Exa vs Tavily vs Firecrawl: Search APIs for AI
Short answer: Exa, Tavily and Firecrawl give AI agents live web results. Exa is an AI search engine priced per request. Tavily bundles search, extract and research in credits. Firecrawl is an open-source scraping API that also searches. 10,000 searches cost about $70 on Exa, $80 on Tavily, or 20,000 credits inside Firecrawl's $99 plan.
At a glance
Exa
Tavily
FirecrawlExa vs Tavily vs Firecrawl features
| Feature | Exa | Tavily | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core strength | AI-native search results | Search plus extract | Scraping and crawling |
| Full page text | Contents endpoint, extra charge | Extract endpoint | Scrape, 1 credit a page |
| Crawl a whole site | Subpage crawling (advanced) | Crawl and Map | Crawl and Map |
| Research agent | Deep Search and Agent | Research endpoint | Agent endpoint |
| MCP server | Yes, hosted | Not listed | Yes, npx firecrawl-mcp |
| Open source | MCP server only (MIT) | No | Yes, AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host | No | No | Yes, Docker Compose |
| Zero data retention | Enterprise | Not listed | Enterprise |
From Exa pricing, Exa MCP on GitHub, tavily.com, Tavily credits docs, Firecrawl pricing and Firecrawl on GitHub.
Exa vs Tavily vs Firecrawl pricing
Exa charges per request, Tavily per credit and Firecrawl in monthly credit plans. The volume row prices 10,000 plain searches; fetching full page text costs extra on all three.
| Plan | Exa | Tavily | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $10 credit a month, about 2,500 Lite searches | 1,000 credits a month | 1,000 credits a month, 2 concurrent |
| Entry paid | Pay as you go, no minimum | $0.008 a credit, or Project $30 for 4,000 | Hobby, $19 a month, 5,000 credits |
| Search rate | $4 (Lite) to $7 (auto) per 1,000 | 1 credit basic, 2 advanced | 2 credits per 10 results |
| Page content | $1 per 1,000 pages | 1 credit per 5 URLs (basic) | 1 credit per page |
| 10,000 searches | $70 (auto) or $40 (Lite) | $80 pay as you go | Fits Standard, $99 (100,000 credits) |
| Enterprise | Custom: SLAs, zero data retention | Custom: SLAs, rate limits | Custom: SLA, SSO, zero data retention |
Prices from exa.ai/pricing, tavily.com/pricing, Tavily credits docs and firecrawl.dev/pricing. Volume: Exa 10 x $7; Tavily 10,000 credits x $0.008; Firecrawl 10,000 x 2 credits = 20,000 credits.
Exa vs Tavily vs Firecrawl: what they're like to use
All three can answer "search the web" for an agent. The difference is what they are best at underneath: finding pages (Exa), finding and reading them in one API (Tavily) or reading them in full (Firecrawl).
Exa
Exa feels like a search engine designed around how agents ask questions rather than how people type them. Pricing is the simplest of the three: you load credit and each endpoint has a flat rate per thousand calls.
What I liked
- Flat rates per 1,000 requests, from $4 for Lite search.
- Hosted MCP server, so Claude or Cursor can use it with one URL.
- Deep Search and Agent endpoints for multi-step research.
What I didn't
- Full page contents are a separate $1 per 1,000 pages charge.
- No self-hosted option.
- Results beyond 10 per search add $1 per 1,000.
Best for: agents that need search built for AI queries and a predictable price per call.
Tavily
Tavily's pitch is one API for the whole job: it covers search, extracting pages, crawling a site and running a research task. Tavily says it is joining Nebius, and its logo now reads "Tavily by Nebius".
What I liked
- A basic search costs 1 credit, so the bill is easy to predict.
- Extract, Map, Crawl and Research sit behind the same key.
- SOC 2 and ISO badges, with a trust center.
What I didn't
- Requests stop at the monthly limit until reset or upgrade.
- Research calls vary from 4 to 250 credits each.
- No self-hosted option.
Best for: teams that want search, extraction and research behind one simple credit system.
Firecrawl
Firecrawl comes at search from the other side: its core is scraping, so it is strongest when you need the full, clean text of pages, not just links. You can run it yourself from a Docker Compose file, which none of the others offer.
What I liked
- Open source under AGPL-3.0, with 198k GitHub stars.
- Scraping is 1 credit a page, and big plans cut the unit cost sharply.
- Crawl, Map, Monitor and Agent endpoints beyond search.
What I didn't
- Monthly plans mean paying for credits you may not use.
- The cloud version has features the self-hosted build lacks.
- JSON output adds 4 credits per page.
Best for: agents that need full page content at volume, or teams that must self-host.
Which to choose
- Choose Exa if result relevance matters most and you want a flat price per call with no plan.
- Choose Tavily for one search-and-extract API with a simple credit system and SOC 2 badges.
- Choose Firecrawl if your agent needs full page content at volume or you need to self-host.
Result quality depends on your queries, so run the same 50 real questions through each free tier before you commit.
Where viaSocket fits
A search API tells an agent what is on the web. viaSocket lets it act on what it found: it turns 2,300+ app actions into tools, so results can become a CRM record, a Slack message or a row in a sheet.
What viaSocket offers
- 2,300+ app integrations as agent tools, with managed authentication (features).
- Browser actions: an agent can open pages, click, fill in forms and read sites with no API (browser actions).
- AI agents and MCP access for compatible AI clients.
- Triggers, webhooks and schedules, with retries, execution monitoring and replay.
- Free plan: 100,000 tasks and 1,000 AI credits a month (pricing).
What you can build with it
- A lead research agent that searches the web for a new signup's company and enriches the CRM record.
- A competitor watch that searches for pricing changes each week and posts a summary to Slack.
- An agent that logs into a portal with no API, reads the latest figures and saves them to a sheet.
FAQ
What is the difference between Exa and Tavily?
Exa is a search engine API priced per request, from $4 per 1,000 Lite searches. Tavily bundles search, extract, crawl and research behind one credit system, at 1 credit per basic search.
Is Firecrawl a search API?
It has a search endpoint at 2 credits per 10 results, but its core is scraping and crawling full pages into clean text for agents.
Which web search API has a free tier?
All three. Exa gives $10 of credit a month, while Tavily and Firecrawl each give 1,000 credits a month.
Can I self-host Firecrawl, Exa or Tavily?
Only Firecrawl. It is AGPL-3.0 with a Docker Compose setup, though the cloud version has extra features. Exa and Tavily are hosted APIs.
What is the best web search API for AI agents?
It depends on the job: Exa for AI-native search at a flat price per call, Tavily for search plus extraction in one credit system, Firecrawl for full page content or self-hosting.
Sources
- Exa: pricing, MCP server on GitHub
- Tavily: homepage, pricing, credits docs
- Firecrawl: pricing, GitHub
- viaSocket: homepage, features, browser actions, pricing
