benchmarks/web search/tavily alternatives
independently benchmarked · 300 questions · updated Sep 26, 2026

Tavily Alternatives, 2026

Exa fast leads 10 tested Tavily alternatives at 99.3% accuracy on 300 company-news questions, independently benchmarked Sep 26, 2026.

What this page compares. This page ranks measured results from 3 boards: company-news factual lookup (web search APIs), coding-agent documentation tickets (search and page fetch) and multi-turn company search (search only). Tavily was measured and is left out of its own alternatives ranking.

How to read the result. The table ranks every complete run by its score on the same questions. Latency and cost are shown beside it and not blended into the score.

Company-news factual lookup, web search APIs, ranked by accuracy

Every row ran the same 300 questions. Provider names link to the official docs for the configuration measured.

RankProviderAccuracyAnswer recall @5Median search time$ / 1k queries$ / 1k correctResult tokensAccuracy / 1k tokensList price
1Exa fasttype=fast99.3%99.3%569 ms$7.00$7.051,98750.0$7.00 / 1k queries
2Exa instanttype=instant97.7%97.3%386 ms$7.00$7.172,12845.9$7.00 / 1k queries
3Perplexity lowsearch_context_size=low97.3%98.3%1.6 s$5.00$5.14476205$5.00 / 1k queries
4Linkup fastdepth=fast · outputType=searchResults96.7%94.7%1.2 s$5.00$5.173,02232.0$5.00 / 1k queries
5SERPlimit=1096.0%95.0%578 ms$3.00$3.13497193$3.00 / 1k queries
7Brave Search llm-contextcount=1094.0%94.7%590 ms$5.00$5.322,06445.6$5.00 / 1k queries
9Parallel basicmode=basic93.3%92.0%1.8 s$5.00$5.362,33040.1$5.00 / 1k queries
10Nimble standardsearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general93.0%94.3%822 ms$5.00$5.382,73034.1$5.00 / 1k queries
11Linkup standarddepth=standard · outputType=searchResults92.0%90.3%2.1 s$5.00$5.432,98330.8$5.00 / 1k queries
13You highlights coreextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core92.0%89.7%815 ms$5.00$5.432,86232.1$5.00 / 1k queries
14You highlightsextraction_mode=highlights90.7%89.7%614 ms$5.00$5.512,83732.0$5.00 / 1k queries
15Parallel fastmode=fast86.0%79.0%861 ms$1.00$1.161,83946.8$1.00 / 1k queries
16Nimble litesearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general75.3%75.3%1.4 s$1.10$1.46413183$1.10 / 1k queries
17Parallel turbomode=turbo71.3%66.0%315 ms$1.00$1.401,85338.5$1.00 / 1k queries

Coding-agent documentation tickets, search and page fetch, ranked by task completion

RankProviderTask completionMean search timeMedian task timeMedian cost / taskMedian task tokensCompletion / 1k tokensList price
1Exa deeptype=deep83.0%4.0 s36.8 s$0.1323,6603.51$12.00 / 1k queries
2Exa autotype=auto81.7%1.2 s22.7 s$0.1127,4332.98$7.00 / 1k queries
4Perplexitysearch_context_size=high77.7%991 ms21.5 s$0.08320,0623.87$5.00 / 1k queries
5Parallel advancedmode=advanced77.0%3.1 s33.4 s$0.09627,0922.84$5.00 / 1k queries
7Parallel basicmode=basic76.0%1.6 s30.0 s$0.1132,8092.32$5.00 / 1k queries
8Nimblesearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general60.3%1.9 s40.0 s—16,8283.59$1.10 / 1k queries
9Youextraction_mode=highlights55.0%638 ms27.3 s$0.1242,8061.28$5.00 / 1k queries
10Youextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core54.0%678 ms27.8 s$0.1237,4531.44$5.00 / 1k queries
11Linkup standarddepth=standard48.3%2.0 s48.2 s$0.1557,7910.84$5.00 / 1k queries
12Nimblesearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general45.0%905 ms44.2 s—28,5861.57$5.00 / 1k queries

