How much does Autom cost?
Autom is pay as you go. One API request costs one credit, only successful (HTTP 200) responses are charged, and the price is the same for Google, Bing, Brave and Perplexity. Autom's published comparison puts the starter pack at $50 for 50,000 credits, about $1 per 1,000, with credits valid for up to a year and larger packs falling to around $0.30 per 1,000. A free trial gives you credits without a credit card.
Which search engines does Autom support?
Autom lists Google, Bing, Brave and Perplexity behind one API. On Google it covers organic results, knowledge graph, Local Pack and Maps data, and it markets news monitoring as a use case. Perplexity support is the less common part: most SERP APIs stop at Google and Bing. Autom also invites requests for new engines, but if you need Baidu, Yandex or Naver today, check its API reference first.
Is Autom a good fit for AI agents?
On price, yes. At around $1 per 1,000 searches or less, an agent can run several searches per task without a large bill, and failed calls are free. The JSON includes knowledge graph and direct-answer fields that are easy to pass to a model. Autom does not advertise an MCP server, so you would write a small tool wrapper. Measure latency yourself, since the speed claims on its site are its own.
Is Autom open source or self-hostable?
No. Autom is a hosted, closed-source REST API. You authenticate with an API key, send requests to its endpoints and get JSON back. The dashboard handles keys, credit balance, request logs and team invites. It advertises SDKs for Python, Node.js and PHP, but the scraping runs on Autom's infrastructure and there is no version you can deploy yourself.
What is the best Autom alternative?
Serper.dev is the closest: Google results on credit packs at about the same price per 1,000, with a bigger user base. SerpApi is the pick if you need many engines and verticals and can pay more per search. SearchAPI.io sits between the two. None of these three return Perplexity results the way Autom does, so if answer-engine data matters, test Autom alongside whichever one you choose.