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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Cloudflare Web Search API vs Valyu

Valyu scores 64.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Web Search API's 62.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Web Search API leads on security & auth. Both do web search.

Cloudflare Web Search APICloudflare, Inc. · HTTP API B62.1/100#226 of 460 ValyuValyu · HTTP API B64.6/100#182 of 460

Which one, for what

Cloudflare Web Search API B

Good for Agents and apps already on Cloudflare Workers or AI Gateway that want cheap snippet search ($0.25 per 1,000 with Ceramic.ai) on the same bill and logs as their inference.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 71 against 44

Watch for

Open beta, with no SLA found for AI Gateway

Valyu B

Good for Research agents that need SEC filings, papers, patents, clinical trials or market data alongside the web, with a per-query price cap.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 81
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 63
  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 71

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for

No published rate limits and no Retry-After or backoff guidance

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCloudflare Web Search APIValyuEdge
Reliability16%205553Cloudflare Web Search API +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28187Valyu +6
Agent ergonomics13%16.26378Valyu +15
Security & auth14%17.57144Cloudflare Web Search API +27
Payments & pricing10%12.52045Valyu +25
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87180Valyu +9
Transparency & trust7%8.87579Valyu +4
Negative events≤1500
Total62.1 · B64.6 · B

Facts side by side

FactCloudflare Web Search APIValyu
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCloudflare, Inc.Valyu
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for web search$0.25 per 1,000 requests$1.50 per 1,000 pages
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cloudflare's terms. Each search provider's own terms are linked from the providers pagenone
Tools exposednone6
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-022026-09-12
Popularitynone19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)4.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Cloudflare Web Search API

One endpoint that sends a search to Ceramic.ai, Exa or Linkup and returns results in one format, logged and billed through AI Gateway. Ceramic.ai costs $0.25 per 1,000 searches. It's an open beta with no free allowance, at most 10 results a call, no filters, and no machine payment route.

Valyu

Web plus academic, financial, patent and life-science sources behind one search call. No published rate limits and no Retry-After or backoff guidance.

Before you call either

Cloudflare Web Search API

  1. Set options.gateway.id. Every account has a gateway named default
  2. Pass provider explicitly. It defaults to Ceramic.ai, whose descriptions can run to 8,000 characters a result
  3. Set limit to the results you'll read, between 1 and 10
  4. Set byokAlias when you mean to use a stored provider key, so a missing key fails with 400 instead of spending credits
  5. Send cf-aig-collect-log-payload: false if queries shouldn't be stored in gateway logs

Valyu

  1. Set max_price and max_num_results on every search to bound cost
  2. Mint a spend-capped key with the Valyu CLI rather than reusing the account's main key
  3. Call valyu_search. The legacy per-vertical MCP tools stop working on 2026-12-01
  4. A 206 means some sources failed. Check which before treating results as complete
  5. DeepResearch is async. Poll valyu_deepresearch_status rather than waiting in one call

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare Web Search API or Valyu?

Valyu scores 64.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Web Search API's 62.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Web Search API leads on security & auth.

Do Cloudflare Web Search API and Valyu need an API key?

Cloudflare Web Search API needs an API key. Valyu takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Cloudflare Web Search API and Valyu without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Cloudflare Web Search API. Valyu has a hosted endpoint at https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Cloudflare Web Search API or Valyu

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