Tavily has become the go-to search API for LangChain developers thanks to its built-in integration. But at $4.00 per 1,000 queries, it's the most expensive mainstream AI search API. For teams processing serious volume, the cost is hard to justify.
Here are five alternatives that deliver equal or better results at a fraction of the price.
Why Developers Look for Tavily Alternatives
- Price — At $4/1K queries, Tavily costs $400 for 100K queries/month. Keiro does the same for $50.
- Only 2 endpoints — Search and Extract. No batch, no speed tiers, no chunking.
- No content chunking — You get raw text back. You still need to chunk it for embeddings.
- Rate limits — Tavily's free tier is limited to 1,000 queries/month.
1. Keiro — Best Tavily Alternative for RAG
Keiro is purpose-built for RAG pipelines. The /search/content endpoint in medium mode returns pre-chunked content — no post-processing needed. Feed the chunks directly into your embedding model.
# Keiro: Search + RAG-ready chunks in one call
import requests
response = requests.post(
"https://kierolabs.space/api/v2/search/content",
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"},
json={
"query": "how to implement vector search",
"maxResults": 3,
"mode": "medium" # Returns pre-chunked content
}
)
chunks = response.json()["results"]
# Each result includes title, url, and content as chunks
# Feed directly into your embedding pipeline
| Feature | Tavily | Keiro |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1K queries | $4.00 | $0.50 |
| Endpoints | 2 | 5 |
| Content chunking | No | Yes (medium mode) |
| Batch processing | No | Yes (10K/job) |
| Fastest latency | ~1s | 100ms |
| LangChain compatible | Built-in | Custom tool (5 min setup) |
Using Keiro as a LangChain Tool
from langchain.tools import Tool
import requests
def keiro_search(query: str) -> str:
response = requests.post(
"https://kierolabs.space/api/v2/keiro",
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"},
json={"query": query, "maxResults": 5}
)
results = response.json()["results"]
return "\n".join([f"{r['title']}: {r['snippet']}" for r in results])
keiro_tool = Tool(
name="web_search",
func=keiro_search,
description="Search the web for current information"
)
# Use keiro_tool in any LangChain agent
2. Exa — Best Semantic Quality
Exa's neural search returns genuinely different results than keyword-based search. At $3/1K queries, it's slightly cheaper than Tavily but still 6x more expensive than Keiro.
3. SerpAPI — Best for Google-Equivalent Results
Returns structured Google SERP data. Different use case than semantic search but useful for applications that need to mirror Google's results.
4. Brave Search API — Best Budget Option
Generous free tier, privacy-focused, decent quality. Good for prototyping before scaling with a paid API.
5. You.com — Best for Q&A Applications
Returns pre-summarized answers. Less flexible but requires less post-processing for simple chatbot use cases.
Bottom Line
If you're switching from Tavily, Keiro gives you 8x cost savings, 3 more endpoints, and built-in RAG chunking that Tavily doesn't offer. The LangChain integration takes 5 minutes to set up as a custom tool. For most teams, the savings at scale make the switch a no-brainer. Keiro plans: Essential ($15/mo, 5K credits), Pro ($25/mo, 15K credits), Startup ($50/mo, 50K credits + batch), or Keiro Ult ($500/mo, unlimited). Start free with 300 credits.