At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/search-augmented-llm#briefScores as of 2026-09-14 (43 days old; Depot marks scores stale after 30 days). The pick is still Depot's current editorial pick; it has not been re-reviewed since. Prices below carry their own dates.
- Depot Pick
- Tavily · 8.32/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
dx agent integrations + capability.
- Runner-up
- Exa · 8.34/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Capability fit, Maturity / track record.
- When not to use the pick
- Want fully managed cite-and-answer — Perplexity. Need full page text — Firecrawl after search.
- Lock-in / migration
- Nothing stored (no_stored_migration_data).
- Sourced price (usd_per_search)
Pick: no sourced price in this job's unit (no_matching_sourced_price).
Cheapest matching SKU: Exa Agent search tool call $0.005 — source, as of 2026-10-03. Not the pick; not quality-adjusted.
Price history: first seen 2026-10-03 · last changed no change recorded · history JSON
- Free option
- No free resource lists this job. A cheap paid SKU is not a free option.
- Failure modes to watch
- Prompt injection: Compare each tool call to the original user task. If the call only makes sense given text that arrived from a fetched page, file, or message, stop and ask. Record which source the instruction came from. This catalog does not store payloads or attack steps.
- Stale retrieval: Store the source URL and the time it was fetched. If a newer canonical page exists, or two stored sources disagree, do not answer from the older one.
- Ungrounded answer: Require a source URL or passage id on factual sentences. Drop or mark any sentence whose source does not contain the claim.
- Context overflow: If the input exceeds the window, say so and retrieve a narrower slice. Do not answer from a truncated head as if it were the whole source.
- Instruction drift: Restate the stop condition in the trace. End the run when it is met. Review long traces for steps that do not serve the original task.
- Inter-agent misalignment: Log the assigned subtask next to the worker's stated result. The lead rejects a result that does not match the assignment.
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for search-augmented-llm: tavily, scores as of 2026-09-14. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=search-augmented-llm
All sourced prices, cheapest first · for research agents
Tavily
dx agent integrations + capability.
Pricing (directional): Search API built for AI agents; credit-based; returns clean results for RAG.
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
Depot co-default for agent web search with Exa. Pick Tavily for classic SERP-like agent search.
Quote for Search-augmented generation
Depot Pick stays Tavily. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=search-augmented-llm
Only 1 candidate has a matching USD per search; nothing was compared, so pickIsPriceWinner is null.
- Bootstrap plan usd_per_month $100 source as of 2026-10-03
- Bootstrap price per credit usd_per_credit $0.0067 source as of 2026-10-03
- Growth plan usd_per_month $500 source as of 2026-10-03
- Growth price per credit usd_per_credit $0.005 source as of 2026-10-03
- Pay as you go usd_per_credit $0.008 source as of 2026-10-03
- Project plan usd_per_month $30 source as of 2026-10-03
- Project price per credit usd_per_credit $0.0075 source as of 2026-10-03
- Startup plan usd_per_month $220 source as of 2026-10-03
- Startup price per credit usd_per_credit $0.0058 source as of 2026-10-03
1 of 6 candidates have no sourced price row. 5 are excluded from the USD per search comparison (search). min sourced search SKU among candidates; usd_per_search only; not coerced to another search unit; not a chat $/1M rate; not quality-adjusted
Runners-up
Exa
Depot pick for research-style agent search. Pair with Firecrawl when you need full page content.
Perplexity
Use when you want grounded answers without building search+cite yourself. For full agent stacks, prefer…
Parallel
Strong Exa peer for agent search; wins when you need Task/deep-research in one bill. Exa remains Depot…
Firecrawl
Depot pick for turning the web into LLM context. Browserbase when you need to *act*, Firecrawl when you need…
You.com API
Agent search peer with Answer/Research SKUs. Exa remains depot agent-search pick; You.com strong when ZDR +…
When NOT to use the top pick
Want fully managed cite-and-answer — Perplexity. Need full page text — Firecrawl after search.
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa | 8.3 | 9.0 | 8.2 | 8.4 | 9.2 | 2026-10-19 |
| 2 | TavilyDepot Pick | 8.3 | 8.8 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 3 | Firecrawl | 8.3 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 9.4 | 2026-10-19 |
| 4 | Parallel | 8.1 | 8.8 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 8.8 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | You.com API | 8.1 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | Perplexity | 7.7 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
dx agent integrations + capability.
capabilityFit: 28%pricePerformance: 16%latencyReliability: 14%developerDx: 18%privacyPosture: 8%lockInRisk: 8%maturity: 8%