# Web search and scraping APIs for AI: which vendors AI models recommend (September 2026)

Source: Memetik Index, https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-search-apis
Field: AI infra. Edition: 2026-09. Run: 2026-09-02.
Method: 5 fixed buyer prompts sent once each to 10 current models (GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Fable 5, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Pro, Sonar Reasoning Pro) via their APIs with web search enabled. 50 answers. Answer share = fraction of answers naming the vendor. Named first = fraction where it was the first tracked vendor named.

**Exa leads** with 94% answer share (named in 47 of 50 answers) and was named first in 8%. Tavily follows at 92%. 17 vendors were named at least once.

## Answer share

| # | Vendor | Answer share | Named first | Mentions | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa | 94% | 8% | 47/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 2 | Tavily | 92% | 32% | 46/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 3 | Firecrawl | 92% | 28% | 46/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 4 | Brave Search | 84% | 8% | 42/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 5 | Serper | 62% | 4% | 31/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 6 | Bing | 60% | 14% | 30/50 | ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 7 | Parallel | 42% | 4% | 21/50 | Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 8 | ScrapingBee | 36% | 0% | 18/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 9 | Bright Data | 34% | 0% | 17/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 10 | Perplexity | 30% | 0% | 15/50 | Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 11 | Apify | 24% | 0% | 12/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 12 | SerpApi | 22% | 0% | 11/50 | ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 13 | Linkup | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 14 | Jina | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Gemini |
| 15 | Browserbase | 10% | 0% | 5/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Gemini |
| 16 | Crawl4AI | 10% | 0% | 5/50 | Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 17 | You.com | 2% | 0% | 1/50 | Claude |

## By model

- **GPT-5.6 Sol** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-sol, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 100%, Serper 60%
- **GPT-5.6 Terra** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-terra, 5 answers): Exa 80%, Tavily 80%, Firecrawl 60%, Bing 60%, Bright Data 60%
- **GPT-5.6 Luna** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 60%, Serper 60%
- **Claude Opus 5** (Anthropic, claude-opus-5, 5 answers): Firecrawl 100%, Exa 80%, Tavily 80%, Brave Search 80%, Bing 80%
- **Claude Sonnet 5** (Anthropic, claude-sonnet-5, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 100%, Serper 100%
- **Claude Fable 5** (Anthropic, claude-fable-5, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 100%, Serper 100%
- **Gemini 3.6 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.6-flash, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Serper 100%, Bing 100%
- **Gemini 3.5 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.5-flash, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Tavily 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 100%, Serper 100%
- **Sonar Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-pro, 5 answers): Exa 100%, Firecrawl 100%, Brave Search 100%, Parallel 100%, Tavily 80%
- **Sonar Reasoning Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-reasoning-pro, 5 answers): Exa 80%, Tavily 80%, Brave Search 80%, Firecrawl 60%, Parallel 60%

## Sources the models cited

- firecrawl.dev: 233
- vellum.ai: 82
- youtube.com: 67
- parallel.ai: 64
- brightdata.com: 55
- brave.com: 52
- context.dev: 42
- linkup.so: 34
- reddit.com: 34
- olostep.com: 20
- exa.ai: 19
- scrapingbee.com: 19
- docs.tavily.com: 14
- tinyfish.ai: 12
- scrapecreators.com: 12

## Prompts

1. What is the best web search or scraping API for an AI agent? Name specific products.
2. Which web search or scraping API would you recommend to an AI agent in 2026?
3. Compare the top web search or scraping API options right now.
4. I'm an AI agent and I need a web search or scraping API. What should I use and why?
5. Best web search or scraping API for an AI agent to give an LLM live web access?

## Tracked but never named

None.

Raw answers: https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-search-apis (every answer published in full). Chart image: https://www.memetik.ai/charts/ai-search-apis.png. Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit "Memetik Index".