Collectors · Search engines

Google search results API in Python

Organic search results for a query — Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo, by country. One POST from Python with query, rows back as JSON with 12 fields, $0.0005 per delivered result. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the web_search collector returns one dict per result, at $0.0005 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/web_search/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "query": "best running shoes",
        "engine": "google",
        "country": "us",
        "lang": "en",
        "max_results": 20,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("title"), row.get("link"), row.get("display_link"), row.get("source"))

Python: one Web search run (Google US), printing title, link, display_link, source

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Web search collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	yes	What to search, e.g. "best running shoes".
`engine`	string: `google`, `bing`, `duckduckgo`	no (default google)	Search engine to query (default google).
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — proxy exit geo and Google locale (gl). Omit for the default pool.
`lang`	string	no	Interface language (hl), e.g. en, it, de.
`location`	string	no	Google only — search as if from this place, e.g. "Milan, Italy".
`max_results`	integer	no (default 10)	How many results to deliver at most (1–100). You pay only for delivered results.

Response fields

12 fields per result.

Fields of each row (result)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position across the merged pages.
`page`	integer	Which result page this row came from.
`title`	string	Result title.
`link`	string	Result URL.
`display_link`	string, nullable	Breadcrumb path as shown by the engine.
`source`	string, nullable	Result host.
`description`	string, nullable	Snippet.
`date`	string, nullable	Publish date when the engine shows one.
`sitelinks`	string[]	Sitelink titles under the result (empty when none).
`sitelink_urls`	object[]	Sitelinks under the result as {title, link} (empty when none).
`rating`	number, nullable	Review stars printed under a rich result (out of 5).
`reviews`	integer, nullable	Review count printed next to the stars.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/web_search/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"query":"best running shoes","engine":"google","country":"us","lang":"en","max_results":20}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0005 per delivered result.

What Web search rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0005
1,000	$0.50
10,000	$5.00

Up to 100 results per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 4,000 results. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Web search API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 4,000 results of this collector at $0.0005 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 100 results per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0005 per delivered result, no subscription.

Get an API key Google search results API