Web Search for AI
Version 1No published result
developer-tools
Valyu
Returns usable web text for agents, but the citation layer is too error-prone to trust.
Search APIAnswer API4 false citations25k-char cap
TL;DR — our verdictUpdated August 2026
Strong retrieval, unsafe citations
Where it wins
- You need an API that returns large extracted web content your agent can read without a second crawl.
- You are willing to independently verify citations and source domains before trusting an answer.
- You care more about usable content payload than low-latency answer-mode convenience.
Main limitation
- Your product depends on citation honesty without manual checks.
Our take
Valyu's /search mode returns long, usable page text and can support answer-making from the retrieved content, but /answer repeatedly cites the wrong entity and posts the benchmark's worst citation record. In this run it also measured far above the quoted web-source rate and streamed slowly enough that it is hard to justify as a default grounding layer for an agent.
Benchmark participation
Explore Valyu in our public benchmarks.
In-Depth Review
Our detailed analysis of Valyu — features, performance, and real-world testing.
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AI Demos Team
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Feature-by-Feature Breakdown
Ranked Web Retrieval with Extracted Page Text▾
Ranked Web Retrieval with Extracted Page Text
Test Summary
Feature tested: Ranked Web Retrieval with Extracted Page Text
Result: Partial
Feature tested: Ranked Web Retrieval with Extracted Page Text
Result: Partial
Expected behavior: Valyu’s /search mode returns ranked web results plus large extracted page text, rather than short snippets. In the benchmark it was exercised on current-fact, niche-technical, multi-source, content-depth, and freshness probes, with a median payload of about 24,912 characters.
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Why it matters / Conclusion: Useful when you need a search API that hands back a lot of readable web text; the retrieval is only middling, but the extraction quality is good enough that the model can work from the payload.
Valyu’s /search mode returns ranked web results plus large extracted page text, rather than short snippets. In the benchmark it was exercised on current-fact, niche-technical, multi-source, content-depth, and freshness probes, with a median payload of about 24,912 characters.
INPUT
INPUT — current-fact query from the benchmark: Apollo GraphOS pricing (Q23).
↓→
OUTPUT
Search mode returned relevant Apollo-related material with enough extracted text to support an answer, showing that the content layer was not the limiting factor in this run.
INPUT
INPUT — content-depth query from the benchmark, where the answer sits deep in a long page.
↓→
OUTPUT
Search mode returned full extracted page text rather than a short snippet, which is consistent with the reported strong extraction score and the ~24,912-character median payload.
INPUT
INPUT — freshness probe from the benchmark.
↓→
OUTPUT
Search mode surfaced recent material on some freshness probes, but the run still showed only 33% top-3 freshness performance for /search, so freshness was mixed rather than dependable.
Bottom Line
Useful when you need a search API that hands back a lot of readable web text; the retrieval is only middling, but the extraction quality is good enough that the model can work from the payload.
Cited Answer Synthesis▾
Cited Answer Synthesis
Test Summary
Feature tested: Cited Answer Synthesis
Result: Failed
Feature tested: Cited Answer Synthesis
Result: Failed
Expected behavior: Valyu’s /answer mode streams a synthesized answer with citations. In the benchmark it answered question sets directly and was evaluated on correctness and citation behavior, including wrong-entity citations and an abstention that still pointed to sources.
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): Input
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): Output
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Why it matters / Conclusion: Do not trust the citations blindly; if you use Valyu, verify the domains and the claim-to-source match yourself.
Valyu’s /answer mode streams a synthesized answer with citations. In the benchmark it answered question sets directly and was evaluated on correctness and citation behavior, including wrong-entity citations and an abstention that still pointed to sources.
INPUT
INPUT — current-fact query: Apollo GraphOS pricing (Q23).
↓→
OUTPUT
The answer cited Apollo.io pricing instead of Apollo GraphOS pricing, so it looked sourced while pointing at the wrong company.
INPUT
INPUT — citation-honesty check: Perplexity Sonar / third-party SonarCloud docs (Q26).
↓→
OUTPUT
The answer cited third-party SonarCloud docs for Perplexity Sonar, another wrong-entity attribution rather than a supporting source.
INPUT
INPUT — question about the size of Linkup's index (Q52).
↓→
OUTPUT
The answer was graded as a correct abstention, but the citation still pointed to worldwidewebsize.com and did not support the claim; that is a citation failure even though answer-level scoring passed.
INPUT
INPUT — citation-honesty check: unrelated dental-company press release (Q44).
↓→
OUTPUT
The answer pointed to a press release for an unrelated dental company, reinforcing the benchmark's finding that Valyu often retrieves the right material but attributes it to the wrong entity.
Bottom Line
Do not trust the citations blindly; if you use Valyu, verify the domains and the claim-to-source match yourself.
✓ Use This If
●You need an API that returns large extracted web content your agent can read without a second crawl.
●You are willing to independently verify citations and source domains before trusting an answer.
●You care more about usable content payload than low-latency answer-mode convenience.
✕ Skip This If
●Your product depends on citation honesty without manual checks.
●You need low-latency or predictable cost at scale.
●You need strong freshness or abstention performance in answer mode.
Featured in Rankings
Independent rankings where Valyu was tested and rated.
It returns extracted content, not just snippets. In this run the median payload was about 24,912 characters per result, and output was hard-capped at 25,000 characters.
Poorly. Valyu produced 4 of the 5 false citations in the benchmark, including wrong-entity citations such as Apollo GraphOS being cited with Apollo.io pricing and Perplexity Sonar being cited with third-party SonarCloud docs.
Not automatically. Q52 was graded as a correct abstention at the answer level, but the citation still pointed to worldwidewebsize.com and did not support the claim, so citation verification is still necessary.
valyu/search measured p50 at 6,311 ms and p95 at 12,098 ms. valyu/answer measured p50 at 14,040 ms and p95 at 24,015 ms, making it the slowest completing mode in the benchmark.
The docs quoted roughly $1.50 per 1,000 web-source calls, but the measured all-in costs from total deduction were $14.54 per 1,000 for /search and $31.81 per 1,000 for /answer.
It did well on current-fact answers, where it was 10/10 correct, and its extraction score was top-group. It was much weaker on freshness and abstention, with 2/6 fresh answers correct and 3/5 unanswerable queries handled cleanly.
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