Web Search Billing

Web search is billed separately from normal model input and output.

How that cost appears depends on whether you use MaxLabs through the API or through a subscription plan.

API Users

For API users, each web search typically costs between:

$0.003 and $0.01 per search

The exact cost depends on factors involved in retrieving the result, such as:

• Search geography
• Proxy requirements
• Search provider costs
• Routing and retrieval conditions

Web search charges are added to your normal model usage.

For example, if a request performs four searches, you are billed for:

• Model input and output usage
• Any applicable cache usage
• The four web searches

Because search pricing can vary, the final retrieval cost may differ slightly between requests.

Subscription Users

For subscription users, web search is accounted for through the normal usage quota.

There is no separate per-search charge presented in the same way as PAYG API billing.

However, searches still consume resources.

If a request performs several searches, you may therefore notice higher quota usage than you would for a similar request that does not access the web.

In practical terms, web search affects subscription usage in much the same way that additional token consumption does: more retrieval generally means more quota consumed.

Multiple Searches Can Increase Usage

A single search usually has a relatively small impact.

Research-heavy requests can be different.

For example:

Compare the latest pricing, limits, and features of five cloud providers.

The model may need to perform several searches before it has enough current information to answer reliably.

That request will generally consume more usage than a stable knowledge question that does not require external retrieval.

Controlling Search Usage

API users can control the maximum number of searches allowed for a request with web_search_uses.

{
  "model": "worker",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Compare the latest managed PostgreSQL offerings."
    }
  ],
  "web_search": "auto",
  "web_search_uses": 4
}

Keeping the search budget reasonably small helps control both cost and unnecessary retrieval.

For most general-purpose workloads, web_search: "auto" is preferable to forcing a search on every request.

For more information, see Web Search and URL Fetching.

A Practical Rule

For API users, web searches are charged individually at approximately $0.003–$0.01 per search, in addition to model usage.

For subscription users, searches contribute to overall quota consumption.

More searches mean more usage, so retrieval-heavy research tasks will generally consume more than normal repository or coding work.