AI recruitment agents need to find, verify, and enrich candidate profiles from public web data. The ideal search API returns structured people data without manual scraping, integrates with agent frameworks, and stays within compliance boundaries. This ranking compares the best search APIs for building people-finding and recruitment agents in 2026.
Scavio API combines Google Search, LinkedIn SERP parsing, and social data at $0.005/request, giving recruitment agents broad people-finding capability without dedicated people-data subscriptions.
Full Ranking
Scavio API
Multi-source people search combining SERP, social, and web data
- Google Search finds public profiles across platforms
- Reddit and social data for candidate sentiment
- $0.005/request across all endpoints
- MCP server for direct agent integration
- No dedicated people database or enrichment
- Returns search results, not structured contact data
- No email finder or phone number lookup
Exa Websets
Semantic people search with structured profile extraction
- Neural search finds people by description, not keywords
- Websets auto-curate lists of matching profiles
- Structured data extraction built in
- Good for niche role discovery
- Custom pricing requires sales conversation
- Newer product with evolving feature set
- Limited to web-indexed profiles
- No contact enrichment
Apollo.io
Sales and recruiting with built-in contact database
- 275M+ contact database
- Email and phone data included
- Engagement sequences built in
- Chrome extension for LinkedIn
- $49/mo minimum for useful features
- Credit-based contact reveals
- Focused on sales, not general agent use
- No API on free tier
SerpAPI
Google and LinkedIn SERP parsing for profile discovery
- Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo support
- Structured SERP JSON
- Reliable uptime
- $0.01/search minimum
- No people-specific features
- No contact enrichment
- No agent framework integration
Google Custom Search (CSE)
Budget people search with Google's index
- Free tier available
- Full Google index access
- Simple REST API
- Site-restricted search possible
- 100 queries/day free limit
- No structured people data
- Raw HTML snippets only
- No social or profile parsing
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per 1,000 people searches | $5 | Custom | $49/mo (flat) |
| Contact data (email/phone) | No | No | Yes (credit-based) |
| Agent framework support | MCP, LangChain, CrewAI | Python SDK | REST API |
| Social profile data | Reddit, TikTok, search results | Web profiles | LinkedIn (via Chrome ext) |
| Semantic search | Keyword-based | Neural search | Keyword-based |
| Compliance model | Public web data only | Public web data only | Proprietary database |
Why Scavio Wins
- Scavio combines Google Search, Reddit, and social APIs in one integration, letting recruitment agents cross-reference candidates across multiple public sources at $0.005/request
- MCP server integration means agents in Claude, Cursor, or custom frameworks can search for people without custom HTTP code
- Exa Websets wins for semantic people discovery where you describe the ideal candidate rather than using specific keywords
- Apollo wins when your agent needs verified contact data like emails and phone numbers, not just profile discovery
- Scavio searches public web data only; agents needing direct contact information, email verification, or proprietary databases should pair Scavio with Apollo or a dedicated enrichment service