Is this a cash balance?

No. Account plan and key counters/limits are Credits; remaining is derived from matching-scope limit-used. Cash, refundable funds, invoice costs and total callable capacity are not read; monetary fields are null.

What do an uncapped key or zero plan remaining mean?

Only explicit key.limit=null means no key cap; account limits remain. Zero plan headroom does not prove all requests stop, because PAYG and other restrictions are separate. Zero is not unlimited; missing required fields fails.

Why are PAYG values not labeled dollars or Credits?

/usage paygo_usage/paygo_limit descriptions do not explicitly state a unit, so only raw integers are shown. Billing, a price list or org-usage paygo_cost_usd cannot establish these fields' units. No subtraction, summing or estimated cost; live-unit reconciliation is pending.

Why is there no exact reset countdown?

Help says calendar-month day one and a separate subscription billing day. /usage supplies no boundaries/timezone and uses billing-cycle wording. Exact timing stays unknown; no UTC timestamp or invoice-derived date is generated.

Can I configure a read-only key or permission JSON?

No usage-only scope is confirmed. Ordinary keys can spend; Development and Monthly Limit do not make them read-only. Do not broaden to an Enterprise owner's personal key. Use manual checks if strict read-only access is necessary.

How do I handle 401/403/429, old data or different counts?

Check the full key, correct account/team, revocation and existing access; wait for 429. Separate plan/key/PAYG and resets, and inspect the old successful time after failure. Do not share keys, elevate privileges, enable PAYG or make paid tests.

Tavily API credits, key usage & PAYG setup guide

Awaiting live-account verification

Guide updated 2026-10-17

Based on official Usage/OpenAPI, key and billing documentation reviewed 2026-10-17. Real-account access, minimum privileges, signed-in setup and PAYG-unit/count reconciliation await user testing. No login, paid request or privilege change was performed.

Required credentials: Ordinary Tavily API key for the intended account/team (tvly-)
Monitoring unit: Plan/key: Credits; PAYG: raw values, unit undocumented; no currency (XXX)
What is monitored: Derived account plan Credits remaining · key/PAYG separate; Only fixed GET https://api.tavily.com/usage with Bearer authentication; no body, X-Project-ID or filters. tavilyUsage.plan reads account.plan_usage/plan_limit, while key reads key.usage/key.limit. remaining/overage are separately derived, not cash or total callable capacity. PAYG is raw and separate; monetary fields, percentageRemaining and providerAvailable are null.

Inspect usage without hosting a key

Sign in to the official Dashboard yourself. Confirm the application's account/team, its plan and the API keys Monthly Limit.
Have an existing Owner inspect plan/PAYG in Billing. Paid/team accounts can use sidebar Usage. If the page/access is unavailable, ask the existing responsible person to reconcile; do not upgrade or elevate.
Compare account, key and PAYG separately in their own displayed units. Do not add them; distinguish day-one counter reset from subscription billing and leave exact timezone unknown.

