SearXNG setup
Your own unlimited search engine, self-hosted for free.
What it does
SearXNG is open-source metasearch software. You run it on your own server, and it queries engines like Google, Bing, Brave and DuckDuckGo for you, returning combined results as JSON.
- Unlimited fallback search once the monthly API quotas are used
- Runs before any one-time search credits, so those last longer
Get set up
- Get a small server (any VPS with Docker works) and point a subdomain at it, for example
search.yourdomain.com - Install SearXNG with its official Docker setup, with HTTPS
- In SearXNG's
settings.yml, addjsontosearch.formatsso Larvabot can read results - Protect it with a username and password, so it isn't a public search engine
- Paste
https://user:password@your-subdomainin Settings → Search → SearXNG URL
Where it goes
In the dashboard, open Settings and find the Search section. Secret values are encrypted before they're saved and only their last four characters are ever shown again.
SEARXNG_URLYour own server. Include the login if it is password-protected
Staying free
Nothing to meter. Larvabot searches a few dozen times a day, well within what upstream engines tolerate. Protect your instance with a password so it isn't public.
How the quota guard works →Larva tip
You don't need this to get started: every account already has Larvabot's shared search server as a fallback, with a monthly allowance. Your own server is for when you want unlimited searches.
Fallback order
For search, Larvabot tries these in order and skips any that aren't set up, are out of free quota or are busy.
- 1Tavily
- 2Linkup
- 3Exa
- 4Brave Search API
- 5SearXNG (your server)
- 6Larvabot search server
- 7Serper (Google results)
- 8Jina Search
- 9DuckDuckGo HTML
More search tools
Curious why SearXNG made the cut? SearXNG in the free stack →