# noapi-google-search-mcp

**Google Search for Local LLMs - NoAPI Key Required**

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives your local LLM real Google search and browsing abilities using headless Chromium via Playwright. No Google API key, no Custom Search Engine setup, no usage limits - justreal Google results.

Works with LM Studio, Claude Desktop, and any MCP-compatible client.

## Why This Instead of API-Based Alternatives?

| | **noapi-google-search-mcp** | API-based MCP servers |
|---|---|---|
| API key required | No | Yes (Google CSE API) |
| Cost | Free | Paid after 100 queries/day |
| Setup time | `pip install` + go | Create Google Cloud project, enable API, get key, configure CSE |
| Results quality | Real Google results | Custom Search Engine (different ranking) |
| JavaScript pages | Renders them (Chromium) | Cannot render JS |
| Google Search | Built-in (with filters) | Basic only |
| Google Shopping | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Flights | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Hotels | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Translate | Built-in | Separate API needed |
| Google Maps | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Weather | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Finance | Built-in | Not available |
| Google News | Built-in | Usually not available |
| Google Scholar | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Books | Built-in | Not available |
| Google Images | Built-in | Separate API needed |
| Google Lens | Built-in (reverse image search) | Not available |
| Google Trends | Built-in | Separate API needed |
| Page fetching | Built-in `visit_page` tool | Usually separate |

## Tools

### `google_search` - Web Search

Search Google and get structured results with titles, URLs, and snippets.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Search query (required) | `"best python frameworks 2025"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |
| `time_range` | Filter by recency | `"past_hour"`, `"past_day"`, `"past_week"`, `"past_month"`, `"past_year"` |
| `site` | Limit to a domain | `"reddit.com"`, `"stackoverflow.com"`, `"github.com"`, `"arxiv.org"`, `"news.ycombinator.com"` |
| `page` | Results page (1-10, default 1) | `2` for next page |
| `language` | Language code | `"en"`, `"de"`, `"fr"`, `"es"`, `"ja"`, `"zh"` |
| `region` | Country/region code | `"us"`, `"gb"`, `"de"`, `"fr"`, `"jp"` |

**How your LLM uses it:** The LLM automatically sees these parameters in the tool definition. When you ask "search Reddit for Python tips from the past week", it will call `google_search(query="Python tips", site="reddit.com", time_range="past_week")`.

---

### `google_shopping` - Product Search

Search Google Shopping for products with prices, stores, and ratings.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Product search query (required) | `"Sony WH-1000XM5"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

Returns: product name, price, store, and rating.

---

### `google_flights` - Flight Search

Search Google Flights for flight options, prices, and travel times.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `origin` | Departure city or airport (required) | `"New York"`, `"LAX"` |
| `destination` | Arrival city or airport (required) | `"London"`, `"NRT"` |
| `date` | Departure date (optional) | `"March 15"`, `"2025-03-15"` |
| `return_date` | Return date for round trips (optional) | `"March 22"` |

---

### `google_hotels` - Hotel Search

Search for hotels and accommodation with prices and ratings.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Hotel search with location (required) | `"Paris"`, `"Tokyo near Shibuya"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

---

### `google_translate` - Translation

Translate text between languages using Google Translate.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `text` | Text to translate (required) | `"Hello, how are you?"` |
| `to_language` | Target language (required) | `"Spanish"`, `"Japanese"`, `"French"` |
| `from_language` | Source language (optional, auto-detected) | `"English"`, `"German"` |

---

### `google_maps` - Places Search

Search Google Maps for restaurants, businesses, and places with ratings, addresses, and reviews.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Place search query (required) | `"pizza near Central Park"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

---

### `google_weather` - Weather Lookup

Get current weather conditions and forecast for any location worldwide.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `location` | City or location (required) | `"Dubai"`, `"New York"`, `"Tokyo"` |

Returns: temperature (°C/°F), condition, precipitation, humidity, wind, and multi-day forecast.

