# Marginalia, free non-commercial: Web search API

> Marginalia isn’t seeking to replace Bing or Google, but to complement them, to provide a minority report that keeps them honest.

Marginalia's web search API on its Free non-commercial plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 searches. It returns 1 of the 6 key fields we check: 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/marginalia/free-non-commercial
- [Best web search API in 2026](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/api/
- Request: `GET https://api2.marginalia-search.com/search`
- API key: with the plan, on https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/api/
- Its API docs: https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/api/
- Sold by: Marginalia (https://about.marginalia-search.com)
- Checked: 2026-10-28

## In the answer

- Completeness: 17%
- Text: ✓

## Price

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

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: nothing else

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Marginalia isn’t seeking to replace Bing or Google, but to complement them, to provide a minority report that keeps them honest.

## Data

- Freshness: live
- Keep data: no limit
- Use data: Free non-commercial key and paid non-commercial key: "Provided under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0." Commercial key: "Buy a metered commercial key with no commercial usage restriction or attribution requirement." [...] "Other terms are negotiable"

## Plan

- Pay: $0

## Rate limit

- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: query. Optional: count, timeout, dc, page, nsfw, filter
- Method: GET
- Path: /search

## About the plan

- Plan: Free non-commercial
- Who can get it: anyone who emails the provider for it, for non-commercial use

## The 5 fields the plan's answer can hold

query, license, URL, page title, description

## Marginalia's plans (4)

- [Marginalia, free non-commercial](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/free-non-commercial/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Marginalia, free, Public key](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/free-public-key/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 17% complete, live
- [Marginalia, contact us, Commercial](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/contact-us-commercial/llms.txt): 17% complete, live
- [Marginalia, contact us, Paid non-commercial](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/contact-us-paid-non-commercial/llms.txt): 17% complete, live

## Marginalia's calls (1)

- `GET /search`: [Marginalia, free non-commercial](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/free-non-commercial/llms.txt)

## Marginalia's APIs (1)

- [Marginalia: web search API pricing, 4 plans](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/free-non-commercial/llms.txt)

## Marginalia: 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

## 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://about.marginalia-search.com
- https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/api/