---
title: "Exa vs Perplexity: Web Search API Comparison, Independently Benchmarked (2026) | Openbenchmarks"
description: "Is Exa or Perplexity the better web search API for AI agents in 2026? Measured on all three tasks: factual lookup, hard retrieval (coding agents), and multi-hop company search."
url: https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-perplexity
---

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web search API · three tasks · 2026

# 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.

\[01\] across tasks

## 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) | 45.4% | 37.8% | **Exa** |

\[02\] factual lookup

## Exa and Perplexity on company-news lookup

One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. [Full factual lookup board →](https://openbenchmarks.com/company-news) 

| 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** |

__Exa vs Perplexity factual lookup endpoints__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") web search | POST /search search\_context\_size=low | **$5.14** | 97.3% | 91.7% | 98.3% | 1.38s | 476 | $1.50 | [Official docs](https://docs.perplexity.ai/api-reference/search-post "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$5 / 1k](https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/getting-started/pricing "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") Search API · POST /search |
| 2 | [Exa](https://exa.ai "Open Exa in a new tab") web search fast | POST /search type=fast | **$7.05** | 99.3% | 95.0% | 99.3% | 652ms | 1,987 | $2.10 | [Official docs](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/search "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$7 / 1k](https://exa.ai/pricing?tab=api "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") type=fast · up to 10 results |
| 3 | [Exa](https://exa.ai "Open Exa in a new tab") web search instant | POST /search type=instant | **$7.17** | 97.7% | 80.0% | 97.3% | 398ms | 2,128 | $2.10 | [Official docs](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/search "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$7 / 1k](https://exa.ai/pricing?tab=api "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") type=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.

\[03\] hard retrieval

## 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 →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) 

**Exa** leads at 83.0%. Median task time: Exa 23s vs Perplexity 22s.

\[03.a\] search & fetch 

__Exa vs Perplexity search & fetch coding-agent board__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Exa deep](https://exa.ai "Open Exa deep in a new tab") | POST /search type=deep POST /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](https://exa.ai "Open Exa auto in a new tab") | POST /search type=auto POST /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](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | POST /search search\_context\_size=high POST /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 |

\[03.b\] search only 

__Exa vs Perplexity search-only coding-agent board__
| Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Exa fast](https://exa.ai "Open Exa fast in a new tab") | 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](https://exa.ai "Open Exa instant in a new tab") | 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](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | 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 |

\[04\] multi-hop

## 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 →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) 

**Exa** leads F1 at 45.4%. Median agent time: Exa 49.83s vs Perplexity 48.94s. Median task cost: Exa $0.652 vs Perplexity $0.334.

\[04.a\] search only 

__Exa vs Perplexity search-only multi-turn board__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Exa deep](https://exa.ai "Open Exa deep in a new tab") | POST /search type=deep exa-deep | **45.4 ± 2.0** | 83.2 ± 3.0 | 33.7 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 89.5 s | 7.4 | $0.717 $0.156 search $0.556 token cost | $0.012 / search |
| [Exa instant](https://exa.ai "Open Exa instant in a new tab") | POST /search type=instant exa-instant | **43.3 ± 1.0** | 82.6 ± 3.8 | 32.2 ± 0.5 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 49.8 s | 7.3 | $0.652 $0.091 search $0.559 token cost | $0.007 / search |
| [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | POST /search search\_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 API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search endpoint the harness calls.

\[04.b\] search + fetch 

__Exa vs Perplexity search+fetch multi-turn board__
| Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Exa deep](https://exa.ai "Open Exa deep in a new tab") | POST /search type=deep exa-deep | **48.2 ± 2.1** | 89.4 ± 1.2 | 36.0 ± 2.2 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 95.8 s | 7.5 | $0.683 $0.156 search+fetch $0.526 token cost | $0.012 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Exa instant](https://exa.ai "Open Exa instant in a new tab") | POST /search type=instant exa-instant | **44.9 ± 0.9** | 85.9 ± 2.5 | 33.5 ± 0.9 | 5.2 ± 1.3 | 52.5 s | 7.5 | $0.653 $0.091 search+fetch $0.557 token cost | $0.007 / search $0.001 / fetch |
| [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai "Open Perplexity in a new tab") | POST /search search\_context\_size=high | **46.6 ± 2.0** | 87.7 ± 5.9 | 34.7 ± 1.1 | 2.2 ± 2.2 | 53.9 s | 7.5 | $0.504 $0.070 search+fetch $0.441 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.

\[05\] faq

## 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 45.4% 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.

Openbenchmarks open benchmarks 

[← web search benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [most accurate](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/most-accurate-search-api) [coding agents](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) [multi-turn](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) [Exa alternatives](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-alternatives) [Exa vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-tavily) [Tavily vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tavily-vs-parallel) [Brave Search vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-exa) [Linkup vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-firecrawl) [Parallel vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/parallel-vs-exa) [Linkup vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-tavily) [Brave Search vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-tavily) [Exa vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-firecrawl) [Brave Search vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-parallel) [Perplexity vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/perplexity-vs-parallel) [You vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/you-com-vs-parallel) [Linkup vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-parallel) [Firecrawl vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/firecrawl-vs-parallel) [TinyFish vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tinyfish-vs-parallel) [source ↗](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/factual-lookup-company-news-search) © 2026 Openbenchmarks