Two-Tier Agent Retrieval

Definition

Two-tier agent retrieval is an architecture where an AI agent uses a low-cost structured search API for initial discovery and only calls a full-page scraper for URLs that pass a relevance filter.

In Depth

The cost math is stark. A scraping service like Firecrawl costs $0.0016 per page on its $83/100k annual plan. A structured SERP API like Scavio costs $0.005 per query but returns 10 results with titles, URLs, snippets, and metadata — no scraping needed for most lookups. If an agent can answer 80% of queries from SERP snippet data alone, the effective cost per answered query drops from $0.016 (10 scraped pages) to $0.005 (1 SERP call). The architecture has two decision points. First, the agent calls the search API and inspects structured result data. If any result's snippet contains the needed data (price, date, definition), the agent extracts it and stops. Second, only if structured data is insufficient does the agent pass the top 1-2 URLs to the scraper. This two-gate approach typically reduces scraper calls by 75-90% in information-retrieval tasks. For e-commerce pricing tasks, SERP structured data (price fields from Google Shopping results) satisfies the query 60-70% of the time. For full article content or dynamic data, the scraper tier is always needed. Profiling your agent's query types before choosing between tiers prevents over-engineering.

Example Usage

Platforms

Two-Tier Agent Retrieval is relevant across the following platforms, all accessible through Scavio's unified API:

• google
• amazon

Related Terms