# Liner Search MCP vs Valyu (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu.md (~4,700 tokens) · this version ~2,630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-valyu
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

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: E 43.4, rank #1252 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liner-mcp.min.md
- Valyu: B 69.3, rank #255 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.min.md
- Liner Search MCP, good for Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports.
- Valyu, 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.

| Category | Liner Search MCP | Valyu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 70 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 45 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 83 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 35 | 44 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 80 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 34 | 78 |

| Fact (where they differ) | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 9 | 6 |
| 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) |

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.)