Custom Search API

Name: Custom Search API API
Brand: Google Custom Search API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecData EnrichmentData TransformationapiKey2 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Run Google web searches scoped to a Programmable Search Engine and return ranked results with titles, snippets, and links so an agent can answer questions or feed retrieval pipelines.

Quickstart

Get started with Custom Search API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"run a google custom search query"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Custom Search API API.

Run a query against a custom search engine and return ranked web results

Restrict results to the sites configured on the engine using the siterestrict variant

Paginate through up to 100 results per query using start and num parameters

Filter by language, country, safe-search, and date range

GET STARTED

Start building with Custom Search API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: I need to search the web for documentation about a product, Search our company sites for a specific term using a custom engine, Get the top 10 results for a query restricted to our docs domain, Find images matching a query using a custom search engine

Not supported: Does not crawl, index, or modify search results — use only to query a Programmable Search Engine and read ranked results.

Google Custom Search API (Programmable Search Engine) returns Google web search results scoped to one or more sites or to the wider web. It exposes a single endpoint that accepts a query, a custom search engine ID, and optional filters such as result language, safe-search level, country restriction, and start offset for pagination. A site-restricted variant returns only results from the configured engine's domains. Output includes title, snippet, link, and rich result metadata that match what end users would see on google.com.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Custom Search API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Site-Scoped Knowledge Lookup

A documentation chatbot uses Custom Search API with a Programmable Search Engine restricted to docs.example.com. The chatbot calls cse.siterestrict.list, takes the top three snippets, and grounds its response in the matching docs pages. Results return in well under a second per query.

Run a siterestrict search with cx='abc123' and q='refund policy', return the top 3 results' title, snippet, and link.

Web Retrieval for RAG

A retrieval-augmented generation pipeline calls the open Custom Search endpoint to fetch the latest web pages relevant to a user's question. The pipeline scrapes the returned links, embeds them, and supplies the chunks to a language model. Custom Search keeps freshness and ranking aligned with google.com results.

Search the web for 'gke 1.30 release notes', return the top 5 result links and snippets to feed into a RAG indexer.

Brand Monitoring Snapshot

A marketing team runs the Custom Search API daily for a list of brand and competitor terms, recording the top results' rank, link, and snippet in a warehouse. Trends in who appears for each term feed a brand-visibility dashboard. The 100-query free quota covers most small brand programmes.

For each term in ['acme cloud', 'acme storage'], retrieve the top 10 organic results and store rank, link, and snippet in BigQuery.

AI Agent Web Search Tool

An AI agent that needs current information about an external topic asks Jentic for the Custom Search API operation, supplies the cx and query, and receives results. Jentic isolates the API key in its vault, so the agent never holds the long-lived key directly.

Search the web for the current Kubernetes stable release using cx='abc123' and return the top 3 result snippets.

Key Endpoints

2 endpoints — google custom search api (programmable search engine) returns google web search results scoped to one or more sites or to the wider web.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/customsearch/v1

Run a search query against a custom search engine

GET

/customsearch/v1/siterestrict

Run a search restricted to the engine's configured sites

GET

/customsearch/v1

Run a search query against a custom search engine

GET

/customsearch/v1/siterestrict

Run a search restricted to the engine's configured sites

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The Custom Search API key is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault and injected into the 'key' query parameter at execution time. Agents never see the raw API key string.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic for 'google web search' and Jentic returns the cse.list and cse.siterestrict.list operations with their full input schemas (cx, q, num, start, lr, gl, safe).

Time to first call

Direct integration: a few hours to handle key rotation, pagination, and quota tracking. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes by composing search, load, and execute on the customsearch endpoint.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

Bing Search API

Microsoft's web search API with similar query and result semantics

Choose Bing when Microsoft is the preferred provider; choose Custom Search to match google.com ranking

Alternative

Algolia Search API

Search infrastructure for indexing and querying your own content

Choose Algolia when you index your own data; choose Custom Search when you want Google's web index

Complementary

Google Search Console API

Reports how your site performs in google.com results, complementing live search lookups

Pair with Custom Search to compare your site's organic ranking against live search behaviour

FAQs

Specific to using Custom Search API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Custom Search API use?

The Custom Search API uses an API key passed as the 'key' query parameter. Through Jentic the API key is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault and injected into requests at execution time, so the raw key never appears in the agent's context.

Can I get more than 10 results per query from the Custom Search API?

Yes, in pages. Each call returns at most 10 results; set the 'start' parameter (1, 11, 21...) and 'num' (max 10) to paginate. The API supports retrieving the first 100 results for a given query.

What are the rate limits for the Custom Search API?

The Custom Search API allows 100 free queries per day per project, with paid tiers available for higher volume up to 10,000 queries per day per engine. Per-second QPS limits also apply; check the Programmable Search Engine pricing page for current ceilings.

How do I run a Google web search through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, search Jentic for 'google custom search query', load the schema for the cse.list operation on customsearch.googleapis.com, and execute it with your cx (engine ID) and q (query) parameters.

Does the Custom Search API let me search the entire web like google.com?

Only when the linked Programmable Search Engine is configured to search the whole web. By default an engine targets a specific list of sites; toggle 'Search the entire web' in the Programmable Search Engine console to widen the scope.