Exa vs Perplexity: web search API comparison
Exa and Perplexity measured on the same three jobs: factual lookup, hard retrieval for coding agents, and multi-hop company search. Winner per task is in the table below.
Exa or Perplexity — winner per task
Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below.
| Task | Exa | Perplexity | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factual lookup (accuracy) | 99.3% | 97.3% | Exa |
| Hard retrieval (task completion, search+fetch) | 83.0% | 77.7% | Exa |
| Multi-hop (F1, search-only) | 45.7% | 37.8% | Exa |
Exa and Perplexity on company-news lookup
One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. Full factual lookup board →
| Axis | Exa | Perplexity | Measured winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy (extracted-answer) | 99.3% | 97.3% | Exa |
| Answer recall (AR@5) | 99.3% | 98.3% | Exa |
| Speed (mean latency) | 398ms | 1.38s | Exa |
| Cost per 1,000 queries (list price) | $7.00 | $5.00 | Perplexity |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perplexityweb search | POST /searchsearch_context_size=low | $5.14 | 97.3% | 91.7% | 98.3% | 1.38s | 476 | $1.50 | Official docs | $5 / 1kSearch API · POST /search |
| 2 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=fast | $7.05 | 99.3% | 95.0% | 99.3% | 652ms | 1,987 | $2.10 | Official docs | $7 / 1ktype=fast · up to 10 results |
| 3 | Exaweb search | POST /searchtype=instant | $7.17 | 97.7% | 80.0% | 97.3% | 398ms | 2,128 | $2.10 | Official docs | $7 / 1ktype=instant · up to 10 results |
$ / 1k correct is $ / 1k queries divided by extracted-answer accuracy. Ranked by $ / 1k correct. Cost per 1,000 queries is the published PAYG list price, linked to the vendor pricing page. Not promotional packs or volume discounts. TinyFish Search is free with a 30 requests/min cap — $0 is not unlimited throughput.
Exa and Perplexity 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 83.0%. Median task time: Exa 23s vs Perplexity 22s.
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa deep | POST /search type=deepPOST /contents | 83.0 ± 1.0 | 37s | $0.127$0.057 search+fetch$0.070 token cost | 3.97s | 23,660 | $0.012 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| 2 | Exa auto | POST /search type=autoPOST /contents | 81.7 ± 1.1 | 23s | $0.107$0.032 search+fetch$0.074 token cost | 1.19s | 27,433 | $0.007 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| 3 | Perplexity | POST /search search_context_size=highPOST /search search_context_size=high | 77.7 ± 1.5 | 22s | $0.083$0.025 search+fetch$0.058 token cost | 991ms | 20,062 | $0.005 / search$0.005 / fetch |
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exa fast | POST /search type=fast | 66.3 ± 1.5 | 20s | $0.103$0.035 search$0.068 token cost | 626ms | 22,344 | $0.007 / search |
| 2 | Exa instant | POST /search type=instant | 61.3 ± 2.9 | 21s | $0.105$0.035 search$0.070 token cost | 447ms | 22,423 | $0.007 / search |
| 3 | Perplexity | POST /search search_context_size=low | 77.3 ± 2.1 | 18s | $0.059$0.025 search$0.034 token cost | 957ms | 8,765 | $0.005 / search |
Exa and Perplexity 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 45.7%. Median agent time: Exa 49.39s vs Perplexity 48.94s. Median task cost: Exa $0.627 vs Perplexity $0.334.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 45.7 ± 3.0 | 82.6 ± 3.7 | 34.0 ± 2.3 | 1.6 ± 1.4 | 89.8 s | 7.4 | $0.716$0.156 search$0.552 token cost | $0.012 / search |
| Exa | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 43.6 ± 0.6 | 81.9 ± 3.4 | 32.5 ± 0.9 | 3.1 ± 1.3 | 49.4 s | 7.3 | $0.627$0.091 search$0.532 token cost | $0.007 / search |
| Perplexity | POST /searchsearch_context_size=low | 37.8 ± 2.1 | 79.3 ± 5.7 | 26.8 ± 1.4 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 48.9 s | 7.7 | $0.334$0.070 search$0.264 token cost | $0.005 / search |
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. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | POST /search type=deepexa-deep | 47.7 ± 2.4 | 89.2 ± 1.6 | 35.4 ± 2.5 | 1.7 ± 1.9 | 95.9 s | 7.5 | $0.687$0.156 search+fetch$0.530 token cost | $0.012 / search$0.001 / fetch |
| Exa | POST /search type=instantexa-instant | 44.3 ± 1.3 | 86.0 ± 2.6 | 32.9 ± 1.3 | 5.2 ± 1.2 | 52.7 s | 7.5 | $0.651$0.091 search+fetch$0.557 token cost | $0.007 / search$0.001 / fetch |
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. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls.
Exa vs Perplexity — common questions
Exa vs Perplexity: which web search API is better?
Factual lookup: Exa leads accuracy (Exa 99.3% vs Perplexity 97.3%). Hard retrieval: Exa leads task completion (Exa 83.0% vs Perplexity 77.7%). Multi-hop: Exa leads F1 (Exa 45.7% vs Perplexity 37.8%).
Is Exa or Perplexity cheaper?
On factual lookup list price: Exa $7.00 per 1,000 queries vs Perplexity $5.00 — Perplexity is cheaper. Coding token efficiency is median task tokens; multi-hop cheapest is cost per agent run. Free tiers and volume discounts excluded.