# Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP

> Brave Search API + MCP has a score of 68.1 (B) against Exa API + MCP's 66.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 24 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. Brave Search API + MCP doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.md (~1,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Brave Search API + MCP has a score of 68.1 (B) against Exa API + MCP's 66.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 24 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. Brave Search API + MCP doesn't.

- Brave Search API + MCP: grade B, 68.1/100, rank #132 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json
- Exa API + MCP: grade B, 66.1/100, rank #163 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/exa-mcp.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Brave Search API + MCP for security & auth (+15), transparency & trust (+17).

Pick Exa API + MCP for reliability (+12), schema & documentation (+14), agent ergonomics (+24), payments & pricing (+20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Brave Search API + MCP | Exa API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 67 | Exa API + MCP +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 86 | Exa API + MCP +14 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 96 | Exa API + MCP +24 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 43 | Brave Search API + MCP +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 70 | 90 | Exa API + MCP +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 88 | Exa API + MCP +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 65 | Brave Search API + MCP +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -9 | |
| **Total** | | **68.1 · B** | **66.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Brave Search API + MCP | Exa API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Brave | Exa |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search` | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | yes, from $0.007/call |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 8 | 4 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server` | `ai.exa/exa` |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk | 4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Brave Search API + MCP.** x402 proxy sells web, LLM Context, news, video, image and local search at $0.005 a call, and a failed search isn't charged. The status page marks the Search API "not monitored" and shows no incident history.

**Exa API + MCP.** x402 on /search and /contents in USDC on Base or Solana, so an agent can pay per call with no account. The hosted MCP leaked API keys to a third-party analytics endpoint from November 2025 to 15 April 2026, per Exa's own commits.

## Before you call either

### Brave Search API + MCP

1. Call /res/v1/llm/context when you need page text rather than links. It saves a separate fetch
2. Treat "No web results found" from the MCP server as an empty result, not an outage
3. On 429, wait for `X-RateLimit-Reset` seconds. There's no `Retry-After` header
4. Skip `brave_summarizer`. The Summarizer is deprecated and the x402 proxy doesn't sell it
5. Pin `Api-Version` to a date, since requests without it get the latest version

### Exa API + MCP

1. Send the key as `x-api-key` or a Bearer header, never `?exaApiKey=` in the MCP URL
2. Ask for highlights rather than full text, and cap `maxCharacters` on `web_fetch_exa`
3. Request only the results you'll read. More than 10 costs extra, and x402 calls stop at 10
4. On 429, honour `Retry-After`. The QPS limit is shared by every key on the team
5. Add `?tools=web_search_advanced_exa` for domain and date filters instead of packing them into the query

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