Valyu API

Valyu API on xpay — High-quality web search and AI-powered research without the signup friction

Valyu API provides developers with a powerful search and research engine that combines web indexing with proprietary datasets and multimodal retrieval. Rather than building your own search infrastructure or relying on generic web APIs, Valyu lets your AI agents search the web, extract structured content, and conduct deep research tasks—all through a clean, agent-native interface. Learn more at Valyu's official site.

On xpay, you get Valyu's full toolkit exposed as MCP tools, callable directly from Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, or VS Code with Copilot. No Valyu API account signup. No subscription. Pay $0.02 per call, only for what you use.

What's available

• valyu_search — Query the web and proprietary datasets with full-text and multimodal retrieval. Returns ranked results with metadata.
• valyu_answer — Blend search results into AI-generated answers. Combines retrieval with synthesis for faster research workflows.
• valyu_contents — Extract clean, structured content from any URL. Removes boilerplate, returns markdown or JSON.
• valyu_create_task — Spawn a long-running deep research task. Useful for complex, multi-step investigations that need time to complete.
• valyu_get_status, valyu_update_task, valyu_cancel_task, valyu_delete_task — Manage individual deep research tasks: poll status, add follow-up instructions, cancel, or clean up.
• valyu_create_batch, valyu_get_batch_status, valyu_list_batch_tasks, valyu_cancel_batch — Run multiple research tasks in parallel. Create a batch, monitor progress, list results, or cancel the whole batch at once.

When Valyu API is the right tool

• Your agent needs to search the web or proprietary datasets to answer user questions in real time.
• You're building a research assistant that must synthesize information from multiple sources.
• You want to extract clean, structured content from URLs without parsing HTML yourself.
• You need to run long-running research tasks asynchronously and poll their status.
• You're running batch research jobs and want to manage them as a group.
• You want high-quality, multimodal retrieval (text + images) without maintaining your own index.

When to choose something else

• You only need simple keyword search over your own documents—a vector database like Pinecone or Weaviate is more cost-effective.
• Your use case is real-time stock prices, weather, or other structured data feeds—use a specialized data API instead.
• You need to search only private, internal documents—Valyu is web and proprietary-source focused; consider full-text search within your own infrastructure.
• You're building a search engine for production traffic at massive scale—Valyu is best suited for agent-driven research, not high-volume consumer search.
• Latency is critical and you can't tolerate the time for deep research tasks—use a simpler, faster search API or cached results.

Pricing snapshot

All Valyu API tools on xpay cost $0.02 per call. You're billed only for successful requests. No minimum spend, no monthly fees.

Quickstart

For Claude Code (recommended if you're using Valyu alone):

claude mcp add --transport http valyu "https://valyu.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"

Replace YOUR_XPAY_KEY with your xpay API key (get one free at https://xpay.tools after email or Google signup).

Once connected, your Claude Code agent can call tools by their native names—for example, "use valyu_search to find information about..." or "extract the content from this URL with valyu_contents." The agent will invoke the tool, xpay will route it to Valyu, and you'll be billed $0.02 for the call.

For Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, or VS Code with Copilot:

Add this entry to your mcp.json configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "valyu": {
      "url": "https://valyu.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"
    }
  }
}

Save, restart your editor, and the Valyu tools will be available to your AI assistant.

To use all xpay providers in one connection (including Valyu, Tavily, Apollo, and others), use the unified endpoint instead:

claude mcp add --transport http xpay "https://mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"

With the unified endpoint, you'll also get meta-tools like xpay_discover (search for tools by keyword) and xpay_details (get pricing and schema for any tool).

Why route Valyu API through xpay?

• No Valyu API account. xpay holds the upstream credentials. You sign up once with xpay, and all provider integrations are unlocked.
• Per-call pricing with no subscription. Pay $0.02 per Valyu call, only when you use it. No monthly fees, no minimum spend.
• MCP-native from day one. Valyu's tools are exposed as standard MCP resources. Your agent discovers and calls them like any other MCP tool—no custom SDK, no wrapper code.
• Unified billing across providers. If you also use Tavily, Apollo, or other xpay providers, one invoice covers everything. Easier accounting, simpler cost tracking.
• Instant activation. Add the MCP endpoint, paste your xpay key, and start searching. No API key exchange, no waiting for provider onboarding.

Getting your xpay API key

Head to https://xpay.tools, sign up with your email or Google account, and generate an API key from your dashboard. You'll get $5 in free credit to try Valyu and other providers. Paste the key into the MCP endpoint URL and you're ready to go.