What it is
Exa is a web search API for AI software. Exa describes itself as a search index for AI agents, with Search, Contents, Agent, and Monitors APIs, plus Websets and an MCP server1. Its docs say the Search API takes a natural-language query and returns ranked web results with clean page content, and each result can carry highlights, full text, or a summary2.
My plan
Exa has no monthly subscription tier to buy. As of November 5, 2026, its pricing page lists a Free Tier at $0, which gives $10 in credits (up to 2,500 Lite searches) and resets to $10 on the first of every month3. Beyond that, Exa is pay-as-you-go, with "no subscription and no minimum spend"3. Enterprise pricing is custom, and one listed option costs $12,000 paid upfront for $12,000 in API credits and 25 queries per second3.
Prices per 1,000 requests, from Exa's page3:
| Product | Per 1,000 requests |
|---|---|
| Search (lite, instant) | $4 |
| Search (auto, fast) | $7 |
| Deep Search (deep-lite, deep) | $12 |
| Deep Search (deep-reasoning) | $15 |
| Contents | $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Answer | $5 |
| Monitors | $2 |
Each result past the first 10 costs another $1 per 1,000 results, and AI page summaries cost $1 per 1,000 pages3. Exa's Agent API, for deeper research tasks, runs from $0.012 to $1.00 per request depending on effort level3.
What it's good at
Exa says Exa 3.0 leads on the BrowseComp benchmark with 91.8%, ahead of Perplexity at 91.5%, Brave at 83.5%, and Parallel at 72.7%1. Those are Exa's own numbers on its own page. It also lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA compliance (with a BAA available) and zero data retention1.
The docs give speed by search type, and say the figures are approximate and cover the search itself with cached content: about 450 ms for lite, about 1 second for auto, about 4 seconds for deep-lite, and 4 to 15 seconds for deep2.
The limits are in the docs. Search returns 10 results by default and up to 100 if you ask, with no pagination2. The lite type "never fetches a page live," so results without a cached copy are left out when you ask for text or highlights, and lite rejects several parameters, including outputSchema2. Summaries cost extra, and the docs state no rate limits2.
What I use it for
Web search for the software I build.
The company
Exa Labs Inc. was started by Will Bryk, who is CEO, and Jeff Wang, a co-founder4. TechCrunch reported in July 2024 that the two met as freshmen at Harvard, that Exa came out of Y Combinator's summer 2021 batch, and that the company "is located in San Francisco"5. Exa's own pages don't state a headquarters or founding year4.
Funding, in order: a $5 million seed and a $17 million Series A from Lightspeed, Nvidia's NVentures, and Y Combinator, for $22 million in total by July 20245; an $85 million Series B at a $700 million valuation in September 2025, led by Benchmark6; and a $250 million Series C at a $2.2 billion valuation in May 2026, led by a16z7. In October 2026 Exa said it had passed $100 million in annualized revenue and handled 2 billion requests a month from more than 200,000 teams, which are Exa's own claims8.
Sign up
Sources
- Exa — The world's data for AI agents. Exa, checked November 5, 2026.Vendor pageRead
What it says: Exa describes itself as a search index for AI agents with Search, Contents, Agent, and Monitors APIs, Websets, and an MCP server; "Join 900,000+ developers." Claims Exa 3.0 scores 91.8% on BrowseComp versus Perplexity 91.5%, Brave 83.5%, and Parallel 72.7% (self-reported). Security: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA with a BAA, and zero data retention. Gives no latency figure on the page.
- Exa Search API (getting started). Exa (docs), dated November 5, 2026.DocumentationRead
What it says: Exa Search is a web search API returning ranked results with page content (highlights, text, or summary). Types: auto ~1 second, lite ~450 ms, deep-lite ~4 seconds, deep 4-15 seconds (approximate, cached content). Up to 10 results by default, up to 100 via numResults, no pagination; lite never fetches a page live and rejects outputSchema and several other parameters; summaries cost extra; no rate limits stated. Undated; the page title was not captured, so the title shown is descriptive.
- Pricing. Exa, checked November 5, 2026.Vendor pageRead
What it says: Free Tier $0 with $10 in credits (up to 2,500 Lite searches), resetting to $10 on the first of each month. Pay-as-you-go: "no subscription and no minimum spend." Per 1,000 requests: Search lite/instant $4, auto/fast $7, Deep Search deep-lite/deep $12, deep-reasoning $15; Contents $1 per 1,000 pages; Answer $5; Monitors $2; results above 10 cost $1 per 1,000. Agent API fixed-effort prices run $0.012 to $1.00 per request. Enterprise is custom; a dashboard option costs $12,000 upfront and includes $12,000 in credits and 25 QPS.
- Exa: The Search Engine for Developers & Custom AI Search Solution. Exa, checked November 5, 2026.Vendor pageRead
What it says: Lists Will Bryk as CEO and Jeff Wang as co-founder; footer reads EXA LABS INC. Founding year and headquarters are not stated.
- Exa raises $17M from Lightspeed, Nvidia, Y Combinator to build a Google for AIs. TechCrunch, dated July 16, 2024.ArticleRead
What it says: $17 million Series A (total $22 million with a $5 million seed) from Lightspeed, Nvidia's NVentures, and Y Combinator (summer 2021 cohort). Founders Will Bryk (CEO) and Jeff Wang (co-founder), who met as Harvard freshmen. Says Exa "is located in San Francisco."
- Exa raises $85M to build the search engine for AIs. Exa (blog), dated September 3, 2025.Press releaseRead
What it says: $85 million Series B at a $700 million valuation, led by Benchmark, with Lightspeed, Y Combinator, and NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm).
- Exa raises $250M Series C to build the search engine for AIs. Exa (blog), dated May 20, 2026.Press releaseRead
What it says: $250 million Series C at a $2.2 billion valuation, led by a16z. Says Exa "already powers search for Cursor, Cognition, HubSpot, OpenRouter, Monday.com and over 400,000 developers," and "We started Exa five years ago." Will Bryk is CEO and co-founder. No headquarters stated.
- Exa Crosses $100M in Annualized Revenue. Exa (blog), dated October 13, 2026.Press releaseRead
What it says: "Exa just passed $100M in annualized revenue" and now handles "2 billion requests a month from 200k+ teams" (company claims). No headquarters or headcount stated.