--- title: "Exa vs Tavily: Pricing, Limits and MCP Compared | ONEGTMLAB" description: "Exa vs Tavily for AI agent web search: cost per 1,000 searches, free tiers, rate limits, map and crawl, MCP setup. Prices verified 25 Oct 2026." canonical: https://www.onegtmlab.dev/tool-directory/compare/exa-vs-tavily --- # Exa vs Tavily: Pricing, Limits and MCP Compared | ONEGTMLAB [](/) [ Book a call ](/book) Comparison # Exa vs Tavily: which web search API fits your agent? Exa and Tavily are both web search APIs built for AI agents. Choose Exa for company and people search, monitors that push to webhooks and research runs at a flat price, billed in dollars from $4 per 1,000 searches. Choose Tavily for site map and crawl in one API and a free plan of 1,000 credits a month with no card. Verified 25 Oct 2026 ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_ZKaFMb.webp)Pick Exa if - You need company or people search - You want to pay in dollars with no plan, and see each call's cost in the costDollars field ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Pick Tavily if - You need to map or crawl a site with the same API you search with - You want a free tier that works with no card: 1,000 credits a month [![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z1tdXj1.webp)](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa) Exa Research, Scraping vs [![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily) Tavily Research, Scraping [Exa review →](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa)[Tavily review →](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily) 01 ## At a glance ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z12kK6j.webp)Exa From **Pay as you go, prepaid balance** Free plan **Yes**$10/mo plus $10 bonus, card needed Cost per unit **$4,**Lite auto $7, deep $12 MCP server **Official** ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily From **$30**Plans to $500/mo, or $0.008/credit Free plan **Yes**1,000 credits/mo, no card Cost per unit **$8**basic, $16 advanced, pay as you go MCP server **Official** 02 ## Where they differ 16 points side by side. Open a value for the full detail. What ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z1bQ1Vc.webp)[Exa](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa) ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)[Tavily](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily) ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaWeb search API on its own indexA web search API on its own index. One key covers search with page contents, contents for URLs you already have, cited answers, scheduled monitors, an async research Agent and Websets for entity lists. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyCredit-based web layer for agentsA credit-based web layer for agents. Five main endpoints: search, extract, map, crawl and async research. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaPay as you go, prepaid balancePay as you go from a prepaid dollar balance. No subscription and no minimum. Verified 2026-10-25. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyPlans $30 to $500/mo, or $0.008/creditMonthly credit plans from $30 to $500, or pay as you go at $0.008 per credit. Plan credits reset on the 1st of the calendar month and do not roll over. Annual billing ("2 months free") was offered in the app on 25 Oct 2026. Verified 2026-10-25. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaLite $4, auto $7, deep $12Lite $4, auto $7, deep $12, deep-reasoning $15. The price covers 10 results; each extra result costs $1 per 1,000. Verified 2026-10-25. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily$8 basic, $16 advanced, pay as you goBasic, fast and ultra-fast cost 1 credit; advanced costs 2. That is $8 and $16 per 1,000 on pay as you go, $5 and $10 on Growth monthly ($0.005 per credit), and about $4.20 and $8.40 on Growth billed annually ($0.0042 per credit in the app on 25 Oct 2026). Verified 2026-10-25. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)Exa$1 per 1,000 pages per type/contents costs $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. Text plus highlights on one page counts as 2 units. Summaries add $1 per 1,000 pages. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily1 credit per 5 URLs, basic/extract costs 1 credit per 5 successful URLs on basic and 2 per 5 on advanced. Failed URLs are free. Basic works out at $1.60 per 1,000 URLs on pay as you go. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaNo map or crawl endpoint ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyMap 1 credit per 10 pages; crawl/map costs 1 credit per 10 pages (2 per 10 with instructions). /crawl costs map plus extract and has its own 100 requests per minute cap. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaAgent runs from $0.012 flatExa Agent (/agent/runs) is async. A fixed effort gives a flat price per run: minimal $0.012, low $0.025, medium $0.10, high $0.50, xhigh $1.00. The auto and ultra modes are metered, with default caps of $5 and $20 per run that you can set from $1 to $100. /answer returns one cited answer for $5 per 1,000. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyMini 4 to 110 credits per request/research is async. Mini costs 4 to 110 credits and pro 15 to 250 credits per request, so one pro call can reach about $2 on pay as you go. The result reports credits only if you add include\_usage=true when you fetch it; our call left it off and got none. There are no webhooks, so you poll /research/{id}. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaCompany and people search categoriesSearch has category=company and category=people modes; Exa says people search spans 1B+ public profiles. Websets builds entity lists, on a separate paid Websets plan whose prices show only after login. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyNo company or people searchNo entity-level company or people search. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)Exa$10/mo plus $10 bonus, card neededThe docs list $10 of credits a month plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus with no card. In the app on 25 Oct 2026 a new account showed a $0.00 balance and "Your free credits are pending payment verification" until a non-prepaid card is added. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily1,000 credits/mo, no cardResearcher plan: 1,000 credits a month, no card. The app matched this on 25 Oct 2026. When credits run out, requests stop unless pay as you go is on. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaKeyless API returned 402; keyless MCP freeA keyless API call returned HTTP 402 with an offer to pay $0.007 in USDC per search (our call on 25 Oct 2026). The keyless MCP is free and rate-limited; Exa's February 2026 changelog set it at 3 queries per second and 150 calls a day. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilySearch and extract work keylessSearch and extract work keyless with the header X-Tavily-Access-Mode: keyless. Map is not available keyless. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)Exa10 queries/sec on searchSet per team across all keys: 10 queries per second on search and answer, 5 on deep search, 100 on /contents in the docs (110 in the app on 25 Oct 2026), 50 concurrent Agent runs. Buying $1,000 of credits within 30 days raises search to 25 per second for 90 days. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily100 to 1,000 requests/min per keySet per key: Development keys 100 requests per minute, Production keys 1,000 per minute. Production keys need a paid plan or pay as you go. /research allows 20 new tasks per minute. Each key can carry a monthly usage limit (in the app on 25 Oct 2026). ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaYesOfficial hosted server at `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`. Runs keyless, with OAuth (?login) or with an x-api-key header. Tools: web\_search\_exa, web\_fetch\_exa, web\_search\_advanced\_exa and agent\_run (agent\_run needs a key or OAuth). ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyYesOfficial hosted server at `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/` with OAuth, a key in the URL, or the keyless header. Tools: tavily\_search, tavily\_extract, tavily\_crawl, tavily\_map and tavily\_research. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaMCP route or setup prompt and skillOnboarding offers two routes. The MCP route ends at "Install Exa in Claude". The API route gives a setup prompt that reads the key from the environment, plus the skill command npx skills add exa-labs/agent-skills --skill "build-with-exa". ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyOne-line setup prompt, tvly CLI"Copy prompt" gives one line for your coding agent: Read and execute tavily.com/agent-setup/SKILL.md. That file installs the tvly CLI, signs in by browser OAuth and adds Tavily Agent Skills. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExacostDollars field on every responseEvery response carries a costDollars field. The dashboard warns that "Recent usage can take a few hours to show up here", so use costDollars for live tracking. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavilyusage.credits when include\_usage is trueSearch, extract, map, crawl and research results return usage.credits when you set include\_usage to true (the default is false). The Usage and logs page is for paid plans only (in the app on 25 Oct 2026). ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaWebhooks; Batch API in betaMonitors and Websets deliver to webhooks. A Batch API (beta, header Exa-Beta: batches-2026-06-06) runs many searches or Agent runs and returns JSONL. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilyNo webhooks or batch APINo webhooks. Extract takes up to 20 URLs per call; crawl and research run server side. No separate batch API. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaSOC 2 Type II; ZDR on EnterpriseSOC 2 Type II, per its security overview. Zero data retention and HIPAA are Enterprise options. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilySOC 2 and ZDR stated; query data onIts docs FAQ says "SOC 2 certified, zero data retention" and does not name the SOC 2 report type. The setting "Allow use of query data" was on by default in the app on 25 Oct 2026; switch it off for client work. Its terms bar sharing performance analysis of the service with third parties, so this page compares prices, limits and features only. ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)ExaSix calls cost $0.041 totalSix paid calls on 25 Oct 2026 cost $0.041 in total: lite search $0.004, auto $0.007, deep $0.012, one contents page $0.001, one answer $0.005, one Agent run on minimal $0.012. Each matched the published rate. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)TavilySeven calls used 14 free creditsSeven calls on 25 Oct 2026 used 14 free credits: basic search 1, advanced 2, fast 1, a one-URL extract 0, a 21-URL map 2, a 5-page crawl 1, and a research run on mini 7 (worked out from the dashboard total). Each matched the docs. 03 ## Pricing, plan by plan US dollars as each vendor's page showed them on 25 Oct 2026. One panel per tool; switch each between monthly and annual billing (an annual price is the monthly rate when you pay for the year up front). ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z1juOpr.webp) ### Exa 4 plans · [API review](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa) ### Free $0 Free $10 of credits a month plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus, per the docs. API includedPlan details In the app on 25 Oct 2026 a new account showed a $0.00 balance, with the free credits pending until a non-prepaid card is added. Verified 2026-10-25. ### Pay as you go Usage-based Prepaid dollar balance, billed per request. API includedPlan details Search lite $4, auto $7, deep $12, deep-reasoning $15 per 1,000 requests; contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type; answer $5 per 1,000; monitors $15 per 1,000; Agent from $0.012 per run. Verified 2026-10-25. ### Enterprise Custom quote Custom volume pricing, postpaid invoicing, up to 1,000 results per search, zero data retention. API includedPlan details Verified 2026-10-25. ### Websets plans [Price not verified](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing) Websets credits are separate from API credits. API includedPlan details Plan prices show only after login, so we have not verified them. ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg) ### Tavily 7 plans · [API review](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily) ### Researcher (free) $0 Free 1,000 credits a month, no card, Development keys only (100 requests per minute). API included ### Project $30/mo billed monthly $25/mo billed annually 4,000 credits a month ($0.0075 per credit monthly). API includedPlan details Annual price shown in the app on 25 Oct 2026. ### Bootstrap $100/mo billed monthly $83.33/mo billed annually 15,000 credits a month ($0.0067 per credit monthly). API includedPlan details Annual price shown in the app on 25 Oct 2026. ### Startup $220/mo billed monthly $183.33/mo billed annually 38,000 credits a month ($0.0058 per credit monthly). API includedPlan details Annual price shown in the app on 25 Oct 2026. Show all 7 plansShow fewer plans ### Growth $500/mo billed monthly $416.67/mo billed annually 100,000 credits a month ($0.005 per credit monthly). API includedPlan details Annual price shown in the app on 25 Oct 2026. ### Pay as you go Usage-based $0.008 per credit, billed as you use it, with Production keys. API included ### Enterprise Custom quote Custom credits and rate limits, SSO, MSA and DPA. API included 04 ## Which one to pick ### ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_ZIjcqx.webp)Choose Exa if - You need company or people search. Exa has category=company and category=people modes. - You want to pay in dollars with no plan, and see each call's cost in the costDollars field. - You want scheduled searches that push new results to a webhook (Monitors, $15 per 1,000 requests). - You want async research at a fixed price per run, from $0.012 on minimal effort. - Most of your volume is light searches: Exa lite costs $4 per 1,000, and Tavily basic costs $8 per 1,000 on pay as you go. ### ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Choose Tavily if - You need to map or crawl a site with the same API you search with. - You want a free tier that works with no card: 1,000 credits a month. - You prefer a fixed monthly plan and a monthly usage cap on each key. - You want to prototype with no account: search and extract work keyless with one header. - One production key needs up to 1,000 requests per minute. **If neither fits:** Also consider Parallel when bulk search cost or cited research per row matters most. Its Search turbo and fast modes cost $1 per 1,000 requests with 10 results included, Extract costs $1 per 1,000 URLs, and Task runs return fields with citations from $5 per 1,000 runs on lite. Search and Extract allow 600 requests a minute, and its Search MCP is free with no account. Set the mode on every search, because the API default is advanced at $5 per 1,000. Its customer terms bar caching or sharing outputs across end customers. Pay as you go, verified 2026-10-25. ## Want us to build it for you? Choosing between Exa and Tavily, or moving from one to the other? Tell us your setup. We will show you how we would run it, and what we would check first. [ Book a call ](/book)[ See case studies ](/case-studies) 05 ## Questions people ask What APIs does Claude Code use for lead generation? For web search and page reading, Exa and Tavily both publish official hosted MCP servers that Claude Code can add. Exa's is `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`, with web search, page fetch, advanced search and Agent tools. Tavily's is `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/`, with search, extract, crawl, map and research tools. Exa also has company and people search modes. Neither is a contact database: Exa's Agent charges $0.02 per email and $0.07 per phone found, and Tavily has no people search. ## Related [![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z14cerW.webp)Exa API review](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa)[![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg)Tavily API review](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily)[![](/_astro/apollo.DNg6-7d3.svg)![](/_astro/attio.CoO4UDxn_ZRTvHO.webp)Apollo vs Attio](/tool-directory/compare/apollo-vs-attio)[![](/_astro/apollo.DNg6-7d3.svg)![](/_astro/people-data-labs.mXDEg2jz_Z86udK.webp)Apollo vs People Data Labs](/tool-directory/compare/apollo-vs-people-data-labs)[![](/_astro/hubspot.ClO2484y_SluoY.webp)![](/_astro/pipedrive.DtFSS7Dm_ZtSGQm.webp)HubSpot vs Pipedrive](/tool-directory/compare/hubspot-vs-pipedrive)[![](/_astro/instantly.w1WoNFJP.svg)![](/_astro/smartlead.DCswj1gL_Z1Wvnoa.webp)Instantly vs Smartlead](/tool-directory/compare/instantly-vs-smartlead) Read from [exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing), [docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits) and each tool's API docs. 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