Every AI application that needs current information ends up buying a search API. We measured which ones the models themselves point to.
We ran fifteen buying questions through grounded search — the questions a real buyer types, not keywords — and recorded which tools the answers named and which sources they cited. 31 distinct sources, 116 citations. What follows is that data.
What AI models actually name
| Tool | Mentions |
|---|---|
| Brave Search API | 15 |
| Exa | 15 |
| Firecrawl | 14 |
| Tavily | 14 |
| Parallel Search | 9 |
| Perplexity (also cited as Perplexity Sonar) | 8 |
| SerpAPI | 8 |
| Serper (also cited as Serper.dev) | 6 |
| Linkup | 2 |
| DuckDuckGo | 1 |
| Google’s AI Mode | 1 |
| Oxylabs | 1 |
| searXNG | 1 |
Brave Search API and Exa were both named in all 15 answers, tied at the top rather than ranked. That is the pattern everywhere in this data: models enumerate a consensus set rather than picking a winner, and the meaningful distinction is whether you are in it.
This is also the most community-driven category of the seven we mapped. Reddit carries 27% of all citations here, the highest of any — more than one citation in four comes from a forum thread rather than a vendor page or benchmark.
Search APIs are bought by developers, and developers ask other developers. If you sell one, the highest-leverage place to be useful is not your documentation.
Where the answers come from
These are the pages the models cited most. The top three carry 33% of all citations in this category, and Reddit threads carry 27% across 8 separate discussions.
Method
Fifteen buying questions, run through grounded search on 3 September 2026:
What are the best AI Web Search APIs brands? · Which AI Web Search APIs should I buy? · Best AI Web Search APIs for beginners · Most trusted AI Web Search APIs brands and why · Compare the top AI Web Search APIs brands · What AI Web Search APIs do experts recommend? · Best value AI Web Search APIs · Which AI Web Search APIs brands have the best reviews? · Top rated AI Web Search APIs 2026 · What should I look for when choosing AI Web Search APIs? · Alternatives to the most popular AI Web Search APIs · Is there a better option than the leading AI Web Search APIs brand? · What do people on Reddit recommend for AI Web Search APIs? · Best AI Web Search APIs for small businesses · What's the highest rated AI Web Search APIs right now?
Every answer carries citations. We recorded all of them and ranked by frequency.
What this does not do. We did not test these tools, run trials, or compare features hands-on. Plenty of roundups claim they did. We measured which tools AI models recommend and which sources those recommendations came from — a different question, and the one that matters if your goal is being recommended rather than choosing.
Reproducibility. Ask the same questions again and substantially the same sources come back. In our testing, two independent runs of a category minutes apart returned the same URLs in the same order.
This is one of seven categories we mapped the same way. Across all seven, Reddit carried 16-27% of citations and the top three sources carried 29-33% — every single time.
This source map was made with Mayin.
Every number above came from running real buying questions through grounded search and recording what the answers cited. You can get the same map for your own category and brand in about 15 minutes, for $49 — one payment, no subscription, delivered in Telegram.