Exa is a web search API and research platform that gives AI agents real-time access to web pages, structured company and people data, and deep research results.
About
Exa is a search and retrieval platform built specifically for AI applications. Traditional search engines return links meant for human readers, while AI agents need clean text, structured data, and citations they can act on directly — Exa addresses that gap with a set of APIs for searching the live web, extracting page contents, and running multi-step research.
The company, Exa Labs Inc., builds and maintains its own index and search models rather than reselling another engine's results. It continuously crawls the web and maintains structured data covering companies, people, code, financial filings, research papers, and other sources. Developers integrate Exa through a Search API, a Contents API, an Agent API for deep research runs, and a Monitors API for scheduled searches, with an MCP server for connecting tools like Claude and Cursor. Exa states that more than 500,000 developers build on the platform.
Key Features
Pricing & Fees
- Pricing: Free Starter plan with $10 in credits each month plus a $10 onboarding bonus (no payment method required); Developer plan is pay-as-you-go; Enterprise is custom-priced. Product rates include Search from $4 per 1,000 requests, Agent at $0.012–$1.00 per run, Contents at $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, Deep Search at $12 per 1,000 requests, and Monitors at $15 per 1,000 requests.
- Free tier limits: The Starter plan includes 10 search queries per second, 50 agent concurrency, and access to all endpoints.
- Integrations: An MCP server connects Exa to Claude, Cursor, Codex, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients; 50+ integrations, a ChatGPT plugin, and a Claude Connector are included.
- Notable customers: Cognition uses Exa to power its coding agent Devin, and HubSpot uses it for an agentic lead engine.
Who It's For
Exa is aimed primarily at developers building AI agents and applications that need live web data: coding agents retrieving current documentation and repositories, chatbots and voice assistants that answer with fresh information, and GTM teams doing company research, list building, and contact enrichment. It also serves inference providers and ML teams training retrieval models at scale. Enterprises with compliance requirements get SOC 2, HIPAA, and zero-retention options on the custom plan.
FAQ
What is Exa?Exa is a real-time search and retrieval platform, operated by Exa Labs Inc., that provides APIs for web search, content extraction, and multi-step research, built specifically for AI agents and applications.
Does Exa have a free plan?Yes, the Starter plan is free and includes $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, with no payment method required and access to all API endpoints.
What platforms and tools does Exa integrate with?Exa offers a hosted MCP server compatible with Claude, Cursor, Codex, and VS Code, along with a ChatGPT plugin, a Claude Connector, and more than 50 other integrations.
How much does Exa cost?Search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests, Agent runs cost $0.012–$1.00 each, Contents is $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, Deep Search is $12 per 1,000 requests, and Monitors is $15 per 1,000 requests; enterprise plans are custom-priced.
Does Exa store or train on my queries?On the Enterprise plan, Exa offers zero data retention, meaning queries and results are never stored or used for training; the platform is SOC 2 Type II certified and supports GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA requirements.
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