> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.webscrapingapi.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.webscrapingapi.com/google-search-api/getting-started/api-parameters.md).

# API Parameters

In order to customise the response from the Google API, you have to pass certain query parameters to your request. As we discussed in the [*Getting Started*](/google-search-api/getting-started.md) section, the Google API supports multiple search types. Because each type has its own particularities, the Google API has two sets of parameters:

* **General parameters**, applicable to any of the search engines
* **Search type specific parameters**, applicable to specific search engines

We will cover the General parameters here and present the specific ones in the sections dedicated to each search engine.

### Google API General Parameters

<table><thead><tr><th width="182">Parameter</th><th width="148" align="center">Type</th><th>Description </th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>api_key</code> <br> <mark style="color:red;background-color:red;">Required</mark> </td><td align="center"><code>string</code></td><td>Specify your unique <a href="/pages/gQS2pzDn8tldtEL5y1PH#the-api-key">API key</a> to authenticate with the API. Your API key can be found in your account dashboard.</td></tr><tr><td><code>engine</code><br> <mark style="color:red;background-color:red;">Required</mark> </td><td align="center"><code>string</code></td><td>The engine of the API. Check each <a href="/pages/xBH8gGRMhuOZJ7sliEhc">Search Type</a>'s engine on the designated page. </td></tr></tbody></table>


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