Serply MCP Server

Serply hosts a remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at https://api.serply.io/mcp. Point Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any other MCP client at it with your API key and the agent gets fourteen tools for searching the live web - Google, Bing, News, Scholar, Video, Jobs, Maps, product listings, and Reddit - plus a scraper that returns any public page as markdown. There is nothing to install, deploy, or keep running: the server is hosted, and a tool call bills against the same credits as the REST API.

Server address and authentication
Endpoint https://api.serply.io/mcp
Transport Streamable HTTP
Auth X-Api-Key header

Get an API key at app.serply.io/users/sign_up - new accounts include 2,500 free credits, no card required. The same key works for the REST API and the MCP server interchangeably. See the Authentication guide for key handling best practices.

Connect Claude Code

One command:

claude mcp add --transport http serply https://api.serply.io/mcp \
  --header "X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

That is the whole install. Then just ask - "what shipped in the httpx changelog this month?" - and Claude picks the right tool.

Connect Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop's config file does not pass custom headers to remote servers, so bridge through mcp-remote, which runs the HTTP connection behind a local stdio server. Add this to claude_desktop_config.json (on macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serply": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "https://api.serply.io/mcp",
        "--header", "X-Api-Key:YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and the fourteen tools appear in the tools menu.

Connect Cursor

Cursor speaks streamable HTTP directly. Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serply": {
      "url": "https://api.serply.io/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Connect any other MCP client

Windsurf, Cline, Zed, and anything else that speaks stdio can use the same mcp-remote bridge shown for Claude Desktop above - the JSON block is identical, only the config file location changes. Clients with native remote-MCP support connect to https://api.serply.io/mcp directly with the X-Api-Key header.

The fourteen tools

Every tool name and parameter below is read off the live server via tools/list.

Tool Parameters What it returns
google_search query, num, start, proxy_location, device Organic Google results - the default reach for anything factual or recent
bing_search query, proxy_location, device Bing organic results, plus text ads and shopping ads Google does not return
google_news_search query, ceid, proxy_location, device News coverage with publisher and date; ceid picks the country edition
google_video_search query, num, proxy_location, device Video results - tutorials, demos, news clips
google_scholar_search query, num, proxy_location, device Peer-reviewed papers with authors and citation counts
google_jobs_search query, proxy_location, device Postings from Google's jobs index, which aggregates LinkedIn and Indeed
google_maps_search query, num, hl, gl Local businesses with address, coordinates, rating, phone, and hours
amazon_product_search query, proxy_location, device Product listings with prices and availability
scrape_url url, response_type Any public page as markdown or raw HTML
reddit_subreddit_posts subreddit, limit, sort, t, after A subreddit's post listing
reddit_subreddit_about subreddit Subscriber count, description, and rules
reddit_user_posts username, limit, sort, t, after One account's post history
reddit_post post_id, with_comments, sort, max_depth A single post with its body; add with_comments for the thread underneath
reddit_post_comments post_id, sort, max_depth The comment tree with scores, nested to the depth you ask for

What the tools return

Every tool except google_maps_search returns rendered markdown rather than JSON - readable by the model as-is, with no parsing step spending context on brackets. Maps is the exception twice over: it returns a structured object with a places[] array, and it takes hl/gl locale parameters instead of proxy_location/device.

The Reddit tools take names and ids in whatever form you already have: r/python or python, u/spez or spez, t3_1vfemi1 or 1vfemi1. A post id that does not exist comes back as a plain "No post found" answer, not a tool error, so an agent should not retry it.

Credits, caching, and errors

A tool call is one API request: 1 credit per successful, uncached request, billed to the same balance as the REST API. Most endpoints cache for several minutes, and cached responses cost nothing - so an agent retrying the same query during a session is free.

429 means the rate limit was hit; back off and retry. 502 means the upstream fetch or parse failed - it is transient, so retry once before giving up. The full error-response reference is in the Errors guide.

FAQ

Do I need to run or deploy anything?

No. The server is hosted at https://api.serply.io/mcp. Registering it is one config entry; there is no process to keep alive and nothing to update.

Which MCP clients work with it?

Any client that implements MCP. Clients with remote-server support (Claude Code, Cursor) connect directly over streamable HTTP; stdio-only clients (Claude Desktop, Windsurf, Cline) connect through the mcp-remote bridge shown above.

What does a tool call cost?

The same as the equivalent REST call: 1 credit per successful, uncached request. New accounts get 2,500 free credits with no card. See pricing for plans beyond that.

Can I build my own MCP server on the Serply API instead?

Yes - the REST API is fully documented and an MCP wrapper is about thirty lines. There is a working walkthrough in Build an MCP Server for Serply Search, News, and Web Scraping. The hosted server exists so you do not have to.

View as Markdown