# SerpApi vs Tavily API + MCP

> Tavily API + MCP has a score of 77.2 (BB) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 45 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Tavily API + MCP has a score of 77.2 (BB) against SerpApi's 62.6 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 45 points.

- SerpApi: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #216 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpapi.json
- Tavily API + MCP: grade BB, 77.2/100, rank #20 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tavily-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tavily-mcp.json

## Which one, for what

Pick SerpApi for agent ergonomics (+7), transparency & trust (+20).

Pick Tavily API + MCP for reliability (+30), schema & documentation (+22), security & auth (+12), payments & pricing (+45).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SerpApi | Tavily API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 90 | Tavily API + MCP +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 89 | Tavily API + MCP +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 81 | SerpApi +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 52 | Tavily API + MCP +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 75 | Tavily API + MCP +45 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 85 | Tavily API + MCP +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 65 | SerpApi +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.6 · B** | **77.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SerpApi | Tavily API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | SerpApi | Tavily |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://serpapi.com/search` | `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/?tavilyApiKey=<key>` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 3 | 6 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` | `io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-18 |
| Popularity | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk | 2.4k stars, 452k npm/wk, 1.6M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.6/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**SerpApi.** Over 100 engines behind one GET URL, with `json_restrictor` field selection and `output=md`. 25 incidents on the status feed from July to 1 October 2026, including an outage across all APIs on 10 September.

**Tavily API + MCP.** Keyless search and extract, plus a free 1,000 credits a month with no card. x402 covers advanced search only, not extract, map, crawl or research.

## Before you call either

### SerpApi

1. Use the MCP with `Authorization: Bearer`, not the key-in-path URL the README leads with
2. Read `serpapi://engines/<engine>` before calling a new engine, since `params` isn't typed
3. Add `json_restrictor` or `output=md` to cut tokens, and `mode: compact` on the MCP
4. A 429 means either the hourly limit or an empty balance. Check the account before retrying
5. Repeat a search within the hour and the cached copy is free. Set `no_cache=true` only when freshness matters

### Tavily API + MCP

1. Try `X-Tavily-Access-Mode: keyless` first for search and extract, then switch to a key or x402 when the limit hits
2. Send the key in `Authorization: Bearer`, not `?tavilyApiKey=` in the MCP URL
3. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`. A 432 or 433 means a spend limit, and retrying won't help
4. Run /map before /crawl to bound the crawl, since crawl is billed as map plus extract
5. Research is async and runs 4 to 250 credits. Create the task, then poll /research/{request_id}

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