# Grounder

> Grounder is a web search API and MCP server for AI agents: low friction, the right search for each question and a freer context window. One MCP address and one sign-in, or one API key, reach 22 web search providers (Tavily, Exa, Brave, Perplexity, You.com, Firecrawl, Octen, Parallel, Valyu, Wikimedia, Linkup, Dappier, Gemini, Tako, Wolfram, Mojeek, Perigon, xAI, Mistral, Context7, NewsAPI.ai, and TinyFish) with every feature each one offers, and for a question about right now Grounder also asks the specialized API that holds the answer. No one provider is best at every kind of question (see "Which search provider is best?" in the Providers page), so Grounder gives one connection to all of them. The results come back as one ranked, deduplicated list, each marked with the provider that found it and whether it is licensed; on 32 SealQA questions one Grounder search returned about 5,900 tokens of results against 7,100 to 8,100 for three providers called one by one.

Connect over MCP at https://api.grounder.net/mcp: your client opens Grounder's sign-in screen and there is no key to copy. The HTTP API is at https://api.grounder.net and does the same with a search key from your account (https://grounder.net/account/keys) as `Authorization: Bearer`, or an OAuth access token with the `search` scope. Every docs page below is also Markdown at its own address plus `.md`.

## Docs

- [Quickstart](https://grounder.net/docs.md): Connect your agent to Grounder in three steps.
- [Providers](https://grounder.net/docs/providers.md): The live search providers, the filters each one supports, which one is best for each kind of question, and the context a search uses.
- [Specialized APIs](https://grounder.net/docs/specialized.md): The live sources Grounder asks beside the web search, and what each one answers.
- [FAQ](https://grounder.net/docs/faq.md): What a search costs, whose keys it runs on, what routing adds and what is kept.
- [Routing](https://grounder.net/docs/routing.md): How Grounder picks a provider for each search, and the settings that let you decide.
- [Drop-in endpoints](https://grounder.net/docs/drop-in.md): Keep your Tavily or Brave code and change only the base URL.
- [MCP](https://grounder.net/docs/mcp.md): Connect an agent to Grounder over MCP and sign in.
- [Data use](https://grounder.net/docs/data-use.md): What Grounder stores when you search, who else sees it, how long it is kept, and how routing uses it.

## API reference

- [API reference](https://grounder.net/docs/api.md): The base URL, how a request is authenticated, and every endpoint.
- [Search](https://grounder.net/docs/api/search.md): POST /v1/search: the request, the fields it takes and the response.
- [Errors and limits](https://grounder.net/docs/api/errors.md): The status codes and error codes the API returns, and the limits a request can reach.
- [Code examples](https://grounder.net/docs/api/examples.md): A search from Python and from TypeScript.

## Machine-readable

- [OpenAPI](https://grounder.net/openapi.json): OpenAPI 3.1 for the HTTP API: search, the cited-sources report, the provider and feature lists and your account.
- [Full docs](https://grounder.net/llms-full.txt): every docs page above, as Markdown, in one file.

## Optional

- [Pricing](https://grounder.net/pricing): 50 free searches a day, with no card needed, then $19 per 1,000 from credit you add: what counts, the rate limit, and what every account gets.
- [Providers](https://grounder.net/providers): The 22 search providers and 20 specialized APIs behind Grounder, with the features each delivers and its modes and filters.
- [Apps](https://grounder.net/apps): 23 apps connect to Grounder by MCP. Pick yours for the command or config that adds Grounder, or call the HTTP API from code with a search key.
- [Guides](https://grounder.net/guides): Guides to Grounder: connecting an MCP client, what licensed sources are, how robots.txt is checked, and moving from Tavily or Brave.
- [Privacy policy](https://grounder.net/privacy): What Grounder collects, why, who else receives it, how long it is kept, and your choices.
- [Terms of service](https://grounder.net/terms): The terms for using grounder.net, the API and the MCP server.