Comparison
SerpKite vs Perplexity Search API
Perplexity's Search API exposes the index behind its answer engine as raw, ranked results. SerpKite returns what Google shows. Both are built for agents; they differ in source, page content and terms.
Updated
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Summary
The short version
Perplexity's Search API returns up to 20 results per query from an index Perplexity says covers hundreds of billions of pages, with page excerpts and date and domain filters, at $5.00 per 1k requests or $1.00 with Fast Search. SerpKite returns Google's results page (People Also Ask, knowledge graph, answer box, local and shopping) at $1.00 → $0.60 per 1k, with 2,500 free credits and no card.
Choose Perplexity Search API if…
- You want results from an independent, AI-first index rather than Google's ranking.
-
You want page excerpts in the base price:
max_tokens_per_pagesets how much text comes back per result. SerpKite charges +1 credit per page read withinclude_content. - You batch queries: one request carries up to five queries and is billed once.
- Fast Search at $1.00 per 1k requests meets your quality bar.
- You want to pick the model that writes answers: Perplexity's Agent API (which replaced Sonar chat completions in September 2026) runs many third-party models and bills their tokens plus a fee per search.
Choose SerpKite if…
- You need Google's results: the ranking people see, People Also Ask, the knowledge graph, the answer box, and Google News, Maps, Shopping and Scholar.
- You want to try it free: 2,500 credits on signup plus 1,000 a month, no card. Perplexity's API runs on prepaid credits.
- You don't want to pay for empty results. SerpKite never bills failed or empty searches; Perplexity bills a successful response even when it has no results.
-
You want one key for search and site work:
/v1/extract,/v1/mapand/v1/crawl, plusengine=autofallback when Google blocks. -
You want cited answers at a fixed price:
/v1/answercosts 3 credits fast or 8 standard, with no token math, and/v1/researchwrites a cited report for a flat 30–200 credits. - You want credits that never expire.
Differences
What actually differs
Source
Perplexity searches its own index. SerpKite parses Google's logged-out results page, or Brave, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Yandex with engine=, and merges several with engine=consensus.
Price
Perplexity: $5.00 per 1k requests flat, $1.00 with Fast Search, up to five queries per request. SerpKite: $1.00 → $0.60 per 1k by pack, 1 credit per 10 results, credits never expire.
Response
Perplexity returns results[] with title, url, snippet, date and last_updated. SerpKite returns results[] (title, link, snippet, date) plus answer_box, knowledge_graph, people_also_ask and related_searches, as JSON, Markdown or compact.
Page content
Perplexity's snippets carry extracted page text, sized with max_tokens_per_page and max_tokens. SerpKite's include_content returns the top 1–5 pages as full Markdown (+1 credit each), and highlights cuts each page to the 3 passages that best match the query, free.
Filters
Both filter by domain (up to 20), country, recency and publication date. Perplexity also filters by result language and last-updated date; SerpKite adds Google's interface language, city-level location and boost_domains.
Answers (Sonar and Agent API)
Perplexity's answers come from its Agent API, the successor to the Sonar chat-completions models, billed per model token plus per search. SerpKite's /v1/answer is written by Claude Haiku 5.5 from Google's results and the top pages, with [n] citations, SSE streaming and JSON-schema output, at 3 or 8 credits per answer; the model part is refunded when it fails.
Features
Feature comparison
| SerpKite | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Real Google results | Own index | |
| Google web + core verticals News, Images, Maps, Shopping, Scholar… | ||
| ChatGPT / Perplexity / Gemini answers SerpKite: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot Search, Google AI Mode and Brave | ChatGPT, Gemini (no Perplexity) | |
| Bing / DDG / Brave / Yandex | Bing, DDG, Brave, Yandex | |
| Markdown output | ||
| Resolved final URLs (post-/goto) | Guaranteed | n/a |
| Page content in the same call | include_content | Excerpts |
| Async batch + webhooks | 50% off | |
| Official SDKs TypeScript, Python, Go; LangChain and CrewAI tools | TS, Python, Go | Python, TS |
| Official MCP server | ||
| Credits never expire | ||
| Spend caps and per-key limits | ||
| Failed / empty results free | Incl. empty-200 detection | Failures free; empty billed |
| Public status with latency | p50 / p95 | |
| No query logs / DPA SerpKite: No query logs · results cached ≤ 24 h, no identity | Default | |
| Legal shield | No (honest policy) | |
| SOC 2 | Planned |
Check = yes, cross = no, dash = not verified. SerpKite rows marked "Planned" are on the roadmap, not live.
Price
Price per 1,000 Google searches
| SerpKite | Perplexity Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 2,500 on signup + 1,000/mo, no card | None published (prepaid) |
| Entry, ~$50 pack $ per 1k searches | $0.80 | $5.00 |
| ~100k searches / month $ per 1k | $0.60 | $5.00 |
| ~1M searches / month $ per 1k | $0.60 | $5.00 |
| Best public list price $ per 1k | $0.60 | $1.00 (Fast Search) |
| Credit expiry | Never | Not stated |
Public list prices for Google web search, verified on vendor pages on 2026-10-25. "Entry" is the ~$50 pack or plan (SerpKite also has a $10 pack at $1.00 per 1k). SerpKite's self-serve packs stop at 500K credits; larger volumes are quoted on request. Expiring credits raise the effective price if you don't use them in time. See SerpKite pricing.
Perplexity bills per request, not per page of results: one request returns up to 20 results and can carry up to five queries. SerpKite bills 1 credit per page of 10 results, so num=20 costs 2.
Verdict
Our take
If you want an independent index with page excerpts included, or Fast Search's $1.00 price fits, Perplexity's Search API is a good tool, and its Agent API lets you choose the answering model. If your agent should see what Google shows, with cited answers and research reports at a fixed credit price, a free tier, unbilled empty results and credits that never expire, SerpKite fits better. Some agents use both: Perplexity for broad discovery, SerpKite for Google parity.
Try it
One request to compare for yourself
curl https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPKITE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"q":"best espresso machine 2026","country":"us","format":"markdown"}'1 credit per page of 10 results, SERP features included. Run it in the playground without signing up.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
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