Brave Search API vs Exa
At 100,000 searches a month: Brave Search API $495.00, Exa $390.00. Exa costs the same or less from 20,000 to 500,000 standard searches.
Brave Search API checked Oct 13, 2026 · Exa checked Oct 13, 2026
Brave Search API vs Exa: both bills as the job grows
The monthly bill at every volume from 20,000 to 500,000 searches, with your job marked. A step is a plan boundary.
- Brave Search API
- Exa
The bills behind the curve
- Brave Search API: 20,000: $95.00 · 50,000: $245.00 · 100,000: $495.00 · 200,000: $995.00 · 500,000: $2,495.00
- Exa: 20,000: $70.00 · 50,000: $190.00 · 100,000: $390.00 · 200,000: $790.00 · 500,000: $1,990.00
Both bills at the same volume · Depth and variants: one page of results per search
100,000 search calls. The verdict above follows your volume; the write-up below uses 100,000 search calls.
Brave Search API
Exa
The difference
Charge by charge
| Charge | Brave Search API | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| Standard searches, per 1,000 | $4.95 | $3.90 |
| Deep searches, per 1,000 | not published | $11.90 |
| Failed requests billed | no | not published |
| Past the plan's allowance | pay as you go, no allowance | pay as you go, no allowance |
| Paying yearly | no yearly price | no yearly price |
| Concurrent requests on this plan | not published | not published |
| Free tier | $5 of usage a month, card required | $10 of usage a month, no card |
Choose Brave Search API when
- no published charge favours it for this job; weigh what it offers beyond price
Choose Exa when
- price for 100,000 searches a month matters most: $390.00 against $495.00
How the Brave Search API bill adds up
- Base rate1 requestper request
- × JavaScript renderingNot requiredNot part of this workload
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1Failed requests are not billed
- = Billed units per search1 requestFrom this bill’s calculation
- = per 1,000 searches$4.95Search, billed monthly
Credits and multipliers
JavaScript rendering
Billed failures
Success rate
Concurrency
Free tier
Renews monthly How the Exa bill adds up
- Base rate1 request
- × JavaScript renderingNot required
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1Failure billing is not published; this is an assumption
- = Billed units per search1 request
- = per 1,000 searches$3.90Instant Search, billed monthly
Credits and multipliersJavaScript renderingBilled failuresSuccess rateConcurrencyFree tierRenews monthly Both bills, step by step
Brave Search API
-
Successes you want
100,000 standard searches
Your stated workload. Every vendor on this site is priced against this same number.
- × 1
Attempts you are billed for
100,000 standard searches
Brave Search API does not bill failed fetches, so failures cost nothing here.
- × 1
What the meter counts
100,000 requests
One attempt is one billed unit for this workload.
- =
Metered cash this month
$495.00 /mo
Search: the cheapest way to buy this volume, not just the first plan big enough.
Bars share one linear scale across the 3 counted stages, so a multiplier shows as length. Units differ by stage and are labelled. Cash is not on that scale.
Exa
-
Successes you want
100,000 standard searches
See the note above.
- ÷ 1
Attempts you are billed for
100,000 standard searches
Failure billing is not published. This workload assumes no failures, so the missing rule does not change the bill.
- × 1
What the meter counts
100,000 requests
- =
Metered cash this month
$390.00 /mo
Instant Search: the cheapest way to buy this volume, not just the first plan big enough.
Both ladders share one linear scale, topping out at 100,000 counted units, so a longer bar means more billed work rather than a different drawing.
These figures are for one stated workload: 100,000 standard search calls with one default-depth result set per call. Change the volume above and both bills, the verdict and the curve follow it.
Decision boundary: it depends on which Exa search you call. Exa’s Instant search costs $4 per 1,000 requests and Brave’s Search plan $5, and Exa’s $10 monthly credit covers 2,500 Instant searches against the 1,000 that Brave’s $5 credit covers, so Instant costs less at every volume: $30 against $45 for 10,000 searches a month, $390 against $495 for 100,000. Exa’s default search (Fast or Auto) costs $7 per 1,000. Against that mode the two cost the same at 2,500 searches a month ($7.50 each), Exa is cheaper below that and Brave above it: $45 against $60 at 10,000, $495 against $690 at 100,000. (Brave Search API, Exa API pricing, checked Oct 13, 2026)
What a search returns differs too. Exa’s base price covers up to 10 results; each result past 10 adds $1 per 1,000 requests, and full page contents add $1 per 1,000 pages for each content type. Brave’s $5 covers its complete results (links, text, news, images and up to five snippets per result, with extra context for language models) and lists no charge on top. (Brave Search API, Exa API pricing, checked Oct 13, 2026)
Billing models side by side
Brave sells the Search plan at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 of credit applied every month, which covers the first 1,000. The free credit needs a card, which Brave says only confirms your identity and is not charged. Only successful requests are counted against your quota and billed. The plan allows 50 queries per second. Brave’s separate Answers product costs $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million input and output tokens, at 2 queries per second. (Brave Search API, Brave rate-limiting guide, checked Oct 13, 2026)
Exa is pay as you go by search type: Instant $4 per 1,000 requests, Fast or Auto $7, Deep $12 and Deep-Reasoning $15, each with up to 10 results. Extra results, page contents and AI page summaries are priced on top, at $1 per 1,000 each. The free Starter tier gives $10 of credit every month, plus a one-time $10 when you sign up, with no payment method. Searches are limited to 10 a second on the free tier and 25 on pay as you go. Exa’s pricing page does not say whether a failed request is charged. (Exa API pricing, checked Oct 13, 2026)
What each provides that the other does not
Brave runs its own index of more than 40 billion pages and lets you rerank or filter results with its Goggles feature. Its Search plan allows 50 queries a second, twice Exa’s pay-as-you-go limit, and its rate-limiting guide says only successful requests are billed. Keep its terms in view: its standard terms do not allow storing results beyond the request, and storage needs a plan that grants it. (Brave Search API, Brave rate-limiting guide, Brave terms of service, checked Oct 13, 2026)
Exa sells the same search at several speeds and depths, from Instant to Deep-Reasoning, and adds an Agent product for longer research runs at $0.012 to $1 a run. Its free credit is larger and needs no card. It also searches its own people, company and scholarly-works indexes alongside the web. (Exa API pricing, checked Oct 13, 2026)
Who should pick which
Pick Exa for small or bursty projects, which its $10 monthly credit and no-card sign-up cover, and for high volumes where its Instant search is fast enough: it is the cheaper of the two at every volume. Pick Brave when you want full results at one price above 2,500 searches a month and Exa’s Instant mode does not suit the job, when you need more than 25 queries a second without a sales call, or when you want it in writing that only successful requests are billed. On Brave, check that your use fits its storage terms before you build a cache on its results. (Brave Search API, Exa API pricing, checked Oct 13, 2026)