---

### `google_finance` - Stock & Market Data

Look up stock prices, market data, and company information from Google Finance.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Stock ticker with exchange or company name (required) | `"AAPL:NASDAQ"`, `"TSLA:NASDAQ"` |

Returns: current price, change, market info, key stats, and company description.

---

### `google_news` - News Search

Search Google News for recent headlines with source and timestamp.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | News search query (required) | `"AI regulation"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

---

### `google_scholar` - Academic Search

Search Google Scholar for papers, citations, and research.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Academic search query (required) | `"transformer attention mechanism"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

Returns: title, URL, authors, citation count, and snippet for each paper.

---

### `google_books` - Book Search

Search Google Books for books, textbooks, and publications.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Book search query (required) | `"machine learning"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

---

### `google_images` - Image Search

Search Google Images and get image URLs.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Image search query (required) | `"sunset over ocean"` |
| `num_results` | Number of results (1-10, default 5) | `5` |

---

### `google_lens` - Reverse Image Search

Identify objects, products, brands, landmarks, and text in images using Google Lens. Gives vision capabilities to text-only models.

Supports both public image URLs and local file paths, so LM Studio users can save images locally and pass the file path.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `image_source` | Image URL or local file path (required) | `"https://example.com/photo.jpg"` or `"/home/user/image.jpg"` |

Returns: identified object/product name, description, visual matches, text found in image, and related products with prices.

---

### `google_trends` - Trends Lookup

Check Google Trends for topic interest, related topics, and related queries.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `query` | Topic to check trends for (required) | `"artificial intelligence"` |

---

### `visit_page` - Page Fetcher

Fetch any URL and extract readable text content. Use after search to read full articles.

**Parameters:**
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|-----------|-------------|---------|
| `url` | Full URL to fetch (required) | `"https://example.com/article"` |

## How Does the LLM Know About These Tools?

You don't need to teach the LLM anything. MCP automatically exposes all tool names, descriptions, and parameters to the model. The LLM picks the right tool and parameters automatically based on your request.

## Sample Prompts

Here are example prompts you can type into LM Studio or Claude Desktop, and which tool the LLM will use:

### Web Search
| What you type | Tool called | Parameters used |
|--------------|-------------|-----------------|
| *"Search for the best Python web frameworks"* | `google_search` | `query` |
| *"Find Reddit discussions about home lab setups"* | `google_search` | `query` + `site="reddit.com"` |
| *"Search Stack Overflow for async Python examples"* | `google_search` | `query` + `site="stackoverflow.com"` |
| *"What's new in AI this week?"* | `google_search` | `query` + `time_range="past_week"` |
| *"Search Hacker News for posts about Rust"* | `google_search` | `query` + `site="news.ycombinator.com"` |
| *"Find GitHub repos for MCP servers"* | `google_search` | `query` + `site="github.com"` |
| *"Get page 2 of results for machine learning tutorials"* | `google_search` | `query` + `page=2` |
| *"Search for restaurants in Tokyo in Japanese"* | `google_search` | `query` + `language="ja"` + `region="jp"` |
| *"Find German news about the EU from the past month"* | `google_search` | `query` + `language="de"` + `time_range="past_month"` |

### Shopping
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find the cheapest MacBook Air"* | `google_shopping` |
| *"Compare prices for Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones"* | `google_shopping` |
| *"How much does a Nintendo Switch cost?"* | `google_shopping` |
| *"Search for running shoes under $100"* | `google_shopping` |

### Flights
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find flights from New York to London"* | `google_flights` |
| *"Search for cheap flights from LA to Tokyo"* | `google_flights` |
| *"Flights from San Francisco to Paris on March 15"* | `google_flights` |
| *"How much are flights from Dubai to Bangkok?"* | `google_flights` |

### Hotels
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find hotels in Paris for next weekend"* | `google_hotels` |
| *"Search for cheap hotels in Tokyo"* | `google_hotels` |
| *"Best hotels near Times Square New York"* | `google_hotels` |
| *"Find 5-star hotels in Dubai"* | `google_hotels` |

