by exa
Empower AI with the Exa MCP Server—an AI research tool for real-time web search, academic data, and smarter, up-to-date
Connects to Exa Search API to perform web searches with advanced filtering options like date ranges, content types, and domain restrictions.
Exa Search is an official MCP server published by exa that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Empower AI with the Exa MCP Server—an AI research tool for real-time web search, academic data, and smarter, up-to-date It is categorized under search web.
You can install Exa Search in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
MIT
Exa Search is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
Fetch and extract information from websites automatically
Example
Research competitor pricing, scrape product reviews, monitor news mentions
Automate 5-10 hours/week of manual web research
Track website changes, new content, price updates
Example
Monitor competitor blog for new posts, track stock availability, watch for pricing changes
Stay informed without manual checking, never miss important updates
Extract structured data from multiple websites
Example
Compile product listings from 10 e-commerce sites, aggregate job postings, collect real estate data
Build datasets 100x faster than manual copying
Share your MCP server with the developer community
According to our notes, Exa Search benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
Strong directory entry: Exa Search surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
I recommend Exa Search for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
I recommend Exa Search for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
Useful MCP listing: Exa Search is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
According to our notes, Exa Search benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
According to our notes, Exa Search benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
I recommend Exa Search for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
According to our notes, Exa Search benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
Useful MCP listing: Exa Search is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
showing 1-10 of 55
Connect AI assistants to Exa's search capabilities: web search, code search, and company research.
Full Documentation | npm Package | Get Your Exa API Key
Connect to Exa's hosted MCP server:
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
Add to .vscode/mcp.json:
{
"servers": {
"exa": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
claude mcp add --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Add to your config file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"]
}
}
}
codex mcp add exa --url https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Add to your opencode.json:
{
"mcp": {
"exa": {
"type": "remote",
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
"enabled": true
}
}
}
Open the MCP Store panel (from the "..." dropdown in the side panel), then add a custom server with:
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"serverUrl": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
Add to your Zed settings:
{
"context_servers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"httpUrl": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
In v0, select Prompt Tools > Add MCP and enter:
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Go to Settings > MCP Servers > Add MCP Server and add:
{
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
Add to ~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
Add to your Roo Code MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
For clients that support remote MCP:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
For clients that need mcp-remote:
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"]
}
}
}
Use the npm package with your API key. Get your API key.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "exa-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your_api_key"
}
}
}
}
Enabled by Default:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
web_search_exa | Search the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use content |
get_code_context_exa | Find code examples, documentation, and programming solutions from GitHub, Stack Overflow, and docs |
company_research_exa | Research any company to get business information, news, and insights |
Off by Default:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
web_search_advanced_exa | Advanced web search with full control over filters, domains, dates, and content options |
crawling_exa | Get the full content of a specific webpage from a known URL |
people_search_exa | Find people and their professional profiles |
deep_researcher_start | Start an AI research agent that searches, reads, and writes a detailed report |
deep_researcher_check | Check status and get results from a deep research task |
deep_search_exa | Deep search with query expansion and synthesized answers. Requires your own API key — it will not appear in the tools list without one. |
Enable all tools with the tools parameter:
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUR_KEY&tools=web_search_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,get_code_context_exa,crawling_exa,company_research_exa,people_search_exa,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check,deep_search_exa
Ready-to-use skills for Claude Code. Each skill teaches Claude how to use Exa search for a specific task. Copy the content inside a dropdown and paste it into Claude Code — it handles the rest.
<details> <summary><b>Company Research</b></summary>Copy the content below and paste it into Claude Code. It will set up the MCP connection and skill for you.
Step 1: Install or update Exa MCP
If Exa MCP already exists in your MCP configuration, either uninstall it first and install the new one, or update your existing MCP config with this endpoint. Run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add --transport http exa "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_advanced_exa"
Step 2: Add this Claude skill
---
name: company-research
description: Company research using Exa search. Finds company info, competitors, news, tweets, financials, LinkedIn profiles, builds company lists. Use when researching companies, doing competitor analysis, market research, or building company lists.
context: fork
---
# Company Research
## Tool Restriction (Critical)
ONLY use `web_search_advanced_exa`. Do NOT use `web_search_exa` or any other Exa tools.
## Token Isolation (Critical)
Never run Exa searches in main context. Always spawn Task agents:
- Agent runs Exa search internally
- Agent processes results using LLM intelligence
- Agent returns only distilled output (compact JSON or brief markdown)
- Main context stays clean regardless of search volume
## Dynamic Tuning
No hardcoded numResults. Tune to user intent:
- User says "a few" → 10-20
- User says "comprehensive" → 50-100
- User specifies number → match it
- Ambiguous? Ask: "How many companies would you like?"
## Query Variation
Exa returns different results for different phrasings. For coverage:
- Generate 2-3 query variations
- Run in parallel
- Merge and deduplicate
## Categories
Use appropriate Exa `category` depending on what you need:
- `company` → homepages, rich metadata (headcount, location, funding, revenue)
- `news` → press coverage, announcements
- `tweet` → social presence, public commentary
- `people` → LinkedIn profiles (public data)
- No category (`type: "auto"`) → general web results, deep dives, broader context
Start with `category: "company"` for discovery, then use other categories or no category with `livecrawl: "fallback"` for deeper research.
### Category-Specific Filter Restrictions
When using `category: "company"`, these parameters cause 400 errors:
- `includeDomains` / `excludeDomains`
- `startPublishedDate` / `endPublishedDate`
- `startCrawlDate` / `endCrawlDate`
When searching without a category (or with `news`), domain and date filters work fine.
**Universal restriction:** `includeText` and `excludeText` only support **single-item arrays**. Multi-item arrays cause 400 errors across all categories.
## LinkedIn
Public LinkedIn via Exa: `category: "people"`, no other filters.
Auth-required LinkedIn → use Claude in Chrome browser fallback.
## Browser Fallback
Auto-fallback to Claude in Chrome when:
- Exa returns insufficient results
- Content is auth-gated
- Dynamic pages need JavaScript
## Examples
### Discovery: find companies in a space
```
web_search_advanced_exa {
"query": "AI infrastructure startups San Francisco",
"category": "company",
"numResults": 20,
"type": "auto"
}
```
### Deep dive: research a specific company
```
web_search_advanced_exa {
"query": "Anthropic funding rounds valuation 2024",
"type": "deep",
"livecrawl": "fallback",
"numResults": 10,
"includeDomains": ["techcrunch.com", "crunchbase.com", "bloomberg.com"]
}
```
### News coverage
```
web_search_advanced_exa {
"query": "Anthropic AI safety",
"category": "news",
"numResults": 15,
"startPublishedDate": "2024-01-01"
}
```
### LinkedIn profiles
```
web_search_advanced_exa {
"query": "VP Engineering AI infrastructure",
"category": "people",
"numResults": 20
}
```
## Output Format
Return:
1) Results (structured lis
---
Interact with services that don't offer APIs
Example
Check form submissions, validate website functionality, test user flows
Automate interactions with any website, even without API
Prerequisites
Time Estimate
20-40 minutes including configuration and testing
Steps
Troubleshooting
✓ Do
✗ Don't
💡 Pro Tips
Architecture
MCP server handles HTTP requests, HTML parsing, JavaScript rendering (if headless browser), and returns structured data to Claude.
Protocols
Compatibility
✓ Use when
Use for research automation, content monitoring, data aggregation from multiple sources, and when official APIs don't exist. Best for read-only information gathering.
✗ Avoid when
Avoid for sites with APIs (use API instead), sites that explicitly forbid scraping, when data is copyrighted, or for login-required content without proper authorization.