What it is
Exa hosts its server at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp. It works anonymously under free rate limits; signing in with OAuth or passing an Exa API key moves calls onto your team's plan and limits and turns on the research agent. Exa ships official plugins for Claude and for ChatGPT and Codex, and one-click installs for Cursor and VS Code. A local npm package, exa-mcp-server (3.4.2 in October 2026), runs the same tools over stdio with your key.
The default tools are web_search_exa and web_fetch_exa, which returns pages as markdown. web_search_advanced_exa (domain and date filters, summaries, subpage crawling) and agent_run (multi-step research) are added with the ?tools= parameter, which replaces the defaults rather than adding to them.
The repository is MIT licensed with about 5,200 GitHub stars.
Install
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcpOur review
Exa's hosted endpoint removes nearly all setup: paste the URL and search works, with no key and no card. Its index is built for AI retrieval, and it suits research-style queries such as finding papers, company pages or code examples better than shopping or local search, which Brave covers with dedicated news, image and local types. The fetch tool returns clean markdown, so many agents need no separate scraper.
The free path has a ceiling that is not written down. Exa does not publish the keyless rate limits, and the docs simply say that a 429 means you are on the free limits and should sign in. Once you do, the published API limits apply: 10 queries per second for search, 100 for contents, and 5 for agent runs with 50 in progress at once. Adding $1,000 of credit in 30 days lifts search to 25 queries per second for 90 days.
Cost is predictable for search and less so for research. Auto search is $7 per 1,000 calls and contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, so text plus highlights on one page counts twice. agent_run is the variable part: fixed efforts run from $0.012 to $1, but the metered auto and ultra modes default to caps of $5 and $20 a run, and an agent left to choose can find the expensive one.
The security picture is reasonable for a search API. Exa is SOC 2 Type II, but zero data retention is an Enterprise feature, so free and pay-as-you-go users do not get it. Every fetched page is untrusted web content arriving straight in the agent's context, which matters more here than with a docs index.
Where it earns its place
A solo developer adding web search to Claude Code or Cursor
Look up recent library changes, papers and GitHub examples without leaving the editor
Connect the keyless URL and it works at once; sign in when 429s appear. The $10 monthly credit covers about 1,400 auto searches or 2,500 lite ones, which is plenty for one person.
A growth team at a 30-person B2B start-up
Build lists of target companies with key facts filled in
agent_run handles list-building and enrichment on Exa's side. A medium-effort run costs $0.10, so 1,000 company profiles is about $100, but metered modes add $0.02 per email and $0.07 per phone number found.
An engineer running a research agent in production
Answer customer questions with cited web sources at volume
A task with 10 auto searches and 20 page fetches costs about $0.09, so 10,000 tasks a month is roughly $900. The 10 queries-per-second search limit needs queueing until spend reaches the 25 QPS tier.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Add https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp, or install the Claude or ChatGPT/Codex plugin; it works without sign-in. Append ?login to force OAuth, or pass a key as ?exaApiKey=, a Bearer header or x-api-key.
- Integrations
- Two default tools (web_search_exa, web_fetch_exa) and two optional ones (web_search_advanced_exa, agent_run), all read-only against the web; agent_run needs authentication. Bundled search and exa-agent skills load with plugin installs.
- Data and privacy
- Exa is SOC 2 Type II; zero data retention for search, contents and agent runs is Enterprise only. Keyless calls go to Exa without an account. Fetched pages are arbitrary web content and a direct prompt-injection route into the agent.
- Cost at scale
- Auto search $7 per 1,000, contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, deep search $12 per 1,000; a 10-search, 20-fetch research task is about $0.09. Agent runs are $0.012 to $1 fixed, or $0.10 per compute unit metered.
- Limits
- API limits are 10 QPS for search, 100 for contents, 5 for agent runs with 50 concurrent; keyless limits are unpublished. Setting ?tools= replaces the default tool list, so leaving out web_search_exa removes it.
What's good
- Hosted and usable with no key or sign-up
- Strong on research and technical queries
- Page fetch returns markdown, so no separate scraper
- $10 free credit every month once signed in
What's not
- Keyless rate limits are not published
- No dedicated news, image or local search
- Metered agent runs default to $5 or $20 caps
- Zero data retention only on Enterprise
Best for
Anyone who wants a search tool for research and coding agents with no setup.
Alternatives
Exa MCP Server: common questions
- Is Exa MCP Server worth it?
- A search server you can try in a minute and keep in production, as long as someone watches which agent mode is spending the credit. We rate it 4.5 out of 5.
- How much does Exa MCP Server cost?
- Keyless use is free and rate-limited. API: $10 free credit a month; search $4-7 per 1,000; contents $1 per 1,000 pages; agent runs $0.012 to $1 at fixed effort.
- What are the downsides of Exa MCP Server?
- Keyless rate limits are not published; no dedicated news, image or local search; metered agent runs default to $5 or $20 caps; zero data retention only on Enterprise.
- Who is Exa MCP Server best for?
- Anyone who wants a search tool for research and coding agents with no setup.
- How much does Exa MCP Server cost for a team or in production?
- Auto search $7 per 1,000, contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, deep search $12 per 1,000; a 10-search, 20-fetch research task is about $0.09. Agent runs are $0.012 to $1 fixed, or $0.10 per compute unit metered.
- Is Exa MCP Server safe for company data?
- Exa is SOC 2 Type II; zero data retention for search, contents and agent runs is Enterprise only. Keyless calls go to Exa without an account. Fetched pages are arbitrary web content and a direct prompt-injection route into the agent.
- What are the best Exa MCP Server alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Brave Search MCP Server, Tavily MCP Server and Perplexity MCP Server.
Answers checked Oct 22, 2026.
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