Tavily

What it is for

Tavily is a search / extract / crawl API for agents: the official docs still (see the cover: POST /search, query, Python SDK, JSON example) is the Search endpoint. Use it when the job is one credit-metered call that returns LLM-ready results, not when you want a consumer citation chat.

It is not open source. Researcher is Free (1,000 credits/month). Project is the first public paid card.

What makes it unique: the cover is Tavily’s own Search API reference (POST /search + example payload), not a homepage poster.

Key features

• Search — basic (1 credit) or advanced (2 credits) per request (docs).
• Extract / Map / Crawl — page text, site graph, or map+extract billed in credits.
• Research — mini 4–110 credits / pro 15–250 credits per request (docs).
• Docs + playground — API Reference, SDKs, and an API Playground once you have a key.
• MCP / agent installers — Claude / Codex / Cursor one-liners on the Quickstart.

Who it's for

Best fit: agent builders who want hosted web search without running a crawler.

Poor fit: teams that need a neural search index with contents in one call (Exa) or a scrape-to-markdown playground (Firecrawl).

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-21 (Asia/Shanghai) from docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits and tavily.com/pricing. Credits reset on the 1st of each month. Re-check before you buy.

• Researcher (Free) — $0. 1,000 credits/month. No card.
• Project — $30 / month for 4,000 credits ($0.0075/credit).
• Bootstrap — $100 / month for 15,000 credits ($0.0067/credit).
• Startup — $220 / month for 38,000 credits ($0.0058/credit).
• Growth — $500 / month for 100,000 credits ($0.005/credit).
• Pay as you go — $0.008 / credit after the plan cap (if enabled).
• Enterprise — custom.

Search: basic 1 credit, advanced 2. Failed extracts/maps are not charged. Unused credits do not roll over on the pages we copied.

Limitations / costs

• Credits reset monthly. Buying a bigger plan “just in case” wastes unused credits.
• Research is a range. A pro research call can land anywhere from 15 to 250 credits.
• Playground wants a key. The cover is the public Search docs, not a signed-out run.
• Not a cited chat UI. For that, see Perplexity.

Alternatives

• Exa — neural search + contents; $4–$7 / 1k search.
• Firecrawl — scrape/crawl playground billed in page credits.
• Perplexity — consumer answer engine with citations.

Official tutorial

Written path: Credits & Pricing plus Tavily Search. We did not confirm an official Tavily-channel Getting started YouTube id for embed.

Website

https://www.tavily.com

Source

Catalog row is curated (2026-10-21). Cover is the official Tavily Search API reference (POST /search + Python + JSON), not a marketing hero. Dollars checked on docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits (Free 1,000; Project $30; PAYG $0.008). No official Getting started YouTube confirmed for embed.

Last verified

2026-10-21 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.