Developers

Use SimilarIQ programmatically — a REST API, a hosted MCP server for AI agents, and a CLI. One call in, the top 100 competitors, look-alikes, and similar companies out: scored, ranked, and cross-validated by our proprietary AI research engine.

Authentication

Pass your API key on every request, either as an X-API-Key header or a Bearer token:

X-API-Key: sk-live-your-api-keyCopy

Keys are created in Account → API Keys and shown once at creation. Treat them like passwords — anyone holding a key can spend your credits.

Pricing & Credits

API usage draws from the same credit balance as the app — no separate API billing. 1 search = 1 credit, whether it returns 10 or 100 results.

Failed searches are automatically refunded.

Errors

The API returns standard HTTP status codes. Error responses include an error field.

Search

Request

curl -X POST https://similariq.ai/api/v1/search \
  -H "X-API-Key: sk-live-your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain": "salesforce.com", "limit": 100}'Copy

Response

{
  "domain": "salesforce.com",
  "searchId": 1234,
  "totalCompetitors": 100,
  "likelyCompetitors": 87,
  "elapsedSeconds": 42.3,
  "creditsRemaining": 199,
  "competitors": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "company": "HubSpot",
      "domain": "hubspot.com",
      "matchScore": 97,
      "type": "Direct",
      "confidence": 94,
      "likelyCompetitor": true
    }
  ]
}Copy

type is one of Direct, Indirect, Adjacent, or Emerging. matchScore and confidence are 0–100.

Balance

curl https://similariq.ai/api/v1/balance -H "X-API-Key: sk-live-your-api-key"

{"searches": 200, "plan": "p25"}Copy

History, Companies, Bulk & Sharing

Your API key works on the full platform surface — these are free to call (no credits) unless noted:

SDKs

Official zero-dependency SDKs for Node.js and Python, with the entire platform surface built in — search, bulk, history, My Companies, watchlist, and share links.

Node.js

npm install similariq-sdkCopy

const { SimilarIQ } = require("similariq-sdk");
const iq = new SimilarIQ({ apiKey: process.env.SIMILARIQ_API_KEY });

const { competitors } = await iq.search("salesforce.com");
// [{ rank: 1, company: 'HubSpot', domain: 'hubspot.com', matchScore: 97, ... }]

const { jobId } = await iq.bulk(["stripe.com", "square.com"]);
await iq.bulkWait(jobId);
const csv = await iq.bulkDownload(jobId);Copy

Python

pip install similariqCopy

from similariq import SimilarIQ

iq = SimilarIQ(api_key="sk-live-...")
result = iq.search("salesforce.com")
for c in result["competitors"][:5]:
    print(c["rank"], c["company"], c["matchScore"])Copy

Both SDKs include typed errors (a 402 means out of credits), automatic refunds on failed searches, and full TypeScript definitions in the Node package.

MCP Server

SimilarIQ ships a hosted MCP server, so Claude, Cursor, and any Model Context Protocol client can research competitors as a native tool — no install required.

Claude Code

claude mcp add similariq https://similariq.ai/mcp \
  --transport http \
  --header "X-API-Key: sk-live-your-api-key"Copy

Any MCP client (JSON config)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "similariq": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://similariq.ai/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "sk-live-your-api-key" }
    }
  }
}Copy

Then just ask your agent: "Find the top competitors of stripe.com and summarize the direct threats." Each tool call costs 1 credit, same as the API.

CLI

A terminal client for quick research and piping results into scripts and spreadsheets.

npm install -g similariq

similariq login sk-live-your-api-key
similariq search salesforce.com                    # ranked table (1 credit)
similariq search salesforce.com --csv > out.csv
similariq bulk domains.txt --wait --out results.csv # bulk research (1 credit/domain)
similariq job <jobId>                              # bulk job status
similariq history                                  # recent searches (free)
similariq results <searchId> --csv                 # re-read past results (free)
similariq companies --source salesforce.com --csv  # My Companies export (free)
similariq save hubspot.com --name "HubSpot"        # watchlist
similariq saved
similariq share <searchId>                         # public share link
similariq balanceCopy

The key can also come from the SIMILARIQ_API_KEY environment variable — handy for CI.

Managing API Keys

Keys can be managed in the app → API Keys or programmatically:

Creating a key requires a paid plan or a positive credit balance. Revoked keys stop working instantly.

Rate Limits

API requests share the standard limiter (bursts smoothed per-IP and per-key). Searches run 30–60 seconds each; for high-volume enrichment use the Bulk Upload workspace or contact us about dedicated limits at support@similariq.ai.