Tavily vs Exa: search API pricing compared
Updated 2026-11-06 · listed A to Z, not ranked
Tavily and Exa both sell web search APIs aimed at AI agents. Tavily meters credits (including a published pay-as-you-go credit price). Exa publishes per-1k request prices for Search and related products, plus monthly free credits on a starter tier.
Listed A to Z from tavily.com/pricing and exa.ai/pricing, checked Nov 6, 2026. For a three-way view that also includes x402 search options, see Tavily vs Exa vs x402 search.
- Metering
- Per 1k requests / pages (product-specific)
- Published entry rates
- Search from $4 / 1k requests; Contents $1 / 1k pages; Monitors $2 / 1k
- Free / starter credits
- Starter free tier with monthly credits (page showed $10 credits/month when we checked)
- Metering
- Credits (PAYG and plans)
- Published entry rates
- Pay as you go $0.008 / credit
- Free / starter credits
- Plan and free-tier credit allowances on the pricing page
How we checked: Quoted from each official pricing page on Nov 6, 2026. Units differ (credits vs per-1k requests), so we do not convert into a single fake per-call number.
FAQ
Is Tavily cheaper than Exa?
We do not convert credits into Exa’s per-1k units here. Compare your expected query mix on each official calculator/pricing page (figures checked Nov 6, 2026).
Sources (official pages, read 2026-11-06)
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