Exa logovsTavily logo
ResearchNot a ranking

Exa vs Tavily: what an AI agent can replace

Pick Exa if your agent searches by meaning, needs similar pages or people and company indexes, and you want a price per request for each endpoint. Pick Tavily if you want one simple credit for search, extract, crawl and map, with a free monthly allowance and a flat plan.

Give this to your agent
set up looot for Exa vs Tavily jobs - https://looot.ai/compare/exa-vs-tavily/skill.md

Side by side

Exa vs Tavily: plans, free tier and API

Read from each vendor's own pages on 2026-11-03. Prices change, so follow the source link before you buy.

  • Free tier or trial

    Exa logoExa

    $10 in credits each month plus a $10 onboarding bonus

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    1,000 API credits each month, no credit card

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • Pay as you go

    Exa logoExa

    Per request: search from $4 per 1,000 (Lite), $7 (Auto), $12 (Deep), up to 10 results

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    $0.008 per credit; a basic search is 1 credit, an advanced search 2

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • Plans

    Exa logoExa

    Developer pay as you go and Enterprise at a custom price

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    Project from $30 a month for 4,000 credits, Enterprise at a custom price

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • API access

    Exa logoExa

    Search, Contents, Answer, Monitors and Agent endpoints

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    Search, Extract, Crawl, Map and Research endpoints

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • Page contents

    Exa logoExa

    Contents at $1 per 1,000 pages per content type

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    Extract, priced in credits by successful URLs and extraction depth

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • Answers and research

    Exa logoExa

    Answer at $5 per 1,000 requests; Agent runs from $0.012 each at minimal effort, more at higher effort levels and on usage-based runs

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    Research endpoint, an agent for in-depth web research

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

  • When credits run out

    Exa logoExa

    Developer plan: pay as you go, usage-based billing

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

    Tavily logoTavily

    Requests stop until credits reset or you upgrade

    Source, checked 2026-11-03

Where Exa wins

Search by meaning and extra indexes. Exa runs its own neural index, offers find similar for a URL, and lists people, company and scholarly indexes next to the web. Each endpoint has its own price per request, so a lite search and a deep search cost what they do.

Where Tavily wins

One credit for every job and an easy start. Tavily's free plan holds 1,000 credits each month, search, extract, crawl and map all draw on them, and a flat Project plan suits steady volume.

Where looot fits

An agent does not have to choose before it tests. With one looot key it calls Exa search and Tavily search on the same query, plus Linkup and Parallel, and pays per call. The live price of each is listed below.

Exa's find similar and answer, and Tavily's extract and map, are in the catalog too. Exa Websets and Monitors, which refresh on a schedule, need scheduled runs, not available yet.

  • Neural web search (Exa)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Web search (Tavily)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Page contents for URLs (Exa)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Page content for URLs (Tavily)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Answer a question from the web (Exa)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Web search (Linkup)price shows when the catalog answers
  • Web search (Parallel)price shows when the catalog answers

Verdicts

Exa and Tavily, side by side

Each score is the share of that tool's listed jobs an agent running looot covers. It is not a score of the tool.

Exa logo

Exa

Kinda

75%

of its listed jobs an agent running looot covers. A partly covered job counts half.

Covered
4
Partly
1
Not covered
1
Tavily logo

Tavily

Yes

92%

of its listed jobs an agent running looot covers. A partly covered job counts half.

Covered
5
Partly
1
Not covered
0

Job by job

Which jobs an agent covers for each

Jobs of the same kind sit in one row. A job with no match on the other side is listed alone.

  • Research and scrape the web

    Exa logoExa

    • Search the web by meaningCovered
    • Websets that refreshNot covered

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Search the web for an agentCovered

  • Content tools

    Exa logoExa

    • Get full page contentsCovered

    Tavily logoTavily

    No matching job on our list.

  • Find pages similar to a URL

    Exa logoExa

    • Find pages similar to a URLCovered

    Tavily logoTavily

    No matching job on our list.

