{
  "data": {
    "a": {
      "slug": "exa-mcp",
      "name": "Exa API + MCP",
      "vendor": "Exa",
      "vendorUrl": "https://exa.ai",
      "kind": "mcp",
      "category": "search",
      "summary": "Exa's REST API over its own web index, with the official MCP server in front of it.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/exa-mcp.json",
      "repo": "https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server",
      "license": "MIT",
      "transports": [
        "stdio",
        "streamable-http",
        "http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
      "packages": [
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "exa-js"
        },
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "exa-py"
        },
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "exa-mcp-server"
        }
      ],
      "auth": "mixed",
      "authNotes": "API key as `Authorization: Bearer` or `x-api-key` header, created at dashboard.exa.ai. POST /search and /contents also accept an x402 `PAYMENT-SIGNATURE` header instead of a key. MCP server: Anonymous use with rate limits; optional API key via ?exaApiKey=, Authorization: Bearer or x-api-key header; OAuth login at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login.",
      "pricing": "freemium",
      "pricingNotes": "$10 free credit a month (resets on the 1st) plus a one-time $10 sign-up bonus, no card. Pay as you go per 1,000 requests, instant search $4, fast and auto $7, deep-lite and deep $12, deep-reasoning $15, each with up to 10 results and $1 per 1,000 extra results. Contents $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, answer $5 per 1,000, monitors $15 per 1,000. Agent API $0.012 to $1.00 a run by effort. Enterprise volume pricing by quote (https://exa.ai/pricing).",
      "priceSummary": "$0.007 / call",
      "where": "both",
      "x402": {
        "level": "yes",
        "evidence": "Official 'Pay with x402' guide. POST /search and /contents accept x402 with USDC on Base (eip155:8453) or Solana. An unpaid POST /search returned 402 on 2026-09-30 (https://exa.ai/docs/integrations/payments/x402/quickstart.md)",
        "endpoints": [
          {
            "url": "https://api.exa.ai/search",
            "priceUsd": 0.007,
            "network": "eip155:8453"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://api.exa.ai/contents",
            "priceUsd": 0.001,
            "network": "eip155:8453"
          }
        ]
      },
      "toolCount": 4,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": 4900,
        "npmWeekly": 1076635,
        "pypiWeekly": 1406207,
        "asOf": "2026-09-30"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://exa.ai/docs",
      "llmsTxt": "https://exa.ai/docs/llms.txt",
      "openapi": "https://exa.ai/docs/exa-spec.yaml",
      "registryName": "ai.exa/exa",
      "capabilities": [
        "web.search",
        "web.fetch",
        "web.extract",
        "search.answer",
        "search.research",
        "search.news"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "official",
        "hosted",
        "local",
        "open-source",
        "x402",
        "freemium",
        "llms-txt",
        "no-card",
        "openapi",
        "python",
        "typescript",
        "enterprise",
        "webhooks",
        "mcp"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-10-01",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 66,
        "grade": "B",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 277,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 842,
        "categoryRank": 6,
        "methodology": "0.4",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 96,
          "maintenance": 88,
          "payments": 90,
          "reliability": 67,
          "schema": 86,
          "security": 43,
          "transparency": 63
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-10-01"
        },
        "negative": -9,
        "negativeNotes": [
          "2026-04-15. Exa's own fix (#292) says Agnost analytics on the hosted MCP captured headers, query parameters and full URLs from every request and sent them to api.agnost.ai, which leaked user API keys passed as `x-api-key` or `?exaApiKey=`. Fixed the same day, but disclosed only in the commit message, with no advisory or rotation notice that we found. Decayed for the fix, so -6 (https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server/commit/49797a5376217da506853b12163f21db9f9c95b8)",
          "2026-10-01. The MCP server calls Agnost's `trackMCP` on startup in both the hosted and the npm stdio builds, with no README mention and no opt-out. Inputs, outputs and errors are switched off, so the events are tool names and timings. -3 (https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server/blob/main/src/mcp-handler.ts)"
        ],
        "verdict": "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.",
        "bestFor": "Agents that search in natural language and want short highlights or page text in the same call, and for keyless or wallet-paid use.",
        "strengths": [
          "x402 on /search and /contents in USDC on Base or Solana, so an agent can pay per call with no account",
          "Two default MCP tools with about 1,250 characters of descriptions, and every tool marked read-only and idempotent",
          "Keys can be minted by API with their own rate limit and budget",
