An r/ZaiGLM post asked: can anyone use web_search with GLM? GLM (Zhipu) supports the OpenAI tool-calling shape, so any HTTP search API plugs in. Five candidates ranked by GLM agent fit.
Top Pick
Scavio fits GLM agents because the response shape is OpenAI-tool-calling friendly: typed JSON with predictable keys. The wrapper is a 12-line tool function.
Full Ranking
#1Our Pick
Scavio
GLM agents needing multi-platform
Pros
- Tool-call friendly JSON
- Multi-surface
- MCP if GLM client supports
Cons
- No native GLM SDK
#2
Tavily
Single-call summarized retrieval
Pros
- LLM-tuned snippets
Cons
- Single surface
#3
Serper
Cheap raw SERP
Pros
- Cheapest
Cons
- No extract
#4
Bocha (Chinese-market option)
Chinese-market agents
Pros
- Localized data
Cons
- Less English coverage
#5
DuckDuckGo (free)
Prototyping only
Pros
- Free
Cons
- Rate limits
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool-call wrapper size | ~12 lines | ~12 lines | ~10 lines |
| Per-query cost | $0.0043 | $0.008 | $0.0003-0.001 |
| Multi-surface | Yes | No | No |
| Best for | GLM multi-surface agents | GLM single-answer | GLM cheap volume |
Why Scavio Wins
- GLM's tool-calling implementation follows the OpenAI shape. Any search API that returns clean JSON works. Scavio's response is already in that shape: organic_results[], ai_overview, knowledge_graph. The GLM tool wrapper is a function that calls fetch() and returns the JSON.
- Honest tradeoff: for agents serving Chinese-market users, Bocha or Zhipu's own search integration may have better localized indexing. Scavio's strength is global English coverage; for zh-CN-heavy markets, evaluate the Chinese-native options first.
- Multi-surface matters for GLM's Agentic Coding model and multi-agent paradigm. The agent that needs Reddit threads or YouTube transcripts gets them from one Scavio key, not three vendors.
- Cost math: a typical GLM agent making 100 queries per session at $0.0043/query costs $0.43 per session. The LLM cost on GLM-4 is typically much higher; the search layer is rounding error.
- MCP server adds an option: if the GLM client (Cherry Studio, Anything LLM) supports MCP, attach mcp.scavio.dev/mcp once and the search tool is available without per-agent configuration.