# Liner Search MCP vs Valyu > Valyu scores 69.3 (B) to Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E) for research search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu.md (~4,700 tokens) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key) - DNS: dig +short TXT .grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.. and .vs.. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev) - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) - Updated: 2026-11-07 Valyu scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do research search. - Liner Search MCP: grade E, 43.4/100, rank #1252 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liner-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liner-mcp.json - Valyu: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #255 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json - Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md - All 326 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md ## Which one, for what ### Liner Search MCP (E) Good for: Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports. Watch for: No free tier found ### 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: - Reliability, 70 against 50 - Schema & documentation, 90 against 45 - Agent ergonomics, 83 against 65 - Security & auth, 44 against 35 - Payments & pricing, 45 against 20 - Maintenance & community, 80 against 45 - Transparency & trust, 78 against 34 Watch for: Per-plan rate limits are stated only in example responses, not in a table ## Why the edge ### Schema & documentation: Valyu +45 - Liner Search MCP (45): Tool schemas not read without sign-in (15 of 25). llms.txt (10). A table says which tool fits which need, and that the domain tools return the same shape as search_web (12 of 20). Inputs not verifiable (3 of 15). Setup examples, no error responses (5 of 15). Registry version 1.0.0 since 11 September; no changelog found (0). 15 + 10 + 12 + 3 + 5 + 0 = 45. - Valyu (90): Valid OpenAPI 3.0.3 (info version 2.3.0) with 24 paths and 29 operations across Search, Contents, Answer, DeepResearch, Batches, Workflows and Datasources on 2 November, matching the endpoint pages in llms.txt (25). llms.txt with a 'Guidance for agents' section (10). The MCP tools carry one-line purposes such as 'Read one or more URLs as clean markdown', and the docs explain source presets, but say little about when not to use a tool (13). `search_type` is an enum, `max_num_results` runs 1 to 20, `relevance_threshold` 0 to 1, `source_biases` -5 to 5 and `instructions` caps at 500 characters, with only `query` required (14). 200, 206 partial success and 400 to 503 documented, with examples across the docs (13). Versioned paths (/v1) and two dated changelogs, the platform changelog to 31 October 2026 and the SDK and API changelog to 26 October (15). 25+10+13+14+13+15 = 90. ### Transparency & trust: Valyu +44 - Liner Search MCP (34): Terms and privacy linked from the docs but not read in this batch (5 of 30). Data handling not read (5 of 30). No deprecation policy found for the MCP server; the docs note older endpoints priced per version (5 of 20). Subprocessors not read (5 of 20). 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20. - Valyu (78): Closed service with terms that name Valyu.Network Ltd, company 14436543 in England and Wales, per the 30 September check (15). The privacy policy (20 October 2025) says queries are deleted within 24 to 72 hours, security logs kept 90 days, performance logs 30 days and billing records 7 years, and that query data isn't used to train models. No DPA referenced (26). Dated notice for the legacy MCP tools, hidden now and removed on 1 December 2026, but no general deprecation policy (12). Processing in the UK, EU and US is disclosed. Subprocessors are named by category only (12). The privacy policy is unchanged on 2 November (last updated 20 October 2025), and the pricing page now lists zero data retention on request for Enterprise. 15+26+12+12 = 65. ### Maintenance & community: Valyu +35 - Liner Search MCP (45): Registry entry com.liner/search last updated 11 September 2026 (20). No dated changelog found (0). Support page linked from the docs (10 of 15). Official registry entry under its own namespace (15). No package to read (0). 20 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 45. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API. - Valyu (80): valyu-py 2.13.5 and valyu-js 2.11.5 on 31 October 2026, named in the platform changelog the same day (30). valyu-py tagged ten releases from 2.12.1 (12 August) to 2.13.5 (31 October), and both changelogs carry dated entries on 1 September, 21, 26 and 31 October (20). Public platform and API changelogs, both current. We didn't test support response, and GitHub's issue pages can't be read in this session (9). Current Python and TypeScript SDKs. The MCP server isn't in the official registry (15). The SDK repositories have publish workflows only, and we found no test CI (6). 