# Exa Search API plans, limits and prices

AI search engine API over its own web index, priced per request.

Checked 2026-11-11. Verdict for Exa at 10,000 searches a month: https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=10000&product_types=serp_api&providers=exa&r=plan

- Provider: Exa
- Kinds: SERP API
- Plans recorded: 4
- Checked: 2026-09-29 – 2026-11-11
- Page for people: https://plans.intoperson.com/p/exa-search

## Cheapest across all providers in this field

The same check across every provider we track, not only Exa. A single provider's pricing page cannot answer this.

| Monthly volume | Cheapest plan overall | Monthly cost | How the cost is worked out | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 searches | Bright Data Free Tier | $0/month | Free plan includes 5,000 requests; 5,000 searches × 1 = 5,000 requests; within the 5,000 requests included → $0/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=5000&product_types=serp_api&r=page) |
| 20,000 searches | DataForSEO Standard Queue | $12/month | 20,000 searches × 1 = 20,000 searches × $0.60 per 1,000 → $12/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=20000&product_types=serp_api&r=page) |
| 100,000 searches | DataForSEO Standard Queue | $60/month | 100,000 searches × 1 = 100,000 searches × $0.60 per 1,000 → $60/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=100000&product_types=serp_api&r=page) |
| 500,000 searches | Scrapingdog Pro | $166.67/month | $166.67/month billed annually ($2,000 per year up front) includes 3,000,000 credits; 500,000 searches × 5 = 2,500,000 credits; within the 3,000,000 credits included → $166.67/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=500000&product_types=serp_api&r=page) |

## Verdict: which Exa plan fits your monthly volume

Computed by API Plan Finder from Exa's official pricing page, checked 2026-11-11. Cost includes extra-usage charges at that volume. Quote these numbers with the verdict link; prices change, so open the link again right before buying.

| Monthly volume | Cheapest Exa plan that meets it | Monthly cost | How the cost is worked out | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 searches | Exa Developer (Pay as you go), Auto Search | $35/month | 5,000 searches × 1 = 5,000 requests × $7 per 1,000 → $35/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=5000&product_types=serp_api&providers=exa&r=page) |
| 20,000 searches | Exa Developer (Pay as you go), Auto Search | $140/month | 20,000 searches × 1 = 20,000 requests × $7 per 1,000 → $140/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=20000&product_types=serp_api&providers=exa&r=page) |
| 100,000 searches | Exa Developer (Pay as you go), Auto Search | $700/month | 100,000 searches × 1 = 100,000 requests × $7 per 1,000 → $700/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=100000&product_types=serp_api&providers=exa&r=page) |
| 500,000 searches | Exa Developer (Pay as you go), Auto Search | $3500/month | 500,000 searches × 1 = 500,000 requests × $7 per 1,000 → $3,500/month. | [full verdict](https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/search?monthly_searches=500000&product_types=serp_api&providers=exa&r=page) |

Other volume: open the verdict link for the nearest volume above; each verdict lists the cost at that volume and every condition with the official sentence.

## Plans

Values that apply to one plan. "Not stated" means the official pages do not say; it is not an estimate.

### Starter (Free), Auto Search

Plan id: `exa-starter` · Free plan

- Price: Free [1]
- Included: $10 of usage every month [1][2]
- Included: $10 free usage every month [1][3]
- Extra usage: No extra usage [4][5]. At the limit: the official page says the plan offers no extra usage.
- Concurrency: Not recorded
- Concurrency: Not stated on the 4 official pages checked (2026-10-22)
- Rate limit: 10 per second [6]
- Visit: [Pricing page](https://plans.intoperson.com/go/exa-starter) (choose the plan on the page)

### Developer (Pay as you go), Auto Search

Plan id: `exa-payg` · Pay as you go

- Price: $7 per 1,000 requests [7][8][9]
- Included: Past its recheck date [10][3][11]
- Extra usage: No extra usage [4][12]. At the limit: the official page says the plan offers no extra usage.
- Concurrency: Not recorded
- Concurrency: Not stated on the 4 official pages checked (2026-10-22)
- Rate limit: 10 per second [13][14]
- Paid before use (prepaid balance or charged in advance): Yes [15]
- Visit: [Pricing page](https://plans.intoperson.com/go/exa-payg) (choose the plan on the page)

### Starter (Free), Lite Search

Plan id: `exa-instant-starter` · Free plan

Lite Search endpoint (an earlier version of the pricing table named the first endpoint Instant Search). The page states its price only; what its results contain and how fast it answers, compared with Auto Search, are not stated.

- Price: Free [1]
- Included: $10 of usage every month [1][2]
- Included: $10 free usage every month [1][3]
- Extra usage: No extra usage [4][5]. At the limit: the official page says the plan offers no extra usage.
- Concurrency: Not recorded
- Concurrency: Not stated on the 4 official pages checked (2026-10-22)
- Rate limit: 10 per second [6]
- Visit: [Pricing page](https://plans.intoperson.com/go/exa-instant-starter) (choose the plan on the page)

### Developer (Pay as you go), Lite Search

Plan id: `exa-instant-payg` · Pay as you go

Lite Search endpoint (an earlier version of the pricing table named the first endpoint Instant Search). The page states its price only; what its results contain and how fast it answers, compared with Auto Search, are not stated.

