# Search Free

> `POST /search/free` · Search

Canonical page: https://clawifi.dev/docs/api/post-search-free

`POST https://api.clawifi.dev/search/free` · 1 credit(s) per call

- Send your key as `Authorization: Bearer $CLAWIFI_API_KEY`; see [Authentication](https://clawifi.dev/docs/authentication).
- Add `"dry_run": true` (or `?dry_run=true`) to see what the call would cost; nothing runs and nothing is charged.
- Hosted MCP tool: `search_free` on `https://api.clawifi.dev/mcp`.
- Credits: 1 per call (search, plain fetch/scrape, article extract, package/dataset/code/archive/academic lookup, single OSINT lookup, social reads). Every price is on [Pricing and credits](https://clawifi.dev/docs/pricing-and-credits).

## Request

**cURL**

```sh
curl -X POST https://api.clawifi.dev/search/free \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLAWIFI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"what is the Model Context Protocol"}'
```

**Python**

```python
from clawifi import Clawifi

client = Clawifi()  # reads CLAWIFI_API_KEY
result = client.search_free("what is the Model Context Protocol")
```

**MCP**

```text
search_free(query="what is the Model Context Protocol")
```

### Body

| Field | Type | Default | Required |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `allow_browser_fallback` | boolean | `false` | no |
| `country` | string (optional) |  | no |
| `exclude_domains` | array of string |  | no |
| `include_domains` | array of string |  | no |
| `language` | string (optional) |  | no |
| `max_results` | integer | `10` | no |
| `provider` | string (one of 15 values; see [Sources](https://clawifi.dev/sources)) | `"free_auto"` | no |
| `query` | string |  | yes |
| `time_range` | "day" \| "week" \| "month" \| "year" (optional) |  | no |

## Response

200 with a `SearchFreeResponse` object: `browser_fallback_allowed`, `errors`, `filters_applied`, `paid_providers_used`, `provider`, `providers_tried`, `query`, `rate_limited`, `result_count`, `results`, `retry_after`, `success`.

Errors use the shared shape; see [Errors](https://clawifi.dev/docs/errors). Try public operations without a key in the [playground](https://clawifi.dev/playground).