All responses are JSON objects. The format=context option returns markdown text instead — see query parameters for details.
The results_type field tells you the shape of the response. Use it to determine which arrays and objects are present — for example, results_type: "weather" means a weather object is included.
Top-level fields Field Type Always present Description results_typestring Yes Category of results (e.g., search, news, images) answerstring Yes Generated answer for the query (may be empty) typestring Yes Same as results_type titlestring Yes Title summarizing the search results resultsarray Yes Search results metricsobject Yes Search performance metrics correctedQuerystring No Spell-corrected query (deep search only, when a correction is made) related_searchesarray No Related search suggestions topicsarray No Related topics
Type-specific arrays Depending on the query intent, the response may include additional arrays alongside results:
Field Present when videosVideo intent queries imagesImage intent queries newsNews intent queries placesLocation/business queries profilesPeople-related queries socialsSocial media queries academicsScholarly queries
Search results Each result in the results array has this structure:
Field Type Always present Description titlestring Yes Page title linkstring Yes Page URL (returned as url when linkFormat=url) descstring Yes Page description or summary sourcestring Yes Domain name typestring Yes Result type (see result types ) datestring No Publication date imagestring No Preview image URL snippetstring No Query-relevant text excerpt (distinct from desc) answerstring No Inline answer for instant answer results extractsarray No Text extracts from the page, when available (when extracts=true) contentTypestring No Content type (when metadata=full) readerobject No Extracted page content (when metadata=full)
Accessing key fields data = response.json() for result in data[ "results" ]: # Always present print (result[ "title" ], result[ "link" ], result[ "source" ]) # Optional fields — check before accessing if result.get( "snippet" ): print ( f "Snippet: { result[ 'snippet' ] } " ) if result.get( "extracts" ): print ( f "Extract: { result[ 'extracts' ][ 0 ][: 200 ] } " ) if result.get( "date" ): print ( f "Published: { result[ 'date' ] } " )
Result types The type field indicates the kind of result:
Type Description websiteStandard web page newsNews article videoVideo content imageImage content placeBusiness or place profilePerson or entity profile socialSocial media content academicScholarly or research content calculationMath computation result weatherWeather data computationComputed answer instant answerDirect answer to a factual query
Instant answers Some queries trigger instant answers alongside regular results.
Weather Queries about weather return a weather object:
{ "results_type" : "weather" , "answer" : "" , "type" : "weather" , "title" : "Weather in San Francisco" , "results" : [], "weather" : { "location" : { "name" : "San Francisco" , "country" : "US" , "coordinates" : { "latitude" : 37.7749 , "longitude" : -122.4194 } }, "temperature" : 62 , "feelsLike" : 59 , "units" : "imperial" , "description" : "Partly Cloudy" , "humidity" : 72 , "windSpeed" : 12 , "windDirection" : 270 , "pressure" : 1013 , "icon" : "partly-cloudy" , "cloudiness" : 40 , "visibility" : 10000 , "timestamp" : "2025-03-15T14:00:00Z" }, "metrics" : { "query" : "weather san francisco" , "intent" : "WeatherIntent" , "timestamp" : "2025-03-15T14:00:01Z" , "duration" : 850 , "queries_executed" : 1 , "api_requests_count" : 2 , "results_returned" : 0 , "total_results_found" : 0 } }
Use the units parameter to get results in metric or imperial. The default is auto-detected from the country parameter.
Calculation Mathematical queries return a calculation object:
{ "results_type" : "computation" , "answer" : "" , "type" : "computation" , "title" : "150 * 1.08" , "results" : [], "calculation" : { "expression" : "150 * 1.08" , "result" : "162" }, "metrics" : { ... } }
Image queries return an images array with thumbnail and dimension data: { "results_type" : "images" , "answer" : "" , "type" : "images" , "title" : "Mountain landscape images" , "results" : [], "images" : [ { "title" : "Mountain landscape" , "link" : "https://example.com/photo" , "image" : "https://example.com/photo.jpg" , "source" : "example.com" , "type" : "image" , "thumbnail" : "https://example.com/photo_thumb.jpg" , "width" : "1920" , "height" : "1080" } ], "metrics" : { ... } }
Image results include thumbnail (thumbnail URL), width, and height as string values. Parsing tips
Check results_type first to know the response shape before accessing type-specific fieldsresults is always an arraydesc vs snippetdesc is the page’s general description; snippet is a query-relevant excerpt (when available)answer at top levelanswer on individual results is an inline answer for instant answer result typesOptional fields (date, image, snippet, extracts) may not be present on every result — always check before accessing
Search intents The results_type and type fields reflect what kind of search was performed. You can force an intent with the intent parameter, or let the API auto-detect it.
Common intent aliases:
Alias Intent Extra fields searchGeneral web search — newsNews articles newsvideoVideo content videosimagesImage search imagesweatherWeather queries weathercalculateMath expressions calculationwikiWikipedia/knowledge — codeProgramming queries — recipeRecipe search — placeBusiness search placestimeTime queries —
See query parameters for the full list of intent aliases.
Metrics The response always includes a metrics object with search performance data:
{ "results" : [ ... ], "metrics" : { "query" : "machine learning" , "intent" : "FallbackSearchIntent" , "timestamp" : "2025-03-15T14:00:01Z" , "duration" : 234 , "queries_executed" : 1 , "api_requests_count" : 3 , "results_returned" : 10 , "total_results_found" : 42 } }
Field Type Description querystring The query as processed intentstring Detected or forced search intent timestampstring Timestamp of the request durationnumber Total request time in milliseconds queries_executedinteger Number of queries executed api_requests_countinteger Number of API requests made results_returnedinteger Results returned in this response total_results_foundinteger Total results found across sources cachedboolean Whether response was from cache (only present on cache hits)
Next steps
Query parameters Full parameter reference.
RAG pipeline Use search results as LLM context.
