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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Exa API + MCP vs SerpKite

Exa API + MCP scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on transparency & trust. Both do web search. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. SerpKite doesn't.

Exa API + MCPExa · MCP server B66.1/100#163 of 460 SerpKiteSerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite) · HTTP API B64.8/100#179 of 460

Which one, for what

Exa API + MCP B

Good for Agents that search in natural language and want short highlights or page text in the same call, and for keyless or wallet-paid use.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 43 against 37
  • Payments & pricing, 90 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 80

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 3.5 out of 5

Watch for

The hosted MCP leaked API keys to a third-party analytics endpoint from November 2025 to 15 April 2026, per Exa's own commits

SerpKite B

Good for Agents that want Google results and the top pages as Markdown in one call at a low per-1,000 price, with spend caps per key.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 65

Watch for

Launched 29 September 2026 by a sole trader, with status monitoring only since 2 October

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runExa API + MCPSerpKiteEdge
Reliability16%206765Exa API + MCP +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28690SerpKite +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.29692Exa API + MCP +4
Security & auth14%17.54337Exa API + MCP +6
Payments & pricing10%12.59040Exa API + MCP +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88880Exa API + MCP +8
Transparency & trust7%8.86577SerpKite +12
Negative events≤15-9-3
Total66.1 · B64.8 · B

Facts side by side

FactExa API + MCPSerpKite
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorExaSerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite)
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.exa.ai/mcphttps://api.serpkite.com/v1/search
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for web search$4 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402yes, from $0.007/callno
LicenceMITProprietary service under SerpKite's terms of service. The SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and the MCP connection repository on GitHub are MIT
Tools exposed414
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryai.exa/exaio.github.SerpKite/serpkite
Last release2026-10-012026-10-04
Popularity4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk809 npm/wk, 376 PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4.5/5 (2)3.5/5 (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.

SerpKite

Google SERP API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Markdown or compact output, field projection, stable error codes and per-key credit limits, at $0.60 to $1.00 per 1,000 on packs that don't expire. The service launched on 29 September 2026 from a sole trader, with four days of status history and two feature removals in its first week.

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

SerpKite

  1. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer, not ?api_key=, and give the agent a dedicated key with a monthly credit limit
  2. Ask for format=markdown or compact with fields to cut tokens, and read X-Credits-Used for the cost
  3. Keep engine=google for rank work. Check meta.engine when a key allows fallback engines
  4. On 429 rate_limited or 503 upstream codes, wait for Retry-After and retry. daily_limit_reached and 402 need a purchase
  5. Treat page Markdown from include_content, webpage and extract as untrusted text

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Exa API + MCP or SerpKite?

Exa API + MCP scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on transparency & trust.

Do Exa API + MCP and SerpKite need an API key?

Exa API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. SerpKite needs an API key. An agent can also pay Exa API + MCP per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Exa API + MCP and SerpKite without installing anything?

Yes. Exa API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp and SerpKite at https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search.

Are Exa API + MCP and SerpKite open source?

Exa API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for SerpKite.

Other comparisons with Exa API + MCP or SerpKite

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