          "Public OpenAPI, llms.txt, an error-codes page and current Python and TypeScript SDKs",
          "$10 of credit a month with no card"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "The hosted MCP leaked API keys to a third-party analytics endpoint from November 2025 to 15 April 2026, per Exa's own commits",
          "Agnost usage analytics in the MCP server with no disclosure or opt-out",
          "The privacy policy says query data trains Exa's models and gives no retention period",
          "No security.txt, no SECURITY.md and no prompt-injection guidance",
          "Agents API had 4 hours 56 minutes of elevated run failures on 21 to 22 September"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Send the key as `x-api-key` or a Bearer header, never `?exaApiKey=` in the MCP URL",
          "Ask for highlights rather than full text, and cap `maxCharacters` on `web_fetch_exa`",
          "Request only the results you'll read. More than 10 costs extra, and x402 calls stop at 10",
          "On 429, honour `Retry-After`. The QPS limit is shared by every key on the team",
          "Add `?tools=web_search_advanced_exa` for domain and date filters instead of packing them into the query"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 2,
        "avgRating": 4.5,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "B",
            "methodology": "0.4",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 66
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 96,
          "maintenance": 88,
          "payments": 90,
          "reliability": 67,
          "schema": 86,
          "security": 43,
          "transparency": 44
        },
        "provenanceScore": 81
      },
      "connect": {
        "http": "curl -s -X POST https://api.exa.ai/search \\\n  -H \"Authorization: Bearer $EXA_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n  -d '{\"query\":\"recent techniques for improving retrieval in RAG systems\",\"type\":\"auto\",\"contents\":{\"highlights\":true}}'",
        "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
        "config": {
          "mcpServers": {
            "exa": {
              "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
            }
          }
        },
        "x402": "curl -s https://api.exa.ai/search -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{\"query\":\"x402 facilitators\",\"numResults\":5}' -i\n# HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required\n# PAYMENT-REQUIRED: \u003cbase64 JSON: accepts[{scheme:\"exact\",network:\"eip155:8453\",amount:\"7000\",asset:USDC,payTo:...}]\u003e\n# retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: \u003cbase64 signed authorization\u003e"
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/web.search",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/exa-mcp"
      },
      "area": "web-data",
      "unitPrices": [
        {
          "item": "Search, fast and auto",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 7,
          "note": "up to 10 results"
        },
        {
          "item": "Search, instant",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 4
        },
        {
          "item": "Search, deep",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 12
        },
        {
          "item": "Contents",
          "unit": "1k-pages",
          "usd": 1,
          "note": "per content type"
        },
        {
          "item": "Answer",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 5
        }
      ],
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Exa Labs Inc.",
        "domain": "exa.ai",
        "domainRegistered": "2017-12-16",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://exa.ai/assets/Exa_Labs_Terms_of_Service.pdf",
        "privacy": "https://exa.ai/privacy-policy",
        "statusPage": "https://status.exa.ai",
        "changelog": "https://exa.ai/docs/changelog",
        "securityTxt": "none",
        "checked": "2026-09-30",
        "score": 81
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "exa-mcp",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
          "method": "mcp-initialize",
          "lastAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:42.71731791Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 200,
          "lastMs": 204,
          "lastNote": "initialize answered",
          "authRequired": false,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 99.75,
          "p50ms24h": 193,
          "p95ms24h": 254,
          "samples24h": 260,
          "samples30d": 3254,
          "days": [
            {
              "date": "2026-09-27",
              "probes": 132,
              "ok": 132
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-09-28",
              "probes": 285,
              "ok": 285
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-09-29",
              "probes": 286,
              "ok": 286
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-09-30",
              "probes": 286,
              "ok": 286
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-01",
              "probes": 276,
              "ok": 276
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-02",
              "probes": 248,
              "ok": 248
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-03",
              "probes": 271,
              "ok": 271
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-04",
              "probes": 272,