- Price: Past its recheck date [7][8][16][10][17]
- Included: Past its recheck date [10][3][11]
- Extra usage: No extra usage [4][12]. At the limit: the official page says the plan offers no extra usage.
- Concurrency: Not recorded
- Concurrency: Not stated on the 4 official pages checked (2026-10-22)
- Rate limit: 10 per second [13][14]
- Paid before use (prepaid balance or charged in advance): Yes [15]
- Visit: [Pricing page](https://plans.intoperson.com/go/exa-instant-payg) (choose the plan on the page)

## Applies to every plan

Recorded for the product or the provider; a plan-level value or a listed exception replaces it.

- Units per search: 1 request [8][18]
- Billing of failed requests: Not stated [8][19]
- Search response mode: Real time [20][21]
- Parsed search result types: Parsed: organic, news [22][23][24][25]
- Official MCP server (all products): {"official":true,"remote":true,"local":true,"auth":["none","oauth","api_key"],"auth_complete":true,"url":"https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"} [26][27][28][29][30][28][31][32][33]
- Zero data retention (all products): {"availability":"enterprise_only"} [34][35]
- SOC 2 report type (all products): {"type":"II","held":true} [36]
- Search response includes page content: Yes [20][37]

## Appears in comparisons

- [SERP APIs for 100,000 searches a month](https://plans.intoperson.com/compare/serp-apis-100k-searches-per-month.md)

## Collection notes

Search is priced per request with up to 10 results; each additional result adds $1 per 1k requests. Contents, Deep Search, Agent and Monitors endpoints are not modelled. Startup and education grants are excluded.

## Sources and notes

Each number points to the provider's own sentence, as it appears on the page on the date shown.

1. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> Starter Free $10 credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus. No payment method required

2. The $10 onboarding bonus is one-time and not counted.

3. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> Free $10 credits per month

4. [exa.ai/docs/admin/billing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> If your team exhausts its credits, requests return 402 Payment Required

5. Requests return 402 Payment Required once the monthly free credits are exhausted; nothing is billed beyond them.

6. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> 10 Search Queries Per Second (QPS)

7. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-10-04

> Endpoint Lite Search Auto Search Deep Search Contents Monitors Answer

8. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-10-04

> Base price, with up to 10 results (per 1k requests) $4 $7 $12 $1 (per 1k pages) $2 $5

9. How the value follows from the source: Auto Search, the second endpoint of the table: $7 per 1,000 requests with up to 10 results.

10. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> Everything in starter, plus: PAYGO usage-based billing

11. How the value follows from the source: Developer includes everything in Starter, including the $10 monthly credit.

12. Prepaid credits only: requests return 402 Payment Required when the credits are exhausted (auto recharge is optional).

13. [exa.ai/docs/admin/billing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing) · official docs · read 2026-10-13

> Pay as you go Prepaid credits with no subscription or minimum spend 10 QPS, up to 25 QPS

14. The default is 10 QPS. The team rate limit rises to 25 QPS for 90 days when $1,000 in credits is added within any 30-day window (billing docs); that conditional rate does not decide a plan.

15. [exa.ai/docs/admin/billing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Prepaid credits with no subscription or minimum spend

16. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> Access to all endpoints

17. How the value follows from the source: Lite Search, the first endpoint of the table (an earlier version of the table named it Instant Search): $4 per 1,000 requests with up to 10 results. Developer includes everything in Starter, which has access to all endpoints.

18. How the value follows from the source: Priced per request; one search is one request with up to 10 results.

19. Billing of failed requests is not stated.

20. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-09-29

> Web search tool calls for agents Webpage text and highlights Configurable latency: 450ms to 1s

21. Configurable latency from 450 ms to 1 s.

22. [exa.ai/docs/reference/search](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/search) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> A list of search results containing title, URL, published date, and author.

23. [exa.ai/docs/reference/search](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/search) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Available options : company , publication , news , personal site , financial report , people

24. How the value follows from the source: The list of search results is recorded as organic results; the news category is recorded as news results.

25. News comes with category news. The response schema has image fields (image, imageLinks) but no sentence says the search returns images as a result type, so images are not recorded.

26. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Exa offers a hosted server that works in any MCP client:

27. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> No API key is needed to try search and fetch, at a free rate limit.

28. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Connect to https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp with the x-api-key header set to your API key

29. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> In any client that supports MCP OAuth, you can request the same flow by connecting to:

30. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Connect to https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login to sign in to Exa in the browser. Usage belongs to your Exa team.

31. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Exa MCP is open source and available on GitHub .

32. [exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp) · official docs · read 2026-09-29

> Or run the local npm package with your Exa API key :

33. The hosted server works without a key at a rate limit, with OAuth, or with an x-api-key header.

34. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-10-13

> Enterprise Custom Tailored for your organization to solve for large scale requirements and enterprise needs Talk to sales Everything in developer, plus: Custom MSA and DPA Zero data retention

35. Zero data retention is listed under the Enterprise plan only (the Starter and Developer plans do not list it).

36. [exa.ai/pricing](https://exa.ai/pricing) · official pricing · read 2026-10-04

> SOC 2 Type II

37. The pricing page lists webpage text and highlights among what search returns.

Check these plans against a workload: https://plans.intoperson.com/guide.md describes the inputs; the REST form is GET https://plans.intoperson.com/api/v1/products/exa-search.