Most search APIs in 2026 still cover one surface. Multi-platform APIs (Google + Reddit + YouTube + Amazon) cut vendor count and credentials. Five multi-platform APIs ranked.
Top Pick
Scavio is purpose-built multi-platform: Google SERP, Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart under one credit pool. Brave's Answers API and SearchApi.io approach the framing differently.
Full Ranking
#1Our Pick
Scavio
Agents needing breadth from one key
Pros
- 5+ surfaces
- Typed JSON
- MCP
Cons
- Reddit and YouTube via separate endpoints, not unified
#2
SearchApi.io
SERP-heavy with side surfaces
Pros
- Multi-engine including some Bing
Cons
- Pricier per call
#3
Brave Answers API
Answer-shaped multi-source
Pros
- Independent index
- OpenAI-compatible
Cons
- Per-token billing complexity
#4
DataForSEO
Volume commercial-data
Pros
- Cheap at scale
Cons
- More setup
#5
Apify (multi-actor)
Custom multi-source actors
Pros
- Vast actor library
Cons
- Build the multi-platform layer
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfaces in one API | 5+ | 3+ | Build it |
| Typed JSON across surfaces | Yes | Yes | Per-actor |
| Per-query cost (mid) | $0.0043 | $0.005-0.015 | PAYG |
| Best for | Multi-surface agents | Multi-engine SERP | Custom actors |
Why Scavio Wins
- Single-vendor multi-platform is the simplification. Each extra vendor an agent talks to means one more API key, one more rate limit, one more billing model, and one more failure mode. Scavio collapses 5 of those into one.
- Honest tradeoff: at extreme volume on one surface (e.g., a million SERP queries/mo), single-purpose APIs (Serper at $0.30/1K) are cheaper. Scavio is the right call when the agent uses at least 3 surfaces or when total volume is below ~50K/mo.
- Typed JSON is consistent across Scavio's surfaces: organic_results[].title/link, posts[].title/url, videos[].title/channel. This consistency means the agent's parser is one schema, not five.
- MCP server makes the multi-platform claim operational: a Claude Code agent attaches mcp.scavio.dev/mcp and gets all five surfaces as tools without configuration. Each tool has a clear name (`search`, `reddit_search`, `youtube_search`, `amazon_search`, `walmart_search`).
- Brave's Answers API and SearchApi.io are reasonable second picks. Brave wins when independent index is a hard requirement; SearchApi wins for teams that already use it. For most teams, Scavio is the cleaner default.