SearchApi vs SearchCans (2026): which should you pick?

Pick SearchApi if

• Fits if you need Google results and ChatGPT or Perplexity answers in the same format
• Works for teams watching ads in the Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok libraries

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if your jobs come in bursts, since any one hour can use only 20% of the month's searches
• Pricey if you need answers faster, as enhanced speed doubles the price of every plan
• Skip it if you need team management or the legal guarantee for $40, as both start at $100
• Not for you if you want a free plan that renews, since the 100 requests come once

Pick SearchCans if

• Fits if your AI agent searches Google and then reads the pages behind the results
• Works for batch jobs that need many requests at once with no hourly cap

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: every pack is shown as 80% off a crossed-out price, with no end date given
• Watch out: credits expire 6 months after purchase
• Skip it if you need rankings by city or device, as targeting is by country and language only
• Pricey if you read pages through residential proxies, at 2 credits plus 10 more per request
• Tight if you want a refund, which needs under 10% of the credits used within 7 days, minus fees

SearchApi

• Each plan can use only 20% of its monthly searches in any one hour.
• The Legal Protection Guarantee and team management are not on the Developer plan.
• Enhanced speed doubles the price of any plan; larger plans run to Octo 2M at $2,800 and Octo 5M at $5,000 a month, with custom plans on request.
• The 100 free requests are a sign-up allowance; the pages do not describe an ongoing free plan.

SearchCans

• Credits expire 6 months after purchase, and only successful responses are charged.
• A search costs 1 credit plus 1 per extra page; a Reader request costs 2, plus 2, 5 or 10 more with shared, datacenter or residential proxies.
• Every pack is shown as 80% off a crossed-out price, with no end date given.
• Refunds are possible within 7 days of payment if under 10% of the credits are used, minus the fees in the terms.

SearchApi

Google and its verticals

Google Search, Light, AI Overview, AI Mode, Maps and reviews, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, News, Images, Lens, Jobs, Scholar, Trends and a rank tracking endpoint.

AI answer engines

Endpoints for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Bing Copilot answers alongside the Google AI features.

Other engines and sites

Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Naver, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, TikTok, app stores, and Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok ad libraries.

Pay per success

Only searches that return a 200 status code are charged, and requests run through premium proxies with location targeting down to coordinates.

Legal Protection Guarantee

From the Production plan up, SearchApi says it takes legal responsibility for how it collects and parses public results, with up to $2 million in coverage.

Code samples and MCP

Plain GET requests with examples in Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, C# and other languages, and an MCP server for AI assistants.

SearchCans

Google Search API

One request returns organic results with AI Overview, People Also Ask, People Also Search For and Knowledge Graph blocks.

Other Google endpoints and Bing

Google Shopping, Images, News, Videos and Short Videos at one credit each, plus Bing search.

Country and language targeting

Pick from 244 country codes for the regional Google index and set the result language; both default to global English.

Reader API

Turn any URL into clean markdown or HTML, with a wait for JavaScript, and route through shared, datacenter or residential proxies.

File extraction and screenshots

Parse PDFs and Office documents into text, and capture first-screen or full-page screenshots, from the same credit balance.

Parallel lanes

No hourly request caps: each pack sets how many requests run at once, and stacking packs adds lanes on one account.

SearchApi

• Developer Plan$40

  per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly

  $4 per 1,000 searches and a 99.9% SLA. Enhanced speed, with parallel threads, doubles the price to $80.

• Production Plan$100

  per month for 35,000 searches, billed monthly

  $3 per 1,000 searches, team management and the Legal Protection Guarantee. $200 with enhanced speed.

• BigData Plan$250

  per month for 100,000 searches, billed monthly

  $2.50 per 1,000 searches, with medium throughput. $500 with enhanced speed.

• Scale Plan$500

  per month for 250,000 searches, billed monthly

  $2 per 1,000 searches, high throughput and search analytics. $1,000 with enhanced speed.

• Octo 500K$900

  per month for 500,000 searches, billed monthly

  $1.80 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $1,800 with enhanced speed.

• Octo 1M$1,500

  per month for 1 million searches, billed monthly

  $1.50 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $3,000 with enhanced speed.

SearchCans

• Standard$18

  one-time pack of 20,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.90 per 1,000 credits and 2 parallel lanes. Shown as 80% off a crossed-out $90.

• Starter$99

  one-time pack of 132,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.75 per 1,000 credits, 5 parallel lanes and faster response priority; packs can be stacked for more lanes.

• Pro$597

  one-time pack of 995,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.60 per 1,000 credits, with priority request routing and tier-1 developer support.

• Ultimate$1,680

  one-time pack of 3,000,000 credits, valid 6 months

  $0.56 per 1,000 credits, a dedicated cluster node with no queue and a dedicated account manager.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Tailored concurrency for high-volume workloads, with invoice payment, arranged through support.