# Tavily API + MCP vs TinyFish Search (slim)

> Tavily API + MCP scores 76.8 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security & auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $7.50 per 1,000 requests. Category…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md (~2,750 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Tavily API + MCP scores 76.8 (BB) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security & auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $7.50 per 1,000 requests.

- Tavily API + MCP: BB 76.8, rank #25 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tavily-mcp.min.md
- TinyFish Search: B 63.2, rank #366 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.min.md
- Tavily API + MCP, good for An agent that needs search plus page text in one call and has no account yet. Ahead on Reliability, 90 against 50; Schema & documentation, 89 against 82; Payments & pricing, 75 against 45; Maintenance & community, 85 against 78; Transparency & trust, 60 against 52. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Runs on your own machine; Open source.
- TinyFish Search, good for Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes. Ahead on Security & auth, 58 against 52. Also Cheaper for web search, $0 against $7.50 per 1,000 requests.

| Category | Tavily API + MCP | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 90 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 81 | 78 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 52 | 58 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 75 | 45 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Tavily API + MCP | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Tavily | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/?tavilyApiKey=<key>` | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Price for web search | $7.50 per 1,000 requests | free |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata |
| Tools exposed | 5 | 28 |
| MCP registry | `io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp` | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-04 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-24 | 2025-12-14 |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 2.4k stars, 452k npm/wk, 1.6M PyPI/wk | 9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.6/5 (8) | none |