Exa review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Web search API built for AI agents and applications
Black Friday: is there a Exa sale?
Exa report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for giving AI agents a web search API
Exa is a web search API for developers building AI agents, with search, page contents, monitors and agent endpoints. The free Starter gives $10 in credits a month, but past that you pay per request, so it's a developer product with no reading or note-taking app.
Who Exa is for
- 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
Who Exa is not for
- 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
Why Exa gets a 2.2
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for moneyNo 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.
- BFree plan and trialThe 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.
- CFeaturesSearch, 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.
- DEase of useNo store rating on record. You need code, an API key and a client to use it, so it's a D.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb API with Claude, ChatGPT and MCP hooks. No desktop or mobile apps, as the listing says.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Exa's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/exa#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/exa.svg" alt="Exa: 2.2 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Exa stands among AI research tools
Exa's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 7 of the 49 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 11.
It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 36 of 49) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 50 AI research tools we grade, cut by the letter each got. Exa’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 6 of 49, level with 29
- BFree plan and trialAbove 36 of 49, level with 9
- CFeaturesAbove 1 of 49, level with 32
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 49
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 16 of 49, level with 31
Keep Exa, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Exa you would be making a search engine with an AI model behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 31 of the 49 other AI research tools grade higher.
What you could not
- A search engine with an AI model behind it.
- A library of papers and sources to search.
- An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it.
- It plugs into other products, Claude, ChatGPT and MCP among them, and has an API.
What this rests on. Exa’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Exa?
Exa is a search API that returns web results, page contents and agent-run research for AI applications. Its index includes web, people, company and scholarly-works data. Developers start on a free monthly credit allowance and then pay per request.
Worth knowing
- 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.
Key features
- 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.
Exa pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Exa has a free plan.
- Starts at
- Not published
- Free plan
- Starter: $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no payment method required.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 | $10 of credits each month, access to all endpoints, 10 search queries per second and 50 agent concurrency. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Zero data retention, custom MSA and DPA, SSO and SCIM, SLAs and custom indexes, sold through sales. |
Read from exa.ai on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Exa before you buy.
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Common questions
Does Exa have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Exa is listed for Web.
Does Exa have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Exa is listed for Web.
Is Exa open source?
Exa is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 12, 2026.
Does Exa have an API?
Yes. Exa offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.