Exa

Search engine and API built for AI agents, with its own neural index of the web.

Verified facts: 3 of 3
Alternatives ranked: 4
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Exa

Exa is a web search engine designed to be used by software rather than people. Instead of ranking pages for keyword clicks, it uses embeddings to find pages that match the meaning of a query, which works well for questions like finding companies, people, research papers or code examples. Developers call it through an API to give language models and agents fresh web results and page contents, and it offers an MCP server and integrations with coding tools and chat assistants. The free Starter plan comes with monthly credit and an onboarding bonus without a payment method, and paid usage is billed per request. It is aimed at engineers building AI products, researchers and data teams, and is not a replacement for a consumer search page. Latency is higher than a plain keyword search API for some request types.

Best for: Teams building AI agents that need semantic web search and page contents.

What works

Meaning-based search suited to AI and research queries
Free monthly credit with no card required
MCP server and integrations with AI tools

Why people leave

Not a consumer search engine
Usage costs add up for high-volume agents
Semantic results can miss exact-keyword matches

Top Exa alternatives

See all 4

1
You.com
Comparable search, contents and research APIs with per-call pricing.
66.5
2
Brave Search
Keyword search API on a large independent index, with monthly free credit.
62.6
3
Mojeek
Simple, independent web search API with no tracking.
59.6
4
Perplexity
If you want answers for yourself rather than an API.
57.2

Why people left Exa

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Exa: common questions

Is Exa free?

Exa has a free plan and paid plans. Free plan: $10 credit per month (checked on Exa's own site).

Is Exa open source?

No, Exa is not open source.

What platforms does Exa run on?

Exa is available for Web.

What are the best alternatives to Exa?

The highest-ranked Exa alternatives right now are You.com, Brave Search and Mojeek. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 4 Exa alternatives