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I don't think they would have lasted long using a private API.

They pay for it. In fact the most common deal is to show both google search ads and google results, then the results are free and you get a cut of the ad revenue.

That's interesting, is that documented somewhere?

https://support.google.com/customsearch/answer/4513751?hl=en...

It can be private but paid and supported simultaneously

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