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That sentence could also mean "$5/1000 applies up to 10k queries per day (and you get to talk to a sales rep if you do more than 10k queries per day)".

Not necessarily. Startpage uses Google for all of its results.

> You can’t beat Google when it comes to online search. So we’re paying them to use their brilliant search results in order to remove all trackers and logs. - https://startpage.com

Does anyone know how one can get whatever deal Startpage has?

Startpage is descended from Ixquick (launched 1998). I believe they have an old, uniquely favorable contract with Google as a result.

If I am willing to write a wrapper for this API, I can avoid all the ads (but not tracking)?

Does this API still return paid results near the top?