Firecrawl vs Tavily (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Firecrawl grades higher than Tavily: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Firecrawl grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Firecrawl
Web search, scrape and crawl API that returns LLM-ready data
Tavily
Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick Firecrawl if
- Fits if you feed web pages into an LLM and want Markdown back
- Works for people happy to self-host the open-source core
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 1,000 credits, 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits
- Watch out: JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits a page
- Watch out: Agent, Browser and the managed dashboards are Cloud only, not in the open-source version
- Pricey if you scale: $83 for 100,000 credits and $333 for 500,000, and pay-as-you-go is for paid plans only
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
| 2.6GPAFirecrawlGood | 2.4GPATavilyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$16 a month on yearly billing for 5,000 credits, inside the cheapest quarter of this category ($19). Standard jumps to $83 for 100,000. | 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 | CA free plan with 1,000 credits a month and no card, but only 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits. | C1,000 API credits a month with no card, resetting monthly. Requests stop when they run out. |
| Features | BSearch, scrape, crawl, map and interact, with SDKs and an open-source core. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core scraping job. | 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 | CNo store rating on record. It is a developer API, with keys and code to set up. | CNo store rating on record. It is an API key and code, or an agent connector. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it plugs into LangChain, Claude, ChatGPT and Ollama and has SDKs. | BWeb only, but it lists LangChain, Claude and Databricks. |
| Best for | turning web pages into clean text for AI apps | 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: Firecrawl and Tavily. How we grade
Price against what you get
Firecrawl starts at $16 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Tavily starts at $30 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Firecrawl starts $14 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Firecrawl for less, and none scores higher than Tavily for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Firecrawl is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Tavily also covers AI search and research.
At a glance
| Firecrawl | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly) | $30 per month for 4,000 API credits |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits a month, no card needed, 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits. | 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 | Firecrawl | Tavily |
| Price read from | firecrawl.dev | tavily.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Firecrawl
- Per-page cost rises with format: JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits per page on Scrape and Crawl.
- The docs say Agent, Browser, managed dashboards, enhanced proxy paths and enterprise controls are Cloud-only.
- Pay-as-you-go (credits added in $5 steps up to a monthly limit you set) is for paid plans only.
- A page that returns an error status such as 403 or 404 still costs 1 credit.
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
Firecrawl
- Search with page content
- Searches the web and returns full page content from the results, not only links. Costs 2 credits per 10 results.
- Scrape to Markdown or JSON
- Turns a URL into Markdown, structured JSON, screenshots or other formats. A basic scrape costs 1 credit per page.
- Crawl and map
- Crawl follows a site page by page at 1 credit per page. Map lists a site's URLs for 1 credit per call.
- Interact
- Scrapes a page, then clicks, fills forms or navigates it from AI prompts or code, at 2 credits per browser minute.
- Open-source core
- The core scrape, crawl, map and search APIs can be self-hosted with Docker Compose, per the docs.
- SDKs and shared credits
- Python, Node.js, cURL and CLI examples are shown. One credit balance is shared across all endpoints.
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
Firecrawl
Free$0
1,000 credits a month (500 searches or 1,000 pages scraped), 2 concurrent requests.
Hobby$16
per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)
5 concurrent requests, basic support, and extra credits at 1,000 per $5.
Standard$83
per month for 100,000 credits, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)
25 concurrent requests, standard support, extra credits at 2,000 per $5.
Growth$333
per month for 500,000 credits, billed annually ($399 billed monthly)
50 concurrent requests, priority support, extra credits at 2,500 per $5.
Scale$599
per month for 1,000,000 credits, billed annually ($749 billed monthly)
100 concurrent requests, priority support, extra credits at 5,000 per $5.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and concurrency, dedicated support and SLA, SSO, zero-data retention.
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
Firecrawl
- Annual discount
Annual billing saves about 2 months
Annual prices are lower than monthly (Standard $83 against $99 a month); the homepage banner says 2 months free when billed annually.
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, Firecrawl or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Firecrawl is cheaper to start with: $16 a month, against $30 a month for Tavily. Firecrawl starts at $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly), and Tavily starts at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, Firecrawl or Tavily?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Firecrawl 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.