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Serper vs Valyu

Valyu scores higher on the AgentReady, 62/100 against 56/100. They differ on 16 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

Serper. Serper is a Google Search API service that provides lightning-fast Google search results in 1-2 seconds at an unbeatable price.

Valyu. Search and deep research API for AIs doing knowledge work.

Where Serper is ahead

Serper passes authentication documented, and Valyu does not. That is understand, whether an agent can read the docs and work out how the API behaves before calling it.

It also holds adopt: agent-compatible signup flow. Valyu misses it.

And on operate, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution and agent compatibility verified. Valyu misses those.

Where Valyu is ahead

Valyu passes clear canonical domain, public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs and machine-readable metadata, and Serper does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds understand: limits / constraints documented. Serper misses it.

And on adopt, no mandatory sales call, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official python sdk and cli available. Serper misses those.

What neither does

Both fail structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, programmatic credential creation, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Discover. Valyu leads 100 to 60. Serper misses clear canonical domain, public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs, machine-readable metadata; Valyu misses nothing.

Understand. Both sit at 31/100 here. Serper misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Valyu misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented.

Adopt. Valyu leads 80 to 55. Serper misses no mandatory sales call, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official python sdk, cli available; Valyu misses agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation.

Operate is whether an agent can run against it in production and recover when a call fails. Serper leads 76 to 35. Serper misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support; Valyu misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

Serper does not publish a machine-readable starting price and has a free tier. Valyu starts at $29/mo and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Valyu clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: Serper and Valyu. Alternatives to each: Serper, Valyu.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["serper", "valyu"]}