# Tavily review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Tavily is an API that gives AI agents and language-model apps access to live web data. It offers search, extract, crawl, map and research endpoints, and returns results already trimmed into chunks for a model to read. Usage is billed in API credits, with a free monthly allowance. - **Category:** SERP & SEO Data APIs - **Made by:** Tavily - **Website:** https://www.tavily.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free: 1,000 credits, and requests stop until the month resets. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Tavily has a free plan, and paid plans start at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Researcher plan: 1,000 API credits a month, no credit card required. Credits reset on the first of each month. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom credits and rate limits, enterprise support with SLAs, and enterprise security and privacy. | Read from https://www.tavily.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Tavily before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **100k free API credits for startups** (Startups): The pricing page says startups in the program get 100,000 free API credits plus hands-on support from the team. Source: https://www.tavily.com/pricing - **Free for students** (Education): The pricing page says Tavily offers its service at no cost to students. Source: https://www.tavily.com/pricing ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers adding live web search to an AI agent or RAG app - Small projects that fit inside 1,000 free credits a month - Startups and students, who have separate programs ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Tavily is a search and extract API for AI agents, with crawl, map and a research endpoint. The free plan is 1,000 credits a month, but an advanced search takes 2 credits and requests stop when you run out. - **Value for money: 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.** 1,000 API credits a month with no card, resetting monthly. Requests stop when they run out. - **Features: B.** Search, extract, crawl, map and a research endpoint, with request safeguards. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. It is an API key and code, or an agent connector. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, but it lists LangChain, Claude and Databricks. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Tavily's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among SERP and SEO data APIs - Tavily's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 21 of the 48 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade, and level with 17. - It stands best on features (B, above 33 of 48) and worst on ease of use (C, above 1). - Its paid plans start at $30 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 19 of the 33 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo-data-apis ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Tavily you would be making search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $360 a year. - You could not: Search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. - You could not: A search engine with an AI model behind it. - You could not: A library of papers and sources to search. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: It plugs into other products, LangChain, Claude and Databricks among them, and has an API. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with LangChain, Claude, Databricks **Tags:** SERP API, AI search, Research, Public API, AI agents ## Alternatives - [Firecrawl](https://toolgpa.com/tools/firecrawl): Web search, scrape and crawl API that returns LLM-ready data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-tavily) - [Linkup](https://toolgpa.com/tools/linkup): Pay-per-request web search and fetch API for AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/linkup-vs-tavily) - [Brave Search API](https://toolgpa.com/tools/brave-search-api): Web search API from Brave's own index, built for AI agents and apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-api-vs-tavily) - [Serper](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serper): Google search results API sold in prepaid credit packs. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/serper-vs-tavily) - [ScrapingBee](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrapingbee): Web scraping API with a Google search endpoint, priced by credits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scrapingbee-vs-tavily) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.tavily.com/pricing - https://www.tavily.com - https://www.tavily.com/about - https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits - https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/integrations Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/tavily Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).