switch402

Tavily Credits Explained (2026): Plans from $30, $0.008 Pay as You Go, and What One Search Costs

Tavily's search API is sold in API credits. Per Tavily's pricing page and credits docs (checked Nov 3, 2026), a basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search 2. The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, pay as you go is $0.008 per credit, and monthly plans run from Project ($30 for 4,000 credits) to Growth ($500 for 100,000), which is $0.0075 down to $0.005 per credit. Credits reset on the first day of each month. switch402's /v1/search is $0.008 per successful call with no signup or API key. The honest comparison: for a basic search that is the same as Tavily's pay-as-you-go rate, and a Tavily plan costs less per search if you use most of its credits.

See also: Web search API, pay per call · MCP web search server

  • 1 credit basic, 2 credits advanced

    Per Tavily's credits docs, a search with search_depth basic costs 1 API credit and advanced costs 2. The same credits pay for Extract (1 or 2 credits per 5 successful URLs), Map (1 or 2 per 10 pages), Crawl (map plus extract) and Research (4 to 250 credits per request).

  • 1,000 free credits a month

    The free Researcher plan gives 1,000 API credits a month with no credit card. Per Tavily's FAQ, credits reset on the first day of each month whatever your billing date, and when they run out requests stop until the reset or an upgrade.

  • Plans: $0.0075 to $0.005 per credit

    Project $30 (4,000 credits), Bootstrap $100 (15,000), Startup $220 (38,000) and Growth $500 (100,000) a month; Enterprise is custom. Pay as you go is $0.008 per credit and, per the docs, also bills usage past a plan's credit limit.

  • Where switch402 fits

    No account, API key or card: an agent with USDC on Base pays $0.008 per search over x402, charged only when at least one result comes back. It returns up to 10 ranked results with title, URL and snippet. There is no advanced depth, extract, crawl or research endpoint; pass a result URL to /v1/scrape ($0.008) to read the page.

Basic searches a month: Tavily vs switch402 /v1/search, as of Nov 3, 2026

Basic searches a monthswitch402 /v1/searchTavily pay as you goLowest-cost Tavily optionTavily cost per search used
500$4.00$4.00Free plan, $0$0
1,000$8.00$8.00Free plan, $0$0
2,500$20.00$20.00Pay as you go, $20.00$0.008
4,000$32.00$32.00Project, $30.00$0.0075
10,000$80.00$80.00Project + 6,000 pay as you go, $78.00$0.0078
15,000$120.00$120.00Bootstrap, $100.00$0.0067
38,000$304.00$304.00Startup, $220.00$0.0058
100,000$800.00$800.00Growth, $500.00$0.005

Plain answer: on price alone, switch402 is never cheaper than Tavily for basic searches. Tavily's free plan covers 1,000 a month, its pay-as-you-go rate equals switch402's $0.008, and from 3,750 basic searches a month the $30 Project plan costs less. A Tavily plan only costs more than switch402 when you use less of it than its price divided by $0.008: under 3,750 searches on Project, 12,500 on Bootstrap, 27,500 on Startup or 62,500 on Growth. Rows above 1,000 searches assume no free credits on top; if your account gets them, Tavily costs less still. Advanced searches cost Tavily 2 credits ($0.016 pay as you go). switch402 is for agents that should pay per call from their own wallet, with no signup, API key or plan to manage.

Sources, checked Nov 3, 2026: tavily.com/pricing, docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits. Prices can change; check the source before you decide.

Example: an agent that runs 2,000 basic searches a month pays $16 on switch402 and $16 on Tavily pay as you go, and Tavily's free plan alone covers 1,000 of them. The same 2,000 searches on the $30 Project plan use half its 4,000 credits, $0.015 per search used. At 10,000 searches, Project plus pay as you go is $78 against $80 on switch402.

Code example

Before: Tavily basic search, 1 credit (curl)

curl -s -X POST https://api.tavily.com/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query": "x402 payment protocol", "search_depth": "basic"}'
# "search_depth": "advanced" costs 2 credits

After: switch402 web search, paid per call (JavaScript)

// npm i @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem
import { wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.AGENT_KEY)
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig(fetch, {
  schemes: [{ network: 'eip155:8453', client: new ExactEvmScheme(account) }],
})

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://api.switch402.com/v1/search', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'User-Agent': 'my-agent/1.0' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ q: 'x402 payment protocol', limit: 10 }),
})
const { results } = await res.json() // rank, title, url, snippet; $0.008, charged only on results

FAQ

Is switch402 web search live?
Yes. POST https://api.switch402.com/v1/search with {"q": "...", "limit": 10} returns up to 10 ranked results (title, URL, snippet) for $0.008 USDC on Base per call, paid over x402 and charged only when at least one result comes back. An unpaid call answers HTTP 402 with the exact terms.
How much does Tavily cost?
As of Nov 3, 2026, per tavily.com/pricing and its credits docs: Researcher is free with 1,000 API credits a month, pay as you go is $0.008 per credit, and monthly plans are Project $30 (4,000 credits), Bootstrap $100 (15,000), Startup $220 (38,000) and Growth $500 (100,000). Enterprise is custom, and students can use Tavily for free.
How many Tavily credits does one search use?
Per its credits docs, a basic search costs 1 API credit and an advanced search 2. Extract costs 1 or 2 credits per 5 successful URLs, Map 1 or 2 per 10 pages, and Research 4 to 250 credits per request depending on the model.
Do Tavily credits roll over?
Per Tavily's FAQ, monthly API credits reset on the first day of each month, regardless of your billing date; the pricing page does not describe a rollover. When credits run out, requests stop until the reset or an upgrade.
Is Tavily cheaper than switch402?
For basic searches, yes or equal. The first 1,000 a month are free on Tavily's free plan, pay as you go is the same $0.008 per search, and a plan costs less per search once you use most of it (from 3,750 searches a month on Project). switch402 only costs less than a Tavily plan you are not using fully, and it needs no signup, API key or plan.
Does switch402 search do everything Tavily does?
No. switch402 /v1/search returns up to 10 ranked results with title, URL and snippet. It has no advanced search depth and no extract, crawl, map or research endpoints under the same credits. To read a result, call /v1/scrape ($0.008) or /v1/scrape/lite ($0.003) on its URL.
Where do these numbers come from?
Tavily's pricing page (plans, slider prices and credits per month) and its API credits docs (credits per request), both checked Nov 3, 2026, plus switch402's live payment terms. Prices can change; check the sources before you decide.

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