Exa vs Keenable
At 100,000 searches a month: Exa $390.00, Keenable $0.00. Keenable costs the same or less from 20,000 to 500,000 standard searches.
Exa checked Oct 26, 2026 · Keenable checked Oct 27, 2026
Exa vs Keenable: 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.
- Exa
- Keenable
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.
Exa
Keenable
The difference
Charge by charge
| Charge | Exa | Keenable |
|---|---|---|
| Standard searches, per 1,000 | $3.90 | $0.00 |
| Deep searches, per 1,000 | $11.90 | not published |
| Failed requests billed | not published | not published |
| Past the plan's allowance | pay as you go, no allowance | no plan covers this job |
| Paying yearly | no yearly price | no yearly price |
| Concurrent requests on this plan | not published | not published |
| Free tier | $10 of usage a month, no card | 100,000 requests a month |
| Works with | MCP server, n8n, Make, Zapier, LangChain, LlamaIndex | MCP server, n8n, LangChain, LlamaIndex |
Choose Exa when
- you work through Make or Zapier (each listed for it; not for the other)
Choose Keenable when
- price for 100,000 searches a month matters most: $0.00 against $390.00
How the Exa bill adds up
- Base rate1 requestper request
- × JavaScript renderingNot requiredNot part of this workload
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1Failure billing is not published; this is an assumption
- = Billed units per search1 requestFrom this bill’s calculation
- = per 1,000 searches$3.90Instant Search, pay as you go
Credits and multipliers
JavaScript rendering
Billed failures
Success rate
Concurrency
Free tier
Renews monthly How the Keenable bill adds up
- Base rate1 request
- × JavaScript renderingNot required
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1
- = Billed units per search1 request
- = per 1,000 searches$0.00Free tier, free within its limits
Credits and multipliersJavaScript renderingBilled failuresSuccess rateConcurrencyFree tierRenews monthly Both bills, step by step
Exa
-
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
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
One attempt is one billed unit for this workload.
- =
Metered cash this month
$390.00 /mo
Instant 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.
Keenable
-
Successes you want
100,000 standard searches
See the note above.
- ÷ 1
Attempts you are billed for
100,000 standard searches
- × 1
What the meter counts
100,000 requests
- =
Cash per month
$0.00 /mo
Free tier: 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: none on price. Exa’s cheapest search costs $4 per 1,000 requests, the same rate Keenable charges, but Exa’s free credit of $10 a month covers 2,500 such searches and Keenable’s free allowance covers 100,000. So up to 2,500 searches a month both are free; above that Keenable costs less at every volume, and from 100,000 up the gap stays at $390 a month: $390 against nothing at 100,000, $3,990 against $3,600 at a million. Exa’s default search costs $7 per 1,000, which widens the gap. (Exa API pricing; Keenable pricing, checked Oct 21, 2026)
Billing models side by side
Exa is pay as you go by search type: $4 per 1,000 requests for its cheapest search types (Lite, and the older Instant), $7 for the default (Auto), $12 to $15 for deep research, each covering up to 10 results. Every result past 10 adds $1 per 1,000, and page contents add $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. The free tier’s $10 credit resets on the first of each month and needs no payment method. Keenable bills one request per search or page fetch, 100,000 a month free and $4 per 1,000 from prepaid credits after, and its documentation lists no extra charge for more results, up to 50, or for longer snippets. (Exa API pricing; Keenable credits; Search API reference, checked Oct 21, 2026)
What each provides that the other does not
Exa sells search at several depths, up to multi-step research that returns structured answers, adds an answer endpoint and page summaries, and offers custom indexes and up to 1,000 results per search on Enterprise. Keenable sells search and a fetch of its stored copy of a page at one request each, can date each result with its published and indexed dates, can search its index as it stood on a past day, and lets agents with no account pay per call. Keenable allows 10 requests a second per organization and raises it on request; neither publishes whether a failed request is charged on an account. (Exa API pricing; Keenable rate limits; Search API reference, checked Oct 21, 2026)
Who should pick which
Pick Keenable for plain search at any volume, and above all under 100,000 searches a month. Pick Exa when you want deep research, answers or summaries from the same provider, or more than 50 results per search. Neither price says anything about result quality, so test both on your own queries.