Google Custom Search API pricing and the 2027 shutdown

Google Custom Search API pricing is simple, and it now comes with an end date. The Custom Search JSON API gives 100 queries a day for free, then bills each extra 1,000 queries up to a cap of 10,000 a day. Google's own overview page says the API is closed to new customers and that existing customers have until January 1, 2027 to move to something else.

So if your agent, rank checker or internal search tool still calls `customsearch/v1`, you have two questions. What does it cost you today, and what will the same volume cost after the switch? This post reads Google's pages as they stood on 2026-11-06, works out the bill per day and per month, and puts it next to live per-call prices for Google results through looot.

How much does the Google Custom Search API cost?

The Custom Search JSON API is free for the first 100 queries each day. After that you enable billing in the API Console and pay per 1,000 queries, with a hard cap of 10,000 queries a day. Google says this pricing applies only to existing customers, and only until the service stops on January 1, 2027.

For a rank tracker, the cap can matter more than the price. One that checks 500 keywords in 30 markets needs 15,000 queries for one pass, which does not fit in one day of quota. The bill at the cap is the last row of the table.

Is the Google Custom Search API free?

Yes, up to 100 queries a day, and only for existing customers. Google's overview page says the API is "closed to new customers", so if you are not already a customer you cannot start using it, free tier or paid. The free quota ends with the rest of the API on January 1, 2027.

When does the Google Custom Search JSON API shut down?

Existing customers have until January 1, 2027. Google gives no date for when it closed the API to new customers, only that it is closed now. The sibling API for small site lists stopped earlier.

Sources: the Custom Search JSON API overview and the Site Restricted JSON API page, both read 2026-11-06.

For searching up to 50 domains, Google points to Vertex AI Search. For search across the whole web, Google's page asks you to contact it. It names no public price for that.

What does the same volume cost through a SERP endpoint?

A SERP endpoint takes the keyword, a country and a language, and returns the ranked Google results as JSON. You pay per call, with no cap per day from Google and no Programmable Search Engine to set up. The table reads looot's price per call from the live catalog when the page loads.

To compare with the Google table, multiply the price per call by 1,000. One more difference changes the count. The Custom Search JSON API returns at most 10 results per request and "will never return more than 100 results" for a query, according to its list method reference. Reading the top 100 costs you 10 queries. An endpoint that returns 100 results in one call does it in one.

What replaces the Custom Search API for an agent?

That answer, with the cheapest endpoint per 1,000 searches priced live, is on the Google SERP API page. For a ranked list of SERP providers with what each one parses, see the best SERP API list. If you used SerpApi before and want to compare it with the others, the SerpApi alternatives post covers that.

What changes in your code is small. You drop the `cx` search engine ID and the Google API key, and send the same query with a country and a language. Results come back as a list of position, title, link and snippet, which you map to the fields your code reads from Google's `items` today.

Run it with an agent

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor or any agent that reads a skill file. It prices the switch before it spends anything.

What it cannot do

• Image search in the same call. The Custom Search JSON API also returns image results. The live table above covers organic web results only. Google image results are a separate job, `google.serp.images`, listed in the public catalog.
• Your own site index. A SERP endpoint reads Google's public results. Search over your own pages, which a Programmable Search Engine with a site list gave you, is the Vertex AI Search case and not something looot does.
• Scheduled checks. Running the same queries every day for rank tracking needs scheduled runs, not available yet. Run each check by hand or from your own cron, as the rank tracking API page explains.
• Free credit. looot has no free tier like Google's 100 a day. You top up a prepaid balance first.

Last checked 2026-11-06. Google's prices and dates were read that day from the pages linked above. looot prices are read from the live catalog when the page loads.