Tavily vs Firecrawl Search 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. Firecrawl Search is a web scraping platform whose search endpoint returns web results and can scrape each result to Markdown in the same call.
The short answer
- Tavily: Quick, agent-ready web search with snippets or page text and an optional answer in one call.
- Firecrawl Search: Search plus full-page scraping to clean Markdown in one request.
Side by side
| Tavily | Firecrawl Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | The open web (general and news topics). | The web, news and images (the provider does not name the underlying engine). |
| 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. | Title, URL and description per result; optionally full-page Markdown, HTML, links or screenshots for each result. |
| Before the first call | A free account and an API key (Bearer token); no credit card for the free plan. | No key to get started (low limits); an account and API key for normal use. |
| Free | 1,000 API credits a month, no credit card; a basic search costs 1 credit (advanced costs 2). | 1,000 credits a month, no card (about 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results). |
| Paid | Pay as you go at $0.008 a credit; a basic search is 1 credit, an advanced one 2. | Hobby $19/month (or $16/month billed yearly) for 5,000 credits, about 2,500 searches. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| 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. | Not stated on its pages |
| MCP server | Official remote MCP server: https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/ (code: https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp) | Official MCP server: https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp (OAuth: https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth) |
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 Firecrawl Search?
No key to get started (low limits); an account and API key for normal use.
Is Firecrawl Search free?
1,000 credits a month, no card (about 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results).
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”
Firecrawl Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “1,000 credits / month”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “No cost, no card, no hassle.”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “500 searches or 1,000 pages scraped”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “Hobby: $19/month billed monthly, or $16/month billed annually, for 5,000 credits per month”
- firecrawl.dev/pricing: “Search costs 2 credits per 10 results.”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/features/search: “No API key needed to get started.”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/features/search: “full-page markdown, HTML, links, or screenshots for each result”
- docs.firecrawl.dev/mcp-server: “https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth”