Exa Alternative

ScrapingBee vs Exa AI

Looking for an Exa alternative? ScrapingBee gives you managed proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, search APIs, and flexible data extraction for LLM applications and analytics pipelines, all through a single API.

Trusted by web scraping teams G2 rating 4.8 out of 5 based on 25 G2 reviews
ScrapingBee vs Exa AI
ScrapingBee Logo
Exa Logo
Price per 1k basic content pages*
From ~$0.05
$1.00 per content type
Scaling model**
25–900 concurrent requests, depending on plan
Search: 10 QPS default; Contents: 100 QPS
Dedicated support
Dedicated account manager from Business
Dedicated Slack support on Enterprise
Screenshot API
Proxy geotargeting
Custom browser actions / JS scenarios
Dedicated CLI
Prebuilt platform-specific APIs
Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT, Gemini
Markdown output
AI-powered extraction
MCP
Structured JSON output
Free usage / trial
1,000 free credits
Free tier

(*) ScrapingBee pricing assumes one-credit basic requests with monthly billing. JavaScript rendering, premium or stealth proxies, AI extraction, and other paid features may consume additional credits. Exa pricing shown for content pages refers to the Contents API.

(**) Concurrency and QPS are different scaling metrics and are not directly equivalent.

Comparison based on publicly available pricing and product information as of August 2026. Plan limits, features, and pricing may change over time.

Mike Ritchie

Mike Ritchie

CEO @ SeekWell

Quote symbol

ScrapingBee simplified our day-to-day marketing and engineering operations a lot. We no longer have to worry about managing our own fleet of headless browsers, and we no longer have to spend days sourcing the right proxy provider

Trusted by web scraping teams

G2 rating 4.8 out of 5

based on 25 G2 reviews

G2 awards: Users Love Us, Momentum Leader, Easiest To Use, Users Most Likely To Recommend, High Performer

Built for

AI Engineers
LLM Application Developers
Agent Builders
RAG Teams
Data Engineers
Data Scientists
Researchers
SaaS Companies
Market Intelligence Teams
Enterprise AI Teams

Why teams evaluate Exa alternatives

Compare web data APIs based on how your application retrieves data.

Exa is built around search and content retrieval, but some teams may need more control over how pages are accessed, rendered, and extracted as their workflows evolve.

If you are comparing Exa alternatives, the right choice depends on what your application needs most: semantic search and retrieval or direct access to web pages.

ScrapingBee focuses on direct web access, with JavaScript rendering, managed proxies, browser actions, screenshots, and extraction tools for LLM, automation, and analytics workflows.

Common factors to consider

Proxy rotation and country-level proxy geotargeting

JavaScript rendering for dynamic websites

Browser actions such as clicking, scrolling, and waiting for page elements

Screenshot capture

HTML, Markdown, and structured JSON outputs

APIs for specific platforms such as Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Gemini

Pricing and scaling requirements for high-volume page retrieval

Access and extract web data with a few lines of code

ScrapingBee is an Exa alternative for teams that need direct control over how web pages are accessed and processed. Start with a standard request, then add JavaScript rendering, proxy geotargeting, browser actions, or structured extraction when your workflow requires them.

Request

# pip install requests beautifulsoup4
import json
import os

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

response = requests.get(
    "https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/",
    params={
        "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/",
        "render_js": "false",
    },
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SCRAPINGBEE_API_KEY']}",
    },
    timeout=60,
)

response.raise_for_status()

soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, "html.parser")

stories = [
    {
        "title": link.get_text(strip=True),
        "url": link.get("href"),
    }
    for link in soup.select(".titleline > a")[:10]
]

print(json.dumps(stories, indent=2))

Response

[
  {
    "title": "Gpiozero Flow",
    "url": "https://bennuttall.com/blog/2026/07/gpiozero-flow/"
  },
  {
    "title": "Azulejo",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azulejo"
  },
  {
    "title": "AI's top startups are barely publishing their research",
    "url": "https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-s-top-startups-are-barely-publishing-their-research"
  },
  {
    "title": "Carolina Cloud pays SOFR on unused prepaid credits",
    "url": "https://docs.carolinacloud.io/organizations/prepaid-interest/"
  },
  {
    "title": "The coolest use for the Vision Pro",
    "url": "https://christianselig.com/2026/07/vision-pro-house/"
  }
]

Fetch a static Hacker News page without browser rendering, then parse the first ten story titles and links from the returned HTML

