# Alternatives to Exa

> Source: https://theagentsindex.com/exa/alternatives/ (re-verified)
> Updated: 29 October 2026

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | Better than Exa at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Exa](https://theagentsindex.com/exa.md) | Developers grounding AI agents and assistants in live web, company and people data | Free, then $4 per 1000 requests | — | 26 October 2026 |
| [Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify.md) | Developers and data teams that need maintained web scrapers instead of building their own | Free, then $19 a month | Agent permissions, Admin controls | 26 October 2026 |
| [Bright Data](https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data.md) | Data and AI teams that need blocked public web pages returned reliably at scale | Free, then $1.50 per 1000 requests | Admin controls | 28 October 2026 |
| [Oxylabs](https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs.md) | AI teams grounding agents on live web data and firms scraping search at scale | From $30 a month | — | 28 October 2026 |

The ones people open most here come first, then the closest matches.

## Shortlist

### 1. ProofFetch

Paid web extraction API returning cited paragraphs, SHA-256 receipts and prompt-injection indicators.

**Where it improves on Exa:**

**Trade-offs against Exa:**
- [Pooled budget: partial — A card-pack key carries one shared balance of 500 extractions that anything holding the key can spend, and the vendor documents no per-user or per-agent sub-allocation of that balance.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/policies/terms)
- [Single sign-on: no — There are no user accounts at all: the paid path authenticates with a bearer key shown once in the paying browser, so SAML or OIDC sign-in has nothing to attach to.](https://prooffetch.tryneverclosed.com/)

[View ProofFetch](https://theagentsindex.com/prooffetch)

### 2. Apify

Marketplace and cloud platform of ready-to-run web scraping and automation tools, callable over API or MCP.

**Where it improves on Exa:**
- [Agent permissions: yes — Actors declare one of two permission levels and the platform enforces them at runtime; limited-permission Actors see only their own storages, and a full-permission Actor needs the owner's one-time approval in Console before any run.](https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/permissions.md)
- [Admin controls: yes — Organization owners assign per-member roles from a documented permission list covering Actors, storages, tokens and billing, and account settings control whether full-permission Actors need approval.](https://docs.apify.com/account/collaboration/organization.md)
- [Single sign-on: yes — The shared responsibility model lists SSO among the identity controls Apify provides alongside 2FA, scoped tokens and organization roles; the pages read do not name the SAML or OIDC protocol or any plan gate.](https://docs.apify.com/security/shared-responsibility.md)

**Trade-offs against Exa:**
- None found.

[View Apify](https://theagentsindex.com/apify)

### 3. Bright Data

Web unlocking, SERP and 1,200+ pre-built scrapers on a 400M-IP proxy network, billed per successful record.

**Where it improves on Exa:**
- [Admin controls: yes — API keys carry one of five permission levels, so an admin can issue an agent a key that may call products but cannot touch billing or configuration.](https://docs.brightdata.com/api-reference/authentication)

**Trade-offs against Exa:**
- None found.

[View Bright Data](https://theagentsindex.com/bright-data)

### 4. Oxylabs

Live web search, page scraping and a cloud browser on one 177M-IP proxy network, with MCP servers for agents.

**Where it improves on Exa:**

**Trade-offs against Exa:**
- [Multi-agent: partial — Agent Browser hands back a session label so several browser sessions run in parallel under one account, but nothing documents orchestration or hand-off between agents; concurrency is capped at 100 sessions.](https://developers.oxylabs.io/ai-workflows/mcp)
- [Tracing and evals: partial — A Dashboard API returns request counts and traffic grouped by day, target and instance, and Agent Browser sessions can be watched live or recorded, but the usage endpoints cover only some products and the key is issued by support.](https://developers.oxylabs.io/dashboard/dashboard-api)

[View Oxylabs](https://theagentsindex.com/oxylabs)