AI web search costs between $0.75 and $14.00 per 1,000 calls
We read the web search tool prices on the pages of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and DeepSeek on 26 October 2026. DeepSeek states $0.75 per 1,000 successful Search requests from 1 November 2026. OpenAI and Anthropic state $10.00 per 1,000 plus the tokens of the retrieved content. Google states $14.00 per 1,000 after 5,000 free requests a month.
The price per 1,000 calls
Each row is a statement from the provider's own page, read on 26 October 2026. The spread from the lowest to the highest stated rate is 18.7 to 1.
| Provider | Per 1,000 calls | Free allowance | What a call is | On top |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek | $0.75 | none stated | successful Search API request (Fetch is billed separately at the same rate) | not stated as billed on top on that page |
| OpenAI | $10.00 | none stated | web search tool call, all models | search content tokens billed at model rates |
| Anthropic | $10.00 | none stated | search performed | standard token costs for search-generated content |
| $14.00 | 5,000 a month | grounding with Google Search request, Gemini 3 and newer, paid tier | not stated on the grounding line |
What it costs at volume
An agent that searches a lot adds up fast. Here are the per-call charges alone at three monthly volumes.
| Calls per month | DeepSeek | OpenAI | Anthropic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0.75 | $10.00 | $10.00 | $0.00 |
| 10,000 | $7.50 | $100.00 | $100.00 | $70.00 |
| 100,000 | $75.00 | $1,000.00 | $1,000.00 | $1,330.00 |
Derived by us from the list prices above, with Google's 5,000 free requests a month applied. Token costs are excluded for every provider.
Google is free below its allowance and then the dearest per call, so it is the cheapest of the four at 1,000 calls a month and the dearest at 100,000.
How we know, and what we did not verify
Prices were parsed by pattern from saved copies of each provider's page, and the build stops if a pattern stops matching. Hashes below identify what we read.
| Page | Date | SHA-256 (first 16) |
|---|---|---|
| api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing | 26 October 2026 | dfb3d0a8006d276f |
| developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing | 26 October 2026 | cf734fcb60d01a59 |
| platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-search-tool | 26 October 2026 | 77bf9b3190e190de |
| ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing | 26 October 2026 | a252aac2059e41da |
- We did not run searches or check invoices. These are the prices as the pages state them.
- xAI and Mistral are not covered.
- We have not asked any named provider to comment before publication. A provider or reader who finds a wrong figure can tell us; we correct it and date the correction.
Part of the series: DeepSeek pricing, the price calendar and which plan gets the flagship model.
FAQ
Which AI provider charges the least for web search?
Among the four whose pages we read, DeepSeek states the lowest rate, $0.75 per 1,000 successful Search API requests, starting 1 November 2026. OpenAI and Anthropic each state $10.00 per 1,000, and Google states $14.00 per 1,000 after 5,000 free requests a month. The units differ, so this is a price comparison, not a like-for-like service comparison.
Why are OpenAI and Anthropic search prices not the whole cost?
Both say the search content is billed as tokens at the model's normal rates on top of the per-call charge. OpenAI also lists a preview search tool for non-reasoning models at a higher per-call price where the search content tokens are free.
Is DeepSeek search free right now?
DeepSeek's page says server-side search and fetch calls made through DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code or Codex are free today and billing starts at 00:00 Beijing time on 1 November 2026. See our DeepSeek page for the rest of its pricing.
Which providers did you not cover?
xAI and Mistral. xAI's tool price was not in the page text we could read, and we did not read Mistral's tool pricing. A provider missing here may price search differently.
How often is this updated?
We re-read the pages weekly and regenerate this page from the saved copies. The dates and hash on this page identify what we read.