ACTION_ID: web_search_using_serp_api
NAME: Search API Playground
CATEGORY: Web Research
CREDITS: 1

Run a search against Google, Google News, Google Jobs, Amazon or YouTube
through SerpAPI and return the raw result array. One action, five search
surfaces.

1. INPUTS

service (type: string, required, resolve: enum)
  Service. Select the SerpAPI service to use
  Values:
    - { value: "google_search", label: "Google Search" }
    - { value: "google_news", label: "Google News" }
    - { value: "google_jobs", label: "Google Jobs" }
    - { value: "amazon_search", label: "Amazon Search" }
    - { value: "youtube_search", label: "YouTube Search" }

search_query (type: string, required)
  Search Query. The search query

location (type: string, optional)
  Location. Geographic location for the search (e.g. "Austin, Texas")

country (type: string, optional)
  Country. Country of search. Default is United States.

language (type: string, optional)
  Language. Language of search. Default is English.

amazon_domain (type: string, optional)
  Amazon Domain. Amazon domain to search (e.g. amazon.com,
  amazon.co.uk). Default: amazon.com

2. OUTPUTS

results (raw_array) — Array of results from the selected SerpAPI service

3. HOW TO CONFIGURE

Configure Action body:

{
  "inputs": {
    "service": "google_news",
    "search_query": "{{input.company_name}} funding round",
    "location": "Austin, Texas"
  }
}

Field-by-field:
  - service          Which SerpAPI surface to query. Decides which of
                     the optional fields matter.
  - search_query     Required. Mix literals and `{{refs}}` freely.
  - location         Geographic bias for Google surfaces, e.g.
                     `Austin, Texas`. Ignored by Amazon and YouTube.
  - country /        Default to United States / English. Neither has a
    language         dynamic-options resolver — pass the code directly.
  - amazon_domain    Only read when `service` is `amazon_search`.
                     Defaults to `amazon.com`.

4. KEY NOTES

- `results` is a `raw_array` whose item shape differs per service — a
  Google News item is not shaped like an Amazon listing. Discover the
  shape by running one row and reading the cell, then parse it in a
  `formula` with bracket access.
- `country` and `language` have no dynamic-options resolvers — Get
  Action Field Options returns a 400. Pass the SerpAPI country/language
  code directly.
- `location` is only meaningful for the Google surfaces. Setting it for
  Amazon or YouTube is silently ignored.
- One credit per call regardless of how many results come back. Narrow
  the query rather than post-filtering a huge result set.

5. WHERE IT FITS IN A WORKFLOW

Pattern: web_search_using_serp_api (google_jobs) -> formula (shape the
results) -> llm_models (classify), when you want raw SERP data rather
than an agent's summary.

6. WHEN TO USE

Use web_search_using_serp_api when you need structured search results
you will parse yourself, across Google, Amazon or YouTube.

7. WHEN NOT TO USE

Want a researched answer with citations rather than raw results
  -> action-detail/llm_web_agents.txt

Need the full text of one known page
  -> action-detail/scrape_web_page_using_firecrawl.txt

Last updated: 2026-08-03.