SerpApi MCP server

SerpApi MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation that integrates with SerpApi for comprehensive search engine results and data extraction.

Features

• Multi-Engine Search: Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube, eBay, and more
• Engine Resources: Per-engine parameter schemas available via MCP resources (see Search Tool)
• Real-time Weather Data: Location-based weather with forecasts via search queries
• Stock Market Data: Company financials and market data through search integration
• Dynamic Result Processing: Automatically detects and formats different result types
• Flexible Response Modes: Complete or compact JSON responses
• JSON Responses (default): Structured JSON output with complete or compact modes
• Markdown Responses: Cut token usage by 50% on average and by more than 90% for APIs with complex nested JSON.
• Interactive UI (MCP Apps): Opt-in search_table and search_dashboard tools that render results as an interactive UI in supporting hosts
• Claude Desktop Extension: One-click local install from an MCP Bundle (.mcpb), see below

Quick start

SerpApi MCP Server is available as a hosted service at mcp.serpapi.com. In order to connect to it, you need to provide an API key. You can find your API key on your SerpApi dashboard.

You can configure Claude Desktop to use the hosted server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpapi": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.serpapi.com/YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp"
    }
  }
}

You can also add the hosted server to these MCP clients:

OpenClaw

openclaw mcp add serpapi --url https://mcp.serpapi.com/YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp --transport streamable-http

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http serpapi https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY"

Hermes

hermes mcp add serpapi --url https://mcp.serpapi.com/YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp

Codex (reads the key from SERPAPI_API_KEY in your shell)

codex mcp add serpapi --url https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var SERPAPI_API_KEY

Self-hosting

git clone https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp.git
cd serpapi-mcp
uv sync && uv run src/server.py

Configure Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpapi": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Get your API key: serpapi.com/manage-api-key

Claude Desktop Extension (MCP bundle)

For a local, one-click install, download the .mcpb bundle from the latest release and open it with Claude Desktop (or drop it onto Settings → Extensions). Claude Desktop asks for your SerpApi API key during install, stores it as a sensitive setting, and runs the server locally over stdio. It provisions Python and dependencies with uv at install time. The same bundle works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

The same stdio entry point works with any local MCP host that launches servers as a subprocess:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpapi": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/serpapi-mcp", "--frozen", "--no-dev", "src/stdio.py"],
      "env": { "SERPAPI_API_KEY": "YOUR_SERPAPI_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Authentication

Two methods are supported:

• Header-based: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY (recommended: the key stays out of URLs and logs)
• Path-based: /YOUR_API_KEY/mcp, for clients that cannot set headers

Examples:

# Header-based
curl "https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp" -H "Authorization: Bearer your_key" -d '...'

# Path-based
curl "https://mcp.serpapi.com/your_key/mcp" -d '...'

No key is needed to connect, list tools or read resources. search and the App tools need one and return an error without it.

Search tool

The MCP server has one main search tool that supports all SerpApi engines and result types. You can find all available parameters on the SerpApi API reference. Engine parameter schemas are also exposed as MCP resources: serpapi://engines (index) and serpapi://engines/<engine>. Clients that support argument completion can request engine-name suggestions for serpapi://engines/{engine_name}. For example, the prefix google_f suggests matching engine identifiers. This completes the resource URI parameter, not arbitrary search queries.

The parameters you can provide are specific for each API engine. Some sample parameters are provided below:

• params.q (required): Search query
• params.engine: Search engine (default: "google_light")
• params.location: Geographic filter
• params.output: Response format; omit for JSON (default), or set to "md" for Markdown
• mode: Response mode; "compact" removes metadata from JSON, while Markdown is returned unchanged
• ...see other parameters on the SerpApi API reference

Examples:

{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "coffee shops", "location": "Austin, TX"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "weather in London"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "AAPL stock"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "news"}, "mode": "compact"}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "detailed search"}, "mode": "complete"}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"q": "news", "output": "md"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"engine": "amazon", "k": "mechanical keyboards", "amazon_domain": "amazon.com", "output": "md"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"engine": "google_scholar", "q": "retrieval augmented generation"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"engine": "youtube", "search_query": "how to make espresso"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"engine": "apple_app_store", "term": "habit tracker"}}}
{"name": "search", "arguments": {"params": {"engine": "ebay", "_nkw": "vintage mechanical keyboard"}}}

Supported engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube, eBay, and more (see serpapi://engines).

Result types: Answer boxes, organic results, news, images, shopping - automatically detected and formatted.

Search responses preserve the existing MCP structuredContent.result string and include the same string in text content. For JSON output, result contains serialized JSON; existing clients can continue parsing it with JSON.parse(response.structuredContent.result). For Markdown output, it contains the unchanged Markdown. Errors and cancellations use the same wrapper. Search execution failures set isError: true; clients using FastMCP's high-level call_tool() should handle ToolError, or use call_tool_mcp() to inspect the result flag. See MCP tool results.

search uses the engine catalog and engine-specific rules to identify missing parameters. Supporting MCP 2026-07-28 clients receive a form before any search runs. Accepted answers are validated; decline or cancellation runs no search. Legacy clients and clients without form elicitation receive an error listing the missing parameters so the agent can ask in conversation. See MCP input requests.

