Why teams switch fromBrave
Brave adapted a human web index for AI use. Tavily was built from day one for open-ended, multi-source agent research, not just fast single-hop lookups.
Trusted by 2M+ developers around the world
Built for multi-agent, production-scale retrieval
Built for real research workflows
Tavily is designed for open-ended, multi-step queries, the kind agents actually run. It uses a retrieval model purpose-built for AI workflows.
- Better on open-ended, multi-step research queries
- Ranks evidence by usefulness to the query, not by SERP-style position
- Consistent behavior across models and pipelines
Quality of response matters more than raw speed
With advanced retrieval, ranked sources, and Nebius-backed performance, Tavily delivers deeper answers without sacrificing speed. Built so the quality and performance of your agents can scale together.
- Advanced Mode tuned for accuracy on high-stakes queries
- Ranked excerpts + source URLs your agents can inspect and reuse
- Latency gap closing fast on basic queries with Nebius infrastructure
One retrieval layer across every agent
Tavily provides a shared retrieval layer that works consistently across every agent, workflow, and model in your stack, with a credit model aligned to retrieval quality.
- Shared grounding across your entire agent fleet
- Free plan to evaluate before committing
- Credit-based pricing scales with quality, not raw search volume
/Last Verified May-2026
Comparison
| Tavily | Brave | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Open-ended agent research, RAG pipelines, multi-source grounding | Fast single-hop Q&A, product lookup, recency-heavy queries | |||
| Core strength | Retrieval trained for AI workflows from day one | Adapted a large, independent human web index for API access | |||
| What you get back | Ranked excerpts + source URLs; Advanced Mode for depth | Fast search results from Brave's independent web index | |||
| Starting point | Retrieval tuned to what the agent actually needs | Query tuned to a search-bar experience | |||
| Pricing model | Credit-based, aligned to retrieval quality; free plan included | Volume-based (~$5/1k searches); free plan recently removed |
/a different category
Q&A is not the same as research
Q&A answers
"What's the fastest path to this single fact?"
Optimized for direct answers to well-defined questions, prioritizing speed and precision from a small set of sources.
Research answers
"Which sources, across multiple steps, support the best answer to this open-ended question, and what are the relevant parts?"
Designed for complex queries, combining multiple searches and sources to surface deeper insights with context and support.
/enterprise ready
Enterprise-grade security, built in
Everything your security & procurement team needs to say yes.
Data handling
- Retention controls with a zero-data-retention (ZDR) option. Your data never trains our models.
Risk controls
- Prompt-injection defenses, malicious content handling, and PII controls built into the retrieval layer.
Procurement ready
- DPA, NDA, SLA, and full security packet available. We speak your procurement team’s language.