--- title: "6 Best Web Search MCP Servers in 2026 | Scrape.ly" description: "The best web search MCP server for AI agents: Scrape.ly, Brave, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl and SerpApi compared on results, price per 1,000 and setup." url: https://scrape.ly/blog/web-search-mcp-server markdown: https://scrape.ly/blog/web-search-mcp-server.md --- [AI agents](https://scrape.ly/blog/category/ai-agents.md) # 6 Best Web Search MCP Servers for AI Agents in 2026 The 6 best web search MCP servers for Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT, compared on where results come from, price per 1,000 searches, sign-in and spending control. With a real Google search run through MCP and the truth about Google Search MCP servers. [Scrape.ly Team The team behind Scrape.ly](https://scrape.ly/blog/author/scrapely-team.md) - Published Oct 26, 2026 - Reading time 11 min read ![Pixel-art robot with an orange >\_ on its terminal head carries a cable from a search results page headed by the Google G logo into a server rack labelled MCP](https://scrape.ly/media/web-search-mcp-server.png?w=1080) The best web search MCP server for AI agents in 2026 is Scrape.ly's hosted MCP server with the Google Search Scraper: your agent gets Google's real results page as structured JSON, with positions, People Also Ask and related searches, for $3.30 per 1,000 pages and a dollar cap on every run. A web search MCP server is a Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or any other MCP client a search tool, so the model looks things up on the live web instead of answering from its training data. Below are the six servers worth knowing, compared on where their results come from, what a thousand searches cost, how you sign in and how you keep an agent's spending in check. Prices were checked on 26 October 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page, and the Scrape.ly section shows a real run we did through MCP that day: six Google searches in 5.5 seconds for two cents. ## What to look for in a web search MCP server Every server on this list hands the agent a tool that takes a query and returns results. They differ on the parts that decide whether the answers are any good: - **Where the results come from.** Some servers return Google's own results page. Others search their own index. If the job is rank tracking, SEO research or checking what customers see when they search your brand, only Google's page answers the question. - **What comes back.** Ten links and snippets, or the whole page: organic positions, People Also Ask, related searches, and ads or AI Overviews when you need them. - **Price per 1,000 searches.** Agents search a lot. A research task can fire twenty queries before it writes a sentence. - **Spending control.** A cap per run and a daily limit per key, so a retry loop can't drain the account. - **More than search behind the same sign-in.** Reading the pages behind the results, Bing, news, Google Maps or YouTube, without adding another server and another key. ## Web search MCP servers compared | Server | Where results come from | Endpoint | Sign-in | List price per 1,000 searches | Beyond search | | ------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Scrape.ly** (Google Search Scraper) | Google's results page: positions, People Also Ask, related searches; ads and AI Overviews on request | `https://mcp.scrape.ly` | OAuth, Bearer token or scoped API key | **$3.30**, platform usage included | 570+ Store Actors: Bing, article and page reading, Maps, YouTube, Zillow | | Brave Search MCP | Brave's own index; Brave says no result comes from Google or Bing | Local server (npx or Docker) | `BRAVE_API_KEY` | $5 | Images, video, news, local search, summarizer | | Exa MCP | Exa's search engine | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` | OAuth or API key | $4 (lite) to $7 (auto) | Page fetch, Exa Agent | | Tavily MCP | Tavily's search API | `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp` | API key in the URL or a header, or OAuth | $8 basic, $16 advanced (pay as you go) | Extract, map, crawl | | Firecrawl MCP | Firecrawl search | `https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp` | OAuth or API key | $7.60 on Hobby ($19 for 2,500 searches) | Scrape, crawl, map, agent | | SerpApi MCP | Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube, eBay and more | `mcp.serpapi.com` | API key in the URL path or a Bearer header | $25 on Starter, $15 on Developer | Weather and stock data | Scrape.ly's price is per Google results page of 