A search request is a group of one or more search operations sent in a single exchange. Search operations are triggered when a search is performed. In autocomplete and search-as-you-type implementations, a new search request is performed on every keystroke.
In past Algolia plans, a single search would be counted per active search index. So Algolia would count a single search applied to 3 active indexes as 3 search “operations”. With the current pricing, in this example Algolia would count this as one search “request”. This greatly simplifies our pricing model for customers using federated search and for customers with multiple sorts (e.g. newest products, lowest cost, highest cost, etc.).