Google Custom Search API
Shares rank 11 of 12 search APIs by recommenders
Developers use it to pull Google search results into their own programs. Critics say pricing jumped and terms now restrict automated use and reuse of results.
Developers use it to pull Google search results into their own programs. Critics say pricing jumped and terms now restrict automated use and reuse of results.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Official access to Google search data
“we waited 30+ years for Google to do the right thing and just start giving us an API to their search data”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Google Built the Search API It Should Have Built 25 Years Ago” “The SerpAPI, Google Custom Search API, etc. exist for a reason”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I taught GPT-OSS-120B to see using Google Lens and OpenCV” Works well, cheaper than recruiters
“Worked a treat and was cheaper than recruiter”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “LinkedIn Is Fingerprinting the Browser Extensions”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Confusing, expensive paid tiers
“the $35,000 they want to continue usage of my < 1000 personal searches per month, not going to happen”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Gemini 3.7 Flash” “Google now wants $30,000 a month for customsearch (minimum charge)”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Anthropic officially bans using subscription auth for third party use” “a Byzantine maze to pay for more than the free version”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration” Results restricted to display only
“if re-ranking is regarded as processing & analyzing, then I'll remove the Google API calls now”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Gemini 3.7 Flash” “Can't use the results for anything other than showing them as-is on a results page.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Judge Rejects Google's Attempt to DMCA Its Way Out of Being Scraped” Access cut off for automation
“Now that data is a commodity directly tied into the AI arms race, they killed”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Alphabet Announces First Quarter 2026 Results” “If I want to use google search in an automated way google does not want it.”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Claws are now a new layer on top of LLM agents”
Other search APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other search APIs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | 33 | 9 | 79% | 10 | — | Approved |
| SerpApi | 16 | 10 | 62% | 8 | — | — |
| Brave Search API | 15 | 3 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| DeepSeek search API | 15 | 7 | 68% | 1 | — | — |
| Google Custom Search APIThis page | 5 | 8 | 38% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Google and Bing, which by the way closed off their official search APIs”
“the number of Google searches are a hard cap on the account”
“we waited 30+ years for Google to do the right thing and just start giving us an API to their search data”
“if re-ranking is regarded as processing & analyzing, then I'll remove the Google API calls now”
“the $35,000 they want to continue usage of my < 1000 personal searches per month, not going to happen”
“Can't use the results for anything other than showing them as-is on a results page.”
“Good. Duck google and use other indexing.”
“Now that data is a commodity directly tied into the AI arms race, they killed”
“If I want to use google search in an automated way google does not want it.”
“Google now wants $30,000 a month for customsearch (minimum charge)”
“The SerpAPI, Google Custom Search API, etc. exist for a reason”
“Worked a treat and was cheaper than recruiter”
“This is the straw that broke the camel's back.”
“a Byzantine maze to pay for more than the free version”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.