Open official Tavily · account plan & key quotas page

Connect Tavily · account plan & key quotas to Quota Monitor

Confirm the account/team and existing plan
Open the official Dashboard, select the account/team used by your application key, then inspect its existing plan in Billing. Personal accounts, teams and Quota Monitor projects are distinct scopes.
Only an existing Owner can view team Billing; Admin/Member console roles differ and do not prove /usage's minimum role. Without existing access or acceptable key-hosting risk, use manual checks; do not elevate roles or buy a plan.
Open official Tavily · account plan & key quotas page(opens in a new tab)
Create a separate monitoring key
In the Dashboard API keys section, click + and enter a name such as QuotaMonitorUsage. Choose an already permitted key type and privately save the complete tvly- secret, not an ID or masked suffix.
Development/Production are rate categories, not read/write permissions. Do not enable PAYG or upgrade to obtain a different type for monitoring. Signed-in controls and minimum access remain pending user verification.
Open official Tavily · account plan & key quotas page(opens in a new tab)
Inspect Monthly Limit and the permission boundary
Monthly Limit in the creation flow controls API Credits. It does not provide usage-only access; no confirmed read-only permission JSON exists. A small cap, Development type or dedicated name still permits paid work.
Retain existing safeguards. Inspect the cap without changing application keys, PAYG or team roles. Do not broaden access after 403; if strict read-only credentials are required, do not host an ordinary key.
Choose account/key quota monitoring in your project
In your Quota Monitor project, add a connection, select Tavily · account plan & key quotas and enter its name. MCP secure setup links use tavily; never send the secret in a conversation or tool arguments.
Do not enter account/team/project/key IDs, X-Project-ID, an API URL or a money budget. XXX means no currency. The project does not partition the upstream plan; only GET /usage is read, with no paid test.
Save the full secret only in the masked field
Paste the complete tvly- key into the secure entry page's password field and save. Do not include Bearer, a URL, Cookie or JSON. Credentials are encrypted; other views show only the last four characters. Valid syntax does not prove scope/access.
The public help drawer neither reads nor submits fields. Close it to continue or clear input when cancelling. Do not capture the secret in a screenshot, reuse a critical application key or test with search/crawl/Research.
Sync once and reconcile each scope
Wait for first sync or refresh allowance, then check a new successful timestamp. For account.plan_usage=500 and plan_limit=15000, derived plan remaining is 14500 Credits. For key.usage=150 and key.limit=1000, this key's derived headroom is 850 Credits.
Do not add 14500 and 850 or call either cash/guaranteed callable capacity. When used exceeds limit, remaining=0 and overage is the excess—not billed money. key.limit=null removes only that key's cap. Failure preserves the old value/time.
Check PAYG and monthly reset separately
In the same account's Billing, inspect existing PAYG and plan settings separately. Paid/team accounts can also use sidebar Usage; do not upgrade a free account to see that page. paygo_usage=25/paygo_limit=100 remain raw, unit undocumented—not dollars/Credits or 75 spendable funds.
Official help places Credit/counter resets on calendar-month day one; subscription billing may recur on another day. The API supplies no exact time/timezone: resetsAt/timeZone=null. Never substitute next UTC month-start, an invoice date or fetch time.
Open official Tavily · account plan & key quotas page(opens in a new tab)
Troubleshoot and rotate safely
For 401 check the full tvly- key, revocation and the same account; check existing access for 403; on 404 retain the old snapshot without endpoint fallbacks, and wait for 429. Missing/malformed fields are not zero quota. Share only non-secret codes and times, never raw upstream errors.
Create a replacement monitoring key, update it through the secure form and verify success before revoking only that old monitoring key. Leave other applications alone. Do not elevate roles, activate PAYG, top up or run paid requests to debug.
Open official Tavily · account plan & key quotas page(opens in a new tab)

What Quota Monitor reads from Tavily · account plan & key quotas

Several keys and Quota Monitor projects share an account/team plan. Never sum duplicates, add plan/key/PAYG values or take their minimum to assert usable capacity.
Only explicit key.limit=null means no single-key cap; account restrictions still apply. Missing required counters fails, zero is a real cap, and remaining/overage are each bucket's own limit-minus-used calculation—not a reported wallet.
/usage describes paygo_usage as usage count and paygo_limit as usage limit without an explicit Credits/USD unit. Preserve raw integers with not_documented. Do not convert, subtract or borrow units from Billing amounts or org-usage's separate USD fields. Missing/null is unknown, not unlimited or disabled.
Official help says Credits/PAYG counters reset on calendar-month day one separately from subscription billing dates. /usage says current billing cycle but supplies no boundaries/timezone. resetsAt/timeZone=null; never invent UTC month-start.
Only known public plan names are retained; custom names, operation/identity/key details are discarded. No Logs, Enterprise org-usage, paid work or settings writes. Fetch time does not guarantee settled usage.
The dashboard shows the latest successful allowance or cap snapshot. Refresh cannot remove upstream reporting delays. An old value and timestamp after a failed query are not a new result or a wallet balance.

Tavily · account plan & key quotas FAQ and troubleshooting

Is this a cash balance?: No. Account plan and key counters/limits are Credits; remaining is derived from matching-scope limit-used. Cash, refundable funds, invoice costs and total callable capacity are not read; monetary fields are null.
What do an uncapped key or zero plan remaining mean?: Only explicit key.limit=null means no key cap; account limits remain. Zero plan headroom does not prove all requests stop, because PAYG and other restrictions are separate. Zero is not unlimited; missing required fields fails.
Why are PAYG values not labeled dollars or Credits?: /usage paygo_usage/paygo_limit descriptions do not explicitly state a unit, so only raw integers are shown. Billing, a price list or org-usage paygo_cost_usd cannot establish these fields' units. No subtraction, summing or estimated cost; live-unit reconciliation is pending.
Why is there no exact reset countdown?: Help says calendar-month day one and a separate subscription billing day. /usage supplies no boundaries/timezone and uses billing-cycle wording. Exact timing stays unknown; no UTC timestamp or invoice-derived date is generated.
Can I configure a read-only key or permission JSON?: No usage-only scope is confirmed. Ordinary keys can spend; Development and Monthly Limit do not make them read-only. Do not broaden to an Enterprise owner's personal key. Use manual checks if strict read-only access is necessary.
How do I handle 401/403/429, old data or different counts?: Check the full key, correct account/team, revocation and existing access; wait for 429. Separate plan/key/PAYG and resets, and inspect the old successful time after failure. Do not share keys, elevate privileges, enable PAYG or make paid tests.

Official Tavily · account plan & key quotas references

Prepared by Quota Monitor, not an official provider tutorial. Interfaces and permissions may change; check official pages. Verification is limited to the scope stated here.