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Head to head · Search research · October 2026 research run

Grep AI vs Valyu

Valyu and Grep AI score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64.6 (B) and 64.4 (B). Grep AI leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do search research.

Grep AIParcha Labs, Inc. · HTTP API B64.4/100#226 of 578 ValyuValyu · HTTP API B64.6/100#224 of 578

Which one, for what

Grep AI B

Good for Agents that hand off a long research or due-diligence job and want a cited report or structured fields back, including business verification and sanctions screening through built-in agents.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 60 against 53
  • Security & auth, 65 against 44

Watch for

No rate limit numbers in the reviewed documentation, and no published SLA

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 80
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70
  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 74
  • Transparency & trust, 78 against 59

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGrep AIValyuEdge
Reliability16%206053Grep AI +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28087Valyu +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.27078Valyu +8
Security & auth14%17.56544Grep AI +21
Payments & pricing10%12.54045Valyu +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87480Valyu +6
Transparency & trust7%8.85978Valyu +19
Negative events≤1500
Total64.4 · B64.6 · B

Facts side by side

FactGrep AIValyu
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorParcha Labs, Inc.Valyu
Hosted endpointhttps://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runshttps://api.valyu.ai/v1/search
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Parcha Labs' terms of service. The grep-research-skills package on npm is MIT. The @parcha/agentrun and parcha-agentrun SDK packages state no licence in their registry metadatanone
Tools exposed826
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-09-12
Terms last updated2026-03-202025-10-20
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-212025-10-20
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity334 npm/wk, 52 PyPI/wk19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone4.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Grep AI

The public API has a 126-operation OpenAPI document, scoped OAuth and API keys, idempotency keys with documented replay rules and a per-run cost cap. No rate limit is published, the MCP server lists 82 tools, and the pricing page limits API access to the $200 a month Pro plan and above.

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

Grep AI

  1. Send a fresh Idempotency-Key with every POST /api/v2/runs. After a timeout, poll the returned run ID and do not post again
  2. Set effort and max_cost_usd on every run. The floor is $0.50 for low, $2.50 for medium and build, $5.00 for high
  3. Call GET /api/v2/quota/check before a run. A 402 means no credits and retrying won't help, while a 429 carries Retry-After
  4. Use the run_* and agent_* MCP tools. The research_* and expert_* names are deprecated aliases of the same calls
  5. Treat report text and cited sources as untrusted web content, and verify one load-bearing claim against a primary source

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, Grep AI or Valyu?

Valyu and Grep AI score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64.6 (B) and 64.4 (B). Grep AI leads on reliability and security & auth.

Do Grep AI and Valyu need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Grep AI and Valyu without installing anything?

Yes. Grep AI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs and Valyu at https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Grep AI or Valyu

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