Input parameters

url

Target URL

The webpage you want ScrapingBee to retrieve.

render_js

JavaScript rendering

Enable or disable browser rendering for dynamic, JavaScript-heavy websites.

premium_proxy / stealth_proxy

Proxy type

Use the default rotating proxy, or enable premium or stealth proxies for more difficult targets.

extract_rules / ai_query / ai_extract_rules

Data extraction

Extract structured data with CSS or XPath selectors, use a natural-language query, or define fields with AI extraction rules.

country_code

Proxy geotargeting

Send the request through a proxy in a selected country using a two-letter country code.

js_scenario

Browser actions

Click elements, fill forms, scroll, wait for content, or run custom JavaScript before returning the response.

And more ...

Everything else

Use Auto Mode, capture screenshots, select a device, forward custom headers, wait for specific elements, and configure other request options.

Full HTML API Documentation

Try ScrapingBee as an Exa alternative

Claim 1,000 free API credits and test ScrapingBee with your own web scraping and extraction workflows. No credit card required.

Start scraping for free No credit card required

How it works

How to start scraping with ScrapingBee

Use ScrapingBee as an Exa alternative when your workflow needs direct access to web pages, configurable rendering, proxy controls, and flexible extraction options through a standard HTTP API.

1

Create your account

Get instant access to your API key and 1,000 free credits. No credit card is required.

Creating a ScrapingBee account and copying the API key
2

Send your first request

Call ScrapingBee from any language or tool that can send HTTP requests, test requests in the dashboard, or connect the API to tools such as Make and n8n. ScrapingBee handles proxy rotation, browser rendering, and retries in the background.

A ScrapingBee API request sent from a Python client
3

Return the data you need

Retrieve the page as HTML or Markdown, define extraction rules for structured JSON, or use AI extraction to identify the required fields.

A scraped page returned as JSON and Markdown
4

Customize your requests

Add JavaScript scenarios, premium or stealth proxies, proxy geotargeting, screenshots, custom headers, and Auto Mode when your targets require more control.

Optional ScrapingBee features toggled on for a request

Our solution

More control over how you access the web

For teams comparing Exa alternatives, ScrapingBee provides direct control over page rendering, browser interactions, proxies, and location-based requests through a standard HTTP API.

Interact with dynamic pages

Click buttons, fill forms, scroll, wait for elements, and run custom JavaScript before ScrapingBee returns the page or captures a screenshot.

Explore JavaScript scenarios

Access websites from specific countries

Send requests through proxies in selected countries to retrieve localized prices, search results, availability, and other region-dependent content.

Explore proxy geotargeting

Use APIs built for specific platforms

Access dedicated APIs for Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Gemini when your workflow needs data from popular search, commerce, video, or AI platforms.

Explore ScrapingBee APIs

Switching from Exa to ScrapingBee

Move from search-first retrieval to direct web access

ScrapingBee uses a standard HTTP API for retrieving and extracting web pages. If your application already works with URLs, HTTP requests, or downstream parsing pipelines, you can integrate ScrapingBee without adopting a new framework.

Keep your existing HTTP stack

Send requests with your current HTTP client and API authentication flow. ScrapingBee works with standard REST requests and does not require a dedicated SDK.

Choose the output your workflow expects

Return HTML, Markdown, structured JSON, or screenshots depending on how the collected data is processed downstream.

Add browser and proxy controls when needed

Enable JavaScript rendering, proxy geotargeting, premium or stealth proxies, and browser actions when a target requires more control over how the page is accessed.

Extend the workflow as requirements grow

Add Auto Mode, AI extraction, custom JavaScript scenarios, or dedicated APIs for platforms such as Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Gemini through the same ScrapingBee account.

Build your own scraping stack or use ScrapingBee

If you're evaluating an Exa alternative, you likely need more direct control over web access and extraction. You can build that infrastructure yourself, or use ScrapingBee to manage much of it through an API.

Initial setup

Build and maintain proxies, browsers, retries, and request logic

Send target URLs through a single API

JavaScript rendering

Run and scale your own headless browsers

Enable browser rendering with a request parameter

Proxy management

Source, rotate, and monitor proxy pools yourself

Use managed rotating, premium, or stealth proxies

Browser actions

Build automation for clicks, scrolling, forms, and waits

Define browser actions with JavaScript scenarios

Data extraction

Parse and transform page content in your own pipeline

Return HTML, Markdown, structured JSON, or screenshots

Proxy geotargeting

Source and manage proxies for each target country

Select a country with a two-letter country code

Maintenance

Monitor blocks, browser failures, proxy quality, and retries

Use managed retries, proxy options, and Auto Mode as targets change

Developer experience

Documentation, examples, and integrations for your web data workflow

When comparing an Exa alternative, integration effort matters too. ScrapingBee provides API documentation, working code examples, developer tools, and support for building and troubleshooting web scraping workflows.

