Intermittent empty results from Tavily API despite identical Playground settings

[JaypTookMyJayp]

We are seeing intermittent cases where the Tavily API returns an empty results array for valid queries.

Example:

{
"query": "나라드라이브 naradr.com email",
"follow_up_questions": null,
"answer": null,
"images": [],
"results": [],
"response_time": 0.54,
"request_id": "31d334fe-3d5b-4b12-b9ac-4f774dfa1d53"
}

{
"query": "（주）선진 회사소개",
"follow_up_questions": null,
"answer": null,
"images": [],
"results": [],
"response_time": 6.01,
"request_id": "22f6d45e-8f95-4738-ae5f-06aee69bd05d"
}

{
"query": "강화농업협동조합 회사소개",
"follow_up_questions": null,
"answer": null,
"images": [],
"results": [],
"response_time": 6.01,
"request_id": "dea74076-761f-44cd-8227-012c394a4ec3"
}

Key points:
• The same query always returns results in the Playground. Also, google returns plentiful of results.
• API key is not the issue
• API request settings are identical to the Playground
• This happens intermittently (about 1 in 20–30 calls)
• Retrying the same request after few hours usually returns normal results
• I'm going really soft with the rate limit. i'm only calling about 4~8 requests per minute. I'm on Growth Plan.

The results should definitely be returned. Why is this happening?
Also, is my credit being used in this error case?

**
this is my parameter:
response = client.search(
query=query,
max_results=20,
start_date="2021-01-11",
end_date="2026-12-30",
country="south korea",
)