Tools for AI agents

APIs that return live web results, as links, excerpts or full text.

Tool	Type	Pricing model	Free tier	Authentication
Brave Search API	Hosted API	Prepaid credits, no subscription	$5 in free credits every month	API key in the X-Subscription-Token header
Exa	Hosted API	Pay as you go, prepaid credit; no subscription	$10 credit a month, no card	API key; OAuth or keyless for the MCP server
Linkup	Hosted API	Pay as you go, prepaid credit balance	$20 credit on sign-up with a professional email, topped up to $20 monthly	API key as Bearer token; x402 payment with USDC needs no account
Parallel	Hosted API	Pay as you go, per request	Up to 5,000 requests a month free	API key in x-api-key header; OAuth or no key for the MCP server
Perplexity Search API	Hosted API	Prepaid credits; 5.00 USD per 1,000 successful requests (1.00 USD with fast)	Not published	API key as bearer token; OAuth for the remote MCP server
SerpApi	Hosted API	Monthly subscription by search count; cancel anytime	250 searches per month	API key (api_key parameter; Authorization: Bearer header for the MCP server)
Tavily	Hosted API	Credits; $0.008 per credit pay as you go, plans down to $0.005	1,000 credits a month, no card	API key (bearer); OAuth for the MCP server; keyless for search and extract
You.com API	Hosted API	Pay as you go, prepaid credits; keyless pay-per-call by x402 or MPP	$10 credit on sign-up plus $90 after account verification, no card; 100 keyless MCP searches a day	API key in X-API-Key header; OAuth 2.1 for the MCP server; keyless via x402/MPP payment

APIs that send, and often receive, email from a domain you own.

Tool	Type	Pricing model	Free tier	Authentication
AgentMail	Hosted API	Monthly or yearly plans (Free, Developer, Startup, Enterprise) with paid add-ons	3 inboxes, 3,000 emails a month (100 a day), 3 GB storage, no card	API key as bearer token; OAuth for the MCP server
Amazon SES	Hosted API	Pay as you go; $0.16 per 1,000 emails on the default Essentials plan, $0.10 à la carte	Up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits for new AWS customers	AWS IAM credentials (SigV4) for the API; SMTP username and password; OAuth 2.1 or SigV4 for the AWS MCP Server
Mailgun	Hosted API	Monthly plans by email volume, with overage per 1,000 emails	Free plan: 100 emails a day, 1 custom sending domain	API key over HTTP basic auth, username api
Postmark	Hosted API	Monthly plans by email volume, with a per-1,000 rate above the tier	100 emails a month, no overages, no card	Server or account API token in a request header; no OAuth
Resend	Hosted API	Monthly plans, $20 for 50,000 emails on Pro, overage per 1,000	3,000 emails a month, 100 a day	API key; OAuth for the MCP server
Twilio SendGrid	Hosted API	Monthly plans by email volume, from $19.95 a month, with overage per extra email	100 emails a day for 60 days, no card	API key as a Bearer token; API key as SMTP password

Tools that let an agent open, click, type into and read real web pages.

Tool	Type	Pricing model	Free tier	Authentication
Anchor Browser	Hosted browser	Usage-based per browser creation, browser hour, proxy GB and AI step; monthly plans with credits	$5 free credits a month, up to 5 concurrent browsers	API key in the anchor-api-key header; OAuth sign-in for the MCP server
Browser Use	Hosted browser	Pay as you go, prepaid credits	$1 one-time signup credit	API key in X-Browser-Use-API-Key header; Bearer key for the MCP server
Browserbase	Hosted browser	Monthly plan with included browser hours, then per-hour overage	1 browser hour, 3 concurrent sessions, 15 minutes per session, no card	API key (x-bb-api-key); API key in URL for the hosted MCP server
Chrome DevTools MCP	Runs on your machine	Free, open source	Free; no paid plan	None; runs locally
Hyperbrowser	Hosted browser	Credits (1,000 credits = $1) from a monthly plan or one-time purchase; browser time billed per hour	5,000 credits on the Free plan, about 50 browser hours, 1 concurrent session	API key in the x-api-key header; wallet payment (X402) with no account
Kernel	Hosted browser	Monthly plan fee plus usage billed per second of browser memory; no charge while a browser is idle	Free plan (named Developer in the docs): $0 a month plus usage, $5 of credits a month, 5 concurrent browsers	API key; OAuth 2.1 for the MCP server
Playwright MCP	Runs on your machine	Free, open source	Not applicable; the software is free to run	None; runs locally over stdio
Steel	Hosted browser	Usage-based; free Launch plan, $250 a month Scale plan plus usage	$30 one-time credit, valid for 90 days	API key in the steel-api-key header; x402 pay-per-call without a key

Speech in, text out, with speaker labels and word timestamps.