API documentation

Find request parameters, response formats, authentication details, and examples across ScrapingBee APIs, or explore the available endpoints through the Postman collection. Explore the documentation

ScrapingBee API documentation

Ready-to-use code examples

Start with examples for Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Java, Go, cURL, and the ScrapingBee CLI, then adapt the request to your existing application. View code examples

ScrapingBee code examples
ScrapingBee integrations for AI and automation workflows

Tools for AI and automation workflows

Connect ScrapingBee through Remote MCP or integrations including n8n, Make, Zapier, and LangChain when web data needs to feed agents, automations, or other applications. Explore ScrapingBee integrations

ScrapingBee developer support

Developer support

Contact the ScrapingBee support team through live chat or email when you need help configuring a request or troubleshooting a scraping workflow. Visit the help center

Why choose ScrapingBee for web scraping?

ScrapingBee is an Exa alternative for teams that need more control over web access, with managed proxies, browser rendering, extraction tools, and flexible output formats.

AI and LLM applications AI agents and RAG pipelines Market and competitor research Price and product monitoring Content aggregation Search and marketplace data Web automation ...and more

Managed proxy and browser infrastructure

ScrapingBee handles proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, retries, and browser configuration so you can collect web data without maintaining that infrastructure yourself.

Flexible data outputs

Retrieve HTML, Markdown, screenshots, or structured JSON. Use CSS or XPath extraction rules, natural-language queries, or AI extraction when you need specific fields.

Built for growing workloads

Run requests in parallel with plan-based concurrency, add premium or stealth proxies when needed, and use Auto Mode to select a working configuration for more difficult targets.

GDPR and CCPA compliant

ScrapingBee does not collect or store personal data from scraped websites unless you explicitly request it as part of your scraping workflow.

Web scraping plans built for scale

Choose a plan based on the number of credits and concurrent requests your workflow needs. Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time.

API Credits
Concurrent requests
JavaScript rendering
Rotating & Premium Proxies
Geotargeting
Screenshots, Extraction Rules, Google Search API
Dedicated Scraping APIs
Priority Email Support
Dedicated Account Manager
Team Management
Hobby $19/mo
75,000
25
-
-
-
Freelance $49/mo
250,000
50
-
-
-
Business $249/mo
3,000,000
200
Business + $599/mo
8,000,000
400
All prices are exclusive of VAT.

Need more credits or higher concurrency?

Contact our team to discuss higher-volume plans and requirements for large-scale scraping.
Talk to an expert

Want to test ScrapingBee alongside Exa?

Try it on the websites and pages your workflow already relies on, and compare the results for yourself. Get 1,000 free API credits.
Start scraping for free No credit card required.
4,500+
Developers trust ScrapingBee
5.0

"A reliable scraping backbone for multilingual market analysis."

Tina Julsgaard
Tina Julsgaard
Founder, Comunica
5.0

"ScrapingBee really grew on us! Very good so far and we'll continue using it for a large project coming up as it just provides the consistency we need."

Mark Merrywest
Mark Merrywest
Co-Founder & CPO @ Yond+co
Capterra
Average rating on Capterra
100+
Reviews on Capterra
5.0

ScrapingBee has filled the void and allowed me to use an API to scrape instead of learning other libraries. "It has helped speed up our route towards complete competitive intelligence.

Xavi Ablaza
Xavi Ablaza
Founder, Navegante

Trusted by more than 4,500 customers

ScrapingBee helps companies collect web data at scale without having to build and maintain proxy, browser, and scraping infrastructure.

Test an Exa alternative on your own workflow

Get 1,000 free API credits and see how ScrapingBee handles the websites, pages, and extraction workflows that matter to you.

Start scraping for free No credit card required

Frequently asked questions

Is ScrapingBee an Exa alternative?

Yes, for workflows where you need to retrieve and extract data from specific websites. Both ScrapingBee and Exa can fetch web content for AI, research, and data collection workflows, but they approach the problem differently.

