> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.valyu.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Pricing

> Transparent pricing - Pay only for what you use

**Pay only for what you use.** Transparent pricing with no hidden fees. Start free, then add a plan whenever you want premium sources at a lower cost per credit.

Agent note: Valyu's full docs index is at [/llms.txt](https://docs.valyu.ai/llms.txt) (full text at /llms-full.txt); append `.md` to any page URL for Markdown; hosted docs MCP at [https://docs.valyu.ai/mcp](https://docs.valyu.ai/mcp); integration reference at [/AGENTS.md](https://docs.valyu.ai/AGENTS.md).

## Plans

Everything runs on **credits**. \$1 = 1 credit, and a single credit balance is shared across **every** API - Search, Answer, Contents, and DeepResearch. Higher plans simply give you more credits per dollar and unlock specialised and proprietary data sources.

<Note>
  **Start free.** New accounts get **\$10 in free credits** (\$20 with a work email), usable across **every source** so you can try the full catalog first. New organisations also get 50% off their first month for the first 24 hours after signup.
</Note>

<Columns cols={3}>
  <Card title="Pay-as-you-go" icon="wallet" href="https://platform.valyu.ai">
    **\$10** one-time top-up · 10 credits
    <br />\~\$1.00 per credit
    <br />Web search + open academic. Top up any time (\$10 min).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ridiculously Cheap" icon="piggy-bank" href="https://platform.valyu.ai">
    **\$29**/mo · 36 credits
    <br />\~\$0.80 per credit
    <br />Adds live markets: stocks, crypto, forex, prediction markets, more preprints.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Comfortably Pro" icon="rocket" href="https://platform.valyu.ai">
    <Badge>Most popular</Badge>
    <br />**\$89**/mo · 130 credits
    <br />\~\$0.70 per credit
    <br />Adds SEC filings, clinical trials, commodities, economic data, and more.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Serious Business" icon="building" href="https://platform.valyu.ai">
    **\$449**/mo · 750 credits
    <br />\~\$0.60 per credit
    <br />Full catalog: drug discovery, genomics, patents, legal, cybersecurity, and higher rate limits.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Enterprise" icon="shield" href="mailto:contact@valyu.ai">
    **Custom** · volume pricing
    <br />ZDR, compliance, custom SLAs, premium sources, custom indexes, dedicated support.
  </Card>
</Columns>

**How credits work:** one shared balance powers Search, Answer, Contents, and DeepResearch. Top up any time (\$10 minimum). Exceed your monthly credits and overage bills pay-as-you-go at \$1.00/credit. No lock-in - upgrade, downgrade, or stay pay-as-you-go anytime.

### What each plan unlocks

All plans include **web search** and **open academic sources** (arXiv, PubMed). Plans then unlock specialised and proprietary families - and lower your cost per credit as you go. Each tier includes everything in the tiers below it.

| Plan                   | Adds these source families                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Pay-as-you-go**      | Web search, arXiv, PubMed                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| **Ridiculously Cheap** | + Stocks (US & global), crypto, forex, prediction markets (Polymarket, Kalshi), medRxiv, bioRxiv                                                                                                                                                                         |
| **Comfortably Pro**    | + SEC filings, insider transactions, commodities, market movers, clinical trials, drug labels, WHO health data, BLS, World Bank, ChemRxiv                                                                                                                                |
| **Serious Business**   | + Drug discovery (ChEMBL, PubChem, Open Targets), genomics (NCBI), patents (USPTO + EPO), advanced company financials, FRED/IMF/USAspending, legal, politics, transportation, physics, cybersecurity, compliance & sanctions, automotive, environment, and Pulse signals |
| **Enterprise**         | + Premium licensed sources, custom indexes, and bespoke data partnerships                                                                                                                                                                                                |

<Note>
  **Need a source above your plan?** You can [request access](mailto:contact@valyu.ai) to specific datasets without upgrading your whole plan, and during your free trial every source is available so you can test what you need first.
</Note>

### Enterprise

For teams with compliance, scale, or custom-data requirements:

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Security & compliance" icon="lock">
    Zero data retention (ZDR), compliance reviews, and custom data-handling agreements.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Scale & reliability" icon="gauge">
    Custom SLAs and rate limits tuned to your workload.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Premium data" icon="database">
    Access to premium licensed sources and custom private indexes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="White-glove support" icon="users">
    Forward-deployed engineers and dedicated support to get you to production fast.
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Card title="Talk to sales" icon="envelope" href="mailto:contact@valyu.ai">
  Tell us about your use case and we'll design a plan around it.
</Card>

***

## Per-retrieval pricing (CPM)

Search and Answer price on CPM - cost per **thousand** retrievals. Set `max_price` to cap spend per query (sources priced above the cap are excluded, and the response returns a `206` partial-success warning). If you don't set it, Valyu returns the best results regardless of source cost.

| Data source type            | Per 1k retrievals | What you get                                 |
| --------------------------- | ----------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Open databases**          | \$0.50            | Full-text arXiv, Wikipedia, PubMed, and more |
| **Web search**              | \$1.50            | Fresh, full-text web content                 |
| **Financial & market data** | \$8.00            | Real-time equities, crypto, market data      |
| **Proprietary databases**   | \$30-50           | Licensed journals, books, premium sources    |

**Contents API** charges \$0.001 per successfully extracted URL, plus \$0.001 if you add summarisation or structured extraction. Failed URLs are free.

**Answer API** bills search data (CPM rates above, capped by `data_max_price`) plus \$12 per million tokens for AI processing.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Worked examples">
    **Contents - 10 URLs, 2 failed:** 8 × \$0.001 = **\$0.008**.

    **Answer - basic web query:** \~10 results × \$1.50/1k (\$0.015) + \~2k tokens × \$12/1M (\$0.024) = **\~\$0.039**.

    **Answer - academic with structured output:** \~8 results × \$8/1k (\$0.064) + \~3k tokens × \$12/1M (\$0.036) = **\~\$0.10**.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## DeepResearch pricing

Fixed price per task - no extra search or content charges. DeepResearch plans, searches, verifies, and writes a cited report.

| Mode         | Cost    | Typical runtime |
| ------------ | ------- | --------------- |
| **Fast**     | \$0.10  | \~5 min         |
| **Standard** | \$0.50  | \~10-20 min     |
| **Heavy**    | \$2.50  | up to \~90 min  |
| **Max**      | \$15.00 | up to \~180 min |

Optional tools (off by default, enabled via `tools`) add per-use surcharges: **screenshots** \$0.05/URL (max 15), **code execution** \$0.10/run, **deliverables** \$0.10 each after the first, **charts** free. Failed tool calls aren't charged, and PDF output isn't a deliverable.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Cost tracking">
    Every completed task returns the total and an itemized breakdown. Surcharge fields are omitted when 0.

    ```json theme={null}
    {
      "cost": 5.55,
      "cost_breakdown": {
        "task": 5.00,
        "screenshots": 0.25,
        "code_execution": 0.10,
        "deliverables": 0.20
      }
    }
    ```
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Get Started

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Try the API Free" icon="play" href="https://platform.valyu.ai">
    Get \$10 in free credits (\$20 with a work email)
  </Card>

  <Card title="Documentation" icon="book" href="/quickstart">
    Integrate in under 5 minutes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Answer API Guide" icon="brain" href="/guides/answer-api">
    Build AI-powered applications
  </Card>

  <Card title="DeepResearch Guide" icon="flask" href="/guides/deepresearch">
    Comprehensive async research
  </Card>
</CardGroup>