Linkup vs Tavily: web search API comparison
Linkup and Tavily measured on the same three jobs: factual lookup, hard retrieval for coding agents, and multi-hop company search. Winner per task is in the table below.
Linkup or Tavily — winner per task
Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below.
| Task | Linkup | Tavily | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual lookup (accuracy) | 96.7% | 93.0% | Linkup |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search+fetch) | 48.3% | 60.0% | Tavily |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 41.1% | 41.1% | Linkup |
Linkup and Tavily on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Linkup | Tavily | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 96.7% | 93.0% | Linkup |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 94.7% | 92.7% | Linkup |
| Speed (mean latency) | 1.57s | 1.88s | Linkup |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $5.00 | $8.00 | Linkup |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkupweb searchfast | POST /v1/searchdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults | $5.17 | 96.7% | 79.0% | 94.7% | 1.57s | 3,022 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kdepth=fast · searchResults |
| 2 | Linkupweb searchstandard | POST /v1/searchdepth=standard · outputType=searchResults | $5.43 | 92.0% | 67.3% | 90.3% | 2.55s | 2,983 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kdepth=standard · searchResults |
| 3 | Tavilyweb searchbasic | POST /searchsearch_depth=basic | $9.13 | 87.7% | 82.0% | 87.7% | 1.88s | 1,639 | $2.40 | Official docs | $8 / 1k1 credit · $0.008 PAYG |
| 4 | Tavilyweb searchadvanced | POST /searchsearch_depth=advanced | $17.20 | 93.0% | 65.0% | 92.7% | 4.29s | 2,210 | $4.80 | Official docs | $16 / 1k2 credits · $0.008 PAYG |
$ / 1k correct is $ / 1k queries divided by extracted-answer accuracy. Ranked by $ / 1k correct. Cost per 1,000 queries is the published PAYG list price, linked to the vendor pricing page. Not promotional packs or volume discounts. TinyFish Search is free with a 30 requests/min cap — $0 is not unlimited throughput.
Linkup and Tavily on coding-agent docs
Grounded task completion on 100 documentation tickets. A pass needs a # source: URL from that run. Full coding-agent board →
Tavily leads at 60.0%. Median task time: Linkup 48s vs Tavily 32s.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardPOST /v1/fetch mode=standard | 48.3 ± 4.9 | 48s | $0.147$0.038 search+fetch$0.108 token cost | 2.00s | 57,791 | $0.005 / search$0.005 / fetch |
| 2 | Tavily advanced | POST /search search_depth=advancedPOST /extract extract_depth=advanced | 60.0 ± 2.0 | 46s | $0.153$0.085 search+fetch$0.069 token cost | 3.41s | 26,269 | $0.016 / search$0.0032 / fetch |
| 3 | Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basicPOST /extract extract_depth=basic | 59.0 ± 1.7 | 32s | $0.113$0.043 search+fetch$0.070 token cost | 1.50s | 27,405 | $0.008 / search$0.0016 / fetch |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fast | 43.3 ± 1.1 | 27s | $0.100$0.025 search$0.075 token cost | 1.39s | 24,057 | $0.005 / search |
| 2 | Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basic | 51.0 ± 5.3 | 26s | $0.097$0.040 search$0.057 token cost | 1.72s | 16,299 | $0.008 / search |
Linkup and Tavily on multi-turn company search
45 questions, each with three or four constraints. Scored on precision, recall, F1, and exact-set. Full multi-turn board →
Linkup leads F1 at 41.1%. Median agent time: Linkup 64.20s vs Tavily 63.04s. Median task cost: Linkup $0.923 vs Tavily $0.615.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 41.1 ± 1.7 | 82.8 ± 1.0 | 30.3 ± 1.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 64.2 s | 7.4 | $0.923$0.070 search$0.853 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 40.6 ± 0.9 | 84.0 ± 7.9 | 29.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 2.6 | 72.3 s | 7.3 | $0.937$0.070 search$0.867 token cost | $0.005 / search |
| Tavily advanced | POST /search search_depth=advancedtavily-advanced | 41.1 ± 2.3 | 83.7 ± 4.2 | 29.8 ± 1.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 92.2 s | 7.4 | $1.029$0.224 search$0.808 token cost | $0.016 / search |
| Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basictavily-basic | 36.5 ± 3.2 | 82.5 ± 1.9 | 25.7 ± 2.7 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 63.0 s | 7.7 | $0.615$0.112 search$0.504 token cost | $0.008 / search |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search endpoint the harness calls.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkup standard | POST /v1/search depth=standardlinkup-standard | 42.0 ± 1.8 | 90.7 ± 2.0 | 30.5 ± 2.0 | 3.0 ± 3.4 | 81.0 s | 7.5 | $0.911$0.070 search+fetch$0.848 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Linkup fast | POST /v1/search depth=fastlinkup-fast | 39.9 ± 1.3 | 85.3 ± 3.6 | 28.6 ± 1.3 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 68.0 s | 7.3 | $0.903$0.061 search+fetch$0.837 token cost | $0.005 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Tavily advanced | POST /search search_depth=advancedtavily-advanced | 41.0 ± 1.3 | 89.4 ± 6.0 | 29.1 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 92.6 s | 7.3 | $0.898$0.195 search+fetch$0.685 token cost | $0.016 / search$0.0032 / fetch |
| Tavily basic | POST /search search_depth=basictavily-basic | 38.1 ± 1.4 | 81.2 ± 5.9 | 27.8 ± 0.7 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 62.0 s | 7.8 | $0.610$0.112 search+fetch$0.507 token cost | $0.008 / search$0.0032 / fetch |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.
Linkup vs Tavily — common questions
Linkup vs Tavily: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Linkup leads accuracy (Linkup 96.7% vs Tavily 93.0%). Hard retrieval: Tavily leads task completion (Linkup 48.3% vs Tavily 60.0%). Multi-hop: Linkup leads F1 (Linkup 41.1% vs Tavily 41.1%).
Is Linkup or Tavily cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Linkup $5.00 per 1,000 queries vs Tavily $8.00 — Linkup is cheaper. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.