              "ok": 266
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-05",
              "probes": 272,
              "ok": 270
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-06",
              "probes": 272,
              "ok": 272
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-07",
              "probes": 272,
              "ok": 272
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-08",
              "probes": 268,
              "ok": 268
            },
            {
              "date": "2026-10-09",
              "probes": 114,
              "ok": 114
            }
          ],
          "outages": [
            {
              "start": "2026-10-04T18:58:14.45236595Z",
              "end": "2026-10-04T19:19:43.996268604Z",
              "note": "HTTP 503 server error"
            }
          ]
        },
        "vendorStatus": {
          "page": "https://status.exa.ai",
          "indicator": "unknown",
          "summary": "no machine-readable status found",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T07:57:53.878453799Z"
        },
        "versions": [
          {
            "registry": "mcp-registry",
            "name": "ai.exa/exa",
            "version": "3.4.1",
            "seenAt": "2026-10-09T02:57:46.004536428Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "npm",
            "name": "exa-js",
            "version": "2.25.0",
            "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:11:01.234768535Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "npm",
            "name": "exa-mcp-server",
            "version": "3.4.2",
            "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:11:04.895836796Z"
          },
          {
            "registry": "pypi",
            "name": "exa-py",
            "version": "2.25.0",
            "released": "2026-10-01",
            "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:11:04.700875255Z"
          }
        ],
        "githubStars": 5095,
        "npmWeekly": 1168320,
        "pypiWeekly": 1500570,
        "securityTxt": {
          "url": "https://exa.ai/.well-known/security.txt",
          "state": "none",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:33.272344985Z"
        },
        "llmsTxt": {
          "url": "https://exa.ai/docs/llms.txt",
          "ok": true,
          "status": 200,
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T14:00:24.161344383Z"
        },
        "domain": {
          "domain": "exa.ai",
          "registered": "2017-12-16",
          "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/exa.ai",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:07:21.135051369Z"
        },
        "pages": [
          {
            "url": "https://exa.ai/docs/changelog",
            "kind": "deprecations",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:12.364135256Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-09-28T13:07:17.414087539Z",
            "fingerprint": "a71308f03083"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://exa.ai/pricing",
            "kind": "pricing",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:14.508949386Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-09-29T13:08:44.895658486Z",
            "fingerprint": "8e3e8655bf54"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://exa.ai/privacy-policy",
            "kind": "privacy",
            "status": 200,
            "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:16.642632026Z",
            "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:16.642632026Z",
            "fingerprint": "c4e103d9e07c"
          }
        ],
        "mcpTools": {
          "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T21:33:36.554649811Z",
          "status": "ok",
          "protocol": "2025-11-25",
          "tools": [
            {
              "name": "web_search_exa",
              "description": "Search the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use content.\n\n      Best for: Finding current information, news, facts, people, companies, or answering questions about any topic.\n      Returns: Clean text content from top search results.\n\n      Query tips:\n      describe the ideal page, not keywords. \"blog post comparing React and Vue performance\" not \"React vs Vue\".\n      Use category:people / category:company to search through Linkedin profiles / companies respectively.\n      If highlights are insufficient, follow up with web_fetch_exa on the best URLs.",
              "inputSchema": {
                "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
                "additionalProperties": false,
                "properties": {
                  "numResults": {
                    "description": "Number of search results to return (default: 10).",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "objective": {
                    "description": "Goal for this search turn; say which documents should rank first, which should be excluded, and what specific facts or figures to pull from them.",
                    "maxLength": 4096,
                    "minLength": 1,
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "query": {
                    "description": "Natural language search query. Should be a semantically rich description of the ideal page, not just keywords. Optionally include category:\u003ctype\u003e (company, people) to focus results — e.g. 'category:people John Doe software engineer'.",
                    "minLength": 1,
                    "type": "string"
                  }
                },
                "required": [
                  "query",
                  "objective"
                ],
                "type": "object"
              },
              "annotations": {
                "destructiveHint": false,
                "idempotentHint": true,
                "openWorldHint": true,
                "readOnlyHint": true
              }
            },
            {
              "name": "web_fetch_exa",
              "description": "Read a webpage's full content as clean markdown. Use after web_search_exa when highlights are insufficient or to read any URL.\n\nBest for: Extracting full content from known URLs. Batch multiple URLs in one call.\nReturns: Clean text content and metadata from the page(s).",
              "inputSchema": {
                "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
                "additionalProperties": false,
                "properties": {
                  "maxCharacters": {
                    "description": "Maximum characters to extract per page (default: 3000)",
                    "minimum": 1,
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "urls": {
                    "description": "URLs to read. Batch multiple URLs in one call.",
                    "items": {
                      "type": "string"
                    },
                    "type": "array"
                  }
                },
                "required": [
                  "urls"
                ],
                "type": "object"
              },
              "annotations": {
                "destructiveHint": false,
                "idempotentHint": true,
                "openWorldHint": true,
                "readOnlyHint": true
              }
            }
          ],
          "schemaTokens": 593,
          "changedAt": "2026-09-28T21:55:38.894181746Z",
          "check": {
            "checker": "anchor-check/1.0",
            "totalTokens": 593,
            "counts": {
              "error": 0,
              "note": 1,
              "warn": 0
            },
            "findings": [
              {
                "rule": "TC24",
                "severity": "note",
                "message": "2 of 2 tools have no outputSchema",
                "fix": "Declare outputSchema for tools that return structured data, and return structuredContent that matches it."
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:42.71731791Z"
      }
    },
    "answer": "Exa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth.",
    "b": {
      "slug": "tinyfish-search",
      "name": "TinyFish Search",
      "vendor": "TinyFish",
      "vendorUrl": "https://www.tinyfish.ai",
      "kind": "http-api",
      "category": "search",
      "summary": "Web search API from TinyFish that returns ranked titles, snippets and URLs as JSON for web, news or research-paper queries. It is called with an API key at `api.search.tinyfish.ai`, through Python and TypeScript SDKs, or through the vendor's MCP server.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json",
      "repo": "https://github.com/tinyfish-io/tinyfish-mcp-server",
      "license": "Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata",
      "transports": [
        "http",
        "streamable-http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://api.search.tinyfish.ai",
      "packages": [
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "tinyfish"
        },
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "@tiny-fish/sdk"
        },
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "@tiny-fish/mcp"
        }
      ],
      "auth": "mixed",
      "authNotes": "The REST API takes an API key in the `X-API-Key` header. Keys are created by a signed-in person at agent.tinyfish.ai/api-keys, are shown once and can be revoked or regenerated. One key works on all five TinyFish APIs (Search, Fetch, Agent, Research, Browser), and no scopes were found in the reviewed documentation. The hosted MCP server at `https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp` uses OAuth 2.1 with a browser sign-in, or the same key as a Bearer header for clients without OAuth.",
      "pricing": "freemium",
      "pricingNotes": "Search is $0.00 a request. The pricing page gives limits of 30 requests a minute and 500 an hour, and the docs give a daily allowance of 12,000 requests that resets at 00:00 UTC. No card is needed to sign up. Past the daily allowance the docs say a request needs a positive wallet balance and returns 402 `INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS` otherwise, while the pricing page says Search never draws from the wallet. No per-request rate above the allowance is published (https://www.tinyfish.ai/pricing, https://docs.tinyfish.ai/search-api/reference.md, checked 2026-10-08).",
      "priceSummary": "Freemium",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "evidence": "An unauthenticated GET to https://api.search.tinyfish.ai?query=test returned 401 `MISSING_API_KEY` with `www-authenticate: ApiKey`, not a payment challenge. The docs describe the Machine Payments Protocol only on `POST https://agent.tinyfish.ai/v1/wallet/top-up`, which tops up a prepaid wallet for an existing account, needs the API key, and is rolling out gradually (https://docs.tinyfish.ai/agent-payments.md, checked 2026-10-08).",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": 28,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": 9,
        "npmWeekly": 5721,
        "pypiWeekly": 6540,
        "asOf": "2026-10-08"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://docs.tinyfish.ai/search-api",
      "llmsTxt": "https://docs.tinyfish.ai/llms.txt",
      "openapi": "https://agent.tinyfish.ai/v1/openapi/search",
      "registryName": "ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent",
      "capabilities": [
        "web.search",
        "web.fetch",
        "search.research"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "hosted",
        "freemium",
        "free-tier",
        "no-card",
        "closed-source",
        "mcp",
        "oauth",
        "openapi",
        "llms-txt",
        "python",
        "typescript",
        "cli",
        "mpp"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-09-29",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 63.2,
        "grade": "B",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 366,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 842,
        "categoryRank": 10,
        "methodology": "0.4",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 78,
          "maintenance": 78,
          "payments": 45,
          "reliability": 50,
          "schema": 82,
          "security": 58,
          "transparency": 52
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-10-08"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training.",
        "bestFor": "Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.",
        "strengths": [
          "$0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card needed to sign up",
          "Public OpenAPI 3.0 document for Search, plus `llms.txt`, `llms-full.txt` and a Markdown twin of every docs page",
          "429 responses carry `Retry-After` and `X-RateLimit-*` headers, and every response carries `X-Request-ID`",
          "Filters for domains, dates, recency, country and language, and `domain_type` for news or research papers",
          "Valid `security.txt` and a vulnerability disclosure policy dated 15 September 2026 with safe harbour"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "No public status page was found on the site or in the docs",
          "One API key covers Search, Fetch, Agent, Research and Browser, and no scopes were found",
          "The Terms of Service allow customer data to be used to train and improve TinyFish's AI models",
          "The docs and the pricing page disagree on whether Search past the daily allowance needs a wallet balance, and no rate above it is published",
          "No parameter sets the number of results, and `page` stops at 10",
          "The Pulse changelog's newest entry is the week of 22 June 2026, and no deprecation policy was found"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header. The Search host is `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai`, not `agent.tinyfish.ai`",
          "Stay under 30 requests a minute per key. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`. A 429 without `details` is upstream throttling, so back off and retry",
          "Use `include_domains` and `exclude_domains` in place of `site:` operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering",
          "Do not combine `recency_minutes` with `after_date` or `before_date`. For `domain_type=research_paper` use `pub_year_min` and `pub_year_max`",
          "Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending",
          "Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 0,
        "avgRating": 0,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "B",
            "methodology": "0.4",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 63.2
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 78,
          "maintenance": 78,
          "payments": 45,
          "reliability": 50,
          "schema": 82,
          "security": 58,
          "transparency": 28
        },
        "provenanceScore": 75
      },
      "connect": {
        "install": "pip install -U tinyfish",
        "http": "curl \"https://api.search.tinyfish.ai?query=web+automation+tools\" \\\n  -H \"X-API-Key: $TINYFISH_API_KEY\"",
        "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http tinyfish https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp",
        "config": {
          "mcpServers": {
            "tinyfish": {
              "url": "https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/web.search",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/tinyfish-search"
      },
      "sameCompany": [
        "tinyfish"
      ],
      "area": "web-data",
      "unitPrices": [
        {
          "item": "Search request",
          "unit": "1k-requests",
          "usd": 0,
          "note": "Free within 30 a minute and 12,000 a day. No rate above the allowance is published"
        }
      ],
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Tiny Fish, Inc.",
        "domain": "tinyfish.ai",
        "domainRegistered": "2023-02-06",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://www.tinyfish.ai/terms",
        "privacy": "https://www.tinyfish.ai/privacy-policy",
        "statusPage": "",
        "changelog": "https://www.tinyfish.ai/pulse",
        "securityTxt": "valid",
        "checked": "2026-10-08",
        "notes": [
          "The Terms of Service, effective 17 August 2026, name Tiny Fish, Inc., a Delaware corporation, cover the APIs at tinyfish.ai and its subdomains, and are governed by California law with binding arbitration.",
          "The privacy policy, effective 14 December 2025, names TinyFish Inc. of Cupertino, California, and covers the website, products and services.",
          "RDAP for tinyfish.ai gives a registration date of 2023-02-06 and a transfer on 2025-07-03.",
          "www.tinyfish.ai/.well-known/security.txt names security@tinyfish.io, links a disclosure policy and expires on 2027-09-01.",
          "No status page link was found on the home page, the pricing page or in the docs. A request to status.tinyfish.ai did not connect.",
          "The trust centre at trust.tinyfish.ai is a Vanta page drawn by script, and its contents were not read.",
          "The MCP registry lists `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` with the remote `https://agent.tinyfish.ai/mcp`, published on 2026-02-17."
        ],
        "score": 75
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "tinyfish-search",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://api.search.tinyfish.ai",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:58.982165557Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 401,
          "lastMs": 211,
          "lastNote": "asks for credentials",
          "authRequired": true,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 185,
          "p95ms24h": 472,
          "samples24h": 33,
          "samples30d": 33,
          "days": [
            {
              "date": "2026-10-09",
              "probes": 33,
              "ok": 33
            }
          ]
        },
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:58.982165557Z"
      }
    },
    "facts": [
      {
        "a": "MCP server",
        "b": "HTTP API",
        "name": "Kind"
      },
      {
        "a": "Exa",
        "b": "TinyFish",
        "name": "Vendor"
      },
      {
        "a": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
        "b": "https://api.search.tinyfish.ai",
        "name": "Hosted endpoint"
      },
      {
        "a": "stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP",
        "b": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP",
        "name": "Transports"
      },
      {
        "a": "OAuth or key",
        "b": "OAuth or key",
        "name": "Auth"
      },
      {
        "a": "Freemium",
        "b": "Freemium",
        "name": "Pricing"
      },
      {
        "a": "$4 per 1,000 requests",
        "b": "free",
        "name": "Price for web search"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes, from $0.007/call",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "x402"
      },
      {
        "a": "MIT",
        "b": "Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata",
        "name": "Licence"
      },
      {
        "a": "4",
        "b": "28",
        "name": "Tools exposed"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "Read-only variant documented"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "llms.txt"
      },
      {
        "a": "ai.exa/exa",
        "b": "ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent",
        "name": "MCP registry"
      },
      {
        "a": "2026-10-01",
        "b": "2026-09-29",
        "name": "Last release"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "2026-08-17",
        "name": "Terms last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "2026-06-29",
        "b": "2025-12-14",
        "name": "Privacy policy last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "Customer content may train models"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "Terms restrict automated access"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "not found in the text",
        "name": "Terms or service can change without notice"
      },
      {
        "a": "",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver"
      },
      {
        "a": "4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk",
        "b": "9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk",
        "name": "Popularity"
      },
      {
        "a": "4.5/5 (2)",
        "b": "none",
        "name": "Agent reviews"
      }
    ],
    "faq": [
      {
        "answer": "Exa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth.",
        "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "TinyFish Search, at free against $4 per 1,000 requests for Exa API + MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.",
        "question": "Which is cheaper for web search, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Exa API + MCP per call over x402, with no account.",
        "question": "Do Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search need an API key?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Yes. Exa API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp and TinyFish Search at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.",
        "question": "Can an agent call Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search without installing anything?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Exa API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for TinyFish Search.",
        "question": "Are Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search open source?"
      }
    ],
    "goodFor": [
      {
        "aheadOn": [
          "Reliability, 67 against 50",
          "Agent ergonomics, 96 against 78",
          "Payments \u0026 pricing, 90 against 45",
          "Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 78",
          "Transparency \u0026 trust, 63 against 52"
        ],
        "also": [
          "An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account",
          "Runs on your own machine",
          "Open source"
        ],
        "goodFor": "Agents that search in natural language and want short highlights or page text in the same call, and for keyless or wallet-paid use.",
        "slug": "exa-mcp",
        "watchFor": "The hosted MCP leaked API keys to a third-party analytics endpoint from November 2025 to 15 April 2026, per Exa's own commits"
      },
      {
        "aheadOn": [
          "Security \u0026 auth, 58 against 43"
        ],
        "also": [
          "Cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests",
          "No incidents deducted, where Exa API + MCP loses 9 points for them"
        ],
        "goodFor": "Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.",
        "slug": "tinyfish-search",
        "watchFor": "No public status page was found on the site or in the docs"
      }
    ],
    "job": {
      "capability": "web.search",
      "name": "Web search"
    },
    "others": [
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.json",
        "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-exa-mcp.json",
        "title": "Cloudflare Web Search API vs Exa API + MCP",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-exa-mcp"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Cloudflare Web Search API vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Firecrawl MCP",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-linkup.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Linkup",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-linkup"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-searchapi-io"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpapi.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs SerpApi",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpapi"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serper.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Serper",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serper"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpkite.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs SerpKite",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpkite"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Tavily API + MCP",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-valyu.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Valyu",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-valyu"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Firecrawl MCP vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Linkup vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Parallel Search and Task APIs vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "SearchAPI.io vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "SerpApi vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Serper vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "SerpKite vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Tavily API + MCP vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu.json",
        "title": "TinyFish Search vs Valyu",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api.json",
        "title": "TinyFish Search vs You.com APIs",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-fetch-reference-server.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Fetch (MCP reference server)",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-fetch-reference-server"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Fetch (MCP reference server) vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-tinyfish-search"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai.json",
        "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Grep AI",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
        "title": "Grep AI vs TinyFish Search",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tinyfish-search"
      }
    ],
    "scores": [
      {
        "by": 17,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 67,
        "key": "reliability",
        "name": "Reliability",
        "tinyfish-search": 50,
        "weight": 16
      },
      {
        "key": "performance",
        "name": "Performance",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "by": 4,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 86,
        "key": "schema",
        "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation",
        "tinyfish-search": 82,
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "by": 18,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 96,
        "key": "ergonomics",
        "name": "Agent ergonomics",
        "tinyfish-search": 78,
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "by": 15,
        "edge": "tinyfish-search",
        "exa-mcp": 43,
        "key": "security",
        "name": "Security \u0026 auth",
        "tinyfish-search": 58,
        "weight": 14
      },
      {
        "by": 45,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 90,
        "key": "payments",
        "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing",
        "tinyfish-search": 45,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "key": "tasks",
        "name": "Task success",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "by": 10,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 88,
        "key": "maintenance",
        "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community",
        "tinyfish-search": 78,
        "weight": 7
      },
      {
        "by": 11,
        "edge": "exa-mcp",
        "exa-mcp": 63,
        "key": "transparency",
        "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust",
        "tinyfish-search": 52,
        "weight": 7
      }
    ],
    "summary": "Exa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. TinyFish Search doesn't.",
    "verdicts": {
      "exa-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.",
      "tinyfish-search": "Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training."
