Best web search for OpenClaw: providers compared

TL;DR

• The gap: OpenClaw's native providers (Brave as the default, plus Tavily, Firecrawl, Gemini, and others) return links or snippets. None publish a verified, reproducible factual-accuracy benchmark, so your agent is left to guess which result is actually correct.
• Linkup closes it: returns a sourced answer, not a list to sort through — 92% F-score on Verified SimpleQA, reproducible via an open-source eval harness.
• Setup: call Linkup directly via its REST API, SDK, MCP. Five lines of Python, shown below. check out the full documentation here
• Under the hood: sub-second standard search, sourcedAnswer or searchResults output, SOC 2 Type II, Zero Data Retention.
• Pricing: $5 per 1,000 standard searches, with a free tier, making it the cheapest options among the native web retriever available.
• Deeper research: the /research endpoint scores 61% on SealQA-0 for multi-step questions.

Why search accuracy is the real bottleneck for OpenClaw agents

The difference between a useful OpenClaw agent and a frustrating one usually isn't the prompt or the model — it's what the search layer hands back. Native providers optimize for recall and breadth: send a query, get a ranked list of links, and let the agent read, deduplicate, and decide what's true. For a general assistant summarizing news, that's fine. For an agent answering questions where a wrong answer has a cost — compliance, finance, support — the search layer's factual accuracy is the actual bottleneck, not the model behind it.

None of OpenClaw's native providers publish a verified accuracy benchmark on a public, reproducible test set. Linkup does.

Linkup: a sourced answer, not a link dump

Linkup is built specifically for AI grounding, not general-purpose search repurposed for RAG. The difference shows up in what it returns: instead of titles and small snippets your agent has to interpret, a Linkup call with output_type="sourcedAnswer" returns a direct answer plus the source URLs it was drawn from. the agent gets the fact and the citation in one round trip.

Honest take: most search APIs treat "accuracy" as a marketing adjective. Linkup is one of the few that backs it with a benchmark anyone can rerun: 92% F-score on Verified SimpleQA, via an open-source eval harness. SimpleQA is the right test here because it scores whether the system returns the correct factual answer, not whether the results merely look plausible — exactly the failure mode that matters for an agent making a decision on top of the answer.

Under the hood:

• Depth: standard for sub-second factual lookups, deep for multi-step research questions.
• Output: sourcedAnswer for a synthesized answer with citations, or searchResults for raw result entries if your agent needs to do its own ranking.
• Compliance: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR compliant, Zero Data Retention, and more advanced security available on demand.
• Deeper research: the /research endpoint scores 61% on SealQA-0, the top published result for multi-step questions.

Full reference at docs.linkup.so.

What are OpenClaw's 11 native search providers?

OpenClaw does not bundle one search engine. Its web_search tool supports 11 providers, and your choice determines whether the agent gets snippets or full content, reaches JavaScript-heavy pages, and what you pay per query.

The native providers split into three groups:

• Snippet/link providers: Brave, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG, Exa, Perplexity. These return titles, URLs, and short snippets.
• Content extractors: Firecrawl pulls full page content, including JavaScript-rendered sites.
• LLM-backed search: Gemini, Grok, Kimi, MiniMax, Perplexity wrap a model around search.
  

Brave is the documented default. Tavily is the common upgrade. Firecrawl handles sites the others cannot render.

Why no native OpenClaw provider matches Linkup's accuracy

None of OpenClaw's 11 native providers publish a verified accuracy benchmark on a public, reproducible test set. Linkup does: 92% F-score on Verified SimpleQA, the #1 result among sub-second web search APIs.

This matters because OpenClaw's default providers optimise for recall and breadth, not factual precision. Brave and DuckDuckGo return a ranked list of links. Your agent then has to read, deduplicate, and decide what is true. For a general assistant that is fine. For an agent answering questions where a wrong answer has a cost (compliance, finance, support), the search layer's factual accuracy is the bottleneck.

SimpleQA is the right benchmark here because it measures whether a search-backed system returns the correct factual answer, not whether it returns plausible-looking results. Linkup's eval harness is open source at github.com/LinkupPlatform/eval-simpleQA, so the 92% figure is reproducible. For deeper, multi-step questions, Linkup's /research endpoint scores 61% on SealQA-0, the top result across the board.

The trade-off is integration: Linkup is not a native OpenClaw provider yet. You call it directly.

How to call Linkup from OpenClaw via its API

Linkup exposes a REST API you can wrap in an OpenClaw custom skill or call alongside the built-in web_search tool. The example below runs a sourced search and returns the answer plus citations.

Install the SDK and set your key:

pip install linkup-sdk
export LINKUP_API_KEY="your_key_here"

Wrap the call in a function your OpenClaw agent can invoke as a custom skill:

import os
from linkup import LinkupClient

client = LinkupClient(api_key=os.environ["LINKUP_API_KEY"])

def linkup_search(query: str) -> dict:
"""Custom OpenClaw skill: sourced web search via Linkup."""
response = client.search(
query=query,
depth="standard", # 'standard' for sub-second, 'deep' for research
output_type="sourcedAnswer" # returns answer + source URLs
)
return {
"answer": response.answer,
"sources": [s.url for s in response.sources],
}

if __name__ == "__main__":
result = linkup_search("OpenClaw release notes February 2026")
print(result["answer"])
print(result["sources"])


For agents that already use the OpenAI SDK, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or CrewAI, Linkup ships native integrations, so you register it as a tool instead of writing the wrapper by hand. Standard searches are sub-second, so the latency cost over a native provider is negligible.

If you are running OpenClaw in production at an enterprise, the security profile matters as much as accuracy.

Start with Brave if you want zero friction, or wire in the Linkup API when accuracy and compliance are non-negotiable.

The integration code above is the full setup. See the Linkup API docs or create a free account to test the SimpleQA accuracy against your own queries.

FAQ

What is the best web search provider for OpenClaw?

For maximum factual accuracy, Linkup scores 92% F-score on Verified SimpleQA but must be called via its REST API, as it is not a native OpenClaw provider yet.

Is Linkup a native OpenClaw search provider?

OpenClaw natively supports 11 providers (Brave, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, and others). Linkup is callable directly through its REST API or via a custom OpenClaw skill.

Should I use Brave, Exa, or Tavily with OpenClaw?

Use Brave for general-purpose search and the easiest setup, Tavily for research workflows that need structured JSON output, and Exa for semantic search. For higher factual accuracy than any of these, call Linkup's API.

How much does OpenClaw web search cost?

It depends on the provider. DuckDuckGo and self-hosted SearXNG are free, Brave starts free at 2K/mo, Tavily from $27/mo, Firecrawl $83/mo for 100K pages, and Linkup is €5 per 1,000 searches with a free tier.

Which OpenClaw search provider is best for JavaScript-heavy sites?

Firecrawl. It renders full page content including JavaScript, where snippet providers like Brave and DuckDuckGo return only titles and short text.

Is Linkup secure enough for enterprise OpenClaw deployments?

Yes. Linkup is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, runs Zero Data Retention by default, and offers Bring Your Own Cloud so search queries never leave your VPC. No native OpenClaw provider offers BYOC.