Best Job Posting APIs in 2026: 8 Tested and Compared

How We Evaluated

• What we tested: the same five searches on every API: software engineer in Chicago, registered nurse in Houston, data analyst in New York, marketing manager in Austin, and truck driver in Dallas. One request each, 10 results where the API allows it. The software engineer search is the one shown in each provider's code and response blocks.
• Lookups by ID: where they exist, JSearch job-details and Coresignal collect, plus one JSearch salary estimate and one Adzuna salary histogram.
• Pricing: every number was read from the provider's own pricing page, in a real browser where the page renders prices with JavaScript. Monthly billing unless stated.
• Unit conversion: requests, credits, and records were converted to cost per 1,000 jobs, counting 10 jobs per request for the two Google for Jobs APIs.
• Code and responses: every code block was executed as printed, with only the credentials replaced, and every response block is trimmed from the JSON that call returned. Six providers were tested on free or trial accounts created for this article, SerpApi on an existing account.
• Response time: the five searches, once each, from one machine in the same session. We report the median. It is a smoke test, not a benchmark.
• Scope: US searches in English. Coverage elsewhere varies by provider (Adzuna lists 19 countries, Careerjet 68 locales) and was not tested.
• Order: by how many readers we expect each to fit, weighing cost, fields per record, freshness, filters, and free tier, not strictly by price.

We build one of these APIs, so read the JSearch section with that in mind. The competitor sections are as flattering as the published numbers allow.

Best for: live Google for Jobs results at the lowest cost per job, with job details and salary estimates on the same key

JSearch queries Google for Jobs in real time, which already aggregates LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and company career pages. You get search, job-details, and estimated-salary endpoints, with filters for date posted, remote, employment type, and experience. Billing is per request (a page of up to 10 jobs). Free is 200 requests a month; Pro is $25 for 10,000, Ultra $75 for 50,000, Mega $150 for 200,000, and scale plans go to $2,000 for 5 million. That is $0.25 per 1,000 jobs at Pro and $0.04 at the top.

Python example: job search

Response (trimmed)

10 jobs, 35 fields each: full description, every apply link, structured location with coordinates, salary when stated. Job-details adds 18 more (seniority, work arrangement, required technologies, visa sponsorship, and so on). The estimated-salary endpoint returned a $159,551 median for software engineers in Chicago from 13,750 Glassdoor salaries. Median 6.3 s per search: it is a live Google query, and it shows.

Best for: sales and market intelligence teams filtering jobs by technology and company

A job database built for hiring signals. One POST /v1/jobs/search with array filters for title, description regex, country, location, workplace type, seniority, technology, company, and salary. Every query needs a date bound or a company filter, and locations must be GeoNames objects (a plain "Chicago" returns a 422). One credit per job returned. Free is 200 credits a month; paid starts at $49 for 1,500 credits and runs to 5 million for $5,500, with unused credits rolling over 12 months.

Python example: job search

Response (trimmed)

48 fields per job: salary normalised to annual USD, seniority, remote flags, detected technologies, and a 45-key company object with headcount, industry, funding, and revenue. Freshest first result in the test, tied with Fantastic.jobs. Median 3.4 s.

Best for: the largest archive, free search, and one deduplicated record per job across sources

Two steps: search (Elasticsearch DSL, free, returns up to 1,000 matching IDs plus a total in a header), then collect a record for one credit. The Multi-source API merges the same posting from LinkedIn, Indeed, SimplyHired, Adzuna, and others into one record with a per-source status list. Coresignal claims 482M+ postings and 6+ years of history, rechecked daily. The 7-day trial is 2,000 credits (business email needed); Mini is $49 for 2,500 credits, up to Elite at $5,000 for 10 million. That is $19.60 per 1,000 jobs at entry and $0.50 at the top, the cheapest database at volume.

Python example: search (free), then collect one record (1 credit)

Response (collect, trimmed)

62 fields: 15 source listings with active, inactive, or deleted flags, four salary readings from different boards, and company firmographics down to HQ and last funding round. The catch is ranking: the first hit was a December 2025 posting, because search matches text, not recency. Add a date range and sort. Search median 2.3 s, collect 0.15 s.

Best for: a global, multi-language archive with a cursor feed you can resume

Four endpoints under api.jobspikr.com/v2: search, expired jobs, aggregation, and location autocomplete, all taking Elasticsearch-style JSON, 10 to 100 records a page, and a cursor you pass back to pick up new matches later. Documentation lives inside the app. A credit is one unique job record, and repeat reads of the same record are free. The 7-day trial is 1,400 records. Plans are Kick-off at $79 for 1,000 credits a month, Starter $240 for 5,000, and Growth $480 for 25,000 (less if billed annually), which makes it the most expensive per job here: $79 per 1,000 at entry, $19.20 at Growth.

Python example: job search

Response (trimmed)

24 fields, raw and normalised values side by side (city and inferred_city), plain and HTML descriptions, and the credit balance in every response. The ML fields the schema documents (inferred salary, skills, seniority) were absent on the trial; the pricing page lists them under Growth. Median 1.0 s.

Job Posting API Unit Economics: Cost per 1,000 Jobs

Entry paid plan and the lowest listed rate. Per-request APIs converted at 10 jobs per request.

Per-page pricing (JSearch, SerpApi) wins when queries are dense. Per-record pricing (the databases) wins when you filter hard and a query returns three jobs. Coresignal is the hybrid: search free, pay to collect. Adzuna and Careerjet are free but rate limited and return snippets, not descriptions.

Job Posting API Coverage

How to Choose: 4 Common Scenarios