{
 "title": "Crawl4AI Cloud vs Exa",
 "page": "https://crawl4ai.com/compare/exa/",
 "facts_read_on": "2026-11-12",
 "crawl4ai_live_prices": "https://crawl4ai.com/v1/prices",
 "rule": "Exa facts restate Exa's own pages; not_published means their pages say nothing, not that the feature is missing.",
 "short_answer": "Crawl4AI search costs $1.00 per 1,000 calls; Exa costs $4 for cached results and $7 for auto. Crawl4AI returns Google's own results page as data, with ads, maps and the AI overview, for 1 credit; Exa says it cannot provide that, by design. On the same key, Crawl4AI reads full pages from $0.10 per 1,000 and gets past bot checks on hard sites, and a failed call costs nothing. Crawl4AI never trains on what you send; Exa's privacy policy says query data trains its models unless you buy its $12,000 Enterprise plan. Crawl4AI runs in the EU, Singapore and the US, and agents set it up from one message with 17 MCP tools.",
 "jobs": [
  {
   "job": "A web search",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$1.00",
   "exa_per_1000": "$4.00–$7.00",
   "costs_less": "crawl4ai"
  },
  {
   "job": "Google results with ads and maps",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$1.00",
   "exa_per_1000": "Not offered",
   "costs_less": "crawl4ai"
  },
  {
   "job": "A query plus the top pages' text",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$2.00",
   "exa_per_1000": "$7.00",
   "costs_less": "crawl4ai"
  },
  {
   "job": "One page to Markdown",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$0.10",
   "exa_per_1000": "$1.00–$3.00",
   "costs_less": "crawl4ai"
  },
  {
   "job": "A LinkedIn profile as rows",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$1.00",
   "exa_per_1000": "$40 + Agent runs",
   "costs_less": "crawl4ai"
  },
  {
   "job": "Structured JSON from a page",
   "crawl4ai_per_1000": "$1.87",
   "exa_per_1000": "$1.00",
   "costs_less": "exa"
  }
 ],
 "rows": [
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "SSO (SAML, OIDC)",
   "crawl4ai": "Yes",
   "exa": "Custom plans only",
   "exa_quote": "Available on custom plans: … SSO and SCIM for Exa Dashboard",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "SCIM user sync",
   "crawl4ai": "Yes",
   "exa": "Custom plans only",
   "exa_quote": "Enterprise plans offer zero data retention, HIPAA with a BAA, SSO and SCIM, and a custom MSA and DPA.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/enterprise",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Teams, roles and audit log",
   "crawl4ai": "From Builder ($99), no seat limit",
   "exa": "Shared keys; audit log not published",
   "exa_quote": "Everyone on a team shares its credit balance, plan, and API keys.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/team-management",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Zero data retention",
   "crawl4ai": "Yes",
   "exa": "Enterprise, $12,000 a year upfront",
   "exa_quote": "The upgrade costs $12,000 per year plus applicable tax, paid upfront",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/security/zero-data-retention",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "IP allowlist and key limits",
   "crawl4ai": "Yes",
   "exa": "Not published",
   "exa_quote": null,
   "exa_source": null,
   "not_published": true
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Static exit IPs",
   "crawl4ai": "Yes",
   "exa": "Not published",
   "exa_quote": null,
   "exa_source": null,
   "not_published": true
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Where data is processed",
   "crawl4ai": "EU, Singapore or US, your choice",
   "exa": "Not published",
   "exa_quote": null,
   "exa_source": null,
   "not_published": true
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Deployment",
   "crawl4ai": "Cloud, dedicated fleet, inside your network, managed pipeline; one engine",
   "exa": "Hosted API, with custom indexes",
   "exa_quote": "Custom data: Index proprietary, private, or domain-specific sources alongside the public web.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/enterprise",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "DPA and invoice billing",
   "crawl4ai": "Every Enterprise plan",
   "exa": "Custom plans; invoices on Enterprise",
   "exa_quote": "Postpaid invoice billing is available with an Enterprise plan.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Refunds",
   "crawl4ai": "14 days, if no credits were used",
   "exa": "Subscriptions are nonrefundable",
   "exa_quote": "payments for any subscriptions to the Services are nonrefundable and there are no credits for partially used periods.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/terms",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Status page",
   "crawl4ai": "Hourly uptime per service, public",
