Linkup
- Free allowance
- USD 20 credited on signup with a professional email address and topped back up to USD 20 each month; a standard or fast search with raw results costs USD 0.005, about 4,000 searches a month
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- not stated
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- request-rateUSD 20 a month for professional-email accounts; USD 0.005 per standard or fast search with raw results, USD 0.006 with a sourced answer, USD 0.05 per deep search; the API answers 429 when the balance runs out; 10 queries a second per...
- Evidence
- documented19 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-12-03checked 2026-11-02 (live); stale on 2026-12-03
| Free tier | USD 20 credited on signup with a professional email address and topped back up to USD 20 each month; a standard or fast search with raw results costs USD 0.005, about 4,000 searches a month unit credits; metered on request-count; The marketing page states the same allowance as 4,000 queries for free. Deep search costs USD 0.05 a call (USD 20 / USD 0.05 = 400 deep searches). |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
|
| Binding | request-rate the monthly USD 20 balance, about 4,000 searches, runs out long before 10 queries a second does |
| Identity | email the signup form asks for a name, a professional email address and a password, or Google, GitHub or Microsoft sign-in, and a form sign-up is completed from the inbox; a professional email address is credited automatically with no card; any other sign-up is not eligible for free credits by default and adds a card, with no payment required, to unlock them (amount not stated) |
| Egress | not applicable |
| Retention | eligible accounts are topped back up to USD 20 each month |
| Interface | rest POST https://api.linkup.so/v1/search with a Bearer API key; fetch, research and tasks endpoints on the same balance; an x402 route takes USD 0.01 a request in USDC on Base with no account or key endpoint: https://api.linkup.so/v1/search |
| Tooling | Python SDK (pip install linkup-sdk), JavaScript SDK (npm i linkup-sdk) and a CLI (linkup-search-cli) |
| Composes with | A recurring search leg of about 4,000 raw-result searches a month beside Tavily's 1,000 credits, where the account has a professional email; the x402 route is a paid, account-free fallback at USD 0.01 a request |
| Reliability | an exhausted balance answers 429, the same status as a rate limit; no throttle or ban event recorded |
| Notes | The free balance renews monthly, which sets it apart from one-time signup grants in this class. The pricing page names professional email addresses as the eligible ones. The app tells any other sign-up that free credits are not granted by default and that adding a card, with no payment required, unlocks them; the amount unlocked, and whether the monthly top-up then applies, is not stated. An archived copy of the pricing page from June 2026 states the credit with no email condition, and one from August 2026 states it for professional email addresses. The x402 route bills a flat USD 0.01 a request on search and fetch. |
| Evidence note | documented the monthly top-up, the per-call prices, the rate limit and the no-card statement are quoted from first-party pages; no keyed search was made, so the read path is unprobed; the app's own text says only organizations signed up with a professional email address are eligible for free credits by default and that other sign-ups add a card, with no payment required, to unlock them; the amount a webmail account receives after that step is behind a sign-up and a card, so it is unverified |
| Parsed numbers |
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Evidence 19
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing.md | USD 20 on signup with a professional email, topped back to USD 20 monthly |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing.md | part of the text of Reliability, above |
| 2026-10-30 | www.linkup.so/pricing | the free allowance is stated as 4,000 queries |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/rate-limits.md | search and fetch are limited to 10 queries a second per organization |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/rate-limits.md | x402 requests are rate-limited per IP address |
| 2026-10-30 | app.linkup.so/sign-up | the signup form asks for a professional email, with Google, GitHub and Microsoft sign-in as alternatives |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/x402.md | an account-free paid route exists through x402 |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/get-started/quickstart.md | a Python SDK, a JavaScript SDK and a CLI are published |
| 2026-10-30 | docs.linkup.so/pages/changelog/usd-pricing.md | the monthly free top-up rose from 5 to 20 in May 2026 |
| 2026-11-01 | app.linkup.so/assets/index-BhsjN0f5.js | the app states that only organizations signed up with a professional email address are eligible for free credits by default, and that adding a card, with no payment required, unlocks them |
| 2026-11-01 | www.linkup.so/blog/how-to-migrate-from-serp-apis-to-linkup | the blog states USD 20 of free credit and no card requirement for new accounts, without the professional-email condition that the pricing page and the app state |
| 2026-11-01 | app.linkup.so/assets/index-BhsjN0f5.js | the app confirms that a card added through its card-verification step unlocks the account's free credits, and states no amount |
| 2026-11-01 | app.linkup.so/assets/index-BhsjN0f5.js | a sign-up through the form is completed from the inbox |
| 2026-11-01 | app.linkup.so/sign-up | the signup page offers Google, GitHub and Microsoft sign-up beside a form that asks for a name, a professional email and a password |
| 2026-11-01 | docs.linkup.so/pages/changelog/usd-pricing.md | the changelog states the monthly USD 20 free top-up for accounts created with a professional email address |
| 2026-11-01 | web.archive.org/web/20260605231546/https://docs.linkup.so/pa | an archived copy of the pricing page from June 2026 states the USD 20 credit and monthly top-up with no email condition |
| 2026-11-01 | web.archive.org/web/20260814161743/https://docs.linkup.so/pa | an archived copy of the pricing page from August 2026 states the USD 20 credit and monthly top-up for professional email addresses |
| 2026-11-01 | agentdeals.dev/vendor/linkup | a third-party catalogue reports that the app asks sign-ups without a professional email address to add a card, with no charge, to unlock the credit |
| 2026-11-01 | docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing.md | the pricing page states the USD 20 credit on signup and the monthly top-up for professional email addresses |
Unknown values 2
- egress terms: the field does not apply to this kind of offer
- per object cap stated: the field does not apply to this kind of offer