Exa is a web search API on its own index, with company and people search modes, paid per request from a dollar balance, from $4 per 1,000 searches. TheirStack sells job-posting, tech-stack and buying-intent data built from career sites and job boards, on credit plans from $49 a month for 1,500 API credits. Pick Exa to research the open web, TheirStack for hiring and technology signals.
Pick Exa if
Pick TheirStack if
Exa
Research, Scraping
TheirStack
Signals, Sourcing
Exa
TheirStack
14 points side by side. Open a value for the full detail.
| What | Exa | TheirStack |
|---|---|---|
| Web search API on its own indexA web search API on its own index. One key covers search with page contents, contents for URLs you already have, cited answers, scheduled monitors, an async research Agent and Websets for entity lists. | Job postings, technographics, buying-intent APIA job-postings, technographics and buying-intent API built from company career sites, ATSs and job boards, with webhooks, an MCP server and bulk datasets. | |
| Pay as you go, prepaid balancePay as you go from a prepaid dollar balance. No subscription and no minimum. Verified 2026-10-25. | From $49/mo for 1,500 creditsAPI credit subscriptions from $49 a month for 1,500 credits to $5,500 a month for 5,000,000; unused credits roll over for 12 months. Separate app company-credit packs, bought once or monthly at 10% off. Verified 2026-10-25. | |
| Search from $4 per 1,000 requestsSearch: lite $4, auto $7, deep $12, deep-reasoning $15 per 1,000 requests, covering 10 results each. Contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. Answer $5 per 1,000. Verified 2026-10-25. | 1 credit/job, 3 per company1 API credit per job returned, 3 per company returned, 3 per company for technographics or buying intents. On the $49 plan that is $32.67 per 1,000 credits. Repeat pulls of the same records are charged again. Verified 2026-10-25. | |
| $10/mo plus $10 bonus; card terms varyThe docs list $10 of credits a month plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus with no payment method required. A new account on 25 Oct 2026 showed a $0.00 balance until a non-prepaid card was added. | 50 company, 200 API credits/mo50 company credits and 200 API credits a month. Never-paid workspaces are limited to 25 results a page, 5 pages, and 4 a second, 10 a minute, 50 an hour, 400 a day. Free credits are a monthly allowance: on our account they carried an expiry date 30 days after signup, when the free plan renews. | |
| Company and people search categoriesSearch has category=company and category=people modes; Exa says people search spans 1B+ public profiles. Websets builds entity lists on a separate paid plan. | Company search by tech and hiringCompany search by the technologies a company uses and the roles it hires for, with firmographic filters. No email or phone data; job records include the hiring manager when a posting names one. | |
| No job-postings datasetNo job-postings dataset among its endpoints (search, contents, answer, monitors, Agent, Websets). Job pages can be found through general web search. | 225M job records, about 305k new dailyJob Search API over a dataset of 225M job records plus about 305k new a day, deduplicated across career sites, ATSs and job boards. Job Search needs a date or company filter. | |
| No technographics or intent feedNone of its endpoints (search, contents, answer, monitors, Agent, Websets) is a technographics or intent feed. | 51M technographics, 388M buying intentsTechnographics inferred from job posts (51M records plus about 69k new a day) and buying intents (388M records plus about 526k new a day), each with first and last seen dates. | |
| Billed per search; costDollars shownEach search is billed at its listed rate, and every response carries a costDollars field showing what it cost. | Count costs 1 record, 0 if emptyA count with include_total_results and limit=1 costs the price of 1 record (1 or 3 credits), or 0 if nothing matches. Free preview mode now applies only to workspaces created before 11 Aug 2026 that have paid at least once. | |
| x-api-key or Bearer; MCP keyless or OAuthAPI key in the x-api-key header or as a Bearer token. The MCP server also runs keyless or with OAuth. | Bearer key, optional expiryBearer token in the Authorization header, created under Settings > API Keys with an expiry date or Never, shown once. | |
| 10 queries/sec on searchPer team across all keys: 10 queries a second on search and answer, 5 on deep search, 100 on /contents in the docs, 50 concurrent Agent runs. | 4 requests/sec per userPer user: 4 requests a second on paid plans, shared by job search, company search and technographics. Free: 4 a second, 10 a minute, 50 an hour, 400 a day. | |
YesOfficial hosted server at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp. Runs keyless, with OAuth or with an x-api-key header. Tools: web search, page fetch, advanced search and Agent. | YesOfficial, at https://api.theirstack.com/mcp, with OAuth by default or a Bearer API key. Billed in API credits like the API. 71 tools, including account-changing ones such as cancel_subscription. | |
| Monitors and Websets to webhooksMonitors (scheduled searches, $15 per 1,000 requests) and Websets deliver new results to webhooks. | Saved-search webhooks, credits per recordWebhooks on a saved search for job.new, job.closed and company.new. Every record delivered costs credits; a daily event cap can be set. | |
| Batch API in beta, JSONLA Batch API (beta) runs many searches or Agent runs and returns JSONL. | Datasets as JSON, CSV, ParquetJobs, technographics and buying-intent datasets as JSON, CSV or Parquet, delivered by download URL or S3. Dataset prices are not public. | |
| SOC 2 Type IISOC 2 Type II, per its security overview. Zero data retention and HIPAA are Enterprise options. | No SOC 2 or ISO 27001; DPAStates it has not completed a SOC 2 audit and is not ISO 27001 certified. GDPR overview and DPA published. |
No row matches in this view.
