# Exa API + MCP vs TinyFish Search

> 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 & auth. Both do web search. TinyFish Search is cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests. Exa API + MCP…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.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: 2026-10-09

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 & 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.

- 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
- 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

## 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:
- Reliability, 67 against 50
- Agent ergonomics, 96 against 78
- Payments & pricing, 90 against 45
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 78
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 52

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

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

### TinyFish Search (B)

Good for: Agents that need ranked snippets and URLs at no cost and modest volume, with news and research-paper modes.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 58 against 43

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for web search, $0 against $4 per 1,000 requests
- No incidents deducted, where Exa API + MCP loses 9 points for them

Watch for: No public status page was found on the site or in the docs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Exa API + MCP | TinyFish Search | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 50 | Exa API + MCP +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 82 | Exa API + MCP +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 96 | 78 | Exa API + MCP +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 58 | TinyFish Search +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 45 | Exa API + MCP +45 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 78 | Exa API + MCP +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 52 | Exa API + MCP +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -9 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66 · B** | **63.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Exa API + MCP | TinyFish Search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Exa | TinyFish |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` | `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $4 per 1,000 requests | free |
| x402 | yes, from $0.007/call | no |
| 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 |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.exa/exa` | `ai.tinyfish.agent/web-agent` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-29 | 2025-12-14 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | 9 stars, 5.7k npm/wk, 6.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**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.

## 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

### TinyFish Search

1. Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header. The Search host is `https://api.search.tinyfish.ai`, not `agent.tinyfish.ai`
2. 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
3. Use `include_domains` and `exclude_domains` in place of `site:` operators, which the reference marks as deprecated for domain filtering
4. Do not combine `recency_minutes` with `after_date` or `before_date`. For `domain_type=research_paper` use `pub_year_min` and `pub_year_max`
5. Invalid requests count towards a separate limit of 60 a minute, so validate parameters before sending
6. Treat snippets as untrusted text. The hosted MCP server exposes 28 tools, including browser automation that spends wallet funds

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?

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 & auth.

### Which is cheaper for web search, Exa API + MCP or TinyFish Search?

TinyFish Search, at free against $4 per 1,000 requests for Exa API + MCP. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search need an API key?

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.

### Can an agent call Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search without installing anything?

Yes. Exa API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp and TinyFish Search at https://api.search.tinyfish.ai.

### Are Exa API + MCP and TinyFish Search open source?

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


## For agents

- 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
- 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`
- 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

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