Price checked Oct 20, 2026
New launch review · AI search APIs
Exa Review (2026)
Exa review: a web search API built for AI agents and apps. It runs its own crawler and index, returns results, page text and highlights, and offers deep research runs. Exa 3.0 adds better ranking, a cheaper Lite search and a bigger index.
- Free: $10 credits every month
- Search: from $4 per 1,000
- Agent: $0.012–$1.00 per run
- Launched: Exa 3.0, Product Hunt, Oct 20, 2026
New launch, not tested hands-on. “Exa 3.0” (“Smarter search that gives AI agent richer data at lower cost”) was #5 on the Product Hunt daily leaderboard for October 20, 2026 when we checked (about 8:20 AM ET); Exa announced it on its blog on October 19. Exa itself is an established search API (it says 500,000 developers use it). Everything below comes from exa.ai. We have not made API calls.
No affiliate program found. Exa has a partner program for companies that build on, co-market or resell its API (exa.ai/partners), but it publishes no affiliate commission; exa.ai/affiliate returns 404 (checked October 20, 2026). Every link on this page goes to the official site and earns us nothing.
Summary
Quick verdict: one of the strongest picks if you build AI agents or apps that need fresh web results, with a free monthly allowance and simple per-request prices. It is a developer API, not an app: you pay per 1,000 requests ($4 Lite, $7 Auto, $12 Deep) and the bill grows with usage.
- A search engine for software: your agent sends a query and gets results, full page text or short highlights back through an API, MCP server, Claude Connector or ChatGPT plugin.
- Free Starter: $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no payment method; Developer is pay as you go; Enterprise is custom.
- Search prices per 1,000 requests (up to 10 results): Lite $4, Auto $7, Deep $12; Answer $5; Monitors $15; Contents $1 per 1,000 pages.
- Agent (deep research runs) costs $0.012 to $1.00 per run depending on effort, or usage-based.
- Exa 3.0 (October 19, 2026): a larger embedding model, Dynamic Highlights generally available at no extra charge (95% fewer tokens than full text), and new data such as 1.27B ecommerce listings and 211M+ local businesses.
- Startup and Education Grants offer up to $1,000 in free credits.
Watch: Exa in 60 seconds
Made by SaaS Finder Hub from Exa’s public website screenshots. Voiceover is AI-generated. Prices in the video are as of October 20, 2026 and may have changed; check the official site for today’s price.
Pricing
Source: exa.ai/pricing (plans, endpoint table and Agent pricing) and the Exa 3.0 announcement, checked October 20, 2026 at about 8:30 AM ET. Prices in USD.
| Endpoint | Base price (up to 10 results) | Each extra result | AI page summaries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite Search (about 450 ms) | $4 per 1,000 requests | $1 per 1,000 | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Auto Search (about 1 s) | $7 per 1,000 requests | $1 per 1,000 | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Deep Search (about 10 s) | $12 per 1,000 requests | $1 per 1,000 | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Contents (page text) | $1 per 1,000 pages | - | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Monitors (scheduled searches) | $15 per 1,000 requests | $1 per 1,000 | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Answer | $5 per 1,000 requests | - | - |
| Agent (deep research run) | $0.012 (Minimal) to $1.00 (X-high) per request; Ultra usage-based | - | - |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Price snapshot: This is the price at the moment we wrote this review (October 20, 2026). The price may have changed by the time you read it, so check the official site for today’s price.
- Plans: Starter is free with $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus (“over $120 in credits per year”) and up to 10 search queries per second; Developer is pay as you go by card or bank, up to 25 QPS; Enterprise is custom (zero data retention, HIPAA, SSO, up to 1,000 results per search).
- Agent usage components: $0.10 per Agent Compute Unit, $0.005 per search tool call, $0.02 per email and $0.07 per phone number found by contact enrichment (billed separately).
- Exa Connect (third-party data providers) is billed on top of Agent usage.
- Websets, Exa’s list-building app, has its own pricing on websets.exa.ai, not covered here.
- Startup and Education Grants: up to $1,000 worth of free credits (apply via Exa).
