# Kagi, pay as you go: Web search API

> The highest quality search results. Your system is only as good as its data source. Kagi APIs give your system the edge it needs to perform at its best.

Kagi's web search API on its Search plan. It costs $12.00 per 1,000 searches. It returns 1 of the 6 key fields we check: Text.
We haven't run Kagi through [our web search API benchmark](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-search-api.txt) yet.
Half of the 569 plans we rank by price cost $3.992 per 1,000 searches or less. This plan costs less per 1,000 searches than 19% of the 569 plans.
[browserfoundry by keirolabs's $99.99 monthly plan](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/browserfoundry-by-keirolabs/99-99-monthly-startup-post-api-v2-search-lite/llms.txt) is the cheapest paid plan per 1,000 searches: $0.033.
[browserfoundry by keirolabs](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/browserfoundry-by-keirolabs/10-pack-starter-pack-post-api-v2-search-lite/llms.txt), [Context.dev](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/context-dev/300-monthly/llms.txt) and [Exa](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/exa/top-up-from-5-developer-pay-as-you-go-post-search-search/llms.txt) are the best web search API providers in the Datacircle benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kagi/pay-as-you-go
- [Web search API: 30+ providers compared on price and data](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://kagi.com/api/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- Request: `POST https://kagi.com/api/v1/search`
- API key: with the plan, on https://kagi.com/api/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- Its API docs: https://kagi.com/api/docs/openapi/search?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- Sold by: Kagi (https://kagi.com?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-10-28

## In the answer

- Completeness: 17%
- Text: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 searches: $12.00
- Per: call
- Billing: pay as you go

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: nothing else

## In their words

- Their pitch: The highest quality search results. Your system is only as good as its data source. Kagi APIs give your system the edge it needs to perform at its best.

## Data

- Freshness: live
- Keep data: only the transient caching needed to operate your application: "Store, cache, or build a database of Results beyond the transient caching needed to operate your application. You may not create a persistent copy of, or a derivative index from, the Kagi search index or other Results, and you may not bulk download, scrape, or archive Results."
- Use data: Within your plan limits, you get a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to call the API and use the outputs it returns, including search results, translations, and summaries ("Results") in your own applications and services, including sending Results to an AI model to answer your users' queries. [...] You may not: Store, cache, or build a database of Results beyond the transient caching needed to operate your application. You may not create a persistent copy of, or a derivative index from, the Kagi search index or other Results, and you may not bulk download, scrape, or archive Results. Use Results to train or fine-tune a search index, ranking system, translation or summarization model, or other service that competes with Kagi, or systematically harvest Results to assemble a training or evaluation dataset. Resell, sublicense, proxy, redistribute, or publish the API or raw Results as a standalone product, bulk feed, dataset, or substitute for direct Kagi API access, unless we agree in writing. Circumvent rate limits, quotas, or access controls, or attempt to access the API by any means other than the documented interface. Reverse engineer the API or use it to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of Kagi's systems. Use the API for anything unlawful, or in a way that infringes others' rights or violates these Terms.

## Plan

- Pay: at a threshold

## Rate limit

- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: query. Optional: workflow, format, lens_id, lens.sites_included, lens.sites_excluded, lens.keywords_included, lens.keywords_excluded, lens.file_type, lens.time_after, lens.time_before, lens.time_relative, lens.search_region, timeout, page, limit, filters.region, filters.after, filters.before, extract.count, extract.timeout, safe_search, personalizations.domains[].domain, personalizations.domains[].kind, personalizations.regexes[].regex, personalizations.regexes[].replacement
- Method: POST
- Path: /search

## About the plan

- Plan: Search
- Who can get it: anyone with a Kagi account who adds funds to its API balance (its API setup's "Add funds to your API balance."), on a Family or Team plan only the account owner can open the API portal

## The 29 fields the plan's answer can hold

trace ID, node, search time, web results, image results, video results, podcast results, podcast creator results, news results, adjacent questions, direct answers, interesting news, interesting finds, infobox, code results, package tracking, public records, weather, related searches, listicles, web archive results, URL, page title, snippet, date, image URL, image width, image height, result properties

## Kagi's plans (2)

- [Kagi, pay as you go](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kagi/pay-as-you-go/llms.txt): $12.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Kagi, contact us](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kagi/contact-us/llms.txt): 17% complete, live

## Kagi's calls (1)

- `POST /search`: [Kagi, pay as you go](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kagi/pay-as-you-go/llms.txt)

## Kagi's APIs (1)

- [Kagi: web search API pricing, 2 plans](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/kagi/pay-as-you-go/llms.txt)

## Kagi: web search API alternatives

- [Scrapio, $79 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/scrapio/79-monthly/llms.txt): $11.85 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [ScrapeGraphAI, $20 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/scrapegraphai/20-monthly/llms.txt): $12.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Tako, pay as you go, Pay per request (x402), POST /v1/search, Search, deep](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/tako/pay-as-you-go-pay-per-request-x402-post-v1-search-search-deep/llms.txt): $12.00 per 1,000, 33% complete, live
- [AgentFetch, $80 pack](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/agentfetch/80-pack/llms.txt): $12.00 per 1,000, 17% 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 2026-10-28.

- https://help.kagi.com/kagi/api/api-portal.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- https://help.kagi.com/kagi/api/overview.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- https://kagi.com/api/docs/openapi/search?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- https://kagi.com/api/docs/page-data/shared/oas-openapi.yaml.json?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- https://kagi.com/api/pricing?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing
- https://kagi.com/privacy/api?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=web-search-api-pricing