---
title: "Linkup vs Tavily: Web Search API Comparison, Independently Benchmarked (2026) | Openbenchmarks"
description: "Is Linkup or Tavily the better web search API for AI agents in 2026? Measured on all three tasks: factual lookup, hard retrieval (coding agents), and multi-hop company search."
url: https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-tavily
---

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web search API · three tasks · 2026

# 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.

\[01\] across tasks

## 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** |

\[02\] factual lookup

## Linkup and Tavily on company-news lookup

One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. [Full factual lookup board →](https://openbenchmarks.com/company-news) 

| 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** |

__Linkup vs Tavily factual lookup endpoints__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Linkup](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup in a new tab") web search fast | POST /v1/search depth=fast · outputType=searchResults | **$5.17** | 96.7% | 79.0% | 94.7% | 1.57s | 3,022 | $1.50 | [Official docs](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/endpoints/search/overview "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$5 / 1k](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") depth=fast · searchResults |
| 2 | [Linkup](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup in a new tab") web search standard | POST /v1/search depth=standard · outputType=searchResults | **$5.43** | 92.0% | 67.3% | 90.3% | 2.55s | 2,983 | $1.50 | [Official docs](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/endpoints/search/overview "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$5 / 1k](https://docs.linkup.so/pages/documentation/platform/pricing "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") depth=standard · searchResults |
| 3 | [Tavily](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily in a new tab") web search basic | POST /search search\_depth=basic | **$9.13** | 87.7% | 82.0% | 87.7% | 1.88s | 1,639 | $2.40 | [Official docs](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$8 / 1k](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") 1 credit · $0.008 PAYG |
| 4 | [Tavily](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily in a new tab") web search advanced | POST /search search\_depth=advanced | **$17.20** | 93.0% | 65.0% | 92.7% | 4.29s | 2,210 | $4.80 | [Official docs](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$16 / 1k](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") 2 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.

\[03\] hard retrieval

## 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 →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) 

**Tavily** leads at 60.0%. Median task time: Linkup 48s vs Tavily 32s.

\[03.a\] search & fetch 

__Linkup vs Tavily search & fetch coding-agent board__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Linkup standard](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup standard in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=standard POST /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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily advanced in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=advanced POST /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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=basic POST /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 |

\[03.b\] search only 

__Linkup vs Tavily search-only coding-agent board__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Linkup fast](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup fast in a new tab") | 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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | 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 |

\[04\] multi-hop

## 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 →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) 

**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.

\[04.a\] search only 

__Linkup vs Tavily search-only multi-turn board__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Linkup fast](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=fast linkup-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](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup standard in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=standard linkup-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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily advanced in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=advanced tavily-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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=basic tavily-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.

\[04.b\] search + fetch 

__Linkup vs Tavily search+fetch multi-turn board__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Linkup standard](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup standard in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=standard linkup-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](https://www.linkup.so "Open Linkup fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search depth=fast linkup-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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily advanced in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=advanced tavily-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](https://tavily.com "Open Tavily basic in a new tab") | POST /search search\_depth=basic tavily-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.

\[05\] faq

## 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.

Openbenchmarks open benchmarks 

[← web search benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [most accurate](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/most-accurate-search-api) [coding agents](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) [multi-turn](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) [Exa alternatives](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-alternatives) [Exa vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-tavily) [Tavily vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tavily-vs-parallel) [Brave Search vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-exa) [Linkup vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-firecrawl) [Parallel vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/parallel-vs-exa) [Exa vs Perplexity](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-perplexity) [Brave Search vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-tavily) [Exa vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-firecrawl) [Brave Search vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-parallel) [Perplexity vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/perplexity-vs-parallel) [You vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/you-com-vs-parallel) [Linkup vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-parallel) [Firecrawl vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/firecrawl-vs-parallel) [TinyFish vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tinyfish-vs-parallel) [source ↗](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/factual-lookup-company-news-search) © 2026 Openbenchmarks