Multi-turn company search, search only, ranked by F1

RankProviderF1PrecisionRecallMedian task timeMedian cost / taskMedian task tokensList price
1Parallel basicparallel-basic46.5%88.7%34.4%67.6 s$1.12303,467$5.00 / 1k queries
2Exa deepexa-deep45.4%83.2%33.7%89.5 s$0.72153,061$12.00 / 1k queries
3Parallel advancedparallel-advanced44.2%87.6%32.0%83.4 s$0.62159,733$5.00 / 1k queries
4Exa instantexa-instant43.3%82.6%32.2%49.8 s$0.65152,622$7.00 / 1k queries
5Linkup fastlinkup-fast41.1%82.8%30.3%64.2 s$0.92259,642$5.00 / 1k queries
6Linkup standardlinkup-standard40.6%84.0%29.7%72.3 s$0.94249,382$5.00 / 1k queries
7Youextraction_mode=highlights38.6%79.3%28.3%48.2 s$0.97264,016$5.00 / 1k queries
8Youextraction_mode=highlights · knowledge=core38.1%80.9%27.4%47.6 s$0.90244,245$5.00 / 1k queries
9Parallel fastparallel-fast38.0%79.9%27.5%53.9 s$0.46119,953$1.00 / 1k queries
10Perplexitysearch_context_size=low37.8%79.3%26.8%48.9 s$0.3366,928$5.00 / 1k queries
11Parallel turboparallel-turbo34.7%80.0%24.8%46.4 s$0.42110,844$1.00 / 1k queries
12Nimblesearch_depth=standard · full_content=false · focus=general30.7%70.3%21.3%53.0 s$0.47109,000$5.00 / 1k queries
13Firecrawlfirecrawl30.4%77.3%20.7%75.0 s$0.2850,596$5.00 / 1k queries
14Brave Searchbrave28.0%66.9%19.3%43.5 s$0.2749,005$5.00 / 1k queries
15TinyFishtinyfish26.6%64.7%17.9%64.2 s$0.2151,091$0 / 1k queries
16Nimblesearch_depth=lite · full_content=false · focus=general24.1%65.2%16.1%67.2 s$0.2250,682$1.10 / 1k queries
17Seltzseltz-companies14.5%40.0%9.4%55.2 s$1.75500,633$5.00 / 1k queries
18SERP (RapidAPI)serp0.4%0.7%0.3%31.4 s$0.1010,890$3.00 / 1k queries

How the ranking was measured

  • Every API received the same natural-language question about a recent company event, one search per question, up to 10 results.
  • Each answer is a single verifiable value pinned to an official wire or newsroom URL, fixed before any vendor ran.
  • Accuracy is whether the returned results let the same answering model extract the correct value.
  • Latency is the search request time. Cost is the recorded list price for the calls made, per 1,000 queries and per 1,000 correct answers.
  • The runner and published data are open in openbenchmarks-labs/factual-lookup-company-news-search ↗ and openbenchmarks/OB-News-Websearch ↗. The full methodology is on the Web Search Benchmark →

Questions answered by this comparison

Which provider leads tavily Alternatives?

Exa fast leads this table at 99.3% accuracy, on 300 company-news questions.

How was this measured?

Every API received the same natural-language question about a recent company event, one search per question, up to 10 results. Each answer is a single verifiable value pinned to an official wire or newsroom URL, fixed before any vendor ran. Accuracy is whether the returned results let the same answering model extract the correct value. Latency is the search request time. Cost is the recorded list price for the calls made, per 1,000 queries and per 1,000 correct answers.

How should speed and cost be read beside the score?

Exa fast recorded 569 ms median search time and $7.00 per 1,000 queries. The most accurate configuration is rarely the fastest or the cheapest, so each is reported in its own column.

Why is Tavily not in the ranking?

Tavily was measured, and its configurations are left out so they cannot rank as their own alternative. Its results are on the full benchmark page.

What does this page not test?

This page ranks measured results from 3 boards: company-news factual lookup (web search APIs), coding-agent documentation tickets (search and page fetch) and multi-turn company search (search only). Tavily was measured and is left out of its own alternatives ranking.