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4 alternatives

4 Exa alternatives, 3 with a free plan (2026)

The closest alternatives to Exa in October 2026 are ProofFetch, Apify and Bright Data.

4 agents compared · 3 with a free plan · prices checked 14–28 October 2026

Reviewed by The Agents Index editorial team.

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Exa and its alternatives at a glance

AgentBest forStarts atBetter than Exa atChecked
ExaDevelopers grounding AI agents and assistants in live web, company and people dataFree, then $4 per 1000 requests source26 October 2026
ApifyDevelopers and data teams that need maintained web scrapers instead of building their ownFree, then $19 a month sourceAgent permissions, Admin controls26 October 2026
Bright DataData and AI teams that need blocked public web pages returned reliably at scaleFree, then $1.50 per 1000 requests sourceAdmin controls28 October 2026
OxylabsAI teams grounding agents on live web data and firms scraping search at scaleFrom $30 a month source28 October 2026

Closest alternatives to Exa

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

Pick up to three things you need that Exa lacks.
More reasons (2)
0/3 selected
  1. 1

    ProofFetchVerified owner

    From Free

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

    Trade-offs
    • Pooled budget: Partly ↗
    • Single sign-on: No ↗
  2. 2

    Apify

    From Free

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

    Why it's on this list

    Agent permissions: YesActors 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.

    Source ↗
    Better than Exa at
    • Admin controls: Yes ↗
    • Single sign-on: Yes ↗
    Trade-offs

    None found.

  3. 3

    Bright Data

    From Free

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

    Why it's on this list

    Admin controls: YesAPI 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.

    Source ↗
    Trade-offs

    None found.

The rest of the shortlist

  1. Oxylabs

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

    From $30 a month
On this page
  1. Compare Exa with the shortlist
  2. Compare alternatives to Exa
  3. Questions buyers ask
  4. Sources and method

Compare Exa with the shortlist

Compare alternatives to Exa

The digest

Which agents actually ship. New agents and articles, by email, at most once a week.

Questions buyers ask

What are the best alternatives to Exa?

ProofFetch, Apify and Bright Data are the closest. They share the most of Exa's features.

What is the cheapest alternative to Exa?

3 of the 4 have a free plan: ProofFetch, Apify and Bright Data. The lowest paid plan is Oxylabs, from $30 a month. Price checked on 28 October 2026.

When were these prices checked?

Between 14 October 2026 and 28 October 2026, each read on the maker's own pricing page.

Sources and method

Closest first: most of Exa's features, then the fewest gaps. How we check

Every price here was read on the maker's own pricing page.

What changed in the index

Agents we’ve just listed and every plan whose price changed.

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