Linkup vs Exa
Pick Linkup if you want search in three speed and depth modes, with a Fetch endpoint and an asynchronous research option. Pick Exa if you want semantic search with full text, highlights and summaries, and an answer endpoint with citations. Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial choice for a web search API: answers and passages from the open web plus 90+ data sources, with every quote matched to its page.
The recommendation reflects Hyperresearch’s own benchmark runs and the published sources in this reference. Hyperresearch is our product. This is not a hands-on test of every tool.
Side by side
| Linkup | Exa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Search $0.005 to $0.006 per request by mode. Fetch $0.001 to $0.006. Research $0.25 to $2.50. 4,000 free queries listed. | Search $4 per 1,000 lite, $7 per 1,000 auto. Contents $1 per 1,000 pages. Answer $5 per 1,000. $10 free credit each month. |
| What it returns | Page content from Fast, Standard or Deep search. Research runs asynchronously in one to ten minutes. | Results with full text, highlights, summaries and entities. Answer endpoint returns text with citations. |
| Sources and coverage | Open web. Engines used are not published. | Exa's web index with semantic search. |
| Citations and verification | Returns source URLs. No claim-level checking described. | Answer endpoint returns a citations list. No check against sources documented. |
| API and MCP | REST API with Search, Fetch and Research. No official MCP server found. | REST endpoints. Hosted MCP server at mcp.exa.ai/mcp. |
| Rate limits | 10 queries per second per organization for Search and Fetch. | 10 per second for search and answer. 5 for deep search. 100 for contents. |
| Best for | Agents that need page content with a choice of depth. | Concept search that needs full text in one step. |
Modes and meaning-based search
Linkup gives you three search modes, Fast, Standard and Deep, so you can choose the cost and depth per request. It also has a Fetch endpoint for pages you already know, and a Research endpoint for longer jobs that run in the background.
Exa searches by meaning as well as keywords. Each result can carry full text, highlights and a summary, and its answer endpoint returns a short text with citations. That suits queries where the right page uses different words from your question.
Cost per request
Linkup lists search at $0.005 to $0.006 per request. It does not publish a price per 1,000 calls, so the range implies roughly $5 to $6 per 1,000, which is our estimate.
Exa lists lite search at $4 per 1,000 requests, auto search at $7, and contents at $1 per 1,000 pages. If you need full text on every result, add the contents cost to the search cost before you compare the two.
Which to start with
Start with Linkup when you need page content on demand, mode control and a background research option. Its published 10 queries per second limit makes capacity planning simple.
Start with Exa when you need semantic recall and full text in one step. Neither vendor lists a claim-level check, so test the cited pages on your own questions before you publish answers.
Choose Linkup or Exa?
- You want to choose speed and depth per request.
- You need a background research job.
- You need a Fetch endpoint for known URLs.
- You search for concepts rather than exact words.
- You want full text and highlights in one call.
- You want a hosted MCP server for search and fetch.
Where Hyperresearch fits
Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial pick for checked answers and sits outside this pair. In our own BrowseComp table, Exa scored 12 percent against 89 percent for Answers.
Questions & answers
Which one is cheaper for full page text?
Linkup prices search and fetch per request. Exa adds contents at $1 per 1,000 pages on top of search. Compare both with the number of pages you will read per query.
Which has a hosted MCP server?
Exa lists a hosted MCP server. The Linkup pages reviewed did not show an official one, only a third-party listing that we did not verify.
Sources for this entry
Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.
Continue this reading path
Cite this entry
https://bestwebsearchapi.com/compare/linkup-vs-exa/