Exa is a developer-focused web search API purpose-built for AI applications and agents, rather than a consumer-facing chatbot. It uses a proprietary, from-scratch-trained neural search index (covering 500+ billion URLs) that understands query meaning semantically rather than relying on keyword matching or reselling Google/Bing results, and offers multiple specialized endpoints: standard Search, low-latency "Exa Instant" (sub-150ms, launched Feb. 2026) for real-time agent workflows, Deep Search and Deep-Reasoning for multi-step research-grade queries, a Contents endpoint for clean page-text extraction, an Answer endpoint for grounded/cited responses, and Monitors for ongoing tracked queries. It's used by companies including Notion, Vercel, Cursor, and Flatfile. Pricing is pure pay-as-you-go with no seats or monthly minimum: $20 in free credits at signup plus $10/month ongoing free credits, then Search at $7 per 1,000 requests, Deep Search $12–15 per 1,000, Answer $5 per 1,000, Contents $1 per 1,000 pages, and Monitors $15 per 1,000; Enterprise offers custom rate limits and dedicated indexing.