Exa vs Serper (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Serper grades higher than Exa: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Exa grades higher on the free plan. Serper grades higher on value for money and ease of use. They get the same grade on features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Serper
Google search results API sold in prepaid credit packs
Which one is for you
Pick Exa if
- Fits if you're building an AI agent that needs to search the live web
- Works for developers who want search results returned as page contents
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want an app to read or take notes in, as it's an API
- Tight if you go past $10 of credits a month, when billing is by usage with no fixed price
- Pricey if you need zero data retention, which is Enterprise with a $12,000 annual credit commitment
- Watch out: Starter allows 10 searches per second and 50 agent concurrency
Pick Serper if
- Fits if you only need Google and would rather pay per query than per month
- Works for AI agents on LangChain or CrewAI that need current Google results
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Bing, Yahoo or any engine other than Google
- Watch out: credits expire 6 months after purchase, so a big pack you don't use up is money lost
- Tight if you're testing, as the 2,500 free queries come once and there's no monthly free plan
- Watch out: refunds run 7 days from the first payment, and only with under 20% of the credits used
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAExaFair | 2.4GPASerperFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo fixed monthly price: search from $4 per 1,000 requests, contents $1 per 1,000 pages and agent runs $0.012 to $1.00 each. It's a different kind of thing from a reading app, so it sits at C, and the bill depends on usage. | B$50 buys 50,000 Google queries, $1 per 1,000, one of the lowest rates in this category, and bigger packs fall to $0.30. The first spend is at the dear end of the usual $25 to $50, though, and the credits lapse after 6 months. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe Starter plan is $10 of credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, with no payment method needed. A solo developer testing can live on that. | CNo free plan, but 2,500 free queries with no card. They're a one-off, not a monthly allowance. |
| Features | CSearch, Contents, Agent and Monitors APIs plus agent tooling. A developer building block rather than a research tool, and zero data retention needs a $12,000 annual Enterprise commitment. | CTen Google result types, from web and maps to Scholar, patents and autocomplete, fetched live with country and language set. Google only, though: no Bing, Yahoo or other engine, which the listing itself points out. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. You need code, an API key and a client to use it, so it's a D. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: most results in 1 to 2 seconds and 2,500 free queries to test with. No rating on record, and no client libraries named. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb API with Claude, ChatGPT and MCP hooks. No desktop or mobile apps, as the listing says. | BWeb, with an API and listed integrations with LangChain, CrewAI, Haystack and Jan AI. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | giving AI agents a web search API | live Google results on prepaid credits |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Exa and Serper. How we grade
Where they differ
- Exa also covers AI search, AI agents and research.
- Serper also covers sERP API.
At a glance
| Exa | Serper | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | Not published | $50 one-time for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000 queries) |
| Free plan | Starter: $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no payment method required. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 2,500 free queries, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Exa Labs Inc. | Serper.dev |
| Price read from | exa.ai | serper.dev |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Exa
- The free Starter allowance is $10 of credits per month; past that, the Developer plan bills by usage with no fixed monthly price.
- Per-request prices: search from $4 per 1,000 requests, contents $1 per 1,000 pages, monitors $2 per 1,000 requests, agent runs $0.012 to $1.00 each.
- Zero data retention is an Enterprise option with a $12,000 annual commitment in API credits.
- It is an API for developers, not a reading or note-taking app; it has no desktop or mobile apps.
Serper
- Its site lists Google endpoints only, with no Bing, Yahoo or other search engines.
- Credits expire 6 months after purchase, so a large pack bought for a lower rate can go unused.
- Refunds are given within 7 days of the first payment only if less than 20% of the credits are used.
- The 2,500 free queries are a one-time allowance, not a monthly free plan.
Key features
Exa
- Search API
- Returns web results with page text and highlights, with latency settings from about 450 ms to 10 seconds and categories such as news, companies, research papers and people.
- Contents API
- Fetches full page contents or token-efficient highlights for use as model context, with configurable live-crawl policies.
- Agent API
- Runs asynchronous deep-research tasks that return structured output with citations.
- Monitors API
- Runs searches on a schedule and sends updates by webhook.
- Agent tooling
- The Starter plan lists an MCP server, a Claude connector, a ChatGPT plugin and more than 50 integrations.
Serper
- Ten Google result types
- Endpoints for Google web search, images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, Scholar, patents and autocomplete.
- Live results
- Each call queries Google directly and nothing is cached; most results return in 1 to 2 seconds, sometimes 2 to 4 when a request is retried.
- Location and language
- Every pack lets you set the country and language a search is run from.
- Rate limits by pack
- From 50 queries a second on Starter to 300 on Ultimate, which Serper says is roughly 15,000 to 18,000 searches a minute.
- Charged on success
- Credits are deducted only for successful responses, and the API stops taking queries when the balance reaches zero.
- AI framework integrations
- Listed integrations with LangChain, CrewAI, Haystack and Jan AI for feeding search results to AI agents and chatbots.
Plans
Exa
Starter$0
$10 of credits each month, access to all endpoints, 10 search queries per second and 50 agent concurrency.
EnterpriseCustom
Zero data retention, custom MSA and DPA, SSO and SCIM, SLAs and custom indexes, sold through sales.
Serper
Starter$50
one-time for 50,000 credits, valid for 6 months
50,000 queries at $1.00 per 1,000, up to 50 queries a second. Prices exclude sales tax or VAT.
Standard$375
one-time for 500,000 credits, valid for 6 months
500,000 queries at $0.75 per 1,000, up to 100 queries a second.
Scale$1,250
one-time for 2.5 million credits, valid for 6 months
2.5 million queries at $0.50 per 1,000, up to 200 queries a second.
Ultimate$3,750
one-time for 12.5 million credits, valid for 6 months
12.5 million queries at $0.30 per 1,000, up to 300 queries a second; a higher limit can be arranged.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Exa or Serper?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Exa publishes no starting price, and Serper starts at $50 one-time for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000 queries).
Which has a free plan, Exa or Serper?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Exa has a free plan. Serper does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.