Datacircle

Z.ai pricing and alternatives: web search API

Z.ai's sitellms.txtBest web search API in 2026
17% complete: 1 of the 6 key fields we checkSee the 6 fields
$10.00per 1,000 searchesHalf of the 334 plans we rank by price cost $3.125 per 1,000 searches or less. This plan is cheaper than 20% of the 334 plans.The cheapest plan we rank by price is LangSearch, free, at $0.00 per 1,000 searches.Context.dev, Serpex and Firecrawl are the best web search API providers in our benchmark.
Plan: Pay as you go Z.ai's only plan
Call: POST /api/paas/v4/web_search Z.ai's only call for this API
API: Web search API one of Z.ai's 2 APIs

About this item

  • Freshness. We don't know how fresh this plan's data is.
  • 1 of the 6 key fields we check. Text.
  • A balance you top up. You pay any amount. You spend all of it on calls.
  • One call. You send search_query to POST /api/paas/v4/web_search. You set search_engine to "search-prime". You can also send count, search_domain_filter, search_recency_filter, request_id and user_id. The call returns the matching web pages.
  • Who can get it: with conditions. Keep data: no limit. Use data: with conditions.

Z.ai: web search API alternatives

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

This planZ.ai, top-upFirecrawl, top-up from $5, Pay-as-you-go on Hobby, POST /v2/searchYou.com, pay as you go, MPPLinkup, pay as you go, x402, paid per request in USDC on Base, POST /v1/search, Search, standard, sourced answerbrowserfoundry, $10 pack, Starter Pack, POST /api/v2/search/content
$ per 1,000 searches$10.00$10.00$10.00$10.00$10.00
Completeness17%33%33%33%17%
Billingpay firstpay firstpay as you gopay as you gopay first
Payany amount$5per callper call$10
Enough foras many as you pay for500 callsas many as you pay foras many as you pay for1,000 calls
Who can get itanyone not on an export control or sanctions list and not in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Crimea, Donetsk or Zaporizhzhia, with an accountanyone at least 18 years old, or 13 years or older with the express permission of a parent or guardiananyone with a funded wallet (USDC on Tempo): no You.com account, no API keyanyone with a USDC wallet on Base, no account or API key neededanyone who creates an account with an email address

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 2026-10-28.

  1. docs.z.ai/api-reference/tools/web-search
  2. docs.z.ai/devpack/notice/api-key-management
  3. docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing
  4. docs.z.ai/guides/tools/web-search
  5. docs.z.ai/help/faq
  6. docs.z.ai/legal-agreement/terms-of-use

Product details

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

  • Date, not in the answer
  • 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$10.00
Percall
Billingpay first
Aggregators
Aggregatorsnone
Charges
Most per search50
Also pays forfrom the same budget: Web Reader · Chat Completion · Generate Image · Generate Image(Async) · Generate Video(Async) · Audio Transcriptions · Layout Parsing · Agent Chat
In their words
Their pitchThe Web Search is a specialized search engine for large language models. Building upon traditional search engine capabilities like web crawling and ranking, it enhances intent recognition to return results better suited for LLM processing (including webpage titles, URLs, summaries, site names, favicons etc.).
Data
Keep datano limit
Use dataYou and End Users must not engage in any of the following improper uses of the Z.ai during your use of our API Services, including but not limited to: i. Use the Services and End User Content (as defined in Section 3) in a way that violate applicable laws or our policies, ii. Any attempt to extract data, parameters, or code from the Z.ai, [...] vii. Any exploitation of our intellectual property through use, lease, lending, copying, modification, linking, reposting, compilation, publication, or establishment of mirror sites, [...] xii. Except for authorized integration with your specific business scenarios, any use of the Z.ai's models, prompts, or model-generated content for the development, training, labeling, fine-tuning, optimization, iteration, or similar activities related to external models is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, any utilization of platform models or exported data to develop, train, or enhance algorithms or models that compete with us, [...] xiv. Any other unauthorized actions or usage potentially detrimental to our interests. You must truthfully and accurately disclose the use of models from the Z.ai (and other models, if applicable) in accordance with relevant regulations and supervisory requirements.
Rate limit
Batch1
Speed
Answerin the call
The call
You sendsearch_engine "search-prime", search_query. Optional: count, search_domain_filter, search_recency_filter, request_id, user_id
MethodPOST
Path/api/paas/v4/web_search
About the plan
PlanPay as you go
Who can get itanyone not on an export control or sanctions list and not in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Crimea, Donetsk or Zaporizhzhia, with an account
The 9 fields the plan's answer can hold

search ID, created at, page title, URL, snippet, site name, site icon, result index, publish date

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