Exa vs Kagi Search API for AI agents
Exa is a web search API for AI that runs its own crawl and index, with search modes from instant to deep research. Kagi Search API is programmatic access to Kagi's premium, ad-free search results for search products and agents.
The short answer
- Exa: Semantic, meaning-based discovery of pages, plus full page text, from an index built for AI.
- Kagi Search API: High-quality, ad-free results with clear terms that explicitly allow feeding results to an LLM.
Side by side
| Exa | Kagi Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Exa's own web-scale index (it says it crawls billions of documents per day). | Kagi's search results (web, news, video, podcasts, images per its MCP). |
| Returns | JSON results with title, URL, published date and author; optional full page text, highlights and summaries; deep modes can return a synthesized structured output. | JSON search results; optionally full Markdown extraction of the top results in the same request. |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key (Bearer or x-api-key header). | A Kagi account, an API key from the API dashboard, and billing set up (pay-per-use, prepaid credit or invoice). |
| Free | $10 in credits every month, plus a $10 onboarding bonus; no payment method required. | Not stated on its pages |
| Paid | Search from $4 per 1,000 requests; page contents $1 per 1,000 pages. | $12 per 1,000 requests; Extract $4 per 1,000 pages. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Not stated on its pages | No storing, caching or building a database of results beyond transient caching; cached results must be deleted on termination. |
| AI in its terms | Not stated on its pages | Sending results to an AI model to answer your users is allowed; training or fine-tuning models, or harvesting training/evaluation datasets, is not. |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp (code: https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server) | Official MCP server: https://mcp.kagi.com/mcp (code: https://github.com/kagisearch/kagimcp) |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Exa?
An account and an API key (Bearer or x-api-key header).
Is Exa free?
$10 in credits every month, plus a $10 onboarding bonus; no payment method required.
What do I need before I can use Kagi Search API?
A Kagi account, an API key from the API dashboard, and billing set up (pay-per-use, prepaid credit or invoice).
Is Kagi Search API free?
Its pages listed no free use when we read them on October 15, 2026.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Exa, read on October 15, 2026:
- exa.ai/docs/reference/search: “The full content text of the search result.”
- exa.ai: “Search the largest index of public web and private information.”
- exa.ai: “crawl billions of documents per day”
- exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp: “https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp”
- exa.ai/pricing: “Search From $4 /1k requests”
- exa.ai/pricing: “Contents $1 /1k pages per content type”
- exa.ai/pricing: “Starter Free $10 credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus”
- exa.ai/pricing: “No payment method required”
Kagi Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- kagi.com/api/pricing: “$12 /1k requests”
- kagi.com/api/pricing: “$4 /1k pages”
- kagi.com/api/docs: “The Search API is a feature-rich endpoint for search products and agents.”
- kagi.com/api/docs: “You can also request full markdown extraction of the top results in a single API request.”
- help.kagi.com/kagi/api/overview.html: “The API uses a pay-per-use model”
- kagi.com/privacy/api: “Store, cache, or build a database of Results beyond the transient caching needed to operate your application.”
- kagi.com/privacy/api: “including sending Results to an AI model to answer your users' queries.”
- kagi.com/privacy/api: “Use Results to train or fine-tune a search index, ranking system, translation or summarization model”
- github.com/kagisearch/kagimcp: “The Official Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Kagi Search & other tools.”