Quickstart

Get an API keyCopy Anchor Link

Sign up at app.s1.dev, then open API Keys and create a key. New accounts receive 100 free Search API credits without a credit card or expiration date.

Keep the key server-side. For local development, put it in an environment variable:

export SEARCH1API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

Search the webCopy Anchor Link

curl -X POST https://api.search1api.com/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SEARCH1API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "best open source vector databases"}'

Read the responseCopy Anchor Link

{
  "searchParameters": {
    "query": "best open source vector databases",
    "max_results": 5
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Qdrant - Vector Database",
      "link": "https://qdrant.tech/",
      "snippet": "Qdrant is an open source vector database...",
      "published_date": "2026-09-03",
      "content": ""
    }
  ]
}

Search returns up to five results by default. snippet is the search engine summary. published_date is the page's publication date in ISO 8601 and is omitted when the source does not expose one. content is populated when you ask Search1API to crawl a result.

Decide what to build nextCopy Anchor Link

Your first request is complete. From here:

• If the model needs full page text, learn how to use crawl_results in Improving search results.
• If you are starting from a URL or need structured data, use Choosing an endpoint.
• Before production, review Authentication, Credits and limits, and Error handling.