Agent Bench
Independent comparisonSearch Agent Bench
Exa vs Perplexity Search API
We sent both APIs the same three technical-research tasks three times each. This comparison separates measured retrieval results from pricing and account setup.
Decision summary
Both found the primary source. The practical differences are setup, latency, and metadata.
Choose Exa for
Card-free evaluation, an official hosted MCP, and the lower median latency observed in all three local test cases.
Choose Perplexity for
Complete publication-date metadata in this run and teams already operating inside a Perplexity API group.
Side-by-side evidence
Exa and Perplexity results
Latency is from one machine and network, not a global speed claim. Pricing and onboarding observations are dated; benchmark outcomes use protocol search-agent-retrieval-v1.
| Measure | Exa | Perplexity Search |
|---|---|---|
| Attempts passed | 9/9 | 9/9 |
| Primary source | Rank 1 in all 9 attempts | Rank 1 in all 9 attempts |
| Local median range | 130-171 ms | 427-1,045 ms |
| Snippet coverage | 100% | 100% |
| Date metadata | 33% | 100% |
| Average results | 10 | 10 |
| Payment card | No credit card required | Card required for a new API group |
| Starting credit | $10 observed during our setup; current pricing advertises $20 at signup | Not measured on a clean account |
| MCP | Official hosted MCP; no API key required | No first-party Search MCP verified |
| Published Search price | $7 per 1,000 Search requests for up to 10 results; contents are priced separately | $5 per 1,000 Search API requests; no additional token charge |
Read the evidence
Inspect the runs before choosing.
Each report includes the exact queries, ranked results, per-case latency, pass criteria, onboarding record, caveats, and downloadable JSON.