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You ask the researcher on your team, “what did our competitor just announce?” A minute later you have an answer — with the source links behind every line, not a confident guess pulled from stale training data. That researcher is Scout, reaching out to the live web on the org’s behalf, and Tavily is the engine it searches with. What that leaves off your plate: nobody has to open ten tabs, skim, and paste links back into a doc. The search, the reading, and the citing happen for you.

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What it is

Tavily is a search engine built for AI agents. Unlike a generic search API, Tavily returns pre-structured snippets designed for grounding: each result comes with a source URL, relevance score, and context snippet. Scout uses Tavily as its primary engine for all public searches.

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Why Tavily (and not something “simpler”)

AlternativeWhy it’s NOT the default
Direct Google searchNo stable public API + restrictive terms of service
Generic web scrapingFragile, costly, high risk of being blocked
Bing Search APIWorks, but Tavily delivers better-curated results for LLM consumption
Built-in web search (native)Used as a fallback when Tavily is unavailable

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Connection (BYO key)

The integration is Bring Your Own Key:
1

Create a Tavily account

tavily.com → the free tier covers initial testing. Paid plans are available for higher volume.
2

Get your API key

In the Tavily dashboard, copy your API key.
3

Paste it into Apollo Space

Settings → Integrations → Tavily → paste the key.
4

Done

Scout will start using that key automatically. You can swap or revoke it at any time.
The key is stored encrypted and isolated per organization — another Apollo Space customer cannot see your key. See Security.

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Search tier

Tavily exposes two search tiers:
TierWhat it deliversWhen it makes sense
BasicFast response, short snippetsExploratory research, simple queries
AdvancedDeeper content + larger chunks + additional processingCritical analysis, fact-checking
Scout uses the basic tier by default — the best cost/quality ratio for the typical use case. Teams with specific needs can configure advanced via support.

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Automatic fallback

If a Tavily search fails (key not configured, Tavily rate limit, network error), Scout automatically falls back to the platform’s built-in web_search — you won’t see an interruption, just a note in the trace indicating the fallback was used.

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Per-org cap

To protect your Tavily key from accidental exhaustion (search loops during debugging, misconfigured agent), Apollo Space applies an internal searches-per-second cap per organization. When the cap fires:
  1. The current search falls back to the built-in provider for a short period
  2. The cap-fire is recorded in the org’s event history
  3. After the cooldown, Tavily resumes being used normally
This is independent of Tavily’s own rate limits — it is an extra protection layer that Apollo Space applies on top of your key.

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Dry-run mode for development

In test/dev environments, Apollo Space operates in dry-run mode by default: Scout returns 3 canned snippets (with URLs clearly marked as example.com) without actually calling Tavily. This protects your key from being consumed in non-production environments. In production, dry-run is off by default.

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Costs

Where it fallsWho pays
Tavily search (per API call)Your Tavily account directly
Scout orchestration (LLM + Apollo Space processing)Your Stars balance
The Tavily invoice goes directly to you — Apollo Space does not intermediate payment.

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Next steps

Scout — who uses Tavily

The persona that triggers the searches.

Stars

How Scout usage (orchestration) factors into billing.

Apify (enrichment)

For Google Maps search + site enrichment, Apollo Space uses Apify, not Tavily.