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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Exa API + MCP vs Linkup

Linkup has a score of 69.1 (B) against Exa API + MCP's 66.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 20 points.

Exa API + MCPExa · MCP server B66.1/100#163 of 452 LinkupLinkup · HTTP API B69.1/100#116 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Exa API + MCP for

  • agent ergonomics (+20)
  • security & auth (+11)
  • payments & pricing (+10)
  • maintenance & community (+5)

Pick Linkup for

No category where it leads by five points or more.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runExa API + MCPLinkupEdge
Reliability16%206770Linkup +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28688Linkup +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.29676Exa API + MCP +20
Security & auth14%17.54332Exa API + MCP +11
Payments & pricing10%12.59080Exa API + MCP +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88883Exa API + MCP +5
Transparency & trust7%8.86564Exa API + MCP +1
Negative events≤15-90
Total66.1 · B69.1 · B

Facts side by side

FactExa API + MCPLinkup
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorExaLinkup
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.exa.ai/mcphttps://api.linkup.so/v1/search
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402yes, from $0.007/callyes, from $0.01/call
LicenceMITnone
Tools exposed44
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryai.exa/exaso.linkup.mcp/linkup-mcp-server
Last release2026-10-012026-09-30
Popularity4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk29 stars, 54k npm/wk, 84k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4.5/5 (2)4/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Linkup

Per-call prices from $0.005, and no credit taken for errors, missing parameters or empty results. 429 covers both exhausted credit and rate limiting, with no Retry-After.

Before you call either

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

Linkup

  1. On 429, check the credit balance before backing off. The same code means out of credit
  2. Pass reasoningDepth: "S" to research unless you need more. The MCP default is L at $1.50
  3. Start with depth=fast and outputType=searchResults. Deep costs $0.05, ten times as much
  4. Send the key as an Authorization: Bearer header, not ?apiKey= or a command-line argument
  5. Poll linkup-get-research with the task id. Research runs take minutes

Other comparisons with Exa API + MCP or Linkup

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