Tavily vs Exa (2026): Pricing, Search and Content

Pick Tavily if you want a search call that can also hand back page content and a generated answer, with lots of request controls, on a credit plan. Pick Exa if your queries read like research questions and you want to choose how much work each search does, from a $4 instant search to a $15 deep-reasoning one. On plain search price they're close: Tavily is $5 to $8 per 1,000 and Exa is $4 to $7 for its standard modes.

Prices checked 1 October 2026 on Tavily's credits page and exa.ai/pricing.

How each one works

Tavily is a search API built for RAG pipelines. One search call returns ranked results, and each result's content is made of short relevant chunks of the page (up to 3 chunks per source, each up to 500 characters). Turn on include_raw_content and you also get the cleaned page as markdown or text. Turn on include_answer and Tavily adds an LLM-generated answer. Separate endpoints cover Extract (known URLs), Map, Crawl and Research.

Exa describes itself as a web search tool designed for agents. You pick a search type per request: Instant, Fast/Auto, Deep or Deep-Reasoning. Each costs more and does more work than the one before it. Page text comes from the Contents side of the API, priced per page per content type (text, highlights, summaries). Exa also sells an Answer endpoint, Monitors for recurring searches, and an Agent API for longer research runs.

Pricing side by side

Tavily's monthly plans, from its docs: Project is $30 for 4,000 credits ($0.0075 each), Bootstrap $100 for 15,000, Startup $220 for 38,000, and Growth $500 for 100,000 ($0.005 each). Credits reset on the first of each month.

So at small volume Exa's Instant search is the cheapest call here, at $4 per 1,000. At Tavily's Growth plan a basic search is $5 per 1,000, with page content in the same call. Once you add page text on Exa, the per-page charge comes on top of the search price.

Content handling

This is where the two feel most different.

With Tavily, one request can return everything a RAG step needs: results, relevant chunks, the full cleaned page and an answer. You choose markdown or text for the raw content. Extract failures aren't charged: "You never get charged if a URL extraction fails."

With Exa, content is its own priced unit. You pay for each page and each content type you ask for, so text plus a summary is two units per page. That's more to keep track of, and it also means you only pay for the content types you actually use.

Request controls

Tavily's search endpoint exposes a lot: search_depth (basic, fast, ultra-fast or advanced), topic (general, news or finance), time_range, start and end dates, include_domains and exclude_domains, country, max_results up to 20, and auto_parameters to let Tavily choose settings. Note that auto_parameters may switch a search to advanced depth, which costs 2 credits.

Exa's main control is the search type, which sets how much work a query gets. Check Exa's API reference for the current filter parameters before you rely on one.

SDKs and integrations

Both are easy to wire into an agent. Tavily's docs list a longer set of framework integrations.

Pick Tavily if

• You want results, page text and an answer from one call.
• Your agent needs topic, date, domain or country controls as request parameters.
• You want crawl and map endpoints from the same vendor.
• Your usage fits inside 1,000 free credits a month.

Pick Exa if

• Your queries are research questions written in natural language.
• You want to choose per request between an instant search and a deep, reasoning one.
• You only need page text for some results and would rather pay per page.
• You'd rather pay per request than size a monthly plan.

A third option if cost per search is the main issue

If the deciding number is cost per search, Serpex is a web search API that routes each query automatically and costs $0.50 to $0.80 per 1,000 searches on pay-as-you-go credits, with no subscription. Adding include_content: true returns page markdown for the top 5 or 10 results in the same request, at 3 or 6 credits in total, billed on pages actually delivered. New accounts get 200 free credits with no card.

It does less than either of them: no generated answers, no domain or date filters, and no deep search modes. If you need those, stay with Tavily or Exa. The short versions of this comparison are on Tavily alternative and Exa alternative, and the wider price table is in Search API Pricing in 2026.

FAQ

Is Exa cheaper than Tavily?

For plain search at small volume, yes: Exa's Instant search is $4 per 1,000 and Fast/Auto is $7, against Tavily's $8 at pay as you go. On Tavily's $500 Growth plan a basic search drops to $5 per 1,000. Once you add page content, Exa charges $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, while Tavily's credit table lists no extra charge for raw content on a search.

Which has the better free tier?

Tavily gives 1,000 credits every month, which is 1,000 basic searches. Exa gives $10 in credit every month plus a $10 bonus at signup. That's $20 in the first month, enough for 5,000 Instant searches, then $10 a month, enough for 2,500.

Can either one write the answer for me?

Both can. Tavily adds an answer with include_answer on a search. Exa has a separate Answer endpoint at $5 per 1,000.