Brave Search vs Exa: web search API comparison
Brave Search and Exa measured on the same three jobs: factual lookup, hard retrieval for coding agents, and multi-hop company search. Rankings do not transfer. Winner per task is in the table below.
Brave Search or Exa — winner per task
Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below.
| Task | Brave Search | Exa | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual lookup (accuracy) | 93.8% | 99.2% | Exa |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search-only) | 43.0% | 66.3% | Exa |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 28.0% | 45.4% | Exa |
Brave Search and Exa on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 129 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Brave Search | Exa | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 93.8% | 99.2% | Exa |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 93.8% | 100.0% | Exa |
| Speed (mean latency) | 693ms | 447ms | Exa |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $5.65 | $8.13 | Brave Search |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brave Searchweb search | GET /res/v1/web/searchcount=10 · result_filter=web | 93.8% | 83.7% | 93.8% | 693ms | 723 | $0.73 | Official docs |
| 2 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=deep | 99.2% | 98.5% | 100.0% | 3.00s | 1,330 | $1.65 | Official docs |
| 3 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=instant | 97.7% | 83.7% | 97.7% | 447ms | 2,051 | $1.05 | Official docs |
Brave Search and Exa on coding-agent docs
Grounded task completion on 100 documentation tickets. A pass needs a # source: URL from that run. Full coding-agent board →
Exa leads at 66.3%. Median task time: Brave Search 23s vs Exa 20s.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Avg search time | Median task tokens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brave Search | POST /res/v1/llm/context | 43.0 ± 2.0 | 23s | 547ms | 21,000 |
| 2 | Exa fast | POST /search type=fast | 66.3 ± 1.5 | 20s | 626ms | 22,344 |
| 3 | Exa instant | POST /search type=instant | 61.3 ± 2.9 | 21s | 447ms | 22,423 |
Brave Search and Exa on multi-turn company search
45 questions, each with three or four constraints. Scored on precision, recall, F1, and exact-set. Full multi-turn board →
Exa leads F1 at 45.4%. Median agent time: Brave Search 43.52s vs Exa 49.83s. Cost / agent run: Brave Search $0.269 vs Exa $0.601.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Cost / agent run | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Search | GET /res/v1/web/searchbrave | 28.0 ± 1.7 | 66.9 ± 8.5 | 19.3 ± 0.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 43.5 s | 8.0 | $0.269 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Exa | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 45.4 ± 2.0 | 83.2 ± 3.0 | 33.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 89.5 s | 7.4 | $0.656 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Exa | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 43.3 ± 1.0 | 82.6 ± 3.8 | 32.2 ± 0.5 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 49.8 s | 7.3 | $0.601 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Cost / agent run | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave Search | GET /res/v1/web/searchbrave | 29.4 ± 1.6 | 73.5 ± 5.8 | 20.4 ± 0.9 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 45.1 s | 8.0 | $0.273 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Exa | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 48.2 ± 2.1 | 89.4 ± 1.2 | 36.0 ± 2.2 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 95.8 s | 7.5 | $0.639 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
| Exa | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 44.9 ± 0.9 | 85.9 ± 2.5 | 33.5 ± 0.9 | 5.2 ± 1.3 | 52.5 s | 7.5 | $0.606 | 45 questions135 agent runs |
F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor.
Brave Search vs Exa — common questions
Brave Search vs Exa: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Exa leads accuracy (Brave Search 93.8% vs Exa 99.2%). Hard retrieval: Exa leads task completion (Brave Search 43.0% vs Exa 66.3%). Multi-hop: Exa leads F1 (Brave Search 28.0% vs Exa 45.4%). Rankings do not transfer across tasks.
Is Brave Search or Exa cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Brave Search $5.65 per 1,000 queries vs Exa $8.13 — Brave Search is cheaper. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.
Exa vs Tavily vs Brave Search API comparison
Exa, Tavily and Brave Search are measured on the same three tasks. Brave Search vs Exa is this page; the other pairs and the full boards live on the web search hub. There is no single winner across tasks or across accuracy, latency and cost.