Datacircle

Perplexity pricing and alternatives: web search API, POST /search, Fast Search

Perplexity's sitellms.txtBest web search API in 2026
33% complete: 2 of the 6 key fields we checkSee the 6 fields
$1.00per 1,000 searchesHalf of the 177 plans we rank by price cost $2.50 per 1,000 searches or less. This plan is cheaper than 64% of the 177 plans.The cheapest plan we rank by price is Ceramic, $99 monthly, at $0.20 per 1,000 searches.Search1API, Firecrawl and Valyu are the best web search API providers in our benchmark.
Plan: Prepaid credits one of Perplexity's 3 plans
Call: POST /search, Fast Search one of Perplexity's 2 calls
API: Web search API Perplexity's only API

About this item

  • Freshness. We don't know how fresh this plan's data is.
  • 2 of the 6 key fields we check. Date, Text.
  • A balance you top up. You pay any amount. You spend all of it on calls.
  • One call. You send query to POST /search. You set search_type to "fast". The call returns the matching web pages.
  • Who can get it: with conditions. Keep data: with conditions. Use data: with conditions.

Perplexity: web search API alternatives

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

This planPerplexity, top-up, Prepaid credits, POST /search, Fast SearchContext.dev, $90 monthlySearch1API, top-up from $5, Pay as you go, POST /news, NewsContextFetch, top-up from $10, Pay as you go, POST /v1/answerOxylabs, $30 monthly
$ per 1,000 searches$1.00$0.90$1.00$1.00$1.00
Completeness33%17%33%67%17%
Billingpay firstmonthlypay firstpay firstmonthly
Payany amount$90$5$10$30
Enough foras many as you pay for100,000 calls a monthas many as you pay for10,000 calls30,000 calls a month
Freshnessunknownliveliveunknownlive
Who can get itanyone using it on behalf of an organization, paying by credit card (its terms bind "the organization on whose behalf you are accessing or using the Services")anyone aged 18 or overanyoneanyoneanyone

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.

  1. docs.perplexity.ai/api-reference/search-post
  2. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/admin/rate-limits-usage-tiers
  3. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/getting-started/pricing
  4. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/getting-started/projects
  5. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/resources/faq
  6. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/search/fast-search
  7. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/search/overview
  8. docs.perplexity.ai/docs/search/quickstart
  9. docs.perplexity.ai/openapi.json
  10. perplexity.ai/hub/legal/perplexity-api-terms-of-service

Product details

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

  • Date
  • 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$1.00
Percall
Billingpay first
Aggregators
Aggregatorsnone
Charges
Most per search20
Also pays forfrom the same budget: Create Chat Completion · Create Response · Create Message · Create Agent Response · Create Embeddings · Create Contextualized Embeddings · Search the Web
Not found
$ per 1,000$1.00
In their words
Their pitchUse search_type fast on the Search API for lower-latency, lower-cost web results.
Data
Keep datano retention period is set for what the API answers, "Customer [...] owns all Output"
Use data"Customer may, on a non-exclusive, non-sublicensable and non-transferable basis during the term of this Agreement, [...] (ii) use the Services and the API Keys solely to submit Input [...] to the Service, receive Output [...] from the Service, and display such Output, in each case, solely within the Customer Applications in accordance with the API Documentation", "Customer has no right or license to, and shall not (nor permit others, including end users of the Customer Applications, to), directly or indirectly use the Services, Outputs or API Platform in a manner that violates Perplexity’s Acceptable Use Policy", "if Perplexity determines that a Customer Application is [...] competitive with Perplexity [...] Perplexity may terminate the license under Section 2.1(ii) in respect of such Customer Application and deactivate the relevant API Key(s)"
Rate limit
Per second50
Speed
Answerin the call
The call
You sendquery, search_type "fast". Optional: country, max_results, max_tokens, max_tokens_per_page, search_language_filter, search_domain_filter, last_updated_after_filter, last_updated_before_filter, search_after_date_filter, search_before_date_filter, search_recency_filter
MethodPOST
Path/search
About the plan
PlanPrepaid credits
Who can get itanyone using it on behalf of an organization, paying by credit card (its terms bind "the organization on whose behalf you are accessing or using the Services")
The 7 fields the plan's answer can hold

request ID, page title, URL, snippet, published date, last updated date, server time

Best GTM APIs