--- title: "Tavily API: pricing, rate limits & MCP | ONEGTMLAB" description: "Tavily API: Credit-based web search, extract, map, crawl and research API built for AI agents, with a hosted MCP server and a keyless free mode." canonical: https://www.onegtmlab.dev/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/tavily --- # Tavily API: pricing, rate limits & MCP | ONEGTMLAB [](/) [ Book a call ](/book) ![](/_astro/tavily.zLOQxnbo.svg) API review # Tavily API review Credit-based web search, extract, map, crawl and research API built for AI agents, with a hosted MCP server and a keyless free mode. Best for agent web search with LLM-ready snippets at 1-2 credits per query. Verified 25 Oct 2026 · 10 endpoints listed · Official MCP server [ See pricing ](#pricing)[ Tavily API docs ](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search) At a glance Category Research, Scraping Pricing model Credits Free tier Researcher: 1,000 credits/month, no card Entry price $25/mo, billed annually Project Auth API key Official MCP Yes Best for Agent web search with LLM-ready snippets at 1-2 credits per query [tavily.com ↗](https://www.tavily.com)[Pricing page ↗](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits) ## What a call costs The actions you pay for, as Tavily prices them in credits. Action Cost Per Search basic / fast / ultra-fast 1 credit request Search advanced 2 credits request Extract basic 1 credit 5 successful URLs Extract advanced 2 credits 5 successful URLs Map 1 credit (2 with instructions) 10 successful pages Crawl map cost + extract cost request Research mini 4-110 credits (measured: 7 credits for one mini run, derived from dashboard total) request Research pro 15-250 credits request Show all 10 priced actionsHide the rest Action Cost Per Startup program 100k free credits one-off Free for students free student programme (terms on pricing page) ## Pricing, plan by plan US dollars, as Tavily's pricing page shows them on 25 Oct 2026. Monthly and annual billing are shown apart. Free tier Researcher: 1,000 credits/month, no card; credits reset on the 1st of each month ### Researcher $0 Free 1,000 credits/month, no card; dev keys only (Production key option disabled on free); Usage & logs dashboard is paid-only API includedPlan details Requests stop until reset unless PAYGO enabled ### Project $30/mo billed monthly $25/mo billed annually 4,000 credits/month ($0.0075/credit) API includedPlan details PAYGO $0.008/credit if enabled ### Bootstrap $100/mo billed monthly $83.33/mo billed annually 15,000 credits/month ($0.0067/credit) API includedPlan details PAYGO $0.008/credit if enabled ### Startup $220/mo billed monthly $183.33/mo billed annually 38,000 credits/month ($0.0058/credit) API includedPlan details PAYGO $0.008/credit if enabled ### Growth $500/mo billed monthly $416.67/mo billed annually 100,000 credits/month ($0.005/credit) API includedPlan details PAYGO $0.008/credit if enabled ### Pay as you go One-off pack $0.008 per credit, billed incrementally once plan credits run out; enables Production keys API included Show all 7 plansShow fewer plans ### Enterprise Custom quote Custom API included ## Rate limits Per key environment: Development 100 RPM, Production 1,000 RPM; /crawl 100 RPM both; /research 20 RPM to create; /usage 10 per 10 min. Limit Development key (all plans) Production key (paid plan or PAYGO only; disabled on free in-app) Keyless (X-Tavily-Access-Mode: keyless; /search and /extract only) Limit 100 RPM; /crawl 100 RPM; /research create 20 RPM; /usage 10 per 10 min 1,000 RPM; /crawl still 100 RPM; /research create 20 RPM free, rate-limited, cap not published; different error format More on limitsLess 429 with Retry-After. Production keys need a paid plan or PAYGO enabled. No rate-limit headers were returned on any of our 10 live responses (hands-on). ## How to get an API key Tavily uses API key. The steps below follow Tavily's own docs. 1. Create a Tavily account. The Researcher plan includes API access. 2. Sign up at [app.tavily.com](https://app.tavily.com) (free, no card; Auth0 login with Cloudflare Turnstile). A 'default' dev key exists at signup; Production keys need a paid plan or PAYGO; every key carries a 'Limit monthly usage' credit cap. /org-usage needs the organization owner's PERSONAL key. 3. Send it with every request: header: Authorization: Bearer tvly- (spec bearerAuth); keyless via header X-Tavily-Access-Mode: keyless (/search, /extract only; a Bearer key takes precedence); optional X-Project-ID header for project attribution. 4. Make a first call: Web search returning ranked, LLM-ready results; optional answer, raw content, images. Keep the key in an environment variable, never in the command. ``` curl -X POST "https://api.tavily.com/search" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{}' ``` ## Where the docs live What Where Documentation [docs.tavily.com](https://docs.tavily.com) API reference [docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search) OpenAPI spec [docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/openapi.json](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/openapi.json) llms.txt [docs.tavily.com/llms.txt](https://docs.tavily.com/llms.txt) Changelog [docs.tavily.com/changelog](https://docs.tavily.com/changelog) Base URL `https://api.tavily.com` MCP server `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/` SDKs tavily-python, @tavily/core (JavaScript), tavily-agent-toolkit (Python), tavily-cli (pip install tavily-cli; command tvly; installed by the dashboard setup prompt tavily.com/agent-setup/SKILL.md), Vercel AI SDK v5 integration, LangChain / LlamaIndex integrations ## Strengths and limits ### Where it fits - Agent web search with LLM-ready snippets at 1-2 credits per query - Bulk URL text extraction (5 URLs per credit on basic) - Quick site maps and shallow crawls without running a scraper - Prototyping with zero setup (keyless header, no account) ### Where it falls short - Hard anti-bot targets or logged-in sites (no proxy/unblocker product) - Entity-level company/people search - Publishing benchmark comparisons (terms forbid disclosing performance analysis) ### Worth knowing - Credits reset on the 1st of each calendar month regardless of billing date; unused plan credits do not roll over. - When monthly credits run out, requests stop unless pay-as-you-go is enabled. - Production keys (1,000 RPM) require a paid plan or PAYGO; dev keys are 100 RPM. - Advanced search costs 2x; advanced extract costs 2x; map with instructions costs 2x. - Research is dynamically priced, up to 250 credits ($1.25-$2.00) per pro request. 