Exa is primarily an AI search and web retrieval platform. Its Search API finds relevant pages across the web, while its Contents API can retrieve LLM-ready content from specific URLs, including JavaScript-rendered pages.

ScrapingBee is built around direct web scraping, giving you control over the pages you request through JavaScript rendering, rotating and premium proxies, geotargeting, browser scenarios, screenshots, and HTML or Markdown output.

As of August 2026, Exa also provides features such as semantic web search, Answer, Websets, specialized people and company search, and MCP access. ScrapingBee provides scraping-focused features such as Auto Mode, configurable proxy and browser controls, AI extraction, and dedicated APIs for services including Google, Amazon, Walmart, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Gemini.

If your main requirement is discovering relevant information across the web, Exa may be the better fit. If you already know which websites or URLs you need to collect data from and want more control over how those pages are accessed and rendered, ScrapingBee can be a strong Exa alternative.

How is ScrapingBee different from Exa?

ScrapingBee focuses on direct web scraping, with configurable proxies, geotargeting, JavaScript rendering, browser controls, screenshots, and data extraction. Exa is primarily a search and retrieval platform for AI applications, with Search, Contents, Agent, and other research-focused APIs.

Exa can also retrieve content from known URLs and crawl linked subpages, so there is overlap between the two platforms.

Is ScrapingBee cheaper than Exa?

Pricing depends on the workflow. ScrapingBee uses monthly plans and API credits, with a basic request costing one credit and more advanced features consuming additional credits. Exa is pay-as-you-go and currently charges $1 per 1,000 pages for Contents and $7 per 1,000 Search requests.

For direct page scraping, compare the features each request needs rather than the headline price alone.

Is there a free Exa alternative?

ScrapingBee is free to test: new accounts receive 1,000 API credits with no credit card required. It does not offer an ongoing free monthly plan.

Exa currently gives new accounts $20 in free credits and adds $10 in credits each month on its Free Tier.

Is ScrapingBee suitable for large-scale and enterprise web scraping?
Yes. ScrapingBee's public plans scale to millions of monthly API credits and hundreds of concurrent requests. Enterprise 120 includes 900 concurrent requests, with custom plans available for higher-volume requirements.
Does ScrapingBee offer an Exa MCP alternative?

Yes. ScrapingBee provides a remote MCP server for scraping pages, extracting structured data, taking screenshots, searching the web, and accessing its dedicated APIs. MCP calls consume the same credits as the underlying ScrapingBee API with no additional surcharge.

Exa also provides an MCP server, focused on capabilities such as web search, code search, Exa Agent, and Exa Connect.

Can I switch from Exa to ScrapingBee?

Yes, but ScrapingBee is not a drop-in replacement for the Exa API. You will need to change the endpoints, authentication, and response handling used by your application.

Workflows that already operate on known URLs map most naturally to ScrapingBee. Search-first workflows may require more changes because Exa provides its own semantic search and retrieval system.

What is the best Exa alternative for web scraping in 2026?

There is no single best option for every workflow. Compare Exa alternatives based on whether you need web discovery or direct URL scraping, along with proxy controls, JavaScript rendering, geotargeting, extraction, concurrency, pricing, and MCP support.

ScrapingBee is a strong fit when your priority is controlled page scraping, difficult or location-dependent websites, browser rendering, and configurable proxy infrastructure.

Notice Regarding Third-Party Specifications & Trademarks: All feature comparisons, pricing details, and technical specifications concerning Exa, including search, content retrieval, crawling, API capabilities, and usage limits, are based on publicly available documentation accessible as of August 2026. Product specifications and features are subject to change by their respective owners over time.

Exa is a trademark of its respective owner.

ScrapingBee and Exa are separate, independent companies with no corporate relationship, common ownership, partnership, or other affiliation between them. ScrapingBee is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Exa.

All third-party product names and trademarks referenced on this page remain the exclusive property of their respective owners and are used solely for identification purposes under nominative fair use, to describe and compare publicly available product capabilities.

Purpose and Accuracy Statement: This comparison is intended to provide an objective, factual overview of publicly documented product capabilities to help readers evaluate available options. It is not intended to disparage, discredit, or misrepresent Exa or its products in any way. We recognise Exa as a capable platform serving its own use cases, and we encourage readers to consult Exa's official website for the most current information.

Comparisons reflect publicly available information as of August 2026 and are made in good faith. If you believe any statement on this page is inaccurate or outdated, please contact us by email contact@scrapingbee.com and we will review and correct it promptly.

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