Comparison · checked Nov 11, 2026
AgentSearch gives AI agents web search, URL-to-markdown extract, headless render and search-and-read with no account or API key: the agent pays per call in USDC over x402 ($0.008 search, $0.007 extract, $0.010 render, $0.015 search + read), failed calls are not charged, and search has a free tier. Tavily, Exa, Firecrawl, Brave and Jina are strong API-key services; at steady high volume their plans can cost less per call, and they offer filters and crawling that AgentSearch does not.
| AgentSearch | Tavily | Exa | Firecrawl | Brave Search API | Jina Reader | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account / API key | None. Free tier needs nothing; paid calls use an x402 wallet | Account + API key | Account + API key | Account + API key | Account + API key (card on file) | Optional for Reader (20 RPM keyless); key for search |
| Web search | $0.008 per call (1-10 results); free 25/day per IP | 1 credit basic, 2 advanced ($0.008/credit pay-as-you-go; 1,000 free credits/mo) | $4-$7 per 1,000 requests (up to 10 results) | 2 credits per 10 results (plans from $19/mo; 1,000 free credits/mo) | $5 per 1,000 requests | Token-based (search from 10,000 tokens per request) |
| URL to markdown | $0.007 per page (Extract) | 1 credit per 5 successful URLs (basic) | Contents $1 per 1,000 pages | 1 credit per page (Scrape) | Not offered as page fetch (LLM Context returns extracted passages) | Token-based (Reader) |
| JavaScript render | $0.010 per page (headless Chromium) | Not listed separately | Not listed separately | Scrape renders pages | Not offered | Default engine renders in a browser |
| Search + page text in one call | $0.015 for top 1-5 pages | Yes (search with page content) | Yes (search with contents) | Yes (search with scrape, billed per page) | LLM Context endpoint | Yes (s.jina.ai, top 5 with content) |
| Failed calls | Not charged (400, 502, empty results) | Failed extractions not charged | Not stated on pricing page | No-result scrapes not charged; 403/404 pages charged | Not stated | Not stated |
| Filters (date, domain, news) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (freshness, Goggles) | Not listed |
| Whole-site crawl | No | Yes (Crawl, Map) | No | Yes (Crawl, Map) | No | No |
| How you pay | USDC on Base per call (x402); also $0.005/call via Pocket Network | Card: credits or monthly plan | Card: prepaid credits | Card: monthly plan + top-ups | Card: prepaid credits | Card: token packs |
Prices are list prices from each vendor's public page on Nov 11, 2026 (sources below). Credit-based prices depend on plan; check the vendor page before you decide.
Your agent should pay for itself with no signup or key to store; volume is low, bursty or unknown; you want failed and empty calls to cost nothing; or you want one tool set across MCP (Claude, Cursor, VS Code), n8n, LangChain and plain HTTP. It is listed in the Coinbase x402 Bazaar, so x402 agents can find and pay it directly.
You need search filters (dates, domains, categories, news), deep research modes, or high steady volume on a monthly plan.
You need to crawl or map whole sites, batch-scrape many URLs, or extract structured JSON from pages.
You want Brave's own independent index and LLM Context passages, or Jina Reader's many fetch options (CSS selectors, cookies, PDFs, image captions).
curl -s https://relay.agentsearchhq.com/v1/search \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{"query":"x402 protocol","max_results":5}'POST https://api.agentsearchhq.com/x402/v1/search $0.008
POST https://api.agentsearchhq.com/x402/v1/extract $0.007
POST https://api.agentsearchhq.com/x402/v1/render $0.010
POST https://api.agentsearchhq.com/x402/v1/search_and_read $0.015Unpaid requests get HTTP 402 with the terms. Docs: x402 docs · MCP server · pricing.
No. Free search (up to 25 per day per IP) and a small extract/render trial need nothing. Paid calls use x402: the agent pays each request in USDC on Base from a wallet, with no signup or API key. Tavily, Exa, Firecrawl and Brave all need an account and API key; Jina Reader works without a key at a low rate limit.
Not always. At low or bursty volume, paying $0.008 per search with no plan and no charge for failed calls is simple and has no idle cost. At steady high volume, subscription plans (for example Firecrawl Standard, or Tavily monthly plans at $0.005-$0.0075 per credit) and Exa's $4-$7 per 1,000 searches cost less per call.
AgentSearch Extract ($0.007, no key) for static pages and Render ($0.010) for JavaScript-heavy pages. Tavily Extract, Exa Contents, Firecrawl Scrape and Jina Reader do the same job behind an API key or token balance.
Not today. AgentSearch reads single pages and the top 1-5 search results. For whole-site crawls use Firecrawl or Tavily Crawl; for date, domain or category filters use Tavily, Exa or Brave.
AgentSearch pricing · Tavily credits and pricing · Exa pricing · Firecrawl pricing · Brave Search API · Jina Reader. See also pay-per-call vs subscription and extract vs headless render.