10 results, which is what one search returns on the other servers too. Exa's base price also covers up to 10 results; Firecrawl charges 2 credits per 10 results. ## 1. Scrape.ly MCP with the Google Search Scraper The [Scrape.ly MCP server](https://scrape.ly/mcp.md) is hosted at `https://mcp.scrape.ly`, speaks MCP's streamable HTTP transport and signs you in with OAuth or a Scrape.ly API token. Web search runs through the [Google Search Scraper](https://scrape.ly/store/querystone/google-search-scraper.md), which shows 1,213 monthly users on its Store page. What the agent gets for each query is one dataset item per results page: the query and the country and language that were sent, every organic result with its position, title, URL, displayed URL and snippet, the People Also Ask questions and related searches, and `hasNextPage`. It accepts Google's operators as input fields (site, intitle, inurl, file type, exact match, date ranges) plus a country code and interface language, so "German results for this query from the past week" is one call. By default it uses fast search mode, about a second per page with no browser to start. Options that need the full rendered page (ads, live AI Overviews, saved HTML, an exact location) switch the run to browser mode, which adds $0.07 once per run and $0.0065 per page. A page that fails isn't charged; it's listed under `failedInputs` in the run's output record while the other queries keep going. ### Set it up Create a free account first: the free plan includes $5 of usage every month, no card needed. Then: **Claude Code.** One command, then run `/mcp` inside Claude Code and choose `scrapely` to sign in: ```shell claude mcp add --transport http scrapely https://mcp.scrape.ly ``` **Cursor.** Add this to `~/.cursor/mcp.json` (leave out `headers` and Cursor offers OAuth instead): ```json { "mcpServers": { "scrapely": { "url": "https://mcp.scrape.ly", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" } } } } ``` **Claude Desktop and claude.ai.** Add `https://mcp.scrape.ly` as a custom connector under **Customize → Connectors**. ChatGPT, VS Code and Windsurf use the same URL; the [MCP docs](https://scrape.ly/docs/mcp.md) have each client's format. To give the agent search and page reading as two dedicated tools, put the Actors in the URL: ```plaintext https://mcp.scrape.ly?actors=querystone/google-search-scraper,querystone/article-extractor ``` ### A real run: six Google searches in 5.5 seconds We asked the agent to pull page one of Google for the six phrases this article and its sister guides answer. It sent one `call-actor` request, with all queries in one input and a cap on the charge: ```json { "actor": "querystone/google-search-scraper", "input": { "queries": "web search mcp server\ngoogle search mcp\nclaude mcp server\nyoutube mcp\ngoogle maps mcp\nzillow mcp", "countryCode": "us", "languageCode": "en", "maxPagesPerQuery": 1, "resultsPerPage": 10 }, "waitSecs": 45, "callOptions": { "maxTotalChargeUsd": 0.05 } } ``` The run on 26 October 2026 finished in 5.5 seconds with the status "6 pages, 58 organic results, 0 failed". The log line that matters: ```plaintext 20261026T14:24:35.181Z [scrapely.actor] INFO Pushed 6 dataset items, 58 organic results, 0 failed pages in 2.0s. Pages handled in fast search mode: 6, in browser mode: 0. ``` Then the agent read the results with `get-actor-output`, asking only for the fields it needed: ```json { "runId": "32c3d3ea9bfb459fb", "fields": "searchQuery.term,organicResults,peopleAlsoAsk,relatedQueries" } ``` Here's the top of what Google showed for "google search mcp": | Position | Domain | Title | | -------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | 1 | cloud.google.com | Announcing official MCP support for Google services | | 2 | developers.google.com | Let AI agents search across workspace with the Universal ... | | 3 | reddit.com | Google Search MCP Server : r/LocalLLM | | 4 | github.com | adenot/mcp-google-search | | 5 | docs.cloud.google.com | MCP Reference: discoveryengine.googleapis.com | For "web search mcp server", the People Also Ask box held four questions, and the agent got them as a list: "Which MCP server is best for web search?", "What is MCP web search?", "Is there a free web search MCP?" and "Is there an MCP server for OpenSearch?". That's the kind of detail a links-only search tool drops. Cost: 6 pages × $0.0033 = $0.0198 at list price, platform usage included. Our account was billed $0.01584 after its plan's Store discount. The $0.05 cap was never close. ### Reading the pages