Exa vs Qdrant
Compare Exa and Qdrant on pricing, free tier, open source, API, self-host, verdict and momentum.
Both are data tools. Exa is freemium (free $10 credits/mo; usage-based PayGO; Enterprise custom) with an API, a free tier; Qdrant is freemium (self-host free; managed cloud free tier, paid usage-based) with open source, an API, self-hostable and a free tier. The catalog stamp is ship for Exa and ship for Qdrant, last verified 2026-09-01 and 2026-08-19 respectively.
Auto-paired from catalog data — the verdicts are hand-set, the pairing is algorithmic.
Exa
Neural search engine for finding and ranking web pages by meaning.
Qdrant
Rust-built open-source vector DB — fast, lean and easy to self-host.
| field | Exa | Qdrant |
|---|---|---|
| pricing | freemium · free $10 credits/mo; usage-based PayGO; Enterprise custom | freemium · self-host free; managed cloud free tier, paid usage-based |
| free tier | yes | yes |
| open source | no | yes |
| api | yes | yes |
| self-host | no | yes |
| verdict | ship | ship |
| momentum | blueshift | blueshift |
| last verified | 2026-09-01 | 2026-08-19 |
| key limitation | Smaller index than Google/Bing for real-time news. | Fewer built-in retrieval features than Weaviate; bring your own reranking. |
The call
Pick Exa for agent retrieval that should find the page, not the keyword…
Pick Qdrant if open source matters.