US dollars as each vendor's page showed them on 25 Oct 2026. One panel per tool; switch each between monthly and annual billing (an annual price is the monthly rate when you pay for the year up front).
$0
Free
$10 of credits a month plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus with no payment method required, per the docs.
A new account on 25 Oct 2026 showed a $0.00 balance, with the free credits pending until a non-prepaid card is added.
Usage-based
Prepaid dollar balance, billed per request.
Search lite $4, auto $7, deep $12, deep-reasoning $15 per 1,000 requests; contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type; answer $5 per 1,000; monitors $15 per 1,000; Agent from $0.012 per run.
Custom quote
Custom volume pricing, postpaid invoicing, zero data retention.
Websets credits are separate from API credits.
Plan prices show only after login and are not listed here.
$0
Free
50 company credits and 200 API credits a month.
Never-paid workspaces: 25 results a page, 5 pages, 10 invitations, 4 a second, 10 a minute, 50 an hour, 400 a day.
$49/mo
billed monthly
1,500 API credits a month ($32.67 per 1,000).
Job, company, technographics and buying-intent endpoints, webhooks, MCP, 4 requests a second, 500 results a page. Unused credits roll over 12 months.
$100/mo
billed monthly
5,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$169/mo
billed monthly
10,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$240/mo
billed monthly
20,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$400/mo
billed monthly
50,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$600/mo
billed monthly
100,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$900/mo
billed monthly
200,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$1,200/mo
billed monthly
500,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$1,500/mo
billed monthly
1,000,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$2,300/mo
billed monthly
2,000,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
$5,500/mo
billed monthly
5,000,000 API credits a month, rollover 12 months.
Above 5M is custom pricing.
$98.10/mo
billed monthly
For the web app. $109 one time, or $98.10 a month as a monthly subscription (10% off).
Rollover 12 months.
$179.10/mo
billed monthly
$199 one time, or $179.10 a month.
$269.10/mo
billed monthly
$299 one time, or $269.10 a month.
$359.10/mo
billed monthly
$399 one time, or $359.10 a month.
$494.10/mo
billed monthly
$549 one time, or $494.10 a month.
$674.10/mo
billed monthly
$749 one time, or $674.10 a month.
$899.10/mo
billed monthly
$999 one time, or $899.10 a month.
Custom quote
Jobs, technographics and buying intents; history and/or updates; JSON, CSV or Parquet; hourly to monthly refresh.
Talk to sales, no public price.
If neither fits: Exa's Agent can add email and phone enrichment at a per-contact price, and TheirStack offers emails and phones only through integrations. Once you have the accounts, find and verify contacts with a dedicated email finder.
How to find a person's work email addressChoosing between Exa and TheirStack, or moving from one to the other? Tell us your setup. We will show you how we would run it, and what we would check first.
Exa can search the web, including job pages, but it has no job-postings dataset. TheirStack's Job Search API covers 225M job records plus about 305k new a day, at 1 API credit per job returned. Verified 2026-10-25.
3 API credits per company returned by Company Search, and 3 per company for technographics or buying intents. On the $49 a month plan, 1,500 credits buy about 500 companies. Records pulled again are charged again.
Exa's docs list $10 of credits a month plus a $10 onboarding bonus with no payment method required; on a new account they showed as pending until a card was added. TheirStack gives 50 company credits and 200 API credits a month, with free-plan limits of 400 requests a day and 5 pages of 25 results.
Yes. Exa's hosted MCP server is at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp and can run keyless. TheirStack's is at https://api.theirstack.com/mcp with OAuth or an API key, billed in API credits like the API. TheirStack's MCP includes account-changing tools, so review tool approvals.
Read from exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing, theirstack.com/en/pricing and each tool's API docs. Verified 25 Oct 2026.
