serpgrab: Google Search and Maps

serpgrab MCP server

A hosted MCP server that gives AI agents real-time Google search and Google Maps results, from serpgrab. There is nothing to install: add one URL to your MCP client.

https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp

This repository holds the setup docs and client config examples. The server itself runs on our infrastructure and is not open source. It is listed in the official MCP registry as com.serpgrab/google-search.

Tools

• google_search: Google web results (title, URL, date, snippet), plus the AI Overview, answer box, knowledge panel, local pack, ads and "People also ask" when Google shows them.
• google_maps_search: businesses and places from Google Maps, 20 a page, with rating, reviews, price, address, phone, hours, website, coordinates and place_id.

Results come back as compact text written for a model's context, not raw JSON.

google_search

Argument	Default
query	(required)	The search, as typed into Google
pages	1	Result pages to read, 1-3 (about 10 results each)
country	us	Two-letter country Google searches from (gl)
language	en	Interface language (hl)
location		Search as if from a place, e.g. Austin, Texas, United States
time		hour, day, week, month or year: only recent results

google_maps_search

Argument	Default
query	(required)	What to look for, e.g. pizza in austin tx
ll		Map position, @latitude,longitude,zoomz, e.g. @30.2672,-97.7431,14z
page	1	Results page, 20 places each
country	us	Two-letter country (gl)
language	en	Interface language (hl)

Get a key

Free: 250 searches a month, email signup, no card: https://serpgrab.com/#signup

Connecting and listing the tools work without a key; running a tool needs one. Each results page the agent reads is one search.

Setup

Replace YOUR_KEY with your serpgrab key.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http serpgrab https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp \
  --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

Cursor

In ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or .cursor/mcp.json in a project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpgrab": {
      "url": "https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

In .vscode/mcp.json, or run MCP: Open User Configuration:

{
  "servers": {
    "serpgrab": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

In Cascade's MCP menu, choose Open MCP config file and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpgrab": {
      "serverUrl": "https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Codex

In ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.serpgrab]
url = "https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp"
http_headers = { "X-API-Key" = "YOUR_KEY" }

Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT and other clients that only take a URL

Put the key in the URL and choose no authentication:

https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp?api_key=YOUR_KEY

• Claude.ai and Claude Desktop: Settings › Connectors › Add custom connector.
• ChatGPT: turn on developer mode, then Settings › Connectors › Create.

We don't log keys sent in the URL, but the client stores the URL with its settings, so keep it as private as the key.

Clients that only speak stdio

Connect through mcp-remote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serpgrab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://api.serpgrab.com/mcp", "--header", "X-API-Key:YOUR_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

Pro plan on RapidAPI

Pro is $15 a month for 5,000 searches, on RapidAPI. Subscribers connect through RapidAPI's gateway with their RapidAPI key:

claude mcp add --transport http serpgrab https://google-serp-search-results-json.p.rapidapi.com/mcp \
  --header "X-RapidAPI-Key: YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY" \
  --header "X-RapidAPI-Host: google-serp-search-results-json.p.rapidapi.com"

RapidAPI counts every request to the server, so connecting uses about three of your plan's requests, and each tool call one more.

Transport

Streamable HTTP, stateless, with JSON replies (no SSE stream). Only POST is used.

The API underneath

serpgrab returns Google results in SerpApi's JSON format, so the same key also works for your own code: see the migration guide and the OpenAPI spec.

Help

Setup page: https://serpgrab.com/mcp. Questions or a tool you'd like: [email protected].

License

The docs and examples in this repository are MIT licensed.