   "exa": "No Contents component; 8 notices Sep-Nov",
   "exa_quote": "status.exa.ai components: Search API, Websets, Exa MCP, Agents API; history: 8 notices, Sep to Nov 2026",
   "exa_source": "https://status.exa.ai",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Uptime and response SLA",
   "crawl4ai": "Typical: 99.9% a month; service down: first answer within 1 hour, 24/7; part broken: 4 business hours; a question: 1 business day; 5% of the month's fee back if missed, 10% under 99%",
   "exa": "Enterprise only; targets not published",
   "exa_quote": "Uptime and support SLAs are available on Enterprise plans.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/status",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Support",
   "crawl4ai": "A named engineer",
   "exa": "A dedicated Slack channel",
   "exa_quote": "Enterprise support with dedicated Slack channel",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "enterprise",
   "group": null,
   "row": "Security assurance",
   "crawl4ai": "Controls monitored every day in Drata, with the evidence kept; dependencies watched for known vulnerabilities; SOC 2 audit by Sensiba under way, report target January 2027. Security pack on request: policies, audit status, DPA, questionnaire answers.",
   "exa": "SOC 2 Type II",
   "exa_quote": "Exa is SOC 2 Type II audited and honors GDPR and CCPA data-subject rights.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/enterprise",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "How you pay",
   "crawl4ai": "Credits in every plan: Free, Starter $10, Builder $99, Scale $499",
   "exa": "Pay as you go, no plans",
   "exa_quote": "Exa is pay-as-you-go. There is no subscription and no minimum spend: you load credits and are charged per request",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "Free start",
   "crawl4ai": "1,000 credits a month, no card: 1,000 searches",
   "exa": "$10 a month, up to 2,500 Lite searches",
   "exa_quote": "The Free Tier gives you $10 in credits (up to 2,500 Lite searches) the day you sign up, and your free balance resets to $10 on the first of every month.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "1,000 searches",
   "crawl4ai": "$1.00",
   "exa": "$4 lite (cache only), $7 auto, $12 deep",
   "exa_quote": "/search (lite) | $4 / 1k requests … /search (auto, fast) | $7 / 1k requests",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "1,000 pages (known URLs)",
   "crawl4ai": "$0.10 plain / $0.50 browser / $2.00 hard",
   "exa": "$1 per content type",
   "exa_quote": "/contents | $1 / 1k pages, per content type",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "Failed calls",
   "crawl4ai": "Free, blocked pages included",
   "exa": "Only a 503 is stated as not billed",
   "exa_quote": "The request was not processed and is not billed.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/error-codes",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "A page already cached",
   "crawl4ai": "Half price; every answer says if it came from cache",
   "exa": "Same price; a failed fetch may return it",
   "exa_quote": "A failed fetch may return the latest cached copy instead.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/reference/search",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Pricing",
   "row": "Refunds",
   "crawl4ai": "14 days, if no credits were used",
   "exa": "Subscriptions are nonrefundable",
   "exa_quote": "payments for any subscriptions to the Services are nonrefundable and there are no credits for partially used periods.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/terms",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Search",
   "crawl4ai": "/search 1 credit; ranked results with title, URL and snippet",
   "exa": "Ranked results with text, highlights or summary",
   "exa_quote": "Search with contents: $7 per 1k requests (10 results, text + highlights included)",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/changelog",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Google results as data",
   "crawl4ai": "/serp: organic, ads, maps, AI overview, people also ask",
   "exa": "Not offered, \"by design\"",
   "exa_quote": "Exa cannot provide that, by design.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/versus/serper",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Full page",
   "crawl4ai": "/scrape: Markdown, HTML, links, media, metadata, tables; engine and cache on every answer",
   "exa": "/contents: text, highlights, summary",
   "exa_quote": "A content type is one view of that page: text, highlights, or summary.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Whole site",
   "crawl4ai": "/site deep crawl (500 pages a call); /scan up to 50,000 URLs",
   "exa": "100 subpages a request",
   "exa_quote": "/contents allows at most 100 subpages per request.",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/error-codes",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Named sites",
   "crawl4ai": "93 recipes; a LinkedIn profile 1 credit",
   "exa": "No catalog; LinkedIn via Fiber.ai in Agent runs",
   "exa_quote": "Fiber.ai bills in credits at $0.02 / credit",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/agent/connect/fiber",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Documents",
   "crawl4ai": "PDF, Word and Excel; a PDF costs one page",
   "exa": "PDFs through /contents",
   "exa_quote": "handling JavaScript-rendered pages, PDFs, and complex layouts",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/products/contents",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "What you get back",
   "row": "Change monitoring",
   "crawl4ai": "Watch (beta)",
   "exa": "Monitors, $2 per 1,000 runs",
   "exa_quote": "/monitors | $2 / 1k requests",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Hard sites",
   "row": "Bot checks and CAPTCHA pages",
   "crawl4ai": "Gets past them on hard sites; a page we cannot get costs nothing",
   "exa": "\"Does not attempt to bypass\" them",
   "exa_quote": "does not attempt to bypass logins, paywalls, or CAPTCHAs",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/faqs",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Hard sites",
   "row": "Proxies and country",
   "crawl4ai": "standard and extra levels; country choice",
   "exa": "Not published",
   "exa_quote": null,
   "exa_source": null,
   "not_published": true
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Agents",
   "row": "MCP",
   "crawl4ai": "Hosted, no install; key or OAuth; 17 tools",
   "exa": "Hosted; keyless, OAuth or key; 4 tools",
   "exa_quote": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa,web_fetch_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,agent_run",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/get-started/exa-mcp",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Agents",
   "row": "Setup",
   "crawl4ai": "One message sets it up in 7 coding agents",
   "exa": "Plugins and an agent skill",
   "exa_quote": "install the Exa agent skill with npx skills add exa-labs/agent-skills",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/agent/connect/overview",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Agents",
   "row": "Agent budget",
   "crawl4ai": "Estimate, balance, spend cap and top-up as tools; cost on every answer",
   "exa": "Key budgets in the dashboard, not in MCP",
   "exa_quote": "API_KEY_BUDGET_EXCEEDED | 402 | The API key exceeded its spending budget for the current billing period",
   "exa_source": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/error-codes",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Open source",
   "row": "License",
   "crawl4ai": "Apache 2.0, 87,236 GitHub stars",
   "exa": "Engine closed; SDKs and MCP server open",
   "exa_quote": "github.com/exa-labs: exa-mcp-server (MIT), exa-py, exa-js",
   "exa_source": "https://github.com/exa-labs",
   "not_published": false
  },
  {
   "table": "side_by_side",
   "group": "Open source",
   "row": "Self-host",
   "crawl4ai": "The same engine as the Cloud",
   "exa": "Not published",
   "exa_quote": null,
   "exa_source": null,
   "not_published": true
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  {
   "name": "Exa pricing",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/pricing"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa pricing docs",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa billing and rate limits",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/billing"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa terms",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/terms"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa privacy policy",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/privacy-policy"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa zero data retention",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/docs/admin/security/zero-data-retention"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa vs Serper",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/versus/serper"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa: Firecrawl alternatives (mentions Crawl4AI)",
   "url": "https://exa.ai/alternatives/firecrawl"
  },
  {
   "name": "Exa status",
   "url": "https://status.exa.ai"
  },
  {
   "name": "Crawl4AI prices",
   "url": "https://crawl4ai.com/v1/prices"
  },
  {
   "name": "Crawl4AI security",
   "url": "https://crawl4ai.com/security/"
  },
  {
   "name": "Crawl4AI legal",
   "url": "https://crawl4ai.com/legal/"
  }
 ]
}