Parallel search API pricing: turbo, fast, basic, advanced
Parallel search API pricing through Mux: per-request and extra-result math for all four tiers, the 50-result cap, full-content behavior and allowed options.
Parallel search API pricing on Mux is per request, with 10 results included and $1.00 per 1,000 results past the tenth. parallel/turbo and parallel/fast cost $1.00 per 1,000 requests, and parallel/basic and parallel/advanced cost $5.00. These are Parallel's list prices passed through with no markup, and Mux's only fee is 5.5% when you buy credits.
This guide walks through the four tiers, the per-request math with worked examples, monthly cost at volume, the 50-result cap, what content: "full" returns on Parallel, the date-filter caveat, and which Parallel options you can pass through. For Parallel's own plans and pricing, see parallel.ai.
The four Parallel tiers on Mux#
Parallel positions its search API around returning excerpts that are ready to feed to a language model rather than a list of links. On Mux its processors are exposed as four model ids.
| Model | What it is | $/1k requests | $/1k extra results | Max results | Typical latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
parallel/turbo |
Fastest tier | 1.00 | 1.00 | 50 | ~200 ms |
parallel/fast |
Fast, the first stop for Mux auto |
1.00 | 1.00 | 50 | ~800 ms |
parallel/basic |
Standard quality | 5.00 | 1.00 | 50 | ~1 s |
parallel/advanced |
Highest-quality excerpts | 5.00 | 1.00 | 50 | ~3 s |
The tiers pair up on price. turbo and fast are the same price and differ in speed, and basic and advanced are the same price and differ in excerpt quality and latency. Because parallel/fast is the first model in Mux's auto order, a plain request with no model set lands here first.
The live table is loaded from GET /v1/models and reflects current prices.
| Model | Per 1,000 requests | Included results | Extra result | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| exa/instant Exa instant, lowest-latency neural search | $4.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~300 ms |
| exa/fast Exa fast | $7.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~500 ms |
| exa/auto Exa auto (default, best general quality) | $7.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~1 s |
| exa/deep Exa deep multi-query search | $12.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~5 s |
| parallel/turbo Parallel turbo, ~200ms | $1.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~200 ms |
| parallel/fast Parallel fast, <1s | $1.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~800 ms |
| parallel/basic Parallel basic | $5.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~1 s |
| parallel/advanced Parallel advanced, highest quality excerpts | $5.00 | 10 | +$1.00 / 1k | ~3 s |
| keenable/pro Keenable pro index | $4.00 | 10 | none | ~700 ms |
| keenable/realtime Keenable realtime index | $4.00 | 10 | none | ~700 ms |
The per-request math#
Each request includes 10 results. Every result past the tenth costs $0.001 on all four tiers:
cost = base_price + max(0, results_returned - 10) × 0.001You pay for the results Parallel returns, capped at what you asked for. Ask for 30, receive 18, pay for 8 extra results.
| Model | 10 results | 25 results | 50 results |
|---|---|---|---|
parallel/turbo |
$0.001 | $0.016 | $0.041 |
parallel/fast |
$0.001 | $0.016 | $0.041 |
parallel/basic |
$0.005 | $0.020 | $0.045 |
parallel/advanced |
$0.005 | $0.020 | $0.045 |
On the $1.00 tiers, extra results are the whole story. A 50-result parallel/turbo search costs 41 times a 10-result one, and the price difference between turbo and advanced at 50 results is under 10%. If you need many results per query, pick the tier by quality; if you need few, the cheap tiers are very cheap.
The 50-result cap#
Parallel models return at most 50 results. max_results accepts up to 100, but Mux caps it to the model's maximum before calling the provider, so a request for 80 results on parallel/advanced returns at most 50 and is billed for at most 50. If you need up to 100 results from one call, use an Exa model instead. See /docs/search.
