# A Google Search API for AI agents.

> Google's Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and ends for existing ones on 1 January 2027. How an agent can still read Google results.

Canonical: https://apiforagents.dev/guides/google-search-api-for-ai-agents · Updated 2026-10-21

Not from Google's own JSON API, if you are new. As of October 2026 Google says its Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers, and existing customers have until 1 January 2027 to move to something else. An agent can still read Google web, news, image and shopping results as JSON, priced per page or per row.

- Custom Search JSON API: Closed to new customers
- Existing customers: Until 1 Jan 2027
- Here: Web, news, images, shopping
- Checked: Oct 2026

## Google's API or this one

Google's side is from its Custom Search JSON API overview, seen 21 October 2026.

|  | Custom Search JSON API | API for Agents |
|---|---|---|
| New sign-ups | Closed | Open |
| Free use | 100 queries a day, for existing customers | A $0.10 trial for new agents |
| Daily cap | 10,000 queries a day | Priced per page; set a ceiling per call with maxUsd |
| Results | From a Programmable Search Engine you configure | Google's organic results, plus news, images and shopping |
| Who can get access | Existing customers only, until 1 January 2027 | Anyone. An agent signs itself up in one call and starts on a $0.10 trial |
| Price model | $5 per 1,000 queries after the free 100 | Pay as you go, from $0.00009 per record |
| Setup | Search engine ID and API key | One API key. No Google account or app review |

## What Google points to instead

Google's overview names Vertex AI Search as the alternative for searching up to 50 domains, and asks you to contact it if your use needs full web search. The older Site Restricted JSON API stopped serving traffic on 8 January 2025.

If your agent searches your own sites or documents, Google's enterprise search products are the right tool. If it needs to see what Google shows anyone for a query, a results API is the practical route.

## What you can get here

- **[Google Search API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/search-api).** Organic web results with rank, title, link, snippet and domain, plus site, date and file-type filters.
- **[Google News API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/news-api).** News articles by query, country and recency: headline, publisher, date and link.
- **[Google Shopping API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/shopping-api).** Shopping offers with title, merchant, price, rating and review count.
- **[Google Images API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/images-api).** Image results with the image URL, source page, size and thumbnail.

> **For an agent** Search first, then read: let the agent run a Google search with a site filter to find the exact page or handle, then look that up on the platform it belongs to.

## Operation pages

- [Google Search API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/search-api)
- [Google News API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/news-api)
- [Google Shopping API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/shopping-api)
- [Google Images API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/google/images-api)

## Questions

### Is the Google Custom Search API shutting down?

Google says the Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and that existing customers have until 1 January 2027 to move to an alternative.

### How much did the Custom Search JSON API cost?

For existing customers, 100 queries a day free, then $5 per 1,000 queries, up to 10,000 a day, as of October 2026.

### What does a Google search cost here?

Priced per record, from $0.00009 per record. A web search is billed per page of about ten results. Quote it first with estimateOnly.

### Can I filter by site, date or file type?

Yes. The search operation takes a country, language, a site to search within, since and until dates and file types such as pdf.

### Does an agent need a Google account?

No. It signs itself up here with one call and never needs a Google account or a search engine ID.

## Sources

1. [Custom Search JSON API: Overview](https://developers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview), seen 21 October 2026
2. [Custom Search Site Restricted JSON API](https://developers.google.com/custom-search/v1/site_restricted_api), seen 21 October 2026

## Why API for Agents

- One key for 26 platforms: social, commerce, jobs, places, search and contacts, with one request shape and one response shape.
- A free quote before any spend: add "estimateOnly": true to any call and see the most it can cost.
- Pay per record in US dollars. No subscription, nothing expires, top-ups from $5.
- $0.10 free to try, no card. An AI agent can sign itself up in one request; a person claims it later.
- Measured, not estimated: every answer says when each row was measured, whether it was fresh or a recent capture, and how sure to be of each field.
- Partial success is success: anything that could not be fetched is named with a reason, and the charge settles to what came back, never above the quote.
- Typed fields that keep their names whichever source answered, and a details object last with everything else the source sent, under our own field names.
- Try any endpoint in the playground and download the answer as CSV or JSON.

## Start

The playground runs any endpoint by hand: pick a platform and what you want from it, fill a short form named in plain words (or press Use sample input), see the free quote on the Run button, run it, then read the answer as a table or JSON and download it as CSV or JSON. The same call is written out as cURL, Python and Node while you type. Open it at https://apiforagents.dev/dashboard/run (sign in first).

Agents register at https://apiforagents.dev/auth.md (one POST, $0.10 free). People: https://apiforagents.dev/docs#start. Prices: https://apiforagents.dev/pricing.md