  • Answer with citations

    Exa logoExa

    • Answer with citationsCovered

    Tavily logoTavily

    No matching job on our list.

  • Search and enrich people

    Exa logoExa

    • Find people and companiesPartly

    Tavily logoTavily

    No matching job on our list.

  • Read pages as text

    Exa logoExa

    No matching job on our list.

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Read pages as textCovered

  • Answer a question with sources

    Exa logoExa

    No matching job on our list.

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Answer a question with sourcesCovered

  • Map a site's URLs

    Exa logoExa

    No matching job on our list.

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Map a site's URLsCovered

  • Company data

    Exa logoExa

    No matching job on our list.

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Search newsCovered

  • Deep research on a topic

    Exa logoExa

    No matching job on our list.

    Tavily logoTavily

    • Deep research on a topicPartly

Shared jobs

Jobs both do that an agent can take over

Both tools list these jobs and an agent running looot covers at least part of each. The logos are the providers it would call.

  • Research and scrape the web

    Exa: Search the web by meaning. Tavily: Search the web for an agent.

What you keep

What you keep each tool for

These are the jobs an agent does not fully cover, with the reason.

looot is not Exa and not Tavily. Each product does things looot does not, and the lists below name them. Use this page to decide which jobs an agent can take over, not which tool to choose.

Exa logo

Keep Exa for

  • Find people and companiesPartly

    Exa searches people by description; looot's people search takes filters such as title and location.

  • Websets that refreshNot covered

    Lists that refresh on their own need scheduled runs, not available yet.

Tavily logo

Keep Tavily for

  • Deep research on a topicPartly

    Research runs differ by provider in depth, time and output shape.

Prompts

Ask your agent to take over the jobs

One prompt for each tool's jobs. Paste it into the agent you already use, after setting up looot.

Exa jobs
Use looot to find web pages that match the description I give you, read each one, and return the title, URL and a two-line summary as a table. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table.

Tavily jobs
Use looot to search the web for the question I give you, read the five best sources, and write a short answer with a link for each claim. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table.

Questions about Exa vs Tavily

Exa if your agent searches by description, needs similar pages or people and company search, and you want each endpoint priced per request. Tavily if you want one credit for search, extract, crawl and map and a free monthly allowance to start. Test both on your own queries first.

On their own pricing pages, checked 2026-11-03: Exa search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests for Lite, $7 for Auto and $12 for Deep, with $10 of free credit each month. Tavily gives 1,000 free credits each month, then $0.008 per credit, where a basic search is 1 credit and an advanced one 2.

It depends on the query. Exa's index is built for search by meaning, and Tavily tunes its results for agents reading pages. Neither publishes a benchmark you can rerun on your data, so send 20 of your real queries to both and count how often the agent uses the sources.

Yes. Checked 2026-11-03: Exa Contents costs $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, and Tavily Extract is priced in credits by successful URLs and extraction depth. Both return page text ready for a model.

Both have a free monthly allowance: Exa in credit, Tavily in 1,000 API credits. For an agent past that, looot has no plan: you top up a balance and pay per search, and the price shows before the run.

Yes. With one looot key an agent calls Exa search and Tavily search side by side, along with Linkup and Parallel, and keeps whichever returns the sources it needs. There is no Exa or Tavily account to open.

More comparisons

Other tool pairs, side by side, job by job.

For agents
comparison
Exa vs Tavily
Exa verdict
kinda
Tavily verdict
yes
scope
vendor plan, free tier and API facts with sources, checked 2026-11-03, plus coverage of jobs by an agent running looot
coverage
/can-i-replace/exa and /can-i-replace/tavily
alternatives
/alternatives/exa and /alternatives/tavily
setup
https://looot.ai/compare/exa-vs-tavily/skill.md
llms.txt
https://looot.ai/llms.txt
updated
2026-11-03
markdown /compare/exa-vs-tavily.md

Hand Exa and Tavily jobs to your agent.

Start your workspace, top up, and paste the prompts into the agent you already use. You pay per call.

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