Exa vs SerpApi: search by meaning over its own index or many search engines, parsed
Exa is a web search API for AI that runs its own crawl and index, with search modes from instant to deep research. SerpApi is an API that scrapes and parses Google and other search engines into structured JSON.
The short answer
- Exa: Semantic, meaning-based discovery of pages, plus full page text, from an index built for AI.
- SerpApi: Structured results from many search engines and verticals, including Google Maps and Shopping, through one API.
Side by side
| Exa | SerpApi | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Exa's own web-scale index (it says it crawls billions of documents per day). | Google (many verticals) plus Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Yandex, Naver, Brave, and sites like Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Walmart, Tripadvisor. |
| 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. | Structured JSON (or Markdown): organic results, maps and local results, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graph, with links, addresses, prices, ratings and reviews. |
| Before the first call | An account and an API key (Bearer or x-api-key header). | An account and an API key. |
| Free | $10 in credits every month, plus a $10 onboarding bonus; no payment method required. | 250 searches a month. |
| Paid | Search from $4 per 1,000 requests; page contents $1 per 1,000 pages. | $25/month for 1,000 searches (Starter); only successful searches count. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp (code: https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server) | Official MCP server: https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (code: https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp) |
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 SerpApi?
An account and an API key.
Is SerpApi free?
250 searches a month.
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”
SerpApi, read on October 15, 2026:
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Only successful searches are counted toward your monthly searches. Cached, errored, and failed searches are not.”
- serpapi.com: “Regular organic results are available as well as Maps, Local, Stories, Shopping, Direct Answer, and Knowledge Graph.”
- github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcp: “A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation that integrates with SerpApi”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Free $ 0 / month Get Started 250 searches per month”
- serpapi.com/pricing: “Starter $ 25 / month Get Started 1,000 searches per month”