• Google Flights: departure and arrival identifiers, departure date, and a return date for round trips. Dates and airport identifiers are checked. Token-based searches, multi-city itineraries, and selected_flights_json retain their existing behavior.
• Google Hotels: destination or hotel query, check-in date, and check-out date. Check-out must follow check-in. Guest counts and other optional filters keep the caller's values or the API defaults.
• Google Maps Directions: missing start and destination addresses. Coordinates or place data IDs already supplied satisfy the corresponding endpoint.
• Other catalog engines use their required fields, such as YouTube's search_query, Yelp's find_loc, and Amazon's k. Engine rules account for known defaults and alternatives, including Amazon category nodes, eBay categories, and Google Scholar citation searches.

If an answer introduces another requirement, the tool lists the remaining fields for the agent to supply in a new call. Forms support strings, numbers, booleans, and single-choice fields; unsupported complex fields receive the missing-parameter error. Unknown engines pass through to SerpApi.

Extract tool

The extract tool reads web pages and returns their content as structured JSON or Markdown. You can extract a single page, discover a website's URLs, or crawl multiple pages. Find all available parameters on the Extract API reference or in the serpapi://engines/extract resource.

Some parameters you can provide:

• params.url (required): Page or website URL
• params.mode: Extraction mode; "scrape" (default) reads one page, "map" discovers URLs, and "crawl" extracts multiple pages
• params.include_markdown: Include the page's content as Markdown; defaults to true for scrape and crawl, or set to false to disable it
• params.output: Response format; defaults to "json" in complete mode and "md" in compact mode. Set it explicitly to override the format.
• params.max_pages: Maximum pages to crawl, including the starting page (default: 10, maximum: 100)
• params.json_restrictor: Choose which fields to return, such as "markdown,error"
• mode: Response mode; "complete" (default) returns the full response. "compact" defaults to native Markdown. With an explicit params.output="json", single-page compact extraction keeps the top-level markdown field when present and retains API errors. Responses without Markdown, including results redirected to another engine, keep their data with metadata removed. Explicit params.json_restrictor values and params.include_markdown=false take precedence when using JSON. For map and crawl, compact JSON removes metadata. Markdown output is returned unchanged.

Examples:

{"name": "extract", "arguments": {"params": {"url": "https://example.com"}}}
{"name": "extract", "arguments": {"params": {"url": "https://example.com"}, "mode": "compact"}}
{"name": "extract", "arguments": {"params": {"url": "https://example.com", "output": "md"}}}
{"name": "extract", "arguments": {"params": {"url": "https://example.com", "mode": "map"}}}
{"name": "extract", "arguments": {"params": {"url": "https://example.com", "mode": "crawl", "max_pages": 2}}}

For a single page's content as native Markdown, use mode="compact". Add params.output="json" to receive JSON containing the markdown field instead. Complete JSON includes that field by default; crawl JSON includes it in each pages entry. Setting params.output="json" and params.include_markdown=false keeps the remaining structured fields without Markdown.

Crawling consumes one search credit per successfully extracted page on an uncached request. Use params.max_pages to limit how many pages are extracted.

Interactive UI (MCP apps)

The search tool returns JSON by default. For hosts that support the MCP Apps extension (SEP-1865), two opt-in tools render results as an interactive UI directly in the conversation, so the bulk SERP JSON never enters the model's context window:

• search_table: organic results as a sortable, searchable table.
• search_dashboard: summary metrics, a source-breakdown chart, and a results table with a click-to-expand detail panel.

Both accept the same params as search. Hosts that don't support MCP Apps simply ignore these tools.

Troubleshooting

• "Missing API key": Include key in URL path /{YOUR_KEY}/mcp or header Bearer YOUR_KEY
• "Invalid key": Verify at serpapi.com/dashboard
• "Rate limit exceeded": Wait or upgrade your SerpApi plan
• "No results": Try different query or engine

Privacy policy

• Sent: only the parameters the MCP host passes to a tool call. The server never sees the rest of the conversation, or files, memory or history on the host.
• Forwarded: each search goes to serpapi.com with your API key; results come back unchanged. See the SerpApi Privacy Policy for how SerpApi handles searches and accounts.
• Kept: mcp.serpapi.com records request metrics (method, status code, duration) and stores no queries or results. A key in the URL path can appear in request logs, so prefer the header.
• Local bundle: the Claude Desktop extension runs on your machine, keeps the key in Claude Desktop's settings and calls serpapi.com directly. Nothing passes through mcp.serpapi.com.
• Contact: privacy@serpapi.com, or open an issue.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, schema refresh commands, testing, Docker and MCP Bundle builds, and releases.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.