Brave Search API vs Tavily (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Tavily grades higher than Brave Search API: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Tavily grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Brave Search API
Web search API from Brave's own index, built for AI agents and apps
Tavily
Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick Brave Search API if
- Fits if you're grounding an AI chatbot in current web results without scraping Google
- Works for apps moving off Google's Custom Search JSON API
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Google or Bing rankings, as results come only from Brave's index
- Watch out: a credit card is needed to sign up, even for the free monthly credit
- Watch out: storing results or training models on them needs a plan with storage rights
- Tight if you need volume, at 50 requests a second on Search and 2 on Answers before Enterprise
- Pricey if you use Answers, at $4 per 1,000 queries plus $5 per million tokens each way
Pick Tavily if
- Fits if an agent needs web search results it can read
- Works for people who prefer pay as you go to a monthly bill
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 1,000 credits, and requests stop until the month resets
- Watch out: an advanced search takes 2 credits, so 4,000 credits may mean 2,000 searches
- Pricey if you scale: 100,000 credits is $500 a month on the slider
- Watch out: it is a developer API only, with no desktop or mobile app
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABrave Search APIFair | 2.4GPATavilyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo subscription: Search is $5 per 1,000 requests from prepaid credits, after $5 of free credit a month. That's the dear end of what this category charges per search, and Answers adds token charges on top. | C$30 a month for 4,000 credits, or $0.008 a credit pay as you go, in the middle of this category ($19 to $44.10). |
| Free plan and trial | C$5 of free credit every month on each plan, about 1,000 searches, but a credit card is needed to sign up. | C1,000 API credits a month with no card, resetting monthly. Requests stop when they run out. |
| Features | CWeb, news, image, video and places search from Brave's own index, an LLM Context endpoint, cited Answers and Goggles to rerank results. The listing's own gap: it can't show what ranks on Google or Bing. | BSearch, extract, crawl, map and a research endpoint, with request safeguards. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one key for every search type, and an Answers interface that works with the OpenAI SDK. No rating on record, and a card is asked for at sign-up. | CNo store rating on record. It is an API key and code, or an agent connector. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API and the OpenAI SDK, Amazon Bedrock and OpenClaw. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb only, but it lists LangChain, Claude and Databricks. |
| Best for | web results from an independent index | web search and extraction for AI agents |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Brave Search API and Tavily. How we grade
Where they differ
- Tavily also covers AI search, AI agents and research.
At a glance
| Brave Search API | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $30 per month for 4,000 API credits |
| Free plan | $5 of free credit every month on each prepaid plan (Search, Answers, Spellcheck and Autosuggest), applied automatically. A credit card is needed to sign up. | Researcher plan: 1,000 API credits a month, no credit card required. Credits reset on the first of each month. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Brave Software, Inc. | Tavily |
| Price read from | api-dashboard.search.brave.com | tavily.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Brave Search API
- Usage is billed from prepaid credits: Search is $5 per 1,000 requests, and Answers $4 per 1,000 queries plus $5 per million input and output tokens.
- Spellcheck and Autosuggest cost $5 per 10,000 requests, and storing results or training models on them needs a plan with storage rights.
- Results come only from Brave's index, so it does not report what ranks on Google or Bing.
- Capacity is 50 requests per second on Search and 2 on Answers; more needs an Enterprise agreement.
Tavily
- Cost depends on the call: advanced search takes 2 credits, so the entry plan's 4,000 credits may mean only 2,000 advanced searches.
- On the free plan, requests stop when the month's credits run out until they reset or you upgrade.
- It is a developer API with no desktop or mobile apps; use is through the dashboard, SDKs and HTTP calls.
- It is a general web search API, not an SEO tool: it has no rank tracking or keyword metrics.
Key features
Brave Search API
- Brave's own index
- Every result comes from Brave's crawler and ranking, informed by opt-in signals from Brave users, with no fallback to Google or Bing for any query.
- LLM Context endpoint
- Returns ranked, extracted page content for a model to answer from, sized from 1k to about 33k tokens, with a relevance threshold and a URL and timestamp per source.
- Web, news, image, video and places
- The Search plan covers human-readable web results plus news, images, videos and location-aware places with map data, under one API key.
- Goggles and richer results
- Goggles rerank results and limit them to chosen sites; up to five extra snippets per result and schema-enriched results with added metadata.
- Answers endpoint
- Writes answers grounded on one or several searches, with citations and streaming, through an interface compatible with the OpenAI SDK.
- Privacy and security
- Brave says queries are never shared or used for training, retention is zero by design, and the service is SOC 2 Type II attested.
Tavily
- Search
- Returns web results for a query. A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search costs 2 credits.
- Extract
- Pulls page content from given URLs. Every 5 successful basic extractions cost 1 credit, and failed extractions are not charged.
- Crawl and map
- Crawl extracts content across a whole site, and map lists the URLs a site contains without extracting them.
- Research endpoint
- An agent endpoint for in-depth web research, listed beside search and extract in the product menu.
- Request safeguards
- The homepage says requests pass through layers that block PII leakage, prompt injection and malicious sources.
- Agent connectors
- Docs cover an MCP server, a command-line tool and a plugin for Claude Code, plus Python and JavaScript SDKs.
Plans
Brave Search API
Free monthly credits$0
$5 of credit a month on each of Search, Answers, Spellcheck and Autosuggest; usage beyond it is drawn from prepaid credits.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom terms, capacity and endpoints, full-funnel zero data retention, NDAs, invoicing and enterprise support. Sold through sales.
Tavily
Researcher$0
1,000 API credits a month, email support, no card needed. Requests stop when credits run out.
Pay As You Go$0.008
per credit, billed as used
No monthly fee; pay per credit used and cancel anytime. Docs say it also covers usage past a plan's credit limit.
Project$30
per month for 4,000 API credits
Higher rate limits. The slider also offers 15,000 credits for $100, 38,000 for $220 and 100,000 for $500.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and rate limits, enterprise support with SLAs, and enterprise security and privacy.
Ways to pay less
Brave Search API
No public discounts listed.
Tavily
- Startups
100k free API credits for startups
The pricing page says startups in the program get 100,000 free API credits plus hands-on support from the team.
- Education
Free for students
The pricing page says Tavily offers its service at no cost to students.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Brave Search API or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Brave Search API publishes no starting price, and Tavily starts at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, Brave Search API or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Brave Search API and Tavily have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.