Tavily alternative for AI agents

Looking for a search API that goes beyond web search? Valyu covers what most teams use Tavily for, plus specialised and licensed data sources that web search can’t reach: SEC filings, PubMed, clinical trials, patents and market data, all through one API.

Valyu vs Tavily comparison

Feature	Valyu	Tavily
Web search	Yes	Yes
Proprietary and licensed data sources	Web + specialised datasets	No
Academic papers	Dedicated PubMed, arXiv, bioRxiv and medRxiv indexes	Web results only
SEC filings	3M+ filings, indexed by section	Web results only
Clinical trials	530K+ trials from ClinicalTrials.gov	Web results only
Financial data	Stocks, earnings, financial statements, crypto, forex	Web results (`topic: "finance"`)
Drug databases	ChEMBL, PubChem, Open Targets, FDA drug labels	No
Patent search	14M+ USPTO and EPO patents	Web results only
Economic data	FRED, BLS, World Bank, IMF	Web results only

“Web results only” means the provider can return public web pages on the topic but does not offer a dedicated, filterable dataset for it.

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Access data web search can’t reach

Tavily searches the web. Valyu searches the web and specialised datasets:

PubMed, bioRxiv and medRxiv - Biomedical literature, with full text where available
3M+ SEC filings - 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K and more, searchable by section
530K+ clinical trials - Study protocols, eligibility and outcomes
14M+ patents - USPTO and EPO records for prior art and IP research
Financial data - Stock prices, earnings and company fundamentals
Licensed journals - Wiley health, life sciences and finance content (on request)

2. Better results for professional use cases

For AI agents working in finance, healthcare or research, web search alone isn’t enough:

from valyu import Valyu

valyu = Valyu()

# Search across web AND specialised sources
response = valyu.search(
    "CAR-T cell therapy clinical outcomes 2024",
    search_type="all",  # Web + proprietary
    max_num_results=20
)

3. Same simple API

Switching from Tavily is straightforward:

from valyu import Valyu

valyu = Valyu()
response = valyu.search("your query here")

import { Valyu } from "valyu-js";

const valyu = new Valyu();
const response = await valyu.search("your query here");

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

DeepResearch runs multi-step research on top of Valyu search and returns a cited report. Pick a mode for the depth you need, from instant (a cited answer in under 30 seconds) to max (up to 90 minutes), and request up to 10 deliverables as CSV, XLSX, PPTX, DOCX or PDF files.

When to choose Valyu over Tavily

Choose Valyu if you need:

Academic research - PubMed, arXiv and scholarly papers
Financial research - SEC filings, earnings data and market data
Healthcare applications - Clinical trials, drug data and medical literature
Patent and IP research - Prior art search and landscape analysis
Deep research - Multi-step research with cited reports and file deliverables

Tavily may fit if you only need:

Web search without specialised data requirements
Crawling or mapping an entire website (Tavily’s Crawl and Map APIs)

Pricing comparison

Both offer pay-per-use pricing. On Valyu, Search, Contents and DeepResearch draw from one credit balance. Search charges per result returned, priced by source: a web search that returns 10 results uses 1 credit. DeepResearch tasks start at 8 credits in instant mode. See pricing for plans and per-source prices.

Get started free

Get 2,000 free credits a month with a work email, no card required (1,000 with a personal email; add a card after your first month to keep them coming).

Migration guide

Migrating from Tavily takes minutes:

Install the SDK
pip install valyu

Replace the client

# Before (Tavily)
# from tavily import TavilyClient
# client = TavilyClient(api_key="...")

# After (Valyu) - reads VALYU_API_KEY from the environment
from valyu import Valyu
valyu = Valyu()

Update the search call

# Valyu search with specialised data access
response = valyu.search(
    "your query",
    search_type="all"  # Web + proprietary sources
)

Replace generated answers If you use Tavily’s include_answer for a short generated answer, use DeepResearch in instant mode for a cited answer in under 30 seconds. See the DeepResearch quickstart.

Request and response fields differ between the two APIs, so map the parameters and result fields your code uses. See the Search API reference for every parameter.

Start here

APIs

Finance workflows

Sciences workflows

Build and connect

Comparisons

Tavily alternative for AI agents

Valyu vs Tavily comparison

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Access data web search can’t reach

2. Better results for professional use cases

3. Same simple API

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

When to choose Valyu over Tavily

Pricing comparison

Get started free

Migration guide

Try Valyu today

Quickstart

Data sources

​Valyu vs Tavily comparison

​Why teams switch to Valyu

​1. Access data web search can’t reach

​2. Better results for professional use cases

​3. Same simple API

​4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

​When to choose Valyu over Tavily

​Pricing comparison

Get started free

​Migration guide

​Try Valyu today

Quickstart

Data sources

Valyu vs Tavily comparison

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Access data web search can’t reach

2. Better results for professional use cases

3. Same simple API

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

When to choose Valyu over Tavily

Pricing comparison

Migration guide

Try Valyu today