What Tavily does
Tavily is a web search and research API built for AI applications, returning relevant sources, extracted content, answers, and crawl results in structured form.
Tavily packages web retrieval for agent and RAG developers who would otherwise combine a search engine, crawler, extractor, and result formatter. Search controls can narrow domains and freshness, while extraction and research endpoints support deeper collection. Structured responses make citations and provenance easier to preserve through an application.
The Researcher plan currently includes 1,000 API credits per month without a card, while pay-as-you-go is listed at $0.008 per credit; adjustable Project and custom Enterprise options add capacity and controls. Credit consumption varies by endpoint and depth, so forecast multi-step agents, retries, extracted pages, and research calls rather than counting only user questions.
Search results are not trusted facts. Ranking can miss authoritative pages, extracted text can be stale or incomplete, and a webpage can contain malicious instructions aimed at an agent. Treat retrieved content as untrusted data, preserve URLs and dates, favor primary sources, restrict network actions, respect robots and content rights, and require verification before publishing or acting.
How Tavily works
An application submits a query or URL with search depth, topic, date, domain, content, or answer options. Tavily retrieves and ranks web results, can extract or crawl page content, and returns structured URLs, snippets, text, and optional synthesized output. A calling model uses those results as context or chooses another tool. Developers must validate source identity, dates, licenses, prompt-injection content, and any downstream claim or action.
How to set up Tavily
Define acceptable evidence
Specify primary-source preferences, excluded domains, freshness, citation requirements, abstention, and actions that search may inform.
Protect the API key
Call Tavily from a server, separate environments, set credit alerts, and limit access to the endpoints the application needs.
Tune on reviewed queries
Compare depth, topic, domain, date, content, and result-count settings across a representative evaluation set.
Sanitize retrieved content
Treat pages as untrusted, strip active content, isolate instructions, validate URLs, and cap size, recursion, and crawl scope.
Require evidence review
Display citations and dates, verify consequential claims, measure authoritative-source recall, and monitor credits, latency, and failures.
Tavily FAQs
Does Tavily have a free plan?
Yes. Its current Researcher plan lists 1,000 API credits each month without requiring a credit card.
What is a Tavily credit?
Credits meter API work, with consumption depending on the endpoint and options rather than simply one credit per user question.
Does Tavily return page content?
Supported search and extraction options can return snippets or cleaned content, subject to endpoint, access, and page limitations.
Can Tavily guarantee source accuracy?
No. Applications must check authority, freshness, context, and whether a cited page actually supports the claim.
Is web content safe for agents?
No. Retrieved pages can include prompt injection or malicious instructions and must be isolated from trusted system rules and credentials.
Listing reviewed 2026-07-30. Product details and pricing can change; verify important terms on the provider's website.
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