{"id":"web-grounded-qa","slug":"web-grounded-qa","name":"Web-grounded Q&A with citations","shortName":"Web-grounded Q&A with citations","problemStatement":"Answers must reflect live web with citations without DIY search stack.","whenNotTopPick":"Need full control of retrieval/ranking — compose Exa/Tavily + your LLM.","categoryIds":["cat-inference-apis","cat-search-scrape"],"depotPickProviderId":"perplexity","depotPickRationale":"capability groundedness + dx; lock-in medium.","runnersUpIds":["exa","tavily","openai","you-com"],"weights":{"capabilityFit":0.25,"pricePerformance":0.18,"latencyReliability":0.15,"developerDx":0.15,"privacyPosture":0.1,"lockInRisk":0.07,"maturity":0.1},"methodologyNotes":"capability groundedness + dx; lock-in medium.","tags":["web"],"depth":{"whenNotToUse":{"text":"Need full control of retrieval/ranking — compose Exa/Tavily + your LLM.","source":"editorial `whenNotTopPick` (data/jtbds.json)"},"whenNotToUseReason":null,"runnerUp":{"providerId":"exa","name":"Exa","overallForJob":8.3,"pickOverallForJob":7.67,"beatsPickOn":["capabilityFit","pricePerformance","latencyReliability","developerDx","privacyPosture","lockInRisk"],"source":"first resolvable entry of the job's editorially ranked `runnersUpIds`; scores are stored job-weighted scores"},"runnerUpReason":null,"lockIn":{"pickLockInRisk":5.5,"runnerUpLockInRisk":4.5,"scale":"0–10 stored curated estimate; higher = more lock-in (worse)","pickExitSignals":[],"runnerUpExitSignals":[],"pickNotes":[],"selfHostFallback":[],"migration":"Runner-up Exa has lower stored lock-in risk (4.5 vs 5.5, 0–10, higher = more lock-in).","migrationReason":null,"derivedFrom":"stored lockInRisk scores, provider tags (oss, self-host, openai-compat, open-models), free rows that list this job, and verbatim provider notes. No migration guide was invented."}},"freshness":{"pick":{"score":{"asOf":"2026-09-14","ageDays":43,"stale":true,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"lastReviewed":{"asOf":"2026-09-14","ageDays":43,"stale":true,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"sourceCheck":{"checkedAt":"2026-10-27","sourceUrls":4,"sourcesReachable":2,"pricingRows":5,"pricingRowsReconfirmed":4,"note":"A source re-check confirms the page is reachable and, for pricing rows, that the stored amount and SKU name appear on it. It does not re-derive or change the score.","reason":null}}},"depotPick":{"id":"perplexity","slug":"perplexity","name":"Perplexity","tagline":"Use when you want grounded answers without building search+cite yourself. For full agent stacks, prefer…","overall":7.67},"runnersUp":[{"id":"exa","slug":"exa","name":"Exa","tagline":"Depot pick for research-style agent search. Pair with Firecrawl when you need full page content.","overall":8.3},{"id":"tavily","slug":"tavily","name":"Tavily","tagline":"Depot co-default for agent web search with Exa. Pick Tavily for classic SERP-like agent search.","overall":8.29},{"id":"openai","slug":"openai","name":"OpenAI","tagline":"Default when you want maximum capability and ecosystem glue. Multi-home critical paths behind OpenAI-compat…","overall":8.22},{"id":"you-com","slug":"you-com","name":"You.com API","tagline":"Agent search peer with Answer/Research SKUs. Exa remains depot agent-search pick; You.com strong when ZDR +…","overall":8.07}]}