Tavily vs Brave Search API for AI agents
Tavily is a web search API for AI agents that returns ranked results, optional page text and an optional short LLM answer. Programmatic access to Brave Search, which runs its own independent web index.
The short answer
- Tavily: Quick, agent-ready web search with snippets or page text and an optional answer in one call.
- Brave Search API: Independent (non-Google, non-Bing) web results at a simple flat price, with fast throughput.
Side by side
| Tavily | Brave Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | The open web (general and news topics). | Brave's own independent index (Brave says 40+ billion pages); web, news, images, video. |
| Returns | JSON: ranked results with title, URL, a content snippet and relevance score; optional cleaned full page text (raw_content), images, and a short LLM-generated answer. | JSON web results (URLs, titles, snippets, up to five extra snippets), news, images and more, plus an LLM-context endpoint; a separate Answers plan returns AI answers. |
| Before the first call | A free account and an API key (Bearer token); no credit card for the free plan. | An account, an API key, and a credit card even for the free credit (used for identity, not charged). |
| Free | 1,000 API credits a month, no credit card; a basic search costs 1 credit (advanced costs 2). | $5 in free credits every month (about 1,000 searches at $5 per 1,000); card required. |
| Paid | Pay as you go at $0.008 a credit; a basic search is 1 credit, an advanced one 2. | $5 per 1,000 requests (Search plan, 50 queries per second). |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Not stated on its pages | No storing, caching or building a database of results beyond transient storage unless you buy a plan that explicitly grants storage rights. |
| AI in its terms | Tavily and its AI providers may use your inputs and outputs to train and improve AI models; you may not use output to build models that compete with Tavily. | Results may not be used to create, train, fine-tune or benchmark AI models (storage-rights plans are separate). |
| MCP server | Official remote MCP server: https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/ (code: https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp) | Official MCP server from Brave: https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Tavily?
A free account and an API key (Bearer token); no credit card for the free plan.
Is Tavily free?
1,000 API credits a month, no credit card; a basic search costs 1 credit (advanced costs 2).
What do I need before I can use Brave Search API?
An account, an API key, and a credit card even for the free credit (used for identity, not charged).
Is Brave Search API free?
$5 in free credits every month (about 1,000 searches at $5 per 1,000); card required.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Tavily, read on October 15, 2026:
- tavily.com/pricing: “1,000 API credits / month”
- tavily.com/pricing: “No credit card required”
- tavily.com/pricing: “$0.008 / credit”
- docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits: “Each request costs 1 API credit.”
- docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits: “Each request costs 2 API credits.”
- tavily.com/terms: “may incorporate insights derived from your Customer Input and Outputs into their respective training datasets”
- tavily.com/terms: “use Output generated by the AI Functionality to develop models that compete with the Company”
- docs.tavily.com/documentation/mcp: “The easiest way to take advantage of Tavily MCP is by using the remote URL.”
- docs.tavily.com/documentation/mcp: “https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp”
Brave Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- brave.com/search/api: “$5 per 1,000 requests”
- brave.com/search/api: “Includes $5 in free credits every month”
- brave.com/search/api: “Brave's index includes 40+ billion pages, kept fresh by 100+ million page updates every day.”
- brave.com/search/api: “Get up to five snippets picked in real time to maximize contextual relevance to a search.”
- brave.com/search/api: “For free plans, the card is only used to confirm your identity and will not be charged.”
- brave.com/search/api: “you will need to subscribe to a plan that explicitly grants storage rights.”
- api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service: “store, cache, or create a database of Search Results, in whole or in part, other than transient storage”
- api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service: “use the Search Results to create, evaluate, train, re-train, fine-tune, benchmark”