behind the results Search results tell the agent where to look; the answer is usually on the page. The agent passes the URLs it picked to the [Article Extractor](https://scrape.ly/store/querystone/article-extractor.md), which returns title, publish date, author and clean Markdown for $0.90 per 1,000 articles plus $0.003 per run. Our [Claude MCP guide](https://scrape.ly/blog/claude-mcp-web-data.md) shows that two-step run end to end: a week of news found and three articles read for under a cent. For one-call search plus page text, the RAG Web Browser searches Google and returns the top pages as Markdown at $4.00 per 1,000 results pages. For research the agent repeats on a schedule, the search-then-read pair gives you more control over which pages get fetched and paid for. **Best for:** agents that need Google's real results with every page feature, at the lowest price per search on this list, plus the rest of the web behind the same sign-in. ## 2. Brave Search MCP The [Brave Search MCP server](https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server) wraps the Brave Search API with tools for web, local, image, video and news search, a summarizer and an LLM context tool. It runs on your machine through `npx` or Docker, with stdio as the default transport and HTTP as an option, and needs a `BRAVE_API_KEY`. Full local business search requires Brave's Pro plan; otherwise the local tool falls back to web search. Brave's [API pricing page](https://brave.com/search/api/) lists Search at $5 per 1,000 requests, paid from prepaid credits, and answers its own FAQ "Does Brave ever use Google or Bing results?" with a plain "No": every result comes from Brave's independent index. **Best for:** agents that should search an independent index rather than Google's ranking, run from a local server with your own key. ## 3. Exa MCP [Exa's MCP server](https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server) is hosted at `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`. By default it exposes `web_search_exa` and `web_fetch_exa`, which reads full pages as Markdown; `web_search_advanced_exa` and `agent_run` for multi-step research are optional and switched on with a `?tools=` parameter. You sign in with OAuth or pass an API key in the URL or a header. On Exa's [pricing page](https://exa.ai/pricing), search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests for the `lite` type and costs $7 per 1,000 for `auto`, each covering up to 10 results; page contents cost $1 per 1,000 pages. **Best for:** agents that want Exa's own search engine and page text from one vendor. ## 4. Tavily MCP The [Tavily MCP server](https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp) has four tools: search, extract, map and crawl. The remote server lives at `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp`; you append your API key to the URL (`?tavilyApiKey=…`), send it in an Authorization header or sign in with OAuth. It also runs locally with `npx -y tavily-mcp@latest`. Tavily bills in credits. Per its [credits documentation](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits), a basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search 2; pay as you go is $0.008 per credit, and the Project plan is $30 a month for 4,000 credits. That's $8 per 1,000 basic searches at the pay-as-you-go rate. **Best for:** agents built around Tavily's search-and-extract API that need search answers more than Google's page layout. ## 5. Firecrawl MCP The [Firecrawl MCP server](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server) is a scraping server with search built in. Its hosted endpoint is `https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp`, with an OAuth endpoint for signing in; the full profile lists 27 tools. `firecrawl_search` returns ranked results with excerpts, and the agent fetches full pages with `firecrawl_scrape`. [Firecrawl's pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing) charges search at 2 credits per 10 results. The Hobby plan is $19 a month for 5,000 credits, which Firecrawl itself counts as 2,500 searches: $7.60 per 1,000. Credits are shared between searching and scraping. Our [Firecrawl pricing breakdown](https://scrape.ly/blog/firecrawl-pricing.md) works through the plans. **Best for:** agents that mostly turn known URLs into Markdown and search now and then. ## 6. SerpApi MCP The [SerpApi MCP server](https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) covers many engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube, eBay and