# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

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 AI: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #252 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grep-ai.json
- Valyu: grade B, 64.6/100, rank #250 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Grep AI | Valyu | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 53 | Grep AI +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 87 | Valyu +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 78 | Valyu +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 44 | Grep AI +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 45 | Valyu +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 80 | Valyu +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 78 | Valyu +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.4 · B** | **64.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Grep AI | Valyu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Parcha Labs, Inc. | Valyu |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs` | `https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary 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 metadata | none |
| Tools exposed | 82 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-20 | 2025-10-20 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-21 | 2025-10-20 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 334 npm/wk, 52 PyPI/wk | 19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "grep-ai", "b": "valyu"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare grep-ai valyu`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grep-ai.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json

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