# Exa API + MCP vs Serper

> Exa API + MCP has a score of 66.1 (B) against Serper's 24.3 (F). Both do web search. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 85 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. Serper doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Exa API + MCP has a score of 66.1 (B) against Serper's 24.3 (F). Both do web search. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 85 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. Serper doesn't.

- 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
- Serper: grade F, 24.3/100, rank #446 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serper.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Exa API + MCP for reliability (+37), schema & documentation (+80), agent ergonomics (+61), security & auth (+23), payments & pricing (+50), maintenance & community (+85), transparency & trust (+32).

Pick Serper for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Exa API + MCP | Serper | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 30 | Exa API + MCP +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 6 | Exa API + MCP +80 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 96 | 35 | Exa API + MCP +61 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 20 | Exa API + MCP +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 40 | Exa API + MCP +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 3 | Exa API + MCP +85 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 33 | Exa API + MCP +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -9 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.1 · B** | **24.3 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Exa API + MCP | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Exa | Serper |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` | `https://google.serper.dev/search` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $0.007/call | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | none |
| 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 | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `ai.exa/exa` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | none |
| Popularity | 4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (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.

**Serper.** $0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 queries on prepaid packs, with no subscription. No status page, SLA or incident history.

## 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

### Serper

1. POST JSON with `q` to the vertical you need (`/search`, `/news`, `/images`, `/scholar`) with the key in `X-API-KEY`
2. Set `gl` and `hl`, since Google results vary by country and language
3. Pair it with a fetcher. Serper returns links and snippets, not page text
4. Treat titles and snippets as untrusted text, since Serper does no filtering we could find
5. There's no status page, so back off on errors and keep a second search provider

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