SerpApi

Use SerpApi via direct

curl

calls to scrape search engine results from Google, Bing, YouTube, and more.

Official docs:
https://serpapi.com/search-api

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

Scrape Google search results (organic, ads, knowledge graph)
Search Google Images, News, Videos, Shopping
Get local business results from Google Maps
Scrape other search engines (Bing, YouTube, DuckDuckGo, etc.)
Monitor SERP rankings for SEO analysis

Prerequisites

Sign up at SerpApi
Go to Dashboard and copy your API key
Store it in the environment variable
```
SERPAPI_API_KEY
```

bash

export SERPAPI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Pricing

Free tier: 100 searches/month
API key is passed as a query parameter
```
api_key
```

Important: When using
$VAR
in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing
$VAR
in
bash -c '...'
. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.
bash
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

All examples below assume you have

SERPAPI_API_KEY

set.

Base URL:

https://serpapi.com/search

1. Basic Google Search

Search Google and get structured JSON results:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google&q=artificial+intelligence&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.organic_results[:3] | .[] | {title, link, snippet}

2. Search with Location

Search from a specific location:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google&q=best+coffee+shops&location=San+Francisco,+California&gl=us&hl=en&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.organic_results[:3]'

Parameters:

```
location
```
: City, state, or address
```
gl
```
: Country code (us, uk, de, etc.)
```
hl
```
: Language code (en, de, fr, etc.)

3. Google Image Search

Search for images:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google_images&q=sunset+beach&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.images_results[:3] | .[] | {title, original, thumbnail}

4. Google News Search

Search news articles:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google_news&q=technology&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.news_results[:3] | .[] | {title, link, source, date}

5. Google Shopping Search

Search products:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google_shopping&q=wireless+headphones&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.shopping_results[:3] | .[] | {title, price, source}

6. YouTube Search

Search YouTube videos:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=youtube&search_query=python+tutorial&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.video_results[:3] | .[] | {title, link, channel, views}

7. Google Maps / Local Results

Search local businesses:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google_maps&q=restaurants&ll=@40.7128,-74.0060,15z&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.local_results[:3] | .[] | {title, rating, address}

Parameters:

```
ll
```
: Latitude, longitude, and zoom level (e.g.,
```
@40.7128,-74.0060,15z
```
)

8. Pagination

Get more results using the

start

parameter:

bash

# First page (results 1-10)
bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google&q=machine+learning&start=0&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.organic_results | length'

# Second page (results 11-20)
bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google&q=machine+learning&start=10&api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '.organic_results | length'

9. Check Account Info

Check your API usage and credits:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://serpapi.com/account?api_key=${SERPAPI_API_KEY}"' | jq '{plan_name, searches_per_month, this_month_usage}

Supported Engines

Engine	Parameter	Description
Google Search	`engine=google`	Web search results
Google Images	`engine=google_images`	Image search
Google News	`engine=google_news`	News articles
Google Shopping	`engine=google_shopping`	Product search
Google Maps	`engine=google_maps`	Local businesses
YouTube	`engine=youtube`	Video search
Bing	`engine=bing`	Bing web search
DuckDuckGo	`engine=duckduckgo`	Privacy-focused search

Common Parameters

Parameter	Description
`q`	Search query (required)
`engine`	Search engine to use
`location`	Geographic location for search
`gl`	Country code (e.g., us, uk)
`hl`	Language code (e.g., en, de)
`start`	Pagination offset (0, 10, 20...)
`num`	Number of results (max 100)
`safe`	Safe search ( `active` or `off` )
`device`	Device type ( `desktop` , `mobile` , `tablet` )

Guidelines

Use specific engines: Use
```
google_images
```
,
```
google_news
```
etc. instead of
```
tbm
```
parameter for cleaner results
Add location for local searches: Use
```
location
```
and
```
gl
```
for geo-targeted results
Cache results: SerpApi caches results by default; use
```
no_cache=true
```
for fresh data
Monitor usage: Check
```
/account
```
endpoint to track API credits
Use jq filters: Filter large JSON responses to extract only needed data

serpapi

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

SerpApi

When to Use

Prerequisites

Pricing

How to Use

1. Basic Google Search

2. Search with Location

3. Google Image Search

4. Google News Search

5. Google Shopping Search

6. YouTube Search

7. Google Maps / Local Results

8. Pagination

9. Check Account Info

Supported Engines

Common Parameters

Guidelines