### Translation
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Translate 'hello world' to Japanese"* | `google_translate` |
| *"How do you say 'thank you' in French?"* | `google_translate` |
| *"Translate this to Spanish: The weather is nice today"* | `google_translate` |
| *"What does 'Guten Morgen' mean in English?"* | `google_translate` |

### Maps & Places
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find Italian restaurants near Times Square"* | `google_maps` |
| *"Where are the best coffee shops in Berlin?"* | `google_maps` |
| *"Search for hotels in Tokyo"* | `google_maps` |
| *"Find EV charging stations in San Francisco"* | `google_maps` |
| *"What are the top-rated gyms in London?"* | `google_maps` |

### Weather
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"What's the weather in Dubai?"* | `google_weather` |
| *"Is it going to rain in London today?"* | `google_weather` |
| *"What's the temperature in New York?"* | `google_weather` |
| *"Weather forecast for Tokyo this week"* | `google_weather` |

### Finance & Stocks
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"What's Apple's stock price?"* | `google_finance` |
| *"How is Tesla stock doing?"* | `google_finance` |
| *"Look up NVIDIA market cap"* | `google_finance` |
| *"How is the S&P 500 doing today?"* | `google_finance` |

### News
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"What are today's top headlines?"* | `google_news` |
| *"Any recent news about the stock market?"* | `google_news` |
| *"What happened in the Japan election?"* | `google_news` |

### Academic Research
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find papers on transformer attention mechanisms"* | `google_scholar` |
| *"Look up academic research about CRISPR"* | `google_scholar` |
| *"What does the research say about intermittent fasting?"* | `google_scholar` |

### Books
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Find books about machine learning"* | `google_books` |
| *"Search for books by Stephen King"* | `google_books` |
| *"What are the best books on Python programming?"* | `google_books` |

### Images
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Show me images of the Northern Lights"* | `google_images` |
| *"Find diagrams of neural network architecture"* | `google_images` |

### Reverse Image Search
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"What is this product? https://example.com/photo.jpg"* | `google_lens` |
| *"Identify this image: /home/user/photos/device.jpg"* | `google_lens` |
| *"What brand is this? [image URL or file path]"* | `google_lens` |
| *"Read the text in this image: https://..."* | `google_lens` |

### Trends
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"What's trending in tech right now?"* | `google_trends` |
| *"Is Python more popular than JavaScript?"* | `google_trends` |

### Page Reading
| What you type | Tool called |
|--------------|-------------|
| *"Read this article for me: https://..."* | `visit_page` |
| *"What does this page say? https://..."* | `visit_page` |

## Installation

### Quick Install (pipx - recommended)

```bash
pipx install noapi-google-search-mcp
playwright install chromium
```

This puts `noapi-google-search-mcp` on your PATH so you can use it directly.

### Install in a Virtual Environment

If you don't have pipx, install in a dedicated venv:

```bash
python3 -m venv ~/.local/share/noapi-google-search-mcp
~/.local/share/noapi-google-search-mcp/bin/pip install noapi-google-search-mcp
~/.local/share/noapi-google-search-mcp/bin/playwright install chromium
```

## Configuration

### LM Studio

Add to `~/.lmstudio/mcp.json`:

**If installed with pipx** (command is on PATH):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-search": {
      "command": "noapi-google-search-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PYTHONUNBUFFERED": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

**If installed in a venv** (use the full path):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-search": {
      "command": "~/.local/share/noapi-google-search-mcp/bin/noapi-google-search-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PYTHONUNBUFFERED": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (`claude_desktop_config.json`):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-search": {
      "command": "noapi-google-search-mcp"
    }
  }
}
```

> If installed in a venv, use the full path to the binary instead.

### As a CLI

```bash
noapi-google-search-mcp
```

Or:

```bash
python -m google_search_mcp
```

## Development

```bash
git clone https://github.com/VincentKaufmann/noapi-google-search-mcp.git
cd google-search-mcp
pip install -e .
playwright install chromium
```

## License

MIT
