TinyFishNot published by vendorVerified 2026-10-18

TinyFish free Search & Fetch API for agents

Two web-access endpoints for agents: Search returns ranked results as JSON, Fetch renders a URL in a real browser and returns clean Markdown. Free within daily limits; a free account and API key are required.

Compare Docs

Verified factsChecked 2026-10-18

Price	Search is free up to 12,000 requests a day and Fetch up to 1,000 URLs a day. Above that, requests need a positive wallet balance. The pricing page says Search and Fetch run at any wallet balance with no card required.³ [Verified 2026-10-18]
API key / auth	Every REST request needs an X-API-Key header with a key from agent.tinyfish.ai/api-keys (free account). Our request without a key on 2026-10-18 returned HTTP 401 MISSING_API_KEY. The hosted MCP server at agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp signs in with OAuth instead.⁶ [Verified 2026-10-18]
Rate limit	Free tier: 30 Search requests per minute and 150 Fetch URLs per minute (TinyFish announcement, May 4, 2026), on top of the daily allowances above. Fetch takes up to 10 URLs per request, and failed URLs do not count against the quota.⁴ [Verified 2026-10-18]
Terms	TinyFish Terms of Service (effective Aug 17, 2026): use is licensed for your internal business or personal purposes; no reselling or sublicensing the service, and no using it or its outputs to build a competing service. The terms also let TinyFish use service data to train its own models, with safeguards.⁵ [Verified 2026-10-18]
Fetch freshness	Fetch may return a cached copy by default. Send ttl: 0 to force a live fetch, or a number of seconds to accept cached entries younger than that.⁷ [Verified 2026-10-18]
Status	The docs carry no beta or preview label for Search and Fetch. Enterprise plans add an uptime SLA; the free tier has none published.⁸ [Verified 2026-10-18]

FeaturesChecked 2026-10-18

YesNoN/ANot published

Capability	Value	Note
StatusThe docs carry no beta or preview label for Search and Fetch; only Enterprise plans list an uptime SLA.	Not published¹ [Not published by vendor: checked 2026-10-18 on https://docs.tinyfish.ai/]	The docs carry no beta or preview label for Search and Fetch; only Enterprise plans list an uptime SLA.
API key requiredX-API-Key (free account). Our request without a key returned HTTP 401 MISSING_API_KEY.	Yes² [Verified 2026-10-18 by test request to https://api.search.tinyfish.ai?query=sec+edgar+api]	X-API-Key (free account). Our request without a key returned HTTP 401 MISSING_API_KEY.
Free tier12,000 searches + 1,000 fetches/day. Works at a $0 wallet balance with no card; beyond the daily allowance requests need wallet funds.	Yes³ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://docs.tinyfish.ai/search-api]	12,000 searches + 1,000 fetches/day. Works at a $0 wallet balance with no card; beyond the daily allowance requests need wallet funds.
Rate limitFree-tier limits from TinyFish’s May 4, 2026 announcement; Fetch takes up to 10 URLs per call.	Search 30/min, Fetch 150 URLs/min⁴ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://www.tinyfish.ai/blog/search-and-fetch-are-now-free-for-every-agent-everywhere]	Free-tier limits from TinyFish’s May 4, 2026 announcement; Fetch takes up to 10 URLs per call.
Official MCP serverHosted, agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp. OAuth sign-in; also exposes the paid Agent and Browser tools.	Yes⁹ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://docs.tinyfish.ai/mcp-integration/index.md]	Hosted, agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp. OAuth sign-in; also exposes the paid Agent and Browser tools.
Official SDKPython and TypeScript. Both read TINYFISH_API_KEY from the environment; a CLI is also published.	Yes⁶ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://docs.tinyfish.ai/authentication]	Python and TypeScript. Both read TINYFISH_API_KEY from the environment; a CLI is also published.
Data license / termsInternal business or personal use; no resale or sublicensing; TinyFish may use service data to train its models.	TinyFish Terms of Service⁵ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://www.tinyfish.ai/terms]	Internal business or personal use; no resale or sublicensing; TinyFish may use service data to train its models.
Commercial use allowedInternal business use. Licensed for your internal business purposes; reselling and building a competing service are not allowed.	Yes⁵ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://www.tinyfish.ai/terms]	Internal business use. Licensed for your internal business purposes; reselling and building a competing service are not allowed.
CORS / browser useAccess-Control-Allow-Origin: . Preflight to both endpoints returned 200 with ; a browser app would expose your key, so proxy it.	Yes¹⁰ [Verified 2026-10-18 by test request to https://api.fetch.tinyfish.ai]	Access-Control-Allow-Origin: . Preflight to both endpoints returned 200 with ; a browser app would expose your key, so proxy it.
Freshness / coverageFetch may serve a cached copy by default; ttl: 0 forces a live fetch.	Live fetch; cache unless ttl set⁷ [Verified 2026-10-18 on https://docs.tinyfish.ai/fetch-api]	Fetch may serve a cached copy by default; ttl: 0 forces a live fetch.

