Skip to main content
Valyu is built on a simple idea: AI systems need access to authoritative knowledge to give reliable answers. This page explains how we’ve designed Valyu and what it’s best at.

​
Design Principles

​
1. Built for AI

Valyu is designed for AI agents and LLMs, not adapted from a traditional search engine. What this means:
  • Semantic understanding, not keyword matching
  • Structured JSON responses ready for LLMs
  • Embedding-powered retrieval that understands context
  • RAG-optimised formatting with citations and metadata
Why it matters: Traditional search APIs return links for humans to click. Valyu returns structured data that AI can use directly—reducing hallucinations and improving accuracy.

​
2. One API, Many Sources

Valyu unifies multiple authoritative data sources into a single search interface. What you can search:
  • Real-time web - Current events and trending topics
  • Academic papers - Research-backed insights
  • Books and literature - Domain knowledge
  • Financial data - Real-time market information
  • Proprietary datasets - Specialised industry data
Why we did this: AI agents need diverse, authoritative sources. Rather than integrating multiple APIs yourself, you get one comprehensive retrieval layer that spans the knowledge spectrum.

​
3. Transparent Pricing

Every search has predictable, granular pricing with limits you control. How it works:
  • Pay-per-use CPM pricing - No subscriptions
  • Max price controls - Set spending limits per query
  • Relevance thresholds - Filter out low-quality results
  • Source-specific pricing - Premium sources cost more, but you choose when to use them
Our philosophy: You should have complete control over costs without sacrificing quality.

​
What Valyu Is Good At

​
Ideal Use Cases

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
  • Grounding LLM responses with authoritative sources
  • Reducing hallucinations
  • Providing citations
AI Research Assistants
  • Literature reviews
  • Cross-referencing sources
  • Finding recent research
Knowledge-Heavy Chatbots
  • Educational assistants
  • Professional services (legal, medical, financial)
Real-Time Information
  • News and current events
  • Market data
  • Time-sensitive decisions
Specialised Search
  • Academic research
  • Financial analysis
  • Technical documentation
See our data coverage page for what’s available and the Prompting Guide for best practices.

​
What Valyu Isn’t For

​
Less Suitable Use Cases

Direct User Search
  • Users querying the API directly (not through an LLM)
Social Media Monitoring
  • Twitter/X trends
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Viral content
E-commerce
  • Shopping comparisons
  • Product reviews
  • Inventory checks
Local Search
  • Restaurant recommendations
  • Local services
  • Location-based queries
Creative Content
  • Image generation prompts
  • Creative writing
  • Entertainment recommendations

​
Build on Top of Valyu

Rather than trying to solve every search use case, Valyu provides precise, comprehensive search that you can compose into your own workflows.

​
What’s Next

Valyu is evolving based on developer feedback:
  • Better precision - Especially for fuzzy queries and exact document matching
  • Agentic search framework - Build your own search workflows
  • Multimodal search - Images and documents
  • Custom sources - Private data connectivity
  • Advanced filtering - More granular controls
Feedback? Reach out at [email protected]

​
Get Started

Quickstart

Get searching in minutes

Prompting Guide

Write better queries