# 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*](https://docs.webscrapingapi.com/google-search-api/getting-started) 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="../access-the-api#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="../google-search-engines">Search Type</a>'s engine on the designated page. </td></tr></tbody></table>