After Nebius acquired Tavily for $275M, free tier rate limits tightened to approximately 20 minutes of active usage. Teams relying on Tavily for agent search need alternatives with predictable pricing and stable rate limits. Scavio API is the top Tavily replacement at $0.005/query with no aggressive throttling.
Scavio API replaces Tavily for agent search workflows at $0.005/query with credit-based limits instead of aggressive per-minute throttling, plus multi-platform coverage across Google, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, Reddit, and TikTok.
Full Ranking
Scavio API
Drop-in Tavily replacement with stable rate limits and multi-platform data
- $0.005/query with no aggressive throttling
- Free 250/mo without CC
- 6 platforms vs Tavily's web-only
- MCP endpoint for agent integration
- No answer synthesis like Tavily's extract mode
- No research mode equivalent
- Requires LLM layer for answer generation
- Different API shape than Tavily
Exa
Neural search that replaces Tavily's answer extraction paradigm
- Neural search closest to Tavily's approach
- Content extraction built in
- Free 1K/month for migration testing
- Well-funded and stable
- $7/1K searches more expensive than Scavio
- No MCP endpoint
- Different API from Tavily
- Web content only
SerpAPI
Most reliable SERP data as Tavily replacement for Google search
- Industry standard reliability
- Comprehensive SERP parsing
- Free 250/mo for testing
- Well-documented migration path
- $25/mo for 1K is 5x Scavio's cost
- No answer extraction
- Google-focused only
- No agent-native features
Brave Search API
Independent search index not subject to Google changes
- Independent search index
- Web, news, and image search
- Privacy-focused
- Stable pricing model
- No free tier, CC required
- Smaller index than Google
- No answer extraction
- Limited integration ecosystem
SearXNG (self-hosted)
Zero per-query cost Tavily replacement for teams with infrastructure
- No per-query cost
- Open source
- Multiple search engine aggregation
- Full control over deployment
- Gets blocked by search engines at scale
- Requires hosting and maintenance
- No answer extraction
- Unreliable at production volumes
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per 1K queries | $5 | $7 | $25 |
| Answer extraction | No (add LLM layer) | Yes (content extraction) | No |
| Free tier | 250/mo, no CC | 1K/mo | 250/mo |
| Rate limit stability | Stable (credit-based) | Stable | Stable |
| MCP support | Yes | No | No |
| Platform coverage | 6 platforms | Web only | Google-focused |
Why Scavio Wins
- Credit-based pricing means no surprise rate limit cuts like Tavily's post-Nebius changes; you get exactly the queries you pay for
- Multi-platform coverage across 6 platforms gives agents more data sources than Tavily's web-only search in a single API
- Exa wins for teams that specifically need Tavily-style content extraction and neural search in their agent pipelines
- SerpAPI wins for teams that prioritize battle-tested reliability over cost when migrating from Tavily
- Scavio lacks Tavily's built-in answer extraction and research mode; teams that rely on these features need to add an LLM summarization layer