Tavily vs Mediastack: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Tavily (4.1/5) edges ahead of Mediastack (3.8/5) overall. Tavily is the better choice for agent builders adding a news tool in a few lines. Mediastack is the stronger option for low-traffic sites needing a cheap commercial headline feed. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Tavily vs Mediastack: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Tavily | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | Not disclosed | 2015 |
| HQ | New York and Tel Aviv; part of Nebius | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera |
| Team size | Part of Nebius | Part of Idera |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Built-in LangChain and LlamaIndex integrations that return prompt-ready text | Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month |
| Pricing model | Credits; free monthly allowance; pay-as-you-go | Monthly request plans |
| Entry price | $30/mo | $24.99/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
Tavily vs Mediastack: overview
Tavily
Tavily, founded by CEO Rotem Weiss, is a search API designed to be called by LLM agents, and its topic=news mode limits results to recent coverage with extracted text ready for a prompt. It is the quickest way on this list to give a LangChain or LlamaIndex agent a news tool, since both frameworks ship Tavily integrations. Nebius, the Nasdaq-listed AI cloud company, agreed to buy Tavily in February 2026 (Bloomberg put the price at $275 million) and later said the deal had closed, keeping the brand and pricing. Credits cost about $0.008 each on pay-as-you-go, a basic search uses one and an advanced search two, and 1,000 credits a month are free. Because it is a search tool, there is no archive, source list or clustering to work with.
Mediastack
Mediastack belongs to apilayer, the Vienna company behind ipstack and weatherstack, which Julian and Paul Zehetmayr founded in 2015 and the US software group Idera bought in January 2021. If you already use another apilayer API, the key format, parameters and error codes will look familiar. It covers live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, with filters for country, category, language and keyword. The free plan gives 100 requests a month, which a day of testing can use up, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Responses carry descriptions and metadata, without full text or enrichment.
Features: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Capability | Tavily | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✗ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Format / SDK | Tavily | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | ✓ | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Criterion | Tavily | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $30/mo | $24.99/mo |
| Pricing model | Credits; free monthly allowance; pay-as-you-go | Monthly request plans |
| Access models | Free tier, Monthly plans, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Budget |
Who each API suits: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Dimension | Tavily | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | Letting an assistant answer questions about today's news. Agents that summarise what was published this week. | A category news feed on a small website. Classroom projects that need commercial terms. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Free tier |
Tavily vs Mediastack: pros and cons
| Tavily | |
|---|---|
| + | Agent frameworks already support it, so setup is mostly an API key |
| + | 1,000 free credits a month cover a prototype |
| + | Extracted content arrives with results, with no separate scraper |
| + | Nebius ownership adds funding and compute behind the service |
| - | No archive, so historical questions go unanswered |
| - | No control over which sources are searched |
| - | Roadmap may change under new ownership |
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | Among the lowest paid entry prices for general news |
| + | Shares conventions with the other apilayer APIs |
| + | History included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste code |
| - | 100 free requests a month barely covers testing |
| - | Only 7,500 sources in 13 languages |
| - | No full text, entities or sentiment |
Who should choose Tavily?
A typical fit: letting an assistant answer questions about today's news.
Built-in LangChain and LlamaIndex integrations that return prompt-ready text. Paid access starts at $30/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia.
Who should choose Mediastack?
A typical fit: a category news feed on a small website.
Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Decision matrix: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Mediastack |
| You need full article text in the response | Tavily |
| You need years of historical news | Mediastack |
| You want an official SDK | Tavily |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Tavily |
Use case fit: Tavily vs Mediastack
| Use case | Tavily fit | Mediastack fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Tavily |
| Research & academia | Strong | Limited | Tavily |
| News & content apps | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
| Marketing & PR | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
Verdict: Tavily vs Mediastack
Tavily (4.1/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Built-in LangChain and LlamaIndex integrations that return prompt-ready text.
Mediastack (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need classroom projects that need commercial terms. If your situation matches that, Mediastack is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Tavily vs Mediastack FAQ
Is Tavily better than Mediastack?
Tavily (4.1/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Tavily's strongest advantage: agent frameworks already support it, so setup is mostly an API key. Mediastack's strongest advantage: among the lowest paid entry prices for general news.
How do Tavily and Mediastack differ in pricing?
Tavily: credits; free monthly allowance; pay-as-you-go, with paid access from $30/mo. Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Tavily or Mediastack?
Tavily sells enterprise contracts with negotiated volume and SLA terms. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Tavily and Mediastack?
What sets Tavily apart: built-in LangChain and LlamaIndex integrations that return prompt-ready text. What sets Mediastack apart: commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. They also differ on entry price ($30/mo vs $24.99/mo) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Research & academia vs News & content apps, Marketing & PR).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.