GroundRoute: Web Search for AI Agents across 6 Engines ($10 free credit)

GroundRoute gives your AI agent web search across six engines (Serper, Brave, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, Perplexity) through a single search tool.

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What it can do

  • Search: Search the web via GroundRoute. Routes the query to the best-value engine across Brave, Serper, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, and Perplexity (price-led), serving cache hits when available. Returns r

What data it sees

Do you need an account

An API key from the service settings is required

GroundRoute gives your AI agent web search across six engines (Serper, Brave, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, Perplexity) through a single search tool. That one tool covers web, news, and academic search, synthesized answers with citations, and full-page fetch, all selectable with a mode parameter, so you never wire up or pay for six separate APIs.

It routes each query to the cheapest engine that meets a quality bar, caches repeats, and fails over automatically. Pricing is gain-share: you keep about half the cache savings, so it never costs more than going direct. Bring your own engine keys (BYOK) or let GroundRoute manage them.

New accounts start with $10 in free search credit, no card. Get a key at https://groundroute.ai/keys, and see the live benchmark across all six engines (170 real agent queries) at groundroute.ai/state-of-ai-search.

How to connect

How to connect GroundRoute: Web Search for AI Agents across 6 Engines ($10 free credit) to Claude

The server address to paste into Claude settings:

https://web-search--groundroute-ai.run.tools

  1. Open Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app).
  2. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  3. Click Add custom connector.
  4. Paste the server address copied below into Remote MCP server URL and click Add.
  5. In a chat, click + → Connectors and switch the new connector on.

Custom connectors are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans (Free is limited to one). On Team and Enterprise an organization Owner adds the connector first under Organization settings → Connectors.

Authorization

After you click Add, a sign-in window for the service opens. Sign in with your own account and approve access. Claude never sees your password.

How to connect GroundRoute: Web Search for AI Agents across 6 Engines ($10 free credit) to ChatGPT

The server address to paste into ChatGPT settings:

https://web-search--groundroute-ai.run.tools

  1. Open ChatGPT in a browser (chatgpt.com). A Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu plan is required.
  2. Turn on developer mode once: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode.
  3. Open Settings → Connectors and click Create.
  4. Fill in the form: Name (anything), Description (one line about what the service does), MCP server URL (copy it below).
  5. Under Authentication choose OAuth if the service requires sign-in, otherwise None. Click Create.
  6. In a new chat open + → Apps/Connectors and enable the connector.

OpenAI has renamed this section before (Connectors → Apps/Plugins). If the label differs, search settings for "developer mode". On Business/Enterprise workspaces an admin must allow custom connectors first.

Authorization

On first use ChatGPT opens the service's sign-in window. Sign in and approve access.

How to connect GroundRoute: Web Search for AI Agents across 6 Engines ($10 free credit) to Cursor

The server address to paste into Cursor settings:

https://web-search--groundroute-ai.run.tools

Fastest: click Open in Cursor below and confirm the prompt.

Manually:

  1. In Cursor open Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP and click Add new global MCP server.
  2. Paste the JSON copied below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (per project: .cursor/mcp.json in the repo root).
  3. Save the file. The server appears in the MCP list; authorize it there if asked.

Authorization

If the service needs sign-in, an authorize button appears next to the server in the MCP list.

Server tool list (1)

Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.

searchSearch the web via GroundRoute. Routes the query to the best-value engine across Brave, Serper, Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, and Perplexity (price-led), serving cache hits when available. Returns ranked results, an optional synthesized answer, and citations.