# Custom Search JSON API

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** The Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers. [Vertex AI Search](https://cloud.google.com/use-cases/site-search) is a favorable alternative for searching up to 50 domains. Alternatively, if your use case necessitates full web search, [contact us](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYcIpOzj57MoetWyeFpJf9Cf4yezG5HDq3VsqbJhlngp5pXw/viewform) to express your interest in and get more information about our full web search solution.
>
> Existing Custom Search JSON API customers have until **January 1, 2027** to transition to an alternative solution.

The Custom Search JSON API lets you develop websites and applications to retrieve and
display search results from Programmable Search Engine programmatically. With
this API, you can use RESTful requests to get either **web search** or
**image search** results in JSON format.

## Data format

Custom Search JSON API can return results in [JSON](https://developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/glossary#json)
data format.

## Related documents

The Custom Search JSON API uses the [OpenSearch 1.1
Specification](https://github.com/dewitt/opensearch/blob/master/opensearch-1-1-draft-6.md).

## Prerequisites

### Search engine ID

Before using the Custom Search JSON API you will first need to create and configure your
Programmable Search Engine. If you have not already created a Programmable Search Engine, you can start by
visiting the [Programmable Search Engine control panel](https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/controlpanel/all).

Follow the [tutorial](https://developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/tutorial/creatingcse) to learn more
about different configuration options.

After you have created a Programmable Search Engine, visit the [help
center](https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/2649143) to learn
how to locate your Search engine ID.

### API key

Custom Search JSON API requires the use of an API key.

## Pricing

The following pricing applies only to existing Custom Search JSON API customers
until the service discontinuation on January 1, 2027. This API is not available
for new customers.
Custom Search JSON API provides 100 search queries per day for free. If you need more,
you may sign up for [billing](https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/manage-billing-account) in the
API Console. Additional requests cost $5 per 1000 queries, up to
10k queries per day.

## Monitoring

Basic monitoring for the Custom Search JSON API is available through [Cloud Platform
Console's API Dashboard](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard). For
more advanced monitoring [Google Cloud's Operations
suite](https://cloud.google.com/products/operations) (formerly Stackdriver) is
available.

With Google Cloud Operations you can create [custom
dashboards](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/charts), [set up
alerts](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts), and [access metrics data
programmatically](https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/api/v3). To access
Custom Search JSON API usage data in Google Cloud Operations, select "Resource type:
Consumed API" and filter on "service = 'customsearch.googleapis.com'" in the
Query Builder.

See [Monitoring Your API Usage](https://cloud.google.com/apis/docs/monitoring)
for a discussion of the different monitoring and alerting capabilities provided
by the API Dashboard and the Google Cloud Operations suite.