Tool	Type	Pricing model	Free tier	Authentication
Amazon Transcribe	Hosted API	Pay as you go, billed monthly per second of audio	60 audio minutes a month for the first 12 months	AWS IAM credentials with SigV4-signed requests
AssemblyAI	Hosted API	Pay as you go, per hour of audio	$50 in free credits, no card	API key; account sign-in or API key for the MCP server
Deepgram	Hosted API	Pay as you go from prepaid credit; Growth plan from $4,000 a year	$200 credit that does not expire, no card	API key in Authorization: Token header; temporary JWT
ElevenLabs Scribe	Hosted API	Pay per hour of audio, $0.22 batch and $0.39 realtime	Free plan with 10k credits a month	API key in the xi-api-key header; single-use tokens for client-side use
Gladia	Hosted API	Prepaid credit wallet, billed per hour of audio	EUR 50 in credits, one time, valid for one year	API key in the x-gladia-key header
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text	Hosted API	Pay as you go per second of audio, with monthly volume tiers per account	60 minutes a month on the V1 API; the V2 price table lists none	Google Cloud IAM: Application Default Credentials, user credentials or service accounts
Groq speech to text	Hosted API	Pay as you go on the Developer tier, billed per hour of audio	Free tier with lower limits (25 MB max file size, 20 requests per minute)	API key sent as a bearer token
OpenAI speech to text	Hosted API	Per minute of audio; $0.0045 a minute for gpt-transcribe	Not published	API key sent as a bearer token
Speechmatics	Hosted API	Usage-based credits, billed per second at an hourly rate	$100 credit grant, no card	API key as bearer token; temporary JWTs for client-side use
whisper.cpp	Runs on your machine	Free, open-source (MIT licence)	Everything is free; no account	None: runs on your machine

Which AI model is best at what, who makes it, and where each number came from.

Companies

95

Model versions

1770

Benchmarks

152

Results

5099

Agents

51

Ranked on independent and third-party results only.

• Knowledge & reasoning

  1. 1. Claude Opus 5.575.8
  2. 2. GPT-6 Astra74.2
  3. 3. GPT-5.5 Pro67.9

• Scientific reasoning

  Not enough independent results yet

• Mathematics

  Not enough independent results yet

• Coding & software engineering

  1. 1. Claude Fable 562.4
  2. 2. GPT-6 Astra58.0
  3. 3. Claude Opus 4.850.8

• Agentic tool use

  1. 1. Gemini 3.1 Pro52.4
  2. 3. Claude Opus 4.549.1
  3. 4. Gemini 3 Flash49.0

• Computer & browser use

  1. 1. Claude Opus 531.4
  2. 2. GPT-5.6 Sol27.3
  3. 3. Claude Opus 4.820.6

• Professional knowledge work

  1. 1. DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp42.9
  2. 2. Gemini 2.5 Flash41.1
  3. 5. Gemini 2.5 Pro30.3

• Long context

  Not enough independent results yet

• Vision & multimodal understanding

  1. 2. Gemini 3 Flash73.4
  2. 3. GPT-5 Deprecated65.0
  3. 4. Gemini 2.5 Pro54.0

• OCR & documents

  Not enough independent results yet

• Law

  Not enough independent results yet

• Medicine & health

  Not enough independent results yet

• Finance

  Not enough independent results yet

• Multilingual

  Not enough independent results yet

• Factuality & hallucination

  1. 1. GPT-6 Astra75.6
  2. 2. Gemini 3.1 Pro73.5
  3. 3. Claude Opus 5.572.2

• Instruction following

  Not enough independent results yet

• Writing

  Not enough independent results yet

• Speech & audio

  Not enough independent results yet

• Human preference

  1. 1. Grok 4.664.8
  2. 2. Claude Fable 5.162.4
  3. 3. GPT-6 Astra61.5