# Octen, free, POST /broad-search: Web search API

> Octen Web Search searches the live web and returns ranked results with query-relevant highlights and optional full content, ready for a model to ground its answers on.

Octen's web search API on its Free plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 searches. It returns 2 of the 6 key fields we check: Date, Author.
We rank 379 plans by price. [Octen's top-up from $5 (/pulse-search)](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/octen/free-post-broad-search
- [Best web search API in 2026](https://datacircle.dev/best-web-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://octen.ai/pricing
- Request: `POST https://api.octen.ai/broad-search`
- API key: with the plan, on https://octen.ai/pricing
- Its API docs: https://docs.octen.ai/api-reference/broad-search
- Sold by: Octen (https://octen.ai)
- Checked: 2026-10-27

## In the answer

- Completeness: 33%
- Date: ✓
- Author: ✓

## Price

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

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: from the same budget: Pulse Search · Web Search · Image Search · Video Search · News Search · Business Search · Place Search · Extract · Embedding · VL Embedding · Answer · Deep Research · Grounded Generation · Auto Search

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Octen Web Search searches the live web and returns ranked results with query-relevant highlights and optional full content, ready for a model to ground its answers on.

## Data

- Freshness: 1 minute
- Keep data: 24 hours: a cache to improve your application's performance may not persist longer, no permanent storing, archiving or database of the output built as a substitute for its services
- Use data: your internal business purposes or integration into your applications as its documentation permits, no competing search engine or AI model developed or trained on it, no resale, lease, sublicense or distribution of the services without its written consent, Octen may name you and show your logo as a customer

## Plan

- Pay: $0
- You get: $5

## Rate limit

- Per second: 10
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call
- Median: 1.99 s

## The call

- You send: query. Optional: max_queries, search_options.count, search_options.include_domains, search_options.exclude_domains, search_options.include_text, search_options.exclude_text, search_options.time_basis, search_options.time_range, search_options.start_time, search_options.end_time, search_options.language, search_options.highlight.enable, search_options.highlight.max_tokens, search_options.full_content.enable, search_options.full_content.max_tokens, search_options.format, search_options.safesearch, search_options.include_images
- Method: POST
- Path: /broad-search

## About the plan

- Plan: Free
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 21 fields the plan's answer can hold

original query, sub-queries, sub-query, sub-query latency, page title, URL, highlight, full content, author or website name, published date, last crawled date, favicon URL, cover image URL, cover image description, image URL, image description, request ID, latency, warning, number of search queries, billable full content results

## Octen's plans (6)

- [Octen, free, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-post-broad-search/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 33% complete, 1 minute
- [Octen, top-up from $5, Base, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/top-up-from-5-base-post-broad-search/llms.txt): 33% complete, 1 minute
- [Octen, $2,099 monthly, Builder, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/2099-monthly-builder-post-broad-search/llms.txt): 33% complete, 1 minute
- [Octen, $13,999 monthly, Pro, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/13999-monthly-pro-post-broad-search/llms.txt): 33% complete, 1 minute
- [Octen, $33,999 monthly, Max, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/33999-monthly-max-post-broad-search/llms.txt): 33% complete, 1 minute
- [Octen, contact us, Enterprise, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/contact-us-enterprise-post-broad-search/llms.txt): 33% complete, 1 minute

## Octen's calls for this API (5)

- `POST /broad-search`: [Octen, free, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-post-broad-search/llms.txt)
- `POST /business-search`: [Octen, free, POST /business-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-free-post-business-search/llms.txt)
- `POST /pulse-search`, Pulse Search: [Octen, free, POST /pulse-search, Pulse Search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-free-post-pulse-search-pulse-search/llms.txt)
- `POST /pulse-search`, Pulse Search, full: [Octen, free, POST /pulse-search, Pulse Search, full](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-free-post-pulse-search-pulse-search-full/llms.txt)
- `POST /search`: [Octen, free, POST /search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-post-search/llms.txt)

## Octen's APIs (2)

- [Octen: news API pricing, 6 plans](https://datacircle.dev/news-apis/octen/free/llms.txt)
- [Octen: web search API pricing, 6 plans, POST /broad-search](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/octen/free-post-broad-search/llms.txt)

## Octen: 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
- [Marginalia, free non-commercial](https://datacircle.dev/web-search-apis/marginalia/free-non-commercial/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 2026-10-27.

- https://docs.octen.ai/api-reference/broad-search.md
- https://docs.octen.ai/capabilities/broad-search
- https://docs.octen.ai/capabilities/web-search
- https://docs.octen.ai/overview/pricing
- https://docs.octen.ai/resources/rate-limits
- https://octen.ai/pricing
- https://octen.ai/terms-of-service