30+20+9+15+6 = 80. ### Payments & pricing: Valyu +25 - Liner Search MCP (20): No machine payment protocol (0). Per-call prices public (20). No free tier found (0). A person signs up in a browser for OAuth or an API key (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20. - Valyu (45): No x402, MPP or L402 in llms.txt, the pricing page or the OpenAPI file on 2 November, so there was no payment route to check live (0). Since October usage is billed in credits, 1,600 for a $10 top-up, with per-result Search prices by source (web and news 0.1 credits, arXiv and PubMed 0.05, SEC filings 1.92), Contents at 0.2 a URL and fixed DeepResearch prices by mode, all public (20). $10 of free credit ($20 with a company email), no card, valid 12 months (20). A person has to create the account, but after that an agent can log in through the CLI, headless if needed, and mint its own spend-capped keys. That's a programmatic key route after a human signup, so we gave part of the line (5). 0+20+20+5 = 45. ### Reliability: Valyu +20 - Liner Search MCP (50): incident.io status page at status.liner.com with components for liner.com and app.liner.com only, none for the API or MCP (15). 100% uptime shown since August (20, no incidents shown). Rate limits published per API with numbers (Scholar Search 2 requests a second, agents 2 a second) (15). 429 with a code for concurrency limits, no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (0 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (0 of 10; 'limits may be adjusted over time', GA not stated). 15 + 20 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 50. - Valyu (70): Instatus page at status.valyu.ai with separate Search, Contents, Answer and DeepResearch components and an RSS history (20). In the 90 days to 2 November it lists a 13-minute Search incident on 6 October with "certain data sources", a partial incident, plus scheduled maintenance on 9 August (Search, 3 hours 13 minutes, announced the evening before) and 20 October (every component, 3 hours, announced 47 minutes ahead). Minor only (20). Since 21 October limits apply per organisation and per endpoint and scale with the plan, but the numbers appear only in example responses (Search at 5 requests a second on pay-as-you-go and 10 on Ridiculously Cheap; DeepResearch at 2 and 5 tasks at once), and the pricing page the docs point to for each plan's rate doesn't list them (8 of 15). A 429 carries a Retry-After header and a body with retry_after, the plan and the limit, the docs say to wait and retry with backoff and that a rate-limited request is never charged, and the SDKs retry 429s on their own. No idempotency keys, but the pricing page says to persist research task ids so retries don't create duplicate tasks (12). No SLA found (0). Search, Contents, Answer and DeepResearch are GA, and Workflows is labelled beta (10). 20+20+8+12+0+10 = 70. ### Agent ergonomics: Valyu +18 - Liner Search MCP (65): Nine tools (25). No paging or size controls documented (5 of 20). 429 codes documented for the API (8 of 20). All tools read; annotations not read (12 of 20). One URL with OAuth, few required inputs and an OpenAI-compatible API (15). 25 + 5 + 8 + 12 + 15 = 65. - Valyu (83): `max_num_results`, `response_length`, `fast_mode` and `max_price` size each response, and the MCP has six tools after folding eleven into one `valyu_search`. We couldn't read the hosted tool definitions, since the server isn't open source (22). Source include and exclude lists, per-source biases, dates, country and a relevance threshold. No pagination found (18). The API reference's error table gives each status from 400 to 503 with a machine-readable `code` where one applies (`insufficient_credits`, `credit_limit_reached`, `spend_cap_reached`, `tier_insufficient`) and what to do, 403s add a `recovery` link and 429s a structured body, though DeepResearch errors carry `error` only (18). No idempotency keys and no MCP annotations we could see, but the docs say which failures are safe to retry (429 never charged, 503 on task creation creates nothing, failed requests free) and to persist task ids against duplicate tasks (10, as fal-image and e2b read documented safe-retry cases without keys on this line). Only `query` is required, with Python and TypeScript SDKs plus a Rust SDK in alpha (15). 22+18+18+10+15 = 83. ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Liner Search MCP | Valyu | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 70 | Valyu +20 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 45 | 90 | Valyu +45 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 83 | Valyu +18 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 44 | Valyu +9 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 45 | Valyu +25 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 80 | Valyu +35 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 34 | 78 | Valyu +44 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **43.4 · E** | **69.3 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Liner Search MCP | Valyu | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | MCP server | HTTP API | | Vendor | Liner | Valyu | | Hosted endpoint | `https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp` | `https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search` | | Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | | Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Paid | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Tools exposed | 9 | 6 | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | MCP registry | `com.liner/search` | not listed | | Last release | none | 2026-10-31 | | Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-10-20 | | Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-10-20 | | Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text | | Popularity | none | 19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) | ## How the scores have moved ### Liner Search MCP No score change since it was listed. ### Valyu - +4.7 on 2 November 2026: product, new evidence - no change on 8 October 2026: checklist ## Verdicts **Liner Search MCP.