    }
  },
  "kind": "anchor.page",
  "links": {
    "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json",
    "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search",
    "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json",
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  "markdown": "Exa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. TinyFish Search doesn't.\n\n- Exa API + MCP: grade B, 66/100, rank #277 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/exa-mcp.json\n- TinyFish Search: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #366 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tinyfish-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Exa API + MCP (B)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 67 against 50\n- Agent ergonomics, 96 against 78\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 90 against 45\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 88 against 78\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 63 against 52\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account\n- Runs on your own machine\n- Open source\n\nWatch 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\n\n### TinyFish Search (B)\n\nGood for: Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.\n\nAhead on:\n- Security \u0026 auth, 58 against 43\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests\n- No incidents deducted, where Exa API + MCP loses 9 points for them\n\nWatch for: No public status page was found on the site or in the docs\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Exa API + MCP | TinyFish Search | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 50 | Exa API + MCP +17 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 82 | Exa API + MCP +4 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 96 | 78 | Exa API + MCP +18 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 58 | TinyFish Search +15 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 45 | Exa API + MCP +45 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 78 | Exa API + MCP +10 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 52 | Exa API + MCP +11 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -9 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **66 · B** | **63.2 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Exa API + MCP | TinyFish Search |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Exa | TinyFish |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |\n| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |\n| Price for web search | $4 per 1,000 requests | free |\n| x402 | yes, from $0.007/call | no |\n| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under TinyFish's Terms of Service. The local MCP proxy `@tiny-fish/mcp` is MIT. The SDK packages on npm and PyPI carry no licence metadata |\n| Tools exposed | 4 | 28 |\n| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| MCP registry | `ai.exa/exa` | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |\n| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-29 |\n| Terms last updated |  | 2026-08-17 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-29 | 2025-12-14 |\n| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |\n| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |\n| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |\n| Popularity | 4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | 9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**TinyFish Search.** Search costs $0.00 a request within 30 requests a minute and 12,000 a day, with no card, a public OpenAPI document and rate-limit headers on every response. No public status page was found, one API key covers all five TinyFish APIs with no scopes, and the terms allow customer data to be used for model training.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Exa API + MCP\n\n1. Send the key as `x-api-key` or a Bearer header, never `?exaApiKey=` in the MCP URL\n2. Ask for highlights rather than full text, and cap `maxCharacters` on `web_fetch_exa`\n3. Request only the results you'll read. More than 10 costs extra, and x402 calls stop at 10\n4. On 429, honour `Retry-After`. The QPS limit is shared by every key on the team\n5. Add `?tools=web_search_advanced_exa` for domain and date filters instead of packing them into the query\n\n### TinyFish Search\n\n1. Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header. The Search host is `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai`, not `agent.tinyfish.ai`\n2. Stay under 30 requests a minute per key. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`. A 429 without `details` is upstream throttling, so back off and retry\n3. Use `include_domains` and `exclude_domains` in place of `site:` operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering\n4. Do not combine `recency_minutes` with `after_date` or `before_date`. For `domain_type=research_paper` use `pub_year_min` and `pub_year_max`\n5. Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending\n6. Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?\n\nExa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth.\n\n### Which is cheaper for web search, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?\n\nTinyFish Search, at free against $4 per 1,000 requests for Exa API + MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.\n\n### Do Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search need an API key?\n\nBoth take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Exa API + MCP per call over x402, with no account.\n\n### Can an agent call Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search without installing anything?\n\nYes. Exa API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp and TinyFish Search at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.\n\n### Are Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search open source?\n\nExa API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for TinyFish Search.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"exa-mcp\", \"b\": \"tinyfish-search\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare exa-mcp tinyfish-search`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/exa-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tinyfish-search.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search\n\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-exa-mcp.md)\n- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-linkup.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpapi.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serper.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-valyu.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)\n- [Firecrawl MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Linkup vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [SearchAPI.io vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [SerpApi vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Serper vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [SerpKite vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Tavily API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [TinyFish Search vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-valyu.md)\n- [TinyFish Search vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Fetch (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-fetch-reference-server.md)\n- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Grep AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai.md)\n- [Grep AI vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tinyfish-search.md)\n",
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    "description": "Exa API + MCP scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against TinyFish Search's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. TinyFish Search leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests. Exa API + MCP…",
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    "title": "Exa API + MCP vs TinyFish Search for AI agents, B 66 vs B 63.2",
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