diff --git a/cognee/tasks/web_scraper/config.py b/cognee/tasks/web_scraper/config.py
index 30c24a7f0..2ee43ed32 100644
--- a/cognee/tasks/web_scraper/config.py
+++ b/cognee/tasks/web_scraper/config.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import os
 
 
 class TavilyConfig(BaseModel):
-    api_key: str = os.getenv("TAVILY_API_KEY")
+    api_key: Optional[str] = os.getenv("TAVILY_API_KEY")
     extract_depth: Literal["basic", "advanced"] = "basic"
     proxies: Optional[Dict[str, str]] = None
     timeout: Optional[int] = Field(default=10, ge=1, le=60)