Tavily (tavily.com) is a search API purpose-built for AI agents. Where NewsAPI aggregates news specifically, Tavily indexes the broader web with a strong focus on high-quality, factual, semantically-ranked results. For editorial automation this matters because Tavily returns fewer but denser items — each with a clean title, snippet, source URL and a confidence score — and it handles niche topics that generic news aggregators miss. AI Content Generator supports Tavily as a native source in the Live News Mode panel.
This tutorial covers the full Tavily integration: how to create the account and get the API key, where to paste it in AI Content Generator Settings, how to configure a Tavily query on a Live News Mode campaign, the cadence and dedup settings tuned to Tavily’s rhythm, and the practical differences with NewsAPI so you can choose the right source per campaign.
By the end you’ll have a campaign polling Tavily on a niche topic, producing 5–10 AI-written summaries per day with sources cited, at a cost of $0/month on the free tier (1000 requests/month) or $20+/month on paid tiers.
Tavily vs NewsAPI vs RSS
All three work as Live News Mode sources; the right choice depends on the niche.
- RSS — free, direct control, good for well-known publications with reliable RSS. Weak on niche topics with no dedicated feeds.
- NewsAPI — aggregates news publishers globally, fast freshness, generous free tier. Weak on non-news topics (evergreen research, technical deep-dives).
- Tavily — semantic search over the broader web, high-quality niche results, confidence scoring. Free tier tight (1000/month) but paid tier reasonable.
For pure news, NewsAPI or RSS. For niche editorial content (specialised professional topics, technical documentation follow-ups, industry-specific analysis), Tavily is usually the best fit. Nothing stops you from running multiple campaigns each using a different source and combining coverage.
Step 1 — Create a Tavily account
Open app.tavily.com. Sign up with email or Google/GitHub SSO. The free tier is available immediately without a credit card, capped at 1000 API calls per month — enough for one campaign polling once every 45 minutes, or two campaigns polling every 90 minutes.
After signup you land on the Tavily dashboard. The left sidebar has entries for API Keys, Usage, Docs and Billing. Click API Keys. Your first API key is already generated, shown as a string starting with tvly-. Copy it and store it in a password manager under a clearly named entry.
Step 2 — Paste the key in AI Content Generator Settings
In WordPress admin go to AI Content Generator → Settings. Scroll to the 📰 Fonti Notizie (opzionali) section. Paste the Tavily key in the field labelled API Key Tavily.
Click Save settings. The plugin validates the key with a background call to Tavily and returns to the Settings page. A valid key produces no error; an invalid or exhausted key returns a red banner with the Tavily API response body.
Step 3 — Open Live News Mode and pick Tavily
Create or edit a campaign. Enable Live News Mode. Set News source to Tavily. The panel reveals Tavily-specific fields: query, language, max items and title preset.
Step 4 — Write a semantic query
Tavily’s query language is more natural than NewsAPI’s boolean syntax. You can literally ask a question or describe what you’re looking for.
- Natural-language question: “Recent updates to WordPress AI content plugins in 2026” returns relevant articles ranked by relevance to that intent.
- Keyword list: “WordPress AI plugin GPT Claude Gemini” ranks by presence and semantic proximity of those terms.
- Include operators for constraints: “site:kinsta.com WordPress AI” limits to a specific domain.
Test the query on Tavily’s playground (app.tavily.com/playground) before plugging it into the campaign. If the top 10 results are on-topic, the query works well.
Step 5 — Configure cadence within the Tavily quota
Tavily’s free tier is 1000 requests/month = ~33/day. Configure cadence to stay under.
- Fetch RSS every (Tavily uses the same field): 60 minutes → 24 polls/day = 720 requests/month. Comfortable.
- Max news items to fetch: 10 (Tavily returns fewer but denser items than NewsAPI).
- Max posts per run: 2 (Tavily quality supports slower publishing cadence).
- News search window (hours): 48 for niche content (topics evolve slower than breaking news).
For higher volume, upgrade to Tavily’s paid tier at $20/month (10,000 requests) or $80/month (60,000 requests). Even paid tiers are cheap for the semantic quality you get.
Step 6 — Match Tavily results with the right title preset
Tavily results tend to come from higher-quality publications (professional blogs, research summaries, industry analysis). The default Live News Mode title presets all work but “SEO optimised” and “Formal” usually match Tavily’s editorial tone better than “Engaging” or “Question”.
If you’re targeting a technical audience, “Formal” preserves the professional tone; for broader consumer content, “SEO optimised” widens the CTR-friendly language.
Step 7 — Write a summary prompt that leverages Tavily’s snippets
Tavily returns snippets longer than NewsAPI’s — sometimes 300–500 words per result. The Extra AI instructions can leverage this to produce richer summaries:
For every Tavily result:
- Open with a lede that captures the topical angle.
- Use the snippet as primary source; expand with your own analysis.
- End with a "what this means for {niche} readers" paragraph.
- 500-800 words total.
- Cite the source URL and confidence score if provided.
- Never invent quotes or statistics beyond the snippet.
Step 8 — Run a test and iterate
Click Run news fetch now. Tavily returns 10 results; the plugin dedups and summarises the top 2 or 3. Read them: do they cover the intended niche? Is the analysis paragraph on-target? Does the source citation include the URL cleanly?
Common iterations: narrow the query (Tavily’s semantic ranking can return adjacent topics), extend the news search window (48 → 72 hours for slower-moving niches), refine the Extra AI instructions to enforce niche language.
Combining Tavily with other sources
You can run two Live News Mode campaigns in parallel — one on NewsAPI for breaking news, one on Tavily for niche depth. Anti-duplicates catches the overlap; the combined coverage is broader than either alone.
A common configuration for a professional editorial blog: NewsAPI campaign publishing 5 short news briefs per day, Tavily campaign publishing 2–3 longer analysis pieces per week. Different cadences, different tones, complementary coverage.
Troubleshooting
- “Tavily key invalid” — copied with whitespace or regenerated key. Copy again from app.tavily.com/api-keys.
- “Rate limit exceeded” — hit the free tier’s 1000/month cap. Wait until next month or upgrade.
- Query returns only 2–3 items — normal for narrow niches. Broaden the query or lower Max news items to fetch.
- Summaries drift from the source — Extra AI instructions doesn’t constrain to the snippet. Add “Never expand beyond what’s in the snippet”.
- Empty queue on Tavily but query works in the playground — the language filter is too strict. Set language to “auto” or leave empty.
You’re done
That’s the full Tavily setup: create an account at app.tavily.com, paste the tvly- key into Settings → Fonti Notizie, enable Live News Mode with News source: Tavily on a campaign, write a semantic query, tune cadence to stay inside the 1000/month free tier, pick a title preset that matches Tavily’s quality, run a test fetch.
From here Tavily becomes your niche-editorial source: semantic queries pulling denser, higher-quality results than generic news search, at a cost that scales predictably with volume, integrated into the same Live News Mode pipeline that handles RSS and NewsAPI.