<!-- twin of https://specstream.ai/compare/tavily-vs-firecrawl -->
# Tavily vs Firecrawl in 2026: one key answers both calls

Compared on Nov 10, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/compare/tavily-vs-firecrawl

On Nov 10, 2026, Tavily costs $0.008 a credit pay as you go, 1 credit a basic search and 2 an advanced one. Firecrawl sells monthly credit plans from $19 to $749, at 2 credits a search and 1 a page.

SpecStream answers both calls on one key. Tavily code calls `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily` in place of `https://api.tavily.com`, and Firecrawl code calls `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl` in place of `https://api.firecrawl.dev`. The bodies and the parsers stay.

A search costs $5 per 1,000 and a page $0.80 per 1,000, from one balance. SpecStream scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on WideSearch. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

[Get an API key](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-tavily-vs-firecrawl&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fagents%3Ftab%3Dkeys) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.

## SpecStream, Tavily and Firecrawl side by side

| | SpecStream | Tavily | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your code today | Runs as it is on both. Tavily's `POST /search` and `/extract` answer at `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily`, and Firecrawl's `/v2/search`, `/v2/scrape`, `/v2/map` and `/v2/crawl` at `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl`, with a SpecStream key as the Bearer token | `POST https://api.tavily.com/search` and `/extract`, with a Tavily key as the Bearer token | `https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2`, with a Firecrawl key as the Bearer token |
| Price per 1,000 searches | $5 for up to 10 results, basic or advanced, with page text and the answer at no extra cost. 11 to 20 results cost $0.011 a call | $8 basic and $16 advanced at $0.008 a credit pay as you go, or $0.0075 to $0.005 a credit on monthly plans from $30 for 4,000 credits to $500 for 100,000 | 2 credits per 10 results. Plans: Hobby $19 a month for 5,000 credits, Standard $99 for 100,000, Scale $749 for 1,000,000 |
| Price of a page read | $0.80 per 1,000 pages, $0.0008 a page, on Tavily Extract, Firecrawl scrape and crawl, and the Extract API | 1 credit for every 5 successful URLs on basic extract, up to 20 URLs a request | 1 credit a page for Scrape and Crawl, and 1 credit a Map call |
| How you pay | From a balance, with no monthly plan. Credit you buy never expires, and a key's `spend_cap_cents` is the most it can spend | Monthly credits. When they run out, requests stop until they reset on the first day of the month or you upgrade | A monthly plan of credits, from $19 to $749 a month |
| What answers a search | The whole live web, read at the moment of the call | Tavily's search, which serves cached copies and fetches pages live as needed. `max_age_hours` sets the cached copy's age from 1 to 720 hours | A search body with `query` and `limit`, and each result's page as `markdown` when asked |
| What comes back | Each API's own reply. On `/tavily`, `results[]` with `title`, `url`, `content` and `score`. On `/firecrawl`, `data.web[]` for a search, and `data.markdown` with `data.metadata` for a scrape | `results[]` with a title, URL, content and relevance score, an optional answer and each page's raw content when asked. `max_results` from 0 to 20, 10 by default | `data.web[]` with `url`, `title` and `description` for a search. `data.markdown`, `data.html`, `data.rawHtml` and `data.metadata` for a scrape |
| Failed and empty work | A page with no text is not charged. A busy call gets a `429` with `Retry-After` and charges nothing | A failed URL extraction or map is not charged | A call that returns a document is billed. A call that returns no document is 0 credits |
| Free to start | $10 of credit, no card: 2,000 searches or 12,500 pages | 1,000 free credits a month, no credit card | 1,000 free credits a month, about 1,000 pages, no card, at 10 requests a minute |
| Published accuracy | 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct). 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Extract API 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Method at [specstream.ai/benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl) | No accuracy score on its pricing page | No accuracy score on its pricing page |
| Every match as structured rows | Deep Search: a request in plain words returns every match on the live web as rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts | Research returns a cited report or one object in your schema, for 4 to 110 credits a request on mini and 15 to 250 on pro | Pages, at 1 credit each. Your code joins the facts into records |

## Why teams give their agent SpecStream

### Both calls on one key

An agent that searches with Tavily and reads pages with Firecrawl keeps both. Each call keeps its path, its body and its parser; the address and the key change.

```
# Tavily, before and after
curl -X POST https://api.tavily.com/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "Who founded Mistral AI and when?", "max_results": 5}'
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/tavily/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "Who founded Mistral AI and when?", "max_results": 5}'

# Firecrawl, before and after
curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/pricing"}'
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl/v2/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/pricing"}'
```

A search of up to 10 results is $0.005 on either route, and a page read is $0.0008.

### What stays the same

On `/tavily`, `query`, `max_results`, `include_domains`, `exclude_domains`, `time_range` and `topic` are read, and `search_depth` is accepted at the same price. The reply has `query`, `answer`, `results[]` with `title`, `url`, `content`, `score` and `raw_content`, `response_time` and `request_id`; `favicon` and images are not returned. `POST /tavily/extract` answers with `results[]` and `failed_results[]`. Every parameter is in the [Tavily migration guide](https://specstream.ai/migrate/tavily?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl).

On `/firecrawl`, a search returns `success: true` and `data.web[]` with `url`, `title`, `description` and `position`, and a scrape returns `data.markdown` and `data.metadata`; `data.html` and `data.rawHtml` are not returned on a scrape. Every parameter is in the [Firecrawl migration guide](https://specstream.ai/migrate/firecrawl?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl).

