Apify vs Tavily
A side-by-side look at 2 AI & ML tools for 2026 — the verdict, pricing, ratings, features, and what readers think.
apify.com
Best for Developers and AI teams that want ready-made scrapers and automation tools, or a cloud platform to run their own.
A marketplace and platform of ready-to-run web scraping and automation tools for AI agents and apps.
Visit Apify
tavily.com
Best for Developers building AI agents and RAG apps that need fresh, citable web results through a single API.
The real-time web search and extraction API built for AI agents and RAG.
Visit TavilyPricing compared
Apify
$19/mo
Tavily
$30/mo
Head to head
| Apify | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $19/mo | $30/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Free plan with $5 of monthly usage, no credit card | Free plan with 1,000 API credits per month, no credit card required |
| Platforms | Web · API · CLI | API · Web |
| Founded | 2015 | 2024 |
| HQ | Prague, Czechia | New York City, USA |
Pros & cons
Apify
Pros
- Huge store of ready-made Actors covers many common scraping jobs.
- Free plan with no credit card makes testing easy.
- Includes proxies, anti-blocking tools and scheduling on the platform.
- MCP server and API let AI agents run Actors directly.
- Open-source Crawlee library reduces lock-in for custom scrapers.
Cons
- Costs vary by Actor and pricing model, so budgeting needs test runs.
- Unused prepaid usage expires at the end of each billing cycle.
- Free plan is blocked once monthly usage runs out.
- Store Actor quality depends on the individual developer.
Tavily
Pros
- One API covers search, extract, crawl, map and research, so agents do not need separate scrapers.
- Free tier of 1,000 credits a month with no credit card makes prototyping risk-free.
- Results are returned structured and chunked for LLM use, which cuts glue code in RAG pipelines.
- Built-in guards against PII leakage, prompt injection and malicious sources suit autonomous agents.
- Pay-as-you-go credits at $0.008 each avoid monthly commitments for spiky workloads.
Cons
- Credit-based billing means different endpoints cost different amounts, so budgeting needs monitoring.
- On the free plan, requests stop once monthly credits run out until they reset or you upgrade.
- Speed, scale and benchmark claims on the site are vendor-published, not independently verified.
- It is an API for developers, with no end-user search interface.
- Becoming part of Nebius may change roadmap or pricing over time.
Features compared
| Apify | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans & pricing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Pricing model | Monthly subscription plus pay-as-you-go platform usage | Usage-based API credits |
| Platforms & access | ||
| Web app | ✓ Yes | — |
| Integrations & extensibility | ||
| Public API | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Native integrations | Zapier, GitHub, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Slack, n8n | — |
| Automation (Zapier/Make) | ✓ Yes | — |
| Support | ||
| Email support | — | ✓ Yes |