01 You.com
Real-time web search and research APIs for AI agents and LLM pipelines
AI Search & Research from $5 per 1,000 calls free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
Exa alternatives
5 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jul 3, 2026 · how we verify
You.com is the top Exa alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Search & Research), starts at $5 per 1,000 calls, and has a free tier. All 5 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Exa, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Exa alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You.com | AI Search & Research | $5 per 1,000 calls | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Consensus | AI Search & Research | $10/mo | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Felo AI | AI Search & Research | $14.99/mo | yes | Jul 3, 2026 |
| Perplexity | AI Search & Research | $20/mo | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Elicit | AI Search & Research | $49/mo | yes | Jul 3, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 Consensus
AI search engine for peer-reviewed research across 200M+ scientific papers
AI Search & Research from $10/mo free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
03 Felo AI
Multilingual AI search and creation platform combining research, summarization and content generation
AI Search & Research from $14.99/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 3, 2026
04 Perplexity
AI-powered answer engine that searches the live web and cites every source
AI Search & Research from $20/mo free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
05 Elicit
AI research assistant that searches, summarizes and extracts data from 138 million academic papers
AI Search & Research from $49/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 3, 2026
When to stay with Exa
Documented strengths from our Exa review — switching isn't always the right call:
- Transparent, granular usage-based pricing with a large free tier (20,000 requests/month)
- Purpose-built for AI and agent workflows — highlights, structured JSON, and grounded citations
- Very low-latency option and both API and no-code (Websets) paths