Tavily on x402: real-time web search for agents, no API key required

Tavily is now live on x402

The next billion agents will discover, pay for, and use online services fully autonomously. Today, we’re excited to announce our partnership with Coinbase to bring Tavily to x402, the open protocol governed by the Linux Foundation for internet-native agentic payments.

Web search is the foundational tool in any AI agent's stack. It's how agents stay grounded in present events, verify information, and deliver knowledge that goes beyond their training data. Typically, for an agent to use Tavily, a user provisions an API key and stores a credit card on file. That changes with x402, where agents can discover and pay for Tavily without an API key or account. As we build the web access layer for the internet of agents, we’re expanding our offerings to be agent-first, enabling fully autonomous agents to solve even more complex tasks.

Why this matters for agents

Traditional API keys work well for planned integrations. A person signs up, configures billing, generates a key, and uses it inside an application.

Agents introduce a different use case. They may need to discover and call a tool at runtime, while they are already working through a task. For that kind of flow, access needs to be programmatic: the agent should be able to see what a service does, understand what it costs, pay for usage, and continue.

x402 makes that possible through HTTP. The protocol, developed by Coinbase, turns the long-dormant 402 Payment Required status code into a real payment flow.

The flow is simple:

Call Tavily → receive 402 Payment Required → pay with USDC → get search results.

This is part of a broader shift toward agentic payments: identity, discovery, and guardrails that let agents safely access services on demand. x402 gives that stack a simple HTTP-native payment layer.

What’s live

Here are the details of the Tavily Search x402 endpoint:

• Base URL: https://x402.tavily.com
• Endpoint: POST /search
• What it does: Advanced Tavily Search with ranked web results, snippets, source URLs, and optional generated answers.
• Price: $0.01 per call

Search is a core primitive for agents that need to read the web and keep their context up to date.

When an agent calls Tavily without payment, Tavily returns a 402 Payment Required response. This tells the agent the price of a request and how to pay. Once the agent pays through x402, the same request returns normal Tavily results.

How it works

At a high level:

1. The agent calls https://x402.tavily.com/search
2. Tavily returns a 402 Payment Required response with the pricing and payment details
3. The agent pays with USDC on Base using an x402-compatible client.
4. Tavily returns the search result.

That is the whole loop: price, pay, result. The agent only needs a wallet that can pay the x402 quote.

Try it today

Using awal, Coinbase’s agentic wallet CLI:

npx awal@latest x402 pay <https://x402.tavily.com/search> \\
  -X POST \\
  -h '{"Content-Type":"application/json"}' \\
  -d '{"query":"Who is Lionel Messi?","search_depth":"advanced","max_results":5}' \\
  --max-amount 10000

To use in your preferred coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Pi, etc.), install the Coinbase Agentic Wallet MCP and ask your agent to run a live web search using Tavily.

Why Tavily

Search is one of the tools an agent reaches for most often: to verify a claim, gather fresh sources, cross-check a fact, or expand context before acting. It is also where quality compounds. Better retrieval at the start of a chain yields better answers at every subsequent step.

As agents increasingly choose tools dynamically, they need good context. x402 makes Tavily available as an on-demand web context layer for any agentic system that needs fresh information without a human manually wiring up access first.

What this unlocks

Tavily on x402 is especially useful when you cannot predict every tool an agent will need in advance.

• Autonomous research agents can search for fresh information at the moment they decide they need external context.
• Coding agents can look up current documentation, changelogs, examples, or package behavior without requiring the user to configure a Tavily key first.
• Long-running autonomous agents can budget per-task instead of per-month and top up context on demand.

The common thread: agents stop needing a human to enable a tool before they can use it.

Try it now

Three things you can do today:

• Read the quickstart on Tavily Docs for the full request and response reference.
• Find Tavily on the Bazaar - search "web search" on agentic.market and look for our listing.

If you are building agents that need fresh web context, Tavily on x402 is a low-friction way to make the web available at runtime. By calling Tavily over x402 you agree to the terms at https://tavily.com/terms and https://tavily.com/privacy.

FAQ

What is x402, and why does it matter for AI agents?

x402 is a protocol developed by Coinbase that turns the long-unused HTTP 402 Payment Required status code into a real payment flow for APIs. Instead of manually signing up for services, creating API keys, and configuring billing ahead of time, AI agents can discover tools at runtime, pay for a single request using USDC on Base, and continue their workflow automatically.

What can agents do with Tavily on x402?

Agents can perform real-time web search without needing a Tavily API key. Tavily exposes the /search endpoint through x402 for live web search with ranked results, snippets, freshness signals, and optional generated answers

Can I use this inside Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or another coding agent?

Yes. Install the Coinbase Agentic Wallet MCP, then ask your coding agent to run a live web search using Tavily. The agent can use the wallet to pay for the request at runtime.

Do I need a Tavily account or API key?

No. Agents can access Tavily entirely through x402 using a USDC wallet on Base. There is no signup flow or API key management required before making requests.

Do I need a Coinbase wallet?

You need an x402-compatible wallet that can pay with USDC on Base. The awal CLI and Coinbase Agentic Wallet MCP are two of the easiest ways to try it today.

How does the payment flow work?

The agent calls Tavily, receives a 402 Payment Required response, signs a USDC payment, retries the request, and receives the search result. Most users do not need to implement that loop manually.

How much does Tavily on x402 cost?

Tavily Search on x402 costs $0.01 per call, paid in USDC on Base.

What kinds of agents benefit most from this?

Research agents, coding agents, long-running autonomous workflows, and any system that needs fresh web context at runtime without asking a human to configure an API key first.

Is this replacing Tavily API keys?

No. API keys are still the right path for planned integrations, account-based usage, and existing applications. x402 adds a runtime payment path for agents that need to discover and use tools dynamically.

What makes Tavily different from traditional search APIs?

Tavily is designed specifically for AI agents and LLM workflows. Beyond search results, it provides ranked relevance, freshness signals, source citations, and clean extraction primitives that help agents reason over the web more effectively.