `POST /web/search/live`: [Crustdata, free, $20 free credits](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)

## Crustdata's APIs (9)

- [Crustdata: company enrichment API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/company-enrichment-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: job postings API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/job-posting-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: people search API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: web search API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: LinkedIn profile API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/linkedin-profile-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: company discovery API pricing, 4 plans, POST /company/search, Search Companies](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits-post-company-search-search-companies/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: company discovery API pricing, 4 plans, POST /company/search, Search Companies, full](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/crustdata/free-20-free-credits-post-company-search-search-companies-full/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: LinkedIn post search API pricing, 2 plans](https://datacircle.dev/linkedin-post-search-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: email finder API pricing, 1 plan, POST /batch/person, Batch Contact Enrich](https://datacircle.dev/find-email-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-batch-person-contact-enrich-batch-contact-enrich/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: email finder API pricing, 1 plan, POST /batch/person, Batch Contact Enrich, full](https://datacircle.dev/find-email-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-batch-person-contact-enrich-batch-contact-enrich-full/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: email finder API pricing, 1 plan, POST /person, Contact Enrich](https://datacircle.dev/find-email-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-person-contact-enrich-contact-enrich/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: email finder API pricing, 1 plan, POST /person, Contact Enrich, full](https://datacircle.dev/find-email-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-person-contact-enrich-contact-enrich-full/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: reverse email lookup API pricing, 2 plans, POST /batch/person/identify](https://datacircle.dev/reverse-email-lookup-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-batch-person-identify/llms.txt)
- [Crustdata: reverse email lookup API pricing, 2 plans, POST /person/identify](https://datacircle.dev/reverse-email-lookup-apis/crustdata/contact-us-real-time-api-access-post-person-identify/llms.txt)

## Crustdata: web search API alternatives

- [Context.dev, free](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/context-dev/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [ContextFetch, free, Starter, POST /v1/search, Search, deep](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/contextfetch/free-starter-post-v1-search-search-deep/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 50% complete, live
- [Serpex, free](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/serpex/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Spider Cloud, free credits, POST /search, Search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/spider-cloud/free-credits-post-search-search/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Bulkgrid, free](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/bulkgrid/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 33% complete, live

## 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.

- https://crustdata.com/apis/people-enrichment
- https://crustdata.com/pricing
- https://crustdata.com/terms
- https://docs.crustdata.com/api-reference/web-apis/web-search
- https://docs.crustdata.com/general/credits
- https://docs.crustdata.com/general/data-updates
- https://docs.crustdata.com/general/pricing
- https://docs.crustdata.com/general/rate-limits
- https://docs.crustdata.com/web-docs/search/introduction
- https://docs.crustdata.com/web-docs/search/reference