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Exa MCP

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Connects AI assistants to web search, code search, and agentic research.

AI & Automation
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Tracked since2026
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The Bottom Line

Entry price

Free plan available, paid tiers above

Biggest pro

Open-source and free to use with a generous free plan

Biggest con

Requires an API key to overcome free plan rate limits for production use

TL;DR - Exa MCP

  • Open-source MCP server that gives AI assistants web search, code search, and content fetching capabilities.
  • Includes an Exa Agent for multi-step research, list-building, and structured output with grounding citations.
  • Works with many MCP clients and offers a generous free plan with optional API key for higher limits.
Pricing: Free plan available
Best for: Growing teams

What is Exa MCP?

Editorial review
Exa MCP is an open-source server that bridges AI assistants with Exa's powerful search capabilities. It enables AI tools to perform web searches, fetch full webpage content as clean markdown, and execute advanced searches with filters for categories, domains, date ranges, and more. The server is designed for seamless integration with popular MCP clients like Cursor, VS Code, Claude, and others. Beyond basic search, Exa MCP includes an Exa Agent tool for multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured output generation. The agent runs end-to-end in a single call, streaming results back with grounding citations, usage data, and cost information. It supports long-running tasks and can be resumed if a run exceeds the call window. Exa MCP offers a generous free plan with rate limits, and users can add their own API key for production use. The server is configurable to enable specific tools, making it flexible for various AI-assisted workflows.
how we evaluateSourceexa.ai ↗

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Open-source and free to use with a generous free plan
  • Seamless integration with popular AI coding assistants and MCP clients
  • Agent tool handles complex multi-step research automatically

Cons

  • Requires an API key to overcome free plan rate limits for production use
  • Agent tool is usage-based and requires authentication

Key Features

Web search with clean, ready-to-use content resultsFetch full webpage content as clean markdown from URLsAdvanced web search with category filters, domain restrictions, date ranges, highlights, and summariesExa Agent for multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured outputConfigurable tool selection via URL parametersSupports long-running agent tasks with resume capabilityOAuth and API key authentication for the Agent tool

Pricing Plans

Pricing checked Jul 31, 2026

Free Tier

$20 credits on sign-up

  • $10 credits per month
  • Web search tool calls for agents
  • Webpage text and highlights
  • Configurable latency: 180ms to 1s

Search

$7 / 1k requests

  • Web search tool calls for agents
  • Webpage text and highlights
  • Configurable latency: 180ms to 1s

Agent

$0.012–$1.00/run

  • Asynchronous deep research runs
  • Structured outputs with citations
  • Access leading data providers

Contents

$1 / 1k pages per content type

  • Full page contents for LLM context
  • Token efficient highlights
  • Configurable livecrawl policies

Deep Search

$12–15/1k requests

  • Multi-step agent workflows
  • Answers with structured outputs
  • Web grounded citations

Monitors

$15 / 1k requests

  • Identify fresh events on the web
  • Runs searches at a specified cadence
  • Receive updates with webhooks

Enterprise

Custom pricing

  • Up to 1,000 results per search
  • Requests with more than 25 results
  • Custom rate limits (QPS)
  • Tailored moderation
  • Custom index
  • Enterprise-Grade Support
  • SLAs and MSAs
  • 1:1 onboarding and support
Calculate your costView full pricing

Is Exa MCP worth the price?

72/100

Exa MCP's pricing is fair and usage-based, with a generous free tier giving $20 sign-up credits and $10 monthly credits.

The Search tier at $7/1k requests is competitive for web search APIs, but Agent runs ($0.012-$1.00) and Deep Search ($12-15/1k) can get pricey for heavy use. Best for developers building AI assistants or agents that need real-time web and code search.

Hidden Costs & Gotchas

Free credits expire if unused monthly

Contents pricing per page per content type

Agent run cost varies widely by complexity

No monthly commitment but no volume tier

Enterprise requires custom contract minimums

How Exa MCP Compares to Competitors

Compared to SerpAPI and Google Custom Search, Exa MCP is similarly priced per request but offers deeper agentic and structured output features. It is cheaper than proprietary knowledge graph APIs but pricier than self-hosting open-source web scrapers, especially at high volumes.

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Exa MCP FAQ

How do I install Exa MCP in Cursor or VS Code?

Exa MCP is available as a plugin in both Cursor and VS Code. In Cursor, you can install it directly from the MCP server URL. In VS Code, you can install the Exa plugin which includes the MCP server plus Exa's skills.

What is the Exa Agent tool and how does it differ from regular web search?

The Exa Agent tool runs multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured output generation in a single call. Unlike a single web search, it handles complex tasks that require multiple search iterations and returns final output with grounding citations, usage, and cost data.

Can I use Exa MCP with clients that don't support remote MCP servers?

Yes, for clients that don't support remote MCP servers directly, you can use the mcp-remote bridge by running 'npx -y mcp-remote https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp' or run the local npm package 'exa-mcp-server' with your Exa API key.

What happens if an Exa Agent run takes longer than the call window?

If a run outlives the call window (approximately 750 seconds), agent_run returns status 'running' with the run's ID instead of an error. The run continues executing server-side, and you can call agent_run again with that runId to keep waiting until it finishes.

How do I enable only specific tools in Exa MCP?

You can enable specific tools by adding a tools parameter to the MCP server URL, for example 'https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_fetch_exa' to enable only the fetch tool, or combine multiple tools like 'web_search_exa,web_fetch_exa,web_search_advanced_exa'.

Does Exa MCP support structured output from the Agent tool?

Yes, when running the Agent tool with agent_run, you can include an outputSchema parameter to get repeatable, structured JSON results. The response includes output.structured when a schema is provided.

What authentication methods are available for the Exa Agent tool?

The Agent tool requires authentication and supports both OAuth and passing your own Exa API key via the x-api-key header in the MCP server configuration.

Can I use Exa MCP for code search?

Yes, Exa MCP includes code search capabilities as one of its search types, allowing AI assistants to search code repositories and return relevant results.

Source: exa.ai

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