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ResearchKinda

Exa alternatives for AI agents

looot is a pay-per-call alternative to Exa for AI agents. One API key and one balance reach the data providers behind 4 of 6 Exa jobs. There is no subscription, and every call shows its price before it runs. Agents in Claude, Cursor, Codex and ChatGPT call it through MCP.

Give this to your agent
set up looot for Exa jobs - https://looot.ai/alternatives/exa/skill.md

Alternatives for AI agents

The honest answer

A neural web search API for AI apps, with page contents, similar pages, answers and research agents, paid per request. For an AI agent running looot, the verdict on Exa is kinda. 4 of the 6 jobs we compared are covered and 1 more partly.

Kinda

4 covered, 1 partly, 1 not covered

See the full Exa coverage page

Covered 4

  • Search the web by meaning
  • Get full page contents
  • Find pages similar to a URL
  • Answer with citations

Partly covered 1

  • Find people and companies

Not covered 1

  • Websets that refresh

For these, keep Exa or use another tool beside looot.

Updated

Research

What other tools do the same job as Exa?

These tools sit in the same category, ordered by how many jobs they share with Exa.

Jobs

Which Exa jobs can an agent do?

An agent can do 4 of 6 Exa jobs through looot today, with the live price of each below.

Exa alternative for search and page contents

The two Exa calls agents make most are a search and a contents fetch. On looot the search job runs on Exa, Tavily, Linkup, Parallel and Jina, and the page contents job on Exa, Linkup, Diffbot and Zyte.

Exa's Websets, lists that keep themselves fresh, have no match: refreshing a list needs scheduled runs, not available yet.

Prompt

How do I replace Exa with my agent?

Paste this prompt into the agent you already use. It asks for the job, shows the price, then runs it.

Prompt to replace Exa
Use looot to find web pages that match the description I give you, read each one, and return the title, URL and a two-line summary as a table. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table.

Side by side

How does Exa compare with an agent running looot?

Exa is an app you work in. An agent running looot is a prompt that calls data providers and pays per call.

Exa logoExaAgent running looot
What it isA neural web search API for AI apps, with page contents, similar pages, answers and research agents, paid per request.Your own agent calling looot endpoints and writing the result where you ask.
Jobs compared6 jobsYes. 4 covered, 1 partly
Not coveredwebsets that refreshGap. 1 job the agent cannot do through looot
How you use itThe Exa appA prompt to the agent you already use
Pick Exa ifYes. You need websets that refresh, or you would rather click through its own app than prompt an agent.You want an agent to run the job and pay per call, with no plan to manage.
How you paySee Exa for its own termsYes. Pay per call, with the price shown before each run
Last reviewed2026-11-03Prices read live from the catalog

What do people ask about Exa alternatives?

Usually to compare results and cost per query. Exa prices each endpoint per 1,000 requests, with deep search and research agents priced higher than lite search, plus free credit each month to start (https://exa.ai/pricing, read 2026-11-03). Teams that run many searches test a second index on the same queries before they commit.

Not on looot yet. Find similar runs only on Exa in the catalog, so for that job Exa stays the choice, called per request through looot. Search, page contents and cited answers each have a second provider.

Tools in the same category include Perplexity, Tavily, Google Alerts, SparkToro, Feedly and BuiltWith. We do not rank them as best. Pick by the jobs you need done, and compare the jobs listed on this page.

It depends on the job. An agent running looot gets a verdict of kinda for Exa: 4 of 6 jobs covered, 1 partly.

looot is not free. It is pay per call, and each endpoint shows its price before the run, so you can see what a Exa job costs before you start. We do not state what Exa costs.

Exa is an app you open and use. looot is a catalog of endpoints your own agent calls. Exa vs looot comes down to whether you want an app or an agent doing the jobs, and whether the jobs you need are in the covered list.

search the web by meaning, get full page contents, find pages similar to a url, answer with citations and find people and companies. Coverage is checked against the live catalog, so a job drops to not covered when no priced endpoint exists.

websets that refresh. Keep Exa for these, or use another tool beside looot.

Set up looot from https://looot.ai/skill.md, then paste the prompt on this page into the agent you already use. Edit it to match your own inputs.

looot charges per call. The jobs above show the cheapest live price for each, read from the catalog. When no priced endpoint exists the page says price on request.

Where do I go next from Exa?

Read the job-by-job verdict, then check the tools closest to Exa.

Updated 2026-11-03. Prices on this page are read from the looot public catalog.

For agents
app
Exa
verdict
kinda
other tool
Perplexity, /can-i-replace/perplexity
other tool
Tavily, /can-i-replace/tavily
other tool
Google Alerts, /can-i-replace/google-alerts
other tool
SparkToro, /can-i-replace/sparktoro
other tool
Feedly, /can-i-replace/feedly
other tool
BuiltWith, /can-i-replace/builtwith
coverage
/can-i-replace/exa
setup
https://looot.ai/alternatives/exa/skill.md
llms.txt
https://looot.ai/llms.txt
updated
2026-11-03
markdown /alternatives/exa.md

Try the Exa alternative with your own agent.

Start your workspace, top up, and paste the prompt into the agent you already use.

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