Does Google have a search API? The short answer in October 2026 is “not one you can sign up for”. The product most people mean, the Custom Search JSON API, is closed to new customers and will be discontinued for everyone else on 1 January 2027. Plenty of tutorials still walk you through creating a free key and calling it from a script. Those steps no longer work for a new account, and the free quota they describe now applies only to people who already had access.
That leaves a few narrower products, each built for a different job. Below is what the old API did, what Google says to use instead, and which option fits which job.
What the Custom Search JSON API was
Google’s Custom Search JSON API overview describes it as a way to “retrieve and display search results from Programmable Search Engine programmatically”, returning “either web search or image search results in JSON format”. It used the OpenSearch 1.1 Specification. Two things had to exist before your first call: a Programmable Search Engine you had created and configured, and an API key, because the API “requires the use of an API key”.
Results come from a Programmable Search Engine, the configurable search box Google lets site owners set up. The page does not promise the results you would see on google.com, so don’t assume they match.
The caps that were always there
The API reference page for the method “cse.list” sets two limits that shaped every project built on it. The num parameter accepts “integers between 1 and 10, inclusive”, so each call returns at most ten results. The start parameter carries a harder ceiling: “The JSON API will never return more than 100 results, even if more than 100 documents match the query, so setting the sum of start + num to a number greater than 100 will produce an error.” Ten calls of ten results, then a wall.
Is there a free Google search API key now?
No, not for a new customer. The overview page carries a note at the top: “The Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers.” The pricing section repeats it, saying the pricing “applies only to existing Custom Search JSON API customers until the service discontinuation on January 1, 2027. This API is not available for new customers.”
For those existing customers the terms are unchanged until the cut-off. The page says the API “provides 100 search queries per day for free” and that “Additional requests cost $5 per 1000 queries, up to 10k queries per day.” That free tier is what older guides mean by a free Google search API. It is real, but it belongs to accounts that already hold access, and it ends with the service.
The same goes for the free Google search API in Python that tutorials promise. The API was a REST request that returned JSON, so any language with an HTTP client could call it. The language was never the obstacle. Access is.
A sibling product, the Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API, served engines searching “10 or fewer” sites. Google’s page for it states that its endpoints “will cease to serve traffic on January 8, 2025”, so it is already gone.
The real options as of October 2026
The closure note names Google’s own replacements. “Vertex AI Search is a favorable alternative for searching up to 50 domains. Alternatively, if your use case necessitates full web search, contact us to express your interest in and get more information about our full web search solution.” Add the APIs Google offers for your own site’s data, and the third-party market, and you have the full set.
| Option | What it returns | Who it suits | Status, October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Search JSON API | Web or image results from a Programmable Search Engine, as JSON; 10 per call, 100 per query | Existing customers only | Closed to new customers; discontinued 1 January 2027 |
| Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API | Results from engines covering 10 or fewer sites | Nobody now | Stopped serving traffic 8 January 2025 |
| Vertex AI Search | Search across your chosen domains | Searching up to 50 domains | Named by Google as the alternative |
| Google’s full web search solution | Not described on the page | Projects needing full web search | Contact Google to register interest |
| Search Console API | Your own site’s Google Search data | Site owners and SEOs | A different product, not a results API |
| Third-party SERP data providers | Varies by provider | Rank tracking and SERP research | Check each provider’s terms |
Searching your own sites
If what you want is a search box over your own content, or over a set of sites you choose, Vertex AI Search is the route Google points to. The overview page gives the 50 domain figure and nothing else, so this post gives no price or quota for it. Read Google Cloud’s own documentation before you plan around it.
Full web search
For an application that needs results from the open web, Google’s page offers only a contact route. It does not describe the product, its price or who qualifies. Treat it as a conversation, not a sign-up form.
What SEOs usually need instead
Most SEO requests for a Google search API are really other jobs, and several never needed a results API at all.
If you want to know how your own pages perform in Google, the Search Console API gives you clicks, impressions and queries for sites you have verified. If you want Google to learn about new or removed URLs faster, that is a separate tool again, covered in our post on the Google Indexing API and its narrow eligibility.
If you want positions over time, read how to track keyword rankings before choosing a data source, because location, device and personalisation all move the answer. If you want to study what ranks for a query, a manual SERP analysis often tells you more than scraped positions, since the layout and the SERP features on the page shape clicks as much as rank does. For quick checks, Google search operators still work in an ordinary browser.
Choosing a third-party provider
Plenty of companies sell search result data. This post does not name or rank them, or say that collecting Google’s results yourself is permitted; read the terms. Ask every provider the same questions. Which locations and devices can it request? How fresh is each result? Does it capture SERP features or only blue links? How does it charge, and what happens when a request fails?
Run the same small set of queries through any candidate and compare the output with what you see by hand. Differences are normal. Unexplained ones are a warning.
One limitation applies to everything above. The facts here come from Google’s pages as they read in October 2026, and the main page was last updated in February 2026. The cut-off is close, and Google may change the alternatives or the dates. Check the overview page yourself before you commit any budget or code to an option.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google have a search API?
It had the Custom Search JSON API, which is now closed to new customers. Existing customers have until 1 January 2027 to move to an alternative. Google names Vertex AI Search for up to 50 domains and invites contact about full web search.
Can I still get a free Google search API key?
Not as a new customer. The 100 free queries per day apply only to existing Custom Search JSON API customers, and only until the service is discontinued on 1 January 2027.
How many results did the Custom Search JSON API return?
Up to 10 per call, and never more than 100 for a single query. Requesting past 100 with the start and num parameters produced an error.
Is the Search Console API a replacement?
Not for search results. It reports your own verified site’s performance in Google Search, such as clicks and impressions, which is often what SEOs actually need.
The takeaway Google’s general search API is closing, and it was always capped at 100 results a query. Decide whether you need your own site’s data, search over your own domains, or open web results, then pick the product built for that job.
