Perplexity vs Exa
Compare Perplexity and Exa on pricing, free tier, open source, API, self-host, verdict and momentum.
Both are data tools. Perplexity is freemium (free tier; Pro $20/mo, Max $200/mo) with an API, a free tier; Exa is freemium (free $10 credits/mo; usage-based PayGO; Enterprise custom) with an API and a free tier. The catalog stamp is ship for Perplexity and ship for Exa, last verified 2026-08-24 and 2026-09-01 respectively.
Perplexity
Answer engine with citations — search rebuilt around LLMs.
Exa
Neural search engine for finding and ranking web pages by meaning.
| field | Perplexity | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| pricing | freemium · free tier; Pro $20/mo, Max $200/mo | freemium · free $10 credits/mo; usage-based PayGO; Enterprise custom |
| free tier | yes | yes |
| open source | no | no |
| api | yes | yes |
| self-host | no | no |
| verdict | ship | ship |
| momentum | blueshift | blueshift |
| last verified | 2026-08-24 | 2026-09-01 |
| key limitation | Citations occasionally point at sources that do not support the claim. | Smaller index than Google/Bing for real-time news. |
The call
Pick Perplexity for everyday questions that should come back with sources.
Pick Exa for agent retrieval that should find the page, not the keyword…
Perplexity sources
Exa sources
Open live compare →Perplexity pageExa pagePerplexity.jsonExa.json