What it does

TinyFish gives agents two building blocks for the live web. Search (GET api.search.tinyfish.ai) takes a query and returns titles, snippets and URLs, with optional location, language and date filters. Fetch (POST api.fetch.tinyfish.ai) takes up to 10 URLs, renders each in TinyFish’s own Chromium fleet with JavaScript, strips navigation and boilerplate, and returns Markdown, JSON or HTML, with per-URL errors reported separately so one bad URL doesn’t fail the batch. Both draw on a free daily allowance and keep working at a $0 wallet balance; TinyFish’s paid Agent, Research and Browser products are separate. The same tools are exposed through a hosted MCP server that signs in with OAuth.

Working exampleNot run: needs a TinyFish API key (free account; we did not sign up)

Documented request, not run by us: needs a TinyFish API key (free account; we did not sign up). The response below is what we did run on 2026-10-18.

# Not run: needs a TinyFish API key (free account at agent.tinyfish.ai/api-keys)
curl "https://api.search.tinyfish.ai?query=sec+edgar+xbrl+api" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TINYFISH_API_KEY"

curl -X POST https://api.fetch.tinyfish.ai \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TINYFISH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.sec.gov/about/developer-resources"], "format": "markdown"}'

Response (trimmed)

Not run with a key. What we did run on 2026-10-18 (same Search call, no key):
HTTP 401
{"error":{"code":"MISSING_API_KEY","message":"X-API-Key header is required"},"request_id":"a57d9e67-..."}

Agent setup

Prompt to give your agent

You have TinyFish Search and Fetch. Use search to find candidate pages, then fetch only the 2–3 best URLs (batch them in one fetch call, up to 10). Prefer primary sources. Pass ttl: 0 when the page changes often. Quote facts with their URL, and tell me which fetches failed instead of guessing what they said.

Agent / MCP-style tool snippet

// Hosted MCP (OAuth sign-in on first use)
// Claude Code:
//   npx -y install-mcp@latest https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp --client claude-code
// Codex:
//   codex mcp add tinyfish --url https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp
// Cursor .cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tinyfish": { "url": "https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp" }
  }
}

Fit and safety

Good for

Giving a coding or research agent live web search without a paid search API
Turning JavaScript-heavy pages into clean Markdown before they reach the model
RAG pipelines that need a search step followed by a fetch step

Watch out

Do not use it if you cannot create an account. Unlike Exa’s keyless MCP or You.com’s free MCP profile, every TinyFish call needs a key or OAuth sign-in.
Do not plan on more than 1,000 fetched URLs a day for free. Bulk crawling needs a funded wallet or a different tool.
Do not rely on the default cache for fast-moving pages. Set ttl to 0 or a short window, or you may get an older copy.
Do not resell results or wrap the API in a competing search product. The terms limit use to your internal or personal purposes.

Alternatives

Exa hosted MCP	Search and fetch through a hosted MCP that works with no key at all, at lower, unpublished free limits.
You.com MCP (free)	Keyless search profile with a verified 100-requests-a-day allowance.
DeepSeek Search & Fetch API	Paid per call ($0.75 per 1,000 successful requests each), 5 requests a second.

FAQ

Is TinyFish Search really free?

Yes, within limits: 12,000 Search requests a day and 30 a minute on the free tier, with no card. You still need a free account and API key.

Does TinyFish Fetch render JavaScript?

Yes. TinyFish says Fetch renders pages in a full browser with JavaScript before extracting Markdown, JSON or HTML.

Does TinyFish have an MCP server?

Yes, a hosted one at https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp that signs in with OAuth. It also exposes TinyFish’s paid Agent and Browser tools.

Compare

Put TinyFish Search & Fetch (free tier) side by side with other free agent tools on keys, limits, MCP support, licensing and CORS. Open the comparison grid →

SourcesFootnotes

1docs.tinyfish.aiVerified 2026-10-18
2api.search.tinyfish.ai?query=sec+edgar+apiTested 2026-10-18
3docs.tinyfish.ai/search-apiVerified 2026-10-18
4tinyfish.ai/blog/search-and-fetch-are-now-free-for-every-agent-everywherVerified 2026-10-18
5tinyfish.ai/termsVerified 2026-10-18
6docs.tinyfish.ai/authenticationVerified 2026-10-18
7docs.tinyfish.ai/fetch-apiVerified 2026-10-18
8tinyfish.ai/pricingVerified 2026-10-18
9docs.tinyfish.ai/mcp-integration/index.mdVerified 2026-10-18
10api.fetch.tinyfish.aiTested 2026-10-18