10 moreShow fewer - Terms (updated 4 May 2026) forbid disclosing performance information or analysis to third parties, building a competing product, and automated high-risk decisions without human oversight. - Crawl has its own 100 RPM cap even on production keys. - GET /usage did not reflect 14 used credits on the free plan (returned 0 twice while the dashboard showed 14); do not rely on it for live budget checks. - Usage & logs dashboard is paid-only on the free Researcher plan. - Settings > 'Allow use of query data' is ON by default ('We may use queries to improve the quality of our services'); turn it off for client work. - Credits are counted per started block and look rounded down: 1 extracted URL = 0 credits, 21 mapped URLs = 2, 5 crawled pages = 1. - /extract accepts at most 20 URLs per request. - Keyless mode covers /search and /extract only; /map, /crawl and /research need a key. - EU endpoint api.eu.tavily.com / mcp.eu.tavily.com is for selected customer evaluations only, enabled per key. - App and login screens are branded 'tavily by NEBIUS'; the contracting entity in the Terms is still AlphaAI Technologies Inc. dba Tavily. ## Who should use it Use Tavily for Agent web search with LLM-ready snippets at 1-2 credits per query Look elsewhere for Hard anti-bot targets or logged-in sites (no proxy/unblocker product) ## If Tavily is not the answer Other Research and scraping tools in this directory, each with its own review. [ ![](/_astro/dataforseo.lmwMYLks_Z1hF8Bv.webp) DataForSEO Research and scraping Best for cheap bulk SERP pulls via the Standard queue. DataForSEO API review →](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/dataforseo)[ ![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_ZIjcqx.webp) Exa Research and scraping Free planOfficial MCP Best for agent web search and RAG grounding with token-efficient contents. Exa API review →](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/exa)[ ![](/_astro/parallel-ai.DNKGhCFf.svg) Parallel AI Research and scraping Free planOfficial MCP Best for row-level account/contact research and enrichment with per-field citations and confidence. Parallel AI API review →](/tool-directory/research-and-scraping/parallel-ai) ### Compare Tavily with - [![](/_astro/exa.rOWjsHOa_Z12kK6j.webp)Exa side by side](/tool-directory/compare/exa-vs-tavily) ## Before you build Four things to settle first, each read off Tavily's own pages. - **Confirm the API is on your plan**The Researcher plan includes API access. Free tier: Researcher: 1,000 credits/month, no card. - **Keep the key out of your code**API key. It is sent as: header: Authorization: Bearer tvly- (spec bearerAuth); keyless via header X-Tavily-Access-Mode: keyless (/search, /extract only; a Bearer key takes precedence); optional X-Project-ID header for project attribution. - **Design around the rate limit**Per key environment: Development 100 RPM, Production 1,000 RPM; /crawl 100 RPM both; /research 20 RPM to create; /usage 10 per 10 min. - **Know the catch before you scale**Credits reset on the 1st of each calendar month regardless of billing date; unused plan credits do not roll over. ## Want us to build it for you? Tell us what you want Tavily to do in your stack. We will show you how we would wire it into your data, outbound or CRM, and what we would check first. [ Book a call ](/book)[ See case studies ](/case-studies) Read from [docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits), [docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search) and [docs.tavily.com/documentation/rate-limits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/rate-limits). Verified 25 Oct 2026. All 10 endpointsFor developers: method, path, what it does and what it costs. **Base URL:** `https://api.tavily.com` **Bulk and async:** /extract takes 1-20 URLs per request (spec); /crawl and /research run server-side; no separate batch API Filter endpoints 10 endpoints Method Path What it does Cost POST `/search` Web search returning ranked, LLM-ready results; optional answer, raw content, images basic/fast/ultra-fast 1 credit, advanced 2 credits per request POST `/extract` Clean content from 1-20 URLs per request basic: 1 credit per 5 successful URLs; advanced: 2 credits per 5; failed URLs free; measured: 1 URL basic = 0 credits POST `/crawl` Crawl a site from a base URL (map + extract) map cost + extract cost, e.g. 10 pages basic = 3 credits, advanced = 5 credits POST `/map` Discover a site's URLs from a base URL 1 credit per 10 successful pages; 2 per 10 with instructions; failed requests free POSTasync `/research` Start an async multi-source research task dynamic: model=mini 4-110 credits, model=pro 15-250 credits per request; measured one mini run = 7 credits GETasync `/research/{request_id}` Poll research task status and result Not stated POST `/feedback` Submit feedback on a search request or session Not stated GET `/usage` API key and account usage free POST `/logs` Usage logs per API key (filter by key, endpoint) Not stated POST `/org-usage` Organization usage across all keys (needs org owner's personal key) Not stated [](/) © 2026 ONEGTMLAB Private Limited. 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