Tavily is an AI-optimized web search, content extraction, site mapping, and crawling API. Your agent can call it per request, with no API key and no signup — the endpoint answers 402, the agent pays USDC from the user's Circle Agent Wallet, and the content comes back in the same run. SELAT never holds keys or funds. Tavily is the budgeting case: price shape follows task shape, so what a research skill costs depends less on how many calls it makes than on which kind it makes.
What Tavily does
Tavily returns web content shaped for a model to read rather than for a person to click. The listing spans several task shapes, and the spread matters when you budget a run: a query is cheap, a whole-site traversal is not.
- Search — ranked web results with content, built for retrieval rather than a SERP page.
- Extract — page content from one or more specified URLs.
- Map — site structure traversed as a graph, many paths in parallel.
- Crawl — graph-based traversal that walks a site and returns what it finds.
- Research — multi-search investigation of a topic with source analysis.
Full API reference: tavily.com.
What it costs
Tavily lists 10 endpoints in the catalog, 3 of them priced. Six representative rows:
| Endpoint | What it returns | Price | Rail |
|---|---|---|---|
POST /search | Tavily Search, advanced mode | $0.01 | x402 · exact · Base |
POST /tavily/map | Site structure traversed as a graph | $0.09 | MPP · exact · Tempo |
POST /research | Multi-search topic research with source analysis | $0.50 | MPP · exact · Tempo |
POST /tavily/search | Search results | no catalog price | MPP · exact · Tempo |
POST /tavily/extract | Page content from specified URLs | no catalog price | MPP · exact · Tempo |
POST /tavily/crawl | Crawled site content | no catalog price | MPP · exact · Tempo |
Catalog prices run from $0.01 to $0.50 per call on the endpoints that carry one. Price shape follows task shape — a query at $0.01, a site map at $0.09, a research pass at $0.50 — so a plan that maps three domains before it searches costs an order of magnitude more than one that searches first.
Where Tavily is payable
Tavily is payable on Base and Tempo; the agent does not pick.
Install SELAT in your agent
SELAT installs once per agent runtime — no per-service setup, no API key. Quickest path (Claude Code):
claude plugin marketplace add SELAT-AI/selat-plugins
claude plugin install selat@selat-plugins
Using Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, Hermes, or a plain terminal? Follow the canonical, always-current install guide: Install SELAT →.
Pay Tavily from your agent
selat search is free: hosted discovery returns ranked, live-priced candidates and does not spend. selat run spends — it discovers, quotes, and pays USDC from the user's Circle Agent Wallet. selat run --dry-run quotes without paying. SELAT never holds keys or funds.
selat search "ai-optimized web search with page extraction" # free — ranked, live-priced
selat run "ai-optimized web search with page extraction" --dry-run # quotes without paying
selat run "ai-optimized web search with page extraction" # spends: discover → quote → pay USDC
Fund path: init → fund → run. Fund Circle Gateway, then pay USDC from the user's Circle Agent Wallet.
See the SELAT CLI / docs for init → fund → run.
When to use Tavily vs alternatives
- Use Tavily when the agent needs web content already shaped for a model. Search, extract, map, and crawl sit behind one merchant, so a research skill does not stitch four vendors together.
- Use
/searchon x402/Base at $0.01 for high fan-out. Cheap enough to issue many queries inside one task. - Think twice before fanning out on
maporcrawl. At $0.09 a map call, breadth gets expensive fast;crawlcarries no listed price, so check the quote before you fan out. Search first, then map the one domain that matters. - Weigh
/researchat $0.50 against composing it yourself from several $0.01 searches plus extracts, when you need one deep topic pass.
FAQ
Do I need a Tavily API key to use Tavily from an agent?
No. Tavily is listed as a pay-per-call merchant, so your agent pays per request from the user's Circle Agent Wallet instead of authenticating with a key. There is no signup step in the loop. SELAT never holds keys or funds.
How much does one Tavily API call cost?
The listed POST /search endpoint on x402/Base is $0.01 per call. Of the ten listed Tavily endpoints, three carry a listed price: $0.01 for search, $0.09 for map, and $0.50 for research.
Which chain does Tavily settle on?
Tavily is payable on Base and Tempo; the agent does not pick.
Why does Tavily's map endpoint cost more than search?
Map traverses a site as a graph and explores many paths in parallel, so it does far more work per call than one query. It is listed at $0.09 against $0.01 for search.
Can my agent use Tavily's crawl and extract endpoints pay-per-call?
Yes — both are listed. Neither carries a listed price in the catalog, so the price comes back in the quote before your agent commits. selat run --dry-run quotes without paying.
Can I cap what my agent spends on Tavily in one run?
Yes. You set a per-call ceiling and a session budget, and you can freeze the wallet. On this merchant the per-call ceiling is what keeps a $0.01 plan from silently becoming a $0.50 one.
How do I call Tavily from my agent?
Install the SELAT plugin in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, or Hermes, then ask for the web research you need — the agent finds the matching Tavily endpoint in the catalog and selat run pays for the call in the same session. You write the intent; the agent does not pick the chain.