What the free credits and real volumes cost (our math)
| Usage | Lite ($4) | Auto ($7) | Deep ($12) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Searches covered by $10 free credits | 2,500 | about 1,430 | about 830 |
| 10,000 searches a month | $40 | $70 | $120 |
| 100,000 searches a month | $400 | $700 | $1,200 |
Our arithmetic from the listed base prices (up to 10 results each), before page text, summaries or extra results.
Not an affiliate link. Exa has no affiliate program we could find, so we earn nothing from this link.
Price history
| Checked | Lite | Auto | Deep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $4 / 1k | $7 / 1k | $12 / 1k |
We re-check this page every month and add a row.
Features
From exa.ai, its pricing page and the Exa 3.0 announcement, October 20, 2026. Described, not tested.
- Own crawler and index: Exa says it tracks over 2 trillion URLs and serves 100 billion pages, with web, people, company and scholarly indexes.
- Three speeds: Lite (about 450 ms) for cost-sensitive loops, Auto (about 1 s) for quality, Deep (about 10 s) for multi-step answers with structured output and citations.
- Dynamic Highlights: returns the most useful passages across all results instead of full pages; generally available with Exa 3.0 at no extra charge.
- Agent: asynchronous deep research runs with structured outputs, citations and optional contact enrichment.
- Monitors: run a search on a schedule and get new results by webhook.
- New data in 3.0: ecommerce listings with prices, local businesses with hours and ratings, news, sports, weather, flights and events.
- Agent-ready: MCP server, Claude Connector, ChatGPT plugin and 50+ integrations on the free plan.
- Benchmarks: Exa says 3.0 ranks first on every benchmark it tested (its own claim).
Who it’s for
- Developers building AI agents, chatbots or coding tools that need current web results.
- Sales and research teams with engineering help who want people and company search or list building.
- News and price monitoring products that need scheduled searches.
- Not for you if you want a ready-made search app to type into; Exa is an API (Websets is its app, priced separately).
Related on SaaS Finder Hub
Our review
Manifold MCP review
SEO and marketing data for AI agents.
Our review
OpenSEO review
Open-source SEO tool with pay-as-you-go data.
Our review
Clarify review
AI CRM for small teams.
The catch
It is a pay-per-request developer API, so costs scale with your traffic.
- You need to write code (or use an MCP client) to get value; there is no consumer app at these prices.
- Costs add up per request: page text, summaries and results beyond 10 are billed on top of the base price.
- Agent runs can cost up to $1.00 each at X-high effort, and Ultra is usage-based.
- Benchmark wins and index sizes are Exa’s own claims.
- Enterprise-only: zero data retention, HIPAA and custom rate limits.
- We have not tested result quality or latency.
Verdict
- Starter (free): $10 a month is enough to prototype an agent and compare results with your current search API.
- Developer (pay as you go): start on Lite ($4 per 1,000) and move hard queries to Auto or Deep.
- Grants: early startups and education projects should apply for up to $1,000 in credits first.
- Enterprise: when you need zero data retention, HIPAA or custom limits.
This is the price at the moment we wrote this review (October 20, 2026). The price may have changed by the time you read it, so check the official site for today’s price.
Worth trying if: you build an AI product that needs fast, fresh web results and you want simple per-request pricing with a free tier.
Skip it if: you want a search app for yourself rather than an API, or your volume makes per-request pricing expensive.
Not tested hands-on. Prices can change; re-check exa.ai/pricing before you buy.
Exa FAQ
How much does Exa cost?
As of October 20, 2026, Exa is free to start with $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus. After that, search costs $4 (Lite), $7 (Auto) or $12 (Deep) per 1,000 requests, and Agent runs cost $0.012 to $1.00 each. Check exa.ai/pricing for today’s price.
What is the main downside of Exa?
It is a developer API billed per request, so you need to build with it, and costs grow with usage, especially when you add page text, summaries or Agent runs.
Get the weekly newsletter
One email a week: new tools we reviewed, real prices and the catch. Free, unsubscribe anytime.
Sign-ups are handled by beehiiv. See our Privacy Policy.