Exa vs Brave Search API in 2026

Both calls answered on one key

You do not have to pick one API and rewrite the other. Each call keeps its path, its body and its parser. The address changes, and the key.

# Exa: before
curl -X POST https://api.exa.ai/search -H "x-api-key: $EXA_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"query": "open source vector databases", "numResults": 10}'
# Exa: after
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/exa/search -H "x-api-key: $SPECSTREAM_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"query": "open source vector databases", "numResults": 10}'

# Brave: before
curl "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search?q=open+source+vector+databases&count=10" -H "X-Subscription-Token: $BRAVE_KEY"
# Brave: after
curl "https://api.specstream.ai/res/v1/web/search?q=open+source+vector+databases&count=10" -H "X-Subscription-Token: $SPECSTREAM_KEY"

The parameter and field tables are in the Exa guide and the Brave Search API guide.

What stays the same

On the Exa route, query, numResults (1 to 100), includeDomains, excludeDomains, includeText, excludeText, startPublishedDate, endPublishedDate and contents.text work as on Exa, and every type costs the same. On the Brave route, q, count (1 to 20), offset (0 to 9) and freshness work as on Brave, and operators inside q such as site: shape the search.

Not returned: Exa's score, summary, image and favicon, and author is null. Brave's extra_snippets and summarizer key; page_age comes back only on results that carry a