Monthly cost at volume#
At the default of 10 results per search:
| Model | 1,000 searches | 100,000 searches | 1,000,000 searches |
|---|---|---|---|
parallel/turbo |
$1 | $100 | $1,000 |
parallel/fast |
$1 | $100 | $1,000 |
parallel/basic |
$5 | $500 | $5,000 |
parallel/advanced |
$5 | $500 | $5,000 |
At 25 results per search, multiply by the 25-result column: a million parallel/fast searches at 25 results is $16,000, sixteen times the 10-result figure.
Then add the credit purchase fee, 5.5% with a $0.80 minimum. $100 buys $94.50 of credits, $1,000 buys $945. A $500 month of parallel/basic costs about $529 at checkout. Purchases are prepaid, between $5 and $10,000 each, and credits do not expire. Full terms are at /docs/pricing.
What content: "full" returns on Parallel#
On Parallel, content: "full" does not fetch whole pages. Parallel returns excerpts, and Mux joins them together into the content field. This is often what you want for an LLM context window, since the excerpts are already selected for relevance, but it is not a page scrape. If you need full page text, use an Exa model, where content: "full" returns the complete page. There is no extra Mux charge for content: "full" on any provider.
published_before is not applied#
Parallel's search supports a lower date bound but not an upper one. Mux passes published_after through natively, and does not apply published_before on Parallel models at all. Results outside your upper bound can therefore appear, and because Parallel already returned them, they are billed. If you need both bounds, route the request to an Exa or Keenable model. Domain filters, by contrast, are passed natively and also re-checked by Mux after the response.
A worked request#
Twenty-five results from parallel/advanced, with joined excerpts, restricted to a domain and a lower date bound, with parallel/fast as the fallback:
curl https://api.getmux.io/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MUX_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "lithium iron phosphate battery recycling methods",
"models": ["parallel/advanced", "parallel/fast"],
"max_results": 25,
"content": "full",
"include_domains": ["nature.com"],
"published_after": "2025-01-01"
}'If Parallel returns fewer than 25 results for the narrow domain filter, usage.cost_usd will be lower than $0.020, because extra results are billed on the returned count.
Parallel options you can pass through#
Through provider_options, Mux allows these Parallel-specific fields:
max_chars_total, to bound the total excerpt text across resultsclient_model, to tell Parallel which model will consume the excerptsadvanced_settings.excerpt_settings, to tune how excerpts are selectedadvanced_settings.location, to localize results
Fields that would change the bill (processor, result count) or that Mux uses for filtering (domains, dates) are rejected with 400 invalid_request. The options are forwarded as given; see the Parallel search reference for accepted values and /docs/models for the allow-list.
When to go direct to Parallel#
Mux bills Parallel's list price. If you have a negotiated contract or existing Parallel credits, store your Parallel key with PUT /v1/provider-keys/parallel and Parallel bills you directly. The first 1,000,000 BYOK requests per calendar month carry no Mux fee; after that the fee is 5% of list price, or $0.00005 per 10-result parallel/fast search. See /docs/byok.
If Parallel is your only provider, you don't need fallbacks or per-key spend caps, and your volume is large enough to negotiate, a direct relationship is the simpler choice. Mux is worth it when one key should fail over to Exa or Keenable, when you want published_before and 100-result queries available from the same client, or when each agent needs its own budget.
FAQ#
Is there a markup on Parallel searches through Mux?#
No. Each Parallel model is billed at Parallel's list price per request. Mux's only charge is 5.5% of each credit purchase, minimum $0.80, deducted from the amount you pay. With your own Parallel key, the first million requests a month carry no Mux fee.
Why is parallel/fast the default for auto?#
Mux's auto order is parallel/fast, then exa/auto, then keenable/pro. parallel/fast is first because at $0.001 per 10-result search it is the cheapest general-purpose option, with fallbacks covering the cases where it fails.
What do I pay if a Parallel call fails and Mux falls back?#
Only the model that answered. The failed attempt is refunded, and the response's attempts array shows each one. The exception is a 15-second timeout, which keeps the model's base price because the provider has usually completed the search.
Can I get 100 results from Parallel?#
No. Parallel models return at most 50 results, and Mux caps max_results to 50 before calling them. Exa models go to 100.
To run your first Parallel search through Mux, start with the quickstart.
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