Web Search

Web Search returns current, structured results across web pages, news, images, videos, maps, places, reviews, shopping, academic papers, patents, suggestions, and reverse-image matches. General search offers explicit routes for Google-style results, an independent web index, semantic discovery, and research-oriented retrieval; specialist searches use the configured Google search route.

Use it when facts may have changed since training, when an answer needs source URLs, or when one index needs a deliberate fallback. Every new general-search route identifies the selected provider and normalizes links, snippets, dates, observation time, request provenance, and known coverage limits.

What you can do

Search the live web with country, language, time, location, domain, and pagination controls where supported
Find current news, images, videos, places, reviews, products, papers, patents, and suggestions
Choose an independent index or semantic route instead of silently changing providers
Find likely sources and similar pages for an existing image

How to use it

Start with search and the default route for broad Google-style coverage
Select a provider explicitly when you need independent-index, semantic, or fallback coverage
Use a specialist skill for news, local, media, shopping, scholar, patent, or reverse-image work
Open returned sources and treat coverage as provider-index coverage rather than an exhaustive web crawl

Reverse Image Searchpaid

Find visually similar pages and likely image sources from a hosted image URL, returning normalized matches with request and observation provenance.

Returns: Visually similar source pages with provider, request ID, timestamp, and coverage

Web Searchpaid

Search with Google through Serper or Brave's independent web index. Serper can also return a knowledge graph, answer box, People Also Ask, and related searches.

Returns: Organic results, knowledge graph, answer box, People Also Ask, and related searches

Image Searchpaid

Search Google Images and return an array of image results with titles, source URLs, and thumbnail links.

Returns: Array of image results with title, imageUrl, imageWidth, imageHeight, source, and link

News Searchpaid

Search Google News and return an array of news articles with titles, snippets, publication dates, and source information.

Returns: Array of news articles with title, link, snippet, date, and source

Video Searchpaid

Search Google Videos and return an array of video results with titles, channels, durations, and thumbnail links.

Returns: Array of video results with title, link, snippet, channel, date, and duration

Maps Searchpaid

Search Google Maps and return an array of place results with names, addresses, ratings, coordinates, and business details.

Returns: Array of places with title, address, latitude, longitude, rating, and category

Places Searchpaid

Search Google Places and return places with names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings, review counts, and hours. Pass lat + lng + radius_km (or radius_mi) for precise circular geo filtering when a location string is too fuzzy.

Returns: Array of places with title, address, phone, rating, reviewsCount, and hours; when radius filtering is used each kept place is annotated with distance_km and distance_mi from the center

Reviews Searchpaid

Retrieve Google reviews for a specific place. Requires a Google Place ID (CID, FID, or place_id) — call places_search or maps_search first to find the place ID, then pass it here. Supports sorting by relevance, newest, highest, or lowest rating.

Returns: Reviews array with author, rating, date, and snippet, plus place summary

Shopping Searchpaid

Search Google Shopping and return an array of product results with titles, prices, ratings, merchants, and product links.

Returns: Array of shopping results with title, price, source, link, rating, and delivery info

Scholar Searchpaid

Search Google Scholar and return academic papers with titles, authors, citation counts, publication year, and links.

Returns: Array of academic results with title, link, snippet, citedBy count, year, and authors

Patent Searchpaid

Search Google Patents and return patent results with titles, patent numbers, inventors, filing dates, and abstracts.

Returns: Array of patent results with title, patentNumber, snippet, priorityDate, and inventor

Autocompletepaid

Get Google autocomplete suggestions for a query prefix. Useful for keyword research, content ideation, and understanding search intent.

Returns: Array of autocomplete suggestion strings

Information

Price: From $0.005
Billing: The final price is shown before running. Failed paid calls do not charge.
Providers: Serper, TinyFish, Exa
Serper API Key: Optional: use your own Serper key instead of the platform default · Get key
TinyFish API Key: Optional: use your own TinyFish key instead of the platform default · Get key
Brave Search API Key: Optional: search Brave's independent web index from the search skill · Get key
Exa API Key: Optional: use your own Exa key instead of the platform default · Get key
SerpApi API Key: Optional Google search coverage provider key · Get key
Tavily API Key: Optional search and research fallback provider key · Get key
Country Code: Your ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g. US, GB, DE) — used as default for country-specific queries

Guides using Web Search

Claude Skills vs MCP: When to Use WhichSkills teach Claude how. MCP gives it access. You need both. Google already suggests this search. ToolRouter is the access layer.
Too Many MCP Tools Make the Assistant WorseAnthropic measured 58 tools at ~55K tokens before you type. Accuracy drops past 30–50 tools. Prune, or load on demand. Do not install everything.
SerpApi alternatives for occasional agent searchesSerpApi Developer is $75 a month for 5,000 searches. Occasional agent lookups can use Web Search and pay only when the call succeeds.
What Is ToolRouter? The Complete Guide to AI Tool SuperpowersToolRouter gives AI assistants one managed catalog for specialist tools, execution, provider access, and usage-based billing through MCP, CLI, or REST.