more) and returns JSON or Markdown. It's hosted at `mcp.serpapi.com` and needs a SerpApi API key: the Claude Desktop example puts the key in the URL path (`https://mcp.serpapi.com/YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp`), and Claude Code sends it as a Bearer header. URLs end up in logs and history, so the header is the safer choice. [SerpApi's plans](https://serpapi.com/pricing) are monthly subscriptions: 250 free searches, $25 for 1,000 on Starter, $75 for 5,000 on Developer ($15 per 1,000). The [SerpApi pricing guide](https://scrape.ly/blog/serpapi-pricing.md) compares every tier, and [best SERP APIs](https://scrape.ly/blog/best-serp-apis.md) covers the API side of this market. **Best for:** teams already paying for a SerpApi plan who want their agent on the same account. ## Google search MCP: what's actually available Search for "google search mcp" and page one tells a confusing story, as our run above showed. The top two results are Google's own: an announcement of official MCP support for Google services, and a Workspace guide whose snippet describes searching "across your entire Google Workspace account". Both are about Google Cloud and your own Workspace data, not a tool for searching the public web. Most open-source "Google Search MCP" servers on GitHub wrap Google's Custom Search JSON API, adenot/mcp-google-search among them. Google's [Custom Search JSON API page](https://developers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview) now says the API "is closed to new customers", and existing customers have until January 1, 2027 to move to something else. A new server built on it won't get a key, and an old one has two months left. Other repositories drive a Playwright browser on your own machine against google.com, which puts your IP address and your machine in the loop. The Google Search Scraper is the hosted way around both problems: no Google Cloud project, no key to request, results from the real results page in any country, and the operators built in. For the same data over REST instead of MCP, see the [Google Search API](https://scrape.ly/api/google-search-api.md) page, and our guide to [scraping Google search results](https://scrape.ly/blog/scrape-google-search-results.md) covers every field. ## Prompts that work well Name the Actor, the size of the job and a cap, and the agent handles the tool calls: - "Use scrapely to search Google for 'project management software' in the US and in Germany, one page each, and compare which domains rank in both." - "Run querystone/google-search-scraper for 'asyncio timeout' with site docs.python.org and give me the three most relevant links." - "Search Google for news about 'model context protocol' from the past week, then read the top three articles with querystone/article-extractor and summarize each in two sentences." - "Collect the People Also Ask questions for these five keywords and group them by intent." - "Keep every run under $0.05." The agent turns that last line into `callOptions.maxTotalChargeUsd`. ## Spending control for agents that search - **A dollar cap per run.** The Google Search Scraper checks its remaining budget before each page and stops cleanly when the next page would go over the cap, keeping what it already saved. - **Scoped API keys with daily charge limits.** Give an unattended agent its own key under **Settings → API keys** with only `actors:run` and `runs:read` and a daily limit. - **A prepaid balance.** Usage draws from your balance, so there's no invoice surprise at the end of the month. - **Results that fit the context.** `get-actor-output` pages through datasets and returns only the fields the agent names. For the wider field of scraping servers, including browser-driving ones, see the [best MCP servers for web scraping](https://scrape.ly/blog/best-mcp-servers-for-web-scraping.md). Scrape.ly Store Give your agent Google search Google's real results page as JSON: organic positions, People Also Ask and related searches in any country. $3.30 per 1,000 pages, callable from any MCP client. [Try it free](https://scrape.ly/store/querystone/google-search-scraper.md) [Browse the Store](https://scrape.ly/store.md) ## FAQ ### Which MCP server is best for web search? Scrape.ly's MCP server with the Google Search Scraper. It returns Google's real results page with positions, People Also Ask and related searches, costs $3.30 per 1,000 pages with platform usage included, and caps every run in dollars. Our six-query test run took 5.5 seconds. ### What is MCP web search? It's a search tool