Deep research agents: one-call APIs vs. self-built loops — cost, transparency and scaling trade-offs
kaizakin · reddit · 2026-10-21
Reddit user kaizakin asks how builders choose between one-call deep research APIs and self-built loops on search/scrape primitives.
- Turnkey route (gemini deep research, openai, octen, tavily research) returns cited reports but hides source selection; runs take 45-60 minutes.
- Self-built loops (firecrawl, exa, tavily search + your own planner) give control but leave you handling anti-bot pages, retries, and 30-way parallel query stability.
- Pricing is fragmented: $0.20-3 per run, token+tool-call models, or credit systems ranging 4-250 credits per request, making per-task cost hard to estimate pre-launch.
- Author asks prod users which camp they're in, whether one-call APIs ever beat custom loops on quality, and what breaks first at scale.
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