** Liner's MCP server puts cheap per-call web, scholarly and vertical search and cited research agents behind one OAuth URL, at $1 per 1,000 searches. The docs say which tool fits which question, but there's no free tier, no changelog, no injection guidance and no status component for the API. **Valyu.** Web plus academic, financial, patent and life-science sources behind one search call, billed per result with a per-query price cap. Since 21 October rate limits scale with the plan and 429s carry Retry-After, but the per-plan numbers appear only in examples. The MCP docs still put the API key in the URL. ## Before you call either ### Liner Search MCP 1. Use search_scholar for papers and the domain tools for legal, finance, medical or business questions 2. Deep research is slower and costs more; use quick_answer_agent for short lookups 3. Treat search results and research reports as untrusted content 4. Keep under 2 requests a second for scholar search and the agents ### 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. On a 429, wait the `retry_after` seconds and retry; it's never charged. The SDKs retry twice by default 4. Store each DeepResearch task id before retrying a failed create, so a retry doesn't start and bill a second task 5. Call `valyu_search`. The legacy per-vertical MCP tools stop working on 2026-12-01 6. A 206 means some sources failed. Check which before treating results as complete ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Liner Search MCP or Valyu? Valyu scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. ### Do Liner Search MCP and Valyu need an API key? Liner Search MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. Valyu takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ### Can an agent call Liner Search MCP and Valyu without installing anything? Yes. Liner Search MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp and Valyu at https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "liner-mcp", "b": "valyu"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare liner-mcp valyu` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liner-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json ## Other comparisons with Liner Search MCP or Valyu - [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-valyu.md) - [Grounding with Bing Search vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-valyu.md) - [Brave Search API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu.md) - [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-valyu.md) - [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-valyu.md) - [Exa API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-valyu.md) - [Firecrawl MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-valyu.md) - [Kagi Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-valyu.md) - [Linkup vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-valyu.md) - [Mojeek Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-valyu.md) - [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-valyu.md) - [Perplexity Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-valyu.md) - [SearchAPI.io vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-valyu.md) - [SerpApi vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-valyu.md) - [Serper vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-valyu.md) - [SERPHouse vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-valyu.md) - [SerpKite vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-valyu.md) - [Tavily API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-valyu.md) - [TinyFish Search vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu.md) - [Valyu vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/valyu-vs-you-com-api.md) - [Arcmira vs Liner Search MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-liner-mcp.md) - [Arcmira vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-valyu.md) - [Exa API + MCP vs Liner Search MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-liner-mcp.md) - [Grep AI vs Liner Search MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-liner-mcp.md) - [Grep AI vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-linkup.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs NewsCatcher](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-newscatcher.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs Perplexity Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-perplexity-search-api.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-specstream.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md) - [SpecStream vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-valyu.md) - [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-valyu.md) - [NewsCatcher vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-valyu.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serpapi.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serper.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serphouse.md) - [Liner Search MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serpkite.md) - [Grounding with Bing Search vs Liner Search MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-liner-mcp.md) --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp