Exa alternatives - askusers

At a glance

We list 9 other search tools as alternatives to Exa: Brave Search, Consensus, Elicit, Kagi, Liner, Perplexity, Scite, Undermind and You.com.
Elicit, Liner, Perplexity and Undermind have a free plan.
Scite and Undermind work with Claude, as Exa does.
Scite and Undermind work with ChatGPT, as Exa does.

From each tool's own website and from published reviews. Each tool's page says when its facts were checked.

9 alternatives

Listed alphabetically. A tool is ranked by its reviews once it has 3.

Brave Search
Private search with AI-powered answers, all from an independent index
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: Web.
Paid plans from
Search Premium, $3 per month, or $29 (as of October 20, 2026)
Platforms
Web, API
Main features
AI answers with cited sources, Ask Brave AI chat, Independent search index
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Consensus
AI academic search engine for finding, organizing and analyzing peer-reviewed research
No reviews yet
No checked fact sets it apart from Exa yet.
Main features
AI academic search, Deep literature reviews, Citation graph
Compare with Exa
Be the first to review
Elicit
AI for scientific research that helps you synthesize evidence, draft proposals and weigh tradeoffs
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: integration with Zotero.
Free plan
Yes
Plans
Enterprise: Custom (as of October 19, 2026)
Platforms
API
Integrations shared with Exa
None in common
Main features
Research agent, Paper search, Research reports
Security and compliance
SSO
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Be the first to review
Kagi
Ad-free search, private browsing and powerful tools that respect your data
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: integration with BoltAI or Alfred.
Paid plans from
Starter, $5 per month (as of October 20, 2026)
Free trial
Yes
Platforms
API
Integrations shared with Exa
None in common
Main features
Ad-free search, Kagi Assistant with multiple AI models, Search customization and filters
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Be the first to review
Liner
Search with sources, research academic papers, and write clearly in one workflow
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension or Edge; ISO 27001.
Free plan
Yes
Paid plans from
Pro, $14.99 per month, billed annually (as of October 20, 2026)
Platforms
macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, Edge, API
Main features
Cited answers, Liner Scholar, Liner Write
Security and compliance
SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA
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Perplexity
AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted and real-time answers to any question
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: macOS, Windows, iOS or Android; integration with Google Drive, Notion or Slack.
Free plan
Yes
Platforms
macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, API
Integrations shared with Exa
None in common
Main features
Answers with inline citations, Deep research, Perplexity Computer
Security and compliance
SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, SSO
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Scite
Ask a question, get answers grounded in the scientific literature
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: Browser extension; integration with Zotero.
Free trial
Yes
Platforms
API, Browser extension
Integrations shared with Exa
Claude, ChatGPT
Main features
Smart Citations, Scite Assistant, Full-text search
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Undermind
Your AI co-researcher that finds the papers others miss
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: Web; integration with Claude Code, Gemini or GitHub Copilot.
Free plan
Yes
Paid plans from
Team, $15 per person per month, billed annually (as of October 23, 2026)
Platforms
Web
Integrations shared with Exa
Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, VS Code
Main features
Deep search, Read full texts, Write a report
Security and compliance
SSO
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You.com
Search the web, extract clean content, and generate grounded answers for your agents and LLMs
No reviews yet
Choose it over Exa for: integration with LangChain, LlamaIndex or crewAI.
Plans
Enterprise: Custom (as of October 20, 2026)
Platforms
API
Integrations shared with Exa
None in common
Main features
Web Search API, Contents API, Answer API
Security and compliance
SOC 2
Compare with Exa
Be the first to review