Exa
Perplexity AI
| Feature | Exa | Perplexity AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $100/mo | Free / from $20/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | ai-developers, researchers, data-scientists, startup-builders | researchers, students, journalists, professionals |
| Founded | 2022 | 2022 |
| Neural Search | ✓ | ✗ |
| Content Retrieval | ✓ | ✗ |
| Similarity Search | ✓ | ✗ |
| Filtering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Auto Search | ✓ | ✗ |
| Api Access | ✓ | ✗ |
| Search | ✗ | ✓ |
| Citations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Focus Modes | ✗ | ✓ |
| File Upload | ✗ | ✓ |
| Collections | ✗ | ✓ |
| Api | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Exa Pros
- Semantic search beyond keywords
- Clean API for developers
- Returns full page content
- Excellent for AI agent use cases
✗ Exa Cons
- Developer-focused - no consumer product
- Free tier has limited requests
- Results can be unpredictable
✓ Perplexity AI Pros
- Source citations
- Real-time web access
- Focus modes
- Clean UI
✗ Perplexity AI Cons
- Limited free queries
- Can still have errors
- No document upload on free
The Verdict
Exa is built for ai developers and researchers, with a focus on neural-search and content-retrieval. Perplexity AI targets researchers and students and leads with search and citations.
On pricing, Perplexity AI is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $20/mo compared to $100/mo for Exa. That $80/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Both tools are a solid fit for researchers — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: Perplexity AI has a slight overall edge — but if semantic search beyond keywords matters most to you, Exa may still be the right call.
