Exa vs Tavily (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Tavily grades higher than Exa: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Exa grades higher on the free plan. Tavily grades higher on features and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Tavily
Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick Exa if
- Fits if you're building an AI agent that needs to search the live web
- Works for developers who want search results returned as page contents
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want an app to read or take notes in, as it's an API
- Tight if you go past $10 of credits a month, when billing is by usage with no fixed price
- Pricey if you need zero data retention, which is Enterprise with a $12,000 annual credit commitment
- Watch out: Starter allows 10 searches per second and 50 agent concurrency
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
| 2.2GPAExaFair | 2.4GPATavilyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo fixed monthly price: search from $4 per 1,000 requests, contents $1 per 1,000 pages and agent runs $0.012 to $1.00 each. It's a different kind of thing from a reading app, so it sits at C, and the bill depends on usage. | 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 | BThe Starter plan is $10 of credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, with no payment method needed. A solo developer testing can live on that. | C1,000 API credits a month with no card, resetting monthly. Requests stop when they run out. |
| Features | CSearch, Contents, Agent and Monitors APIs plus agent tooling. A developer building block rather than a research tool, and zero data retention needs a $12,000 annual Enterprise commitment. | 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 | DNo store rating on record. You need code, an API key and a client to use it, so it's a D. | CNo store rating on record. It is an API key and code, or an agent connector. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb API with Claude, ChatGPT and MCP hooks. No desktop or mobile apps, as the listing says. | BWeb only, but it lists LangChain, Claude and Databricks. |
| Best for | giving AI agents a web search API | 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: Exa and Tavily. How we grade
Where they differ
- Tavily also covers sERP API.
At a glance
| Exa | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $30 per month for 4,000 API credits |
| Free plan | Starter: $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no payment method required. | 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 | Exa Labs Inc. | Tavily |
| Price read from | exa.ai | tavily.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Exa
- The free Starter allowance is $10 of credits per month; past that, the Developer plan bills by usage with no fixed monthly price.
- Per-request prices: search from $4 per 1,000 requests, contents $1 per 1,000 pages, monitors $2 per 1,000 requests, agent runs $0.012 to $1.00 each.
- Zero data retention is an Enterprise option with a $12,000 annual commitment in API credits.
- It is an API for developers, not a reading or note-taking app; it has no desktop or mobile apps.
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
Exa
- Search API
- Returns web results with page text and highlights, with latency settings from about 450 ms to 10 seconds and categories such as news, companies, research papers and people.
- Contents API
- Fetches full page contents or token-efficient highlights for use as model context, with configurable live-crawl policies.
- Agent API
- Runs asynchronous deep-research tasks that return structured output with citations.
- Monitors API
- Runs searches on a schedule and sends updates by webhook.
- Agent tooling
- The Starter plan lists an MCP server, a Claude connector, a ChatGPT plugin and more than 50 integrations.
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
Exa
Starter$0
$10 of credits each month, access to all endpoints, 10 search queries per second and 50 agent concurrency.
EnterpriseCustom
Zero data retention, custom MSA and DPA, SSO and SCIM, SLAs and custom indexes, 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
Exa
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, Exa or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Exa publishes no starting price, and Tavily starts at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, Exa or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Exa 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.