exposed through the Model Context Protocol. The AI client calls the tool with a query, the server runs the search and returns results the model can read and cite. The difference between servers is where the results come from and how much of the page you get. ### Is there a free web search MCP? Scrape.ly's free plan includes $5 of usage every month, about 1,500 Google results pages at $3.30 per 1,000. Tavily includes 1,000 credits a month and SerpApi 250 searches. Local open-source servers such as mrkrsl/web-search-mcp run without an API key on your own machine. ### Is there a Google Search MCP server? Google's official MCP servers cover Google Cloud and Workspace, not public web search, and the Custom Search JSON API most open-source servers use is closed to new customers. The Scrape.ly Google Search Scraper gives an agent Google's results page through a hosted MCP server, with no Google key. ### Can Claude Code use a web search MCP server? Yes. Run `claude mcp add --transport http scrapely https://mcp.scrape.ly`, sign in with `/mcp`, and ask Claude to search. Add `--scope user` to make the server available in every project. ### How much does a web search MCP server cost? The server is usually free; you pay for searches. On 26 October 2026 list prices per 1,000 searches were $3.30 on Scrape.ly, $4 to $7 on Exa, $5 on Brave, $7.60 on Firecrawl Hobby, $8 on Tavily pay as you go, and $15 to $25 on SerpApi plans. About the author [Scrape.ly Team](https://scrape.ly/blog/author/scrapely-team.md) The team behind Scrape.ly Scrape.ly is the web data platform from TeraShift GmbH in Switzerland, powered by Evomi: ready-made scrapers in the Scrape.ly Store, a cloud runtime, an API with JavaScript and Python SDKs, proxies, a hosted anti-bot browser and an MCP server for AI agents. - [Website](https://scrape.ly/index.md) Keep reading ## More in AI agents - [![Pixel-art robot with an orange >\_ on its terminal head carries a cable from a house, fronted by a red mailbox and a yard sign bearing the blue Zillow logo, into a server rack labelled MCP](https://scrape.ly/media/zillow-mcp.png?w=750)](https://scrape.ly/blog/zillow-mcp.md) ### [Zillow MCP: Property Data for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor](https://scrape.ly/blog/zillow-mcp.md) [A Zillow MCP server lets your AI agent pull listings, prices, Zestimates and rent estimates into the chat as data it can compare and export. See how Zillow's own connector differs, connect Scrape.ly's hosted server to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, and see real tool calls, output and costs.](https://scrape.ly/blog/zillow-mcp.md) - [![Pixel-art robot with an orange >\_ on its terminal head, an AI sparkle in a speech bubble above it, steers a browser window with a game controller whose cable runs into the window, where a pointer clicks an orange button](https://scrape.ly/media/ai-browser-agents.png?w=750)](https://scrape.ly/blog/ai-browser-agents.md) ### [AI Browser Agents Explained: Browser Use, Computer Use and MCP](https://scrape.ly/blog/ai-browser-agents.md) [An AI browser agent is a language model that operates a web browser: it reads the page, picks an action, and clicks or types until the task is done. How Browser Use, Claude and OpenAI computer use and browser MCP servers work, where they struggle, and when a ready-made scraper is the better tool.](https://scrape.ly/blog/ai-browser-agents.md) - [![Pixel-art robot with an orange >\_ on its terminal head carries a cable from a phone showing the pink Airbnb logo above two stay listings, each with a red heart, into a server rack labelled MCP](https://scrape.ly/media/airbnb-mcp.png?w=750)](https://scrape.ly/blog/airbnb-mcp.md) ### [Airbnb MCP: Listings, Prices and Guest Reviews for Your AI Agent](https://scrape.ly/blog/airbnb-mcp.md) [An Airbnb MCP server lets Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT search stays, price them for your dates and read what guests wrote. Connect Scrape.ly's hosted server in a minute, nothing to install, and see the tool calls, real Lisbon results and what each run cost.](https://scrape.ly/blog/airbnb-mcp.md) ## The internet is full of data. Start owning yours. Scrape.ly gives you the infrastructure, the tooling, and the team to extract, process, and operationalize web data at any scale. Setup takes minutes. [Get Started Free](https://my.scrape.ly/register) [Chat with Support](mailto:hello@scrape.ly?subject=Question%20about%20Scrape.ly\&body=Hi%2C%20I%20have%20a%20question%20about%20Scrape.ly.) No credit card. No setup calls.