# Neurobird Search API

> Web search built for AI agents. One call fans out across search engines, fuses
> the rankings, opens the pages, ranks the passages inside them, and returns an
> answer whose every supporting quote is checked back against its source text.
> Request and response shapes are compatible with Tavily.

Homepage: https://search.neurobird.com
OpenAPI: https://search.neurobird.com/openapi.json
API reference (server rendered, no JavaScript needed): https://search.neurobird.com/api-reference
Status: https://search.neurobird.com/health

## Price

- Basic search: $2 per 1,000 requests (1 credit)
- Deep search that opens and reads pages: $4 per 1,000 (2 credits)
- Deep search with a grounded answer: $6 per 1,000 (3 credits)
- At 1,000,000 credits a month: $1 per 1,000
- Full page content is included at no extra credit
- Free tier: 1,000 credits every month, no card, no signup form

For comparison, on prices published by each vendor in August 2026: Tavily $8 per
1,000 basic and $16 advanced, Exa about $7, Brave Search API $5, Google Custom
Search $5, the Anthropic web search tool $10.

## Endpoints

- POST https://search.neurobird.com/search - ranked results with page passages already extracted
- POST https://search.neurobird.com/search/stream - the same, streamed as server sent events
- POST https://search.neurobird.com/extract - any URL as clean markdown
- POST https://search.neurobird.com/paid/search - the same search, always priced, pay per call
- POST https://search.neurobird.com/keys - create a free key, no authentication required
- GET  https://search.neurobird.com/usage - usage for the calling key
- GET  https://search.neurobird.com/payments - every payment option, machine readable

Every route is also available under /v1.

## Model Context Protocol

- Endpoint: https://search.neurobird.com/mcp (streamable HTTP, JSON-RPC 2.0)
- Tools: web_search, extract_url. Both are read only.
- Nothing to install. Add to Claude Code with:
  claude mcp add --transport http neurobird-search https://search.neurobird.com/mcp \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer $NEUROBIRD_KEY"
- Also published in the official MCP Registry as com.neurobird/search

## Authentication

- API key: Authorization: Bearer <key>, or an x-api-key header.
  Create one with an unauthenticated POST https://search.neurobird.com/keys
- OAuth 2.1 with PKCE (S256), for MCP clients that require it:
  Protected resource metadata: https://search.neurobird.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource
  Authorization server metadata: https://search.neurobird.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server
  Dynamic client registration: POST https://search.neurobird.com/oauth/register

## Paying without an account

- x402: send an Accept containing payment-required, or ?x402=1, to receive a
  402 with machine readable terms. Pay and retry. No signup, no key.
  Price: $0.005 basic, $0.01 advanced per call.
  Network: eip155:8453, asset USDC.
- Machine Payments Protocol (MPP): the same 402 also carries a
  WWW-Authenticate: Payment challenge, method evm, intent charge.
  Registered on MPPScan.
- Prepaid credit packs: POST https://search.neurobird.com/billing/crypto/checkout

## What is different here

- Quotes in a grounded answer are matched back against the source text before
  the response is returned. A quote that fails is marked verified: false rather
  than silently dropped, so a caller can audit any claim.
- Send a JSON Schema with the query and get it filled from each result, in the
  same call. Fields the page does not state come back null, never invented.
- Every response carries per stage timings, so latency can be attributed.

## Balance and spend control

- Prepaid only. There is no invoice and no overage: a key can only spend
  credits already granted or bought, so a surprise bill is not possible.
- Every authenticated JSON response carries the balance in headers, so an
  agent never needs a second call to decide if it can afford the next one:
  X-Credits-Remaining, X-Credits-Remaining-USD, X-Credits-Used,
  X-Credits-Low (true or false), X-Credits-Topup-URL (only when low).
- GET https://search.neurobird.com/billing/balance returns the same in JSON, including remaining_usd,
  used_usd, usd_per_credit, low_balance and low_balance_threshold.
- Low means at or below the larger of 100 credits and 10% of what was granted.
- Per key ceiling of 2000 credits an hour, to bound the damage
  if a key leaks. Ask if a real workload needs it raised.

## Honest limits

- There is no index of our own. Coverage and freshness inherit from upstream
  search engines.
- Measured median latency: about 15s basic, 22s standard, 28s advanced. The
  streaming endpoint returns ranked links at about 5s.

## Pages

- https://search.neurobird.com/vs/tavily - comparison with Tavily, including what Tavily does better
- https://search.neurobird.com/google-custom-search-alternative - migration from Google Custom Search
- https://search.neurobird.com/terms  https://search.neurobird.com/privacy  https://search.neurobird.com/acceptable-use

Contact: office@neurobird.com