# Web search APIs for AI agents compared URL: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/search-apis/ Updated: 2026-10-26 Category: Search APIs Map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/ 9 companies on the social monitoring map. Search APIs return web results to software instead of a person. An agent can use them to find social pages, posts and profiles with ordinary search queries, such as a site:linkedin.com search. Brave Search API and Parallel run on their own indexes. Serper and SerpAPI return Google results. SerpAPI and the Perplexity API are each in court with a platform over how they collect its data. ## Search APIs - [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/): Search API on Brave's own independent web index (plans: Search, Answers, Spellcheck, Autosuggest). An agent can query it directly; Brave results are not Google's index. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-brave-search-api - [DataForSEO SERP API](https://dataforseo.com/apis/serp-api): Pay-per-SERP API for Google, Bing, YouTube, and other engines, with Standard, Priority, and Live execution modes and structured results. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-dataforseo-serp-api - [Exa](https://exa.ai/): Neural web search API with people and company indexes. Its people search can return profiles together with recent professional posts, giving agents searchable third-party social content. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-exa - [Parallel](https://parallel.ai/): Agent web search, extraction and monitoring APIs on Parallel's own index. The Search API page demonstrates Reddit and YouTube results and supports domain controls. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-parallel - [Perplexity API](https://docs.perplexity.ai/): Search API (raw ranked results) and Agent API (web\_search, people\_search, fetch\_url tools) from Perplexity. search\_domain\_filter allows or denies up to 20 domains; no social-specific mode documented. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-perplexity-api - [SearchAPI.io](https://www.searchapi.io/): Real-time SERP API family from SearchApi, LLC: Google, Bing, plus YouTube Search, TikTok Search/Profile/Video, Instagram Profile, Facebook Business Page, ad libraries and LinkedIn Jobs APIs. Agent use: indirect social search with JSON. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-searchapi-io - [SerpAPI](https://serpapi.com/): Real-time search-engine scraping API returning parsed results from Google and other engines. Queries can use normal search operators such as site scope. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-serpapi - [Serper](https://serper.dev/): Low-cost Google Search API returning JSON. An agent can send site:linkedin.com/in or site:linkedin.com/posts queries as ordinary Google queries to reach indexed LinkedIn pages. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-serper - [xAI API x\_search](https://docs.x.ai/): Server-side tool in the Grok Responses API that does keyword, semantic and user search plus thread fetch on X, with handle and date filters and optional image/video understanding. An agent gets X answers with citations in one call. On the map: https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#co-xai-api-x-search ## Other categories - [Social listening suites](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/social-listening.md): 67 companies. - [Mention alerts](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/mention-alerts.md): 31 companies. - [Social analytics](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/social-analytics.md): 28 companies. - [Listening agents](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/listening-agents.md): 25 companies. - [Trend signals](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/trend-signals.md): 18 companies. - [Creator analytics](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/creator-analytics.md): 44 companies. - [Social data APIs and scrapers](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/social-data-apis.md): 42 companies. - [Video and transcripts](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/video-monitoring.md): 35 companies. - [Agent-first data and MCP servers](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/mcp-servers.md): 17 companies. - [LinkedIn and people data](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/linkedin-data.md): 10 companies. - [Podcast data](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/podcast-data.md): 8 companies. - [Search APIs](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/search-apis.md): 9 companies. (this page) ## The full map [The social monitoring map](https://www.newsprint.com/research/social-monitoring/#cat-serp-search): all 334 companies in 12 categories, open at this one.