01 Exa
AI-native web search engine and API built for agents, with semantic search and content extraction
AI Search & Research from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUN 22, 2026
Kagi alternatives
3 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jun 22, 2026 · how we verify
Exa is the top Kagi alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Search & Research), starts at $0, and has a free tier. All 3 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Kagi, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Kagi alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exa | AI Search & Research | $0 | yes | Jun 22, 2026 |
| You.com | AI Search & Research | $5 per 1,000 calls | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Perplexity | AI Search & Research | $20/mo | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 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
03 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
When to stay with Kagi
Documented strengths from our Kagi review — switching isn't always the right call:
- No ads and no tracking by design — the business model is subscriptions, not advertising, so incentives are aligned with the searcher
- Users can customize and permanently boost or block specific domains from their own results, which ad-funded engines don't offer
- Kagi Assistant grounds answers in real Kagi Search results rather than relying purely on a model's training data