### Two prices, from one balance

On Tavily pay as you go, 1,000 basic searches cost $8 and 1,000 advanced searches $16, and requests stop when the month's credits run out. Firecrawl sells credits by the month, from $19 for 5,000 to $749 for 1,000,000. SpecStream charges $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results and $0.80 per 1,000 pages, from a balance that never expires. A page with no text is not charged, and a busy call gets a `429` with `Retry-After` and charges nothing.

### The most accurate web search API, in about one second

The SpecStream Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API that answers each scrape and extract scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Every score and its method is on the [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl) page.

Both search routes run the fast search unless the call asks for page text, the answer or more than ten results. On November 9, 2026 production took 1 to 20 fast searches a second and answered 718 of 720: the median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, and the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s. There is no limit per key and no daily limit.

### You decide what is kept, on each key

Create a key with `zero_retention` and a call made with it keeps no request text and no answer after the reply: it is not in the history, its answer is not reused for another call, and its log lines carry neither. `spend_cap_cents` is the most the key can spend.

```
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'
```

### Search, pages and rows on one key

The same key calls `GET /v1/web-search`, which returns up to 100 results for one search, reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the [Extract API](https://specstream.ai/extract-api?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl), and runs [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl), which returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Save a request and it reruns hourly to yearly, with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching.

## Other search and page APIs for an agent

### SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Search at $5 per 1,000 and pages at $0.80 per 1,000, on its own API or on the Tavily, Firecrawl, Brave, Exa and Jina routes, and every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

### Brave Search API

$5 per 1,000 requests with $5 in free credits a month, from Brave's own index. SpecStream answers Brave's `GET /res/v1/web/search` at `https://api.specstream.ai`. [Brave Search API vs Tavily](https://specstream.ai/compare/brave-vs-tavily?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl).

### Exa

Search from $4 per 1,000 requests and contents at $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. SpecStream answers Exa's search and contents at `https://api.specstream.ai/exa`, pages at $0.80 per 1,000.

### Jina Reader

Reads one URL into text and charges tokens by content length, with no dollar rate on its Reader page. SpecStream answers its call at `https://api.specstream.ai/jina` for $0.0008 a page. [Firecrawl vs Jina Reader](https://specstream.ai/compare/firecrawl-vs-jina-reader?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=tavily-vs-firecrawl).

## How to move Tavily and Firecrawl calls to SpecStream

1. Create a key under Agents & API in the workspace, with a spending limit. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches.

2. Point the Tavily calls at `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily` and send the SpecStream key as the Bearer token.

```
import os, requests

KEY = os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]

reply = requests.post(
    "https://api.specstream.ai/tavily/search",  # was https://api.tavily.com/search
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
    json={"query": "Who founded Mistral AI and when?", "max_results": 5},
).json()

for result in reply["results"]:
    print(result["title"], result["url"], result["score"])
```

3. Point the Firecrawl calls at `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl`, with the same key.

```
const page = await fetch("https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl/v2/scrape", { // was https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SPECSTREAM_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://example.com/pricing" }),
}).then((r) => r.json());

console.log(page.data.metadata.title, page.data.markdown.slice(0, 200));
```

4. Leave the rest. A search of up to 10 results is billed at $0.005 and a page at $0.0008, and the reply's `specstream` field carries the call's price.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Tavily better than Firecrawl?

Tavily bills $0.008 a credit for search and extract, and Firecrawl bills monthly credit plans from $19 for search, scrape and crawl. SpecStream answers both calls on one key, at $5 per 1,000 searches and $0.80 per 1,000 pages, with a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions.

### Tavily vs Firecrawl pricing: what does each cost?

Tavily costs $0.008 a credit pay as you go, 1 credit a basic search, 2 an advanced one and 1 for every 5 extracted URLs. Firecrawl costs $19 a month for 5,000 credits on Hobby and $99 for 100,000 on Standard, at 2 credits per 10 search results and 1 a page. SpecStream costs $0.005 a search and $0.0008 a page.

### Can I use both Tavily and Firecrawl?

Yes, on one SpecStream key since November 9, 2026. Tavily calls go to `https://api.specstream.ai/tavily` and Firecrawl calls to `https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl`, each in its own JSON, from one balance.

### Which is better for an AI agent's search?

SpecStream, at $5 per 1,000 searches with a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks. It answers the Tavily call and the Firecrawl call, so the agent's code stays as it is.

### Does the Tavily Python SDK work with SpecStream?

Yes, `TavilyClient(api_key=<key>, api_base_url="https://api.specstream.ai/tavily")`, and `tavily-python` 0.8.5 `extract()` works unchanged on the same address. Firecrawl's Python SDK works with `api_url="https://api.specstream.ai"`.

### What happens to a page that returns no text?

On SpecStream it costs $0. Tavily does not charge a failed URL extraction, and Firecrawl bills a call that returns a document.

### Is there a free tier?

New SpecStream accounts get $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches or 12,500 pages. Credit you buy never expires.

## Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each figure for Tavily, Firecrawl and the other tools comes from that company's own page.

- [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily API credits](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily pricing](https://tavily.com/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily search reference](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/search.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Tavily extract reference](https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-reference/endpoint/extract.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Firecrawl pricing](https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Firecrawl billing](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/billing.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Brave Search API](https://brave.com/search/api/), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Exa pricing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md), read Nov 10, 2026
- [Jina Reader](https://jina.ai/reader), read Nov 10, 2026