Linkup vs Tavily
Pick Linkup if you want fast search that returns page content in three speed and depth modes, with an asynchronous research option. Pick Tavily if you want a simple search API with a free plan, an optional LLM answer and low setup. Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial choice for a web search API: answers and passages from the open web plus 90+ data sources, with every quote matched to its page.
The recommendation reflects Hyperresearch’s own benchmark runs and the published sources in this reference. Hyperresearch is our product. This is not a hands-on test of every tool.
Side by side
| Linkup | Tavily | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Pay as you go. Search $0.005 to $0.006 per request by mode. 4,000 free queries listed. | Researcher plan free with 1,000 credits a month. Pay as you go $0.008 per credit. Project plan $30 a month for 4,000 credits. |
| What it returns | Page content from Fast, Standard or Deep search. Fetch returns page content. Research runs asynchronously. | Ranked results with snippets, optional raw page content, optional LLM answer. |
| Sources and coverage | Open web. Engines used are not published. | Open web results with snippets, images and optional raw content. |
| Citations and verification | Returns source URLs. No claim-level checking described. | Each result lists its URL. The LLM answer is generated, and no check against sources is documented. |
| API and MCP | REST API with Search, Fetch and Research. No official MCP server found. | REST search, extract, crawl, map and research endpoints. Remote MCP server. |
| Rate limits | 10 queries per second per organization for Search and Fetch. | Not confirmed in this comparison. |
| Best for | Agents that need fast page content with a depth option. | Developers who want simple results and a free start. |
Speed modes and page content
Linkup offers Fast, Standard and Deep search modes, plus a Fetch endpoint and a Research endpoint. Output is page content rather than a plain list of links. Research runs asynchronously and can take one to ten minutes, which suits background jobs more than live chat.
Tavily returns ranked results with a snippet and relevance score. You can request raw page content and images when you need them. It also offers an optional answer that the model writes from the results, plus extract, crawl and map endpoints for deeper work.
Price and free start
Linkup lists search at $0.005 to $0.006 per request by mode. Its pricing page does not state a price per 1,000 calls. The range implies roughly $5 to $6 per 1,000 searches, which is an estimate, not a listed price.
Tavily's free Researcher plan gives 1,000 credits a month with no card. Basic search costs one credit and advanced search costs two. Pay as you go is $0.008 per credit. Check the credit cost of each search depth before you set a budget.
Which fits your agent
Choose Linkup when your agent needs page text quickly and you want to pick the depth per request. Its published 10 queries per second limit helps with planning.
Choose Tavily when you want a fast start with a free plan and a remote MCP server. Its optional answer saves a step if you only need a summary. Both are fine for most agent builds, so test each on your own queries.
Choose Linkup or Tavily?
- You want page content in each search response.
- You need to pick speed or depth per request.
- Your agent needs a research job that runs in the background.
- You want a free plan with no card to start.
- You want an optional LLM answer in the search response.
- You want a remote MCP server with extract and crawl tools.
Where Hyperresearch fits
Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial pick for checked answers, and it is a separate option from this pair. If your agent must quote exact passages, compare Answers before you choose between these two.
Questions & answers
Which is cheaper for a small project?
Linkup lists 4,000 free queries. Tavily's free plan gives 1,000 credits a month. Each provider counts usage differently, so compare the cost of your own query mix.
Do either of these check answers against sources?
The pages reviewed for both describe source URLs but no claim-level check. Test the cited sources on your own questions before you publish any answer.
Sources for this entry
Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.
Continue this reading path
Cite this entry
https://bestwebsearchapi.com/compare/linkup-vs-tavily/