Tavily
Tavily is a search API built for AI agents. See 2026 pricing, the new Research endpoint, credit costs, and how it compares to other search APIs.
About Tavily
What is Tavily (2026 update)
Tavily is a search API and research assistant in the Education & Translation category, built specifically for AI agents rather than human browsers. Instead of returning a page of blue links, Tavily returns structured, LLM-ready search results and research summaries that developers can feed directly into an agent’s context window.
What is new in 2026
In January 2026, Tavily shipped a batch of updates including a general availability release of its Research endpoint, which lets a single API call trigger deep, end-to-end web research instead of chaining multiple search calls yourself. That release also added official agent skills that encode best practices for web search, a Vercel AI SDK integration, domain governance controls, usage tracking APIs, and new fast and ultra-fast search_depth options for latency-sensitive agents. In August 2026, Tavily added an include_domains_mode parameter to its Search endpoint, letting you choose between a hard filter on specified domains or a boost mode that prioritizes those domains while still searching the rest of the web.
Key features
- Search API returning structured, LLM-ready results instead of raw HTML
- Research endpoint for single-call, end-to-end deep web research
- Fast and ultra-fast search_depth options for latency-sensitive agents
- Domain governance controls, including include/exclude domain filtering and boost mode
- Project ID header for tracking usage by project
- Official agent skills and SDK integrations, including Vercel AI SDK
Pricing in 2026
Tavily uses a credit-based model. A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search costs 2 credits, while a single Research call can consume anywhere from 4 to 250 credits depending on depth, so actual monthly cost depends on how your agent uses the API rather than the plan price alone.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 1,000 API credits per month, no credit card required |
| Pay As You Go | $0.008 per credit | Cancel anytime, billed per credit used |
| Paid entry plan | $30/month ($25/month billed annually) | Around 4,000 API credits per month, higher rate limits |
| Startup plan | $100/month ($83/month billed annually) | Roughly 15,000 searches per month |
| Growth plan | $500/month | 100,000 credits per month, about $0.005 per credit |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom rate limits, SLAs, enterprise security |
Exact plan names shift between marketing pages, so check the official pricing page for the current tier names and any active promotions before you commit.
Who should use it
Tavily is built for developers building AI agents, RAG pipelines, or research tools that need reliable, structured web data rather than a consumer search box. It suits teams already working with LangChain, the Vercel AI SDK, or custom agent frameworks who want a search backend that returns clean, parseable results. It is not the right choice if you just need a human-facing search engine or a simple keyword lookup, since its value is mainly in agent-oriented features like the Research endpoint and domain governance.
Limitations and alternatives
Because pricing is credit-based and a single Research call can cost up to 250 credits, costs can be harder to predict than a flat-rate API, especially once agents start making research calls autonomously. The free tier’s 1,000 credits per month is enough for testing but will run out quickly in production use. If you need alternatives, consider Exa for embeddings-based semantic search built for AI applications, Serper for a lower-cost Google Search API wrapper, or SerpAPI if you need broader search engine coverage beyond Google.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tavily free to use?
Yes, Tavily offers a free plan with 1,000 API credits per month and no credit card required, then paid plans start around $30/month.
How does Tavily's credit system work?
A basic search costs 1 credit, an advanced search costs 2 credits, and a Research call can cost between 4 and 250 credits depending on depth, so bills track actual usage, not just the plan tier.
What is the Tavily Research endpoint?
It is an endpoint made generally available in January 2026 that runs deep, end-to-end web research through a single API call instead of requiring multiple manual search requests.
What are Tavily's main alternatives?
Exa, Serper, and SerpAPI are commonly compared alternatives, each with different pricing models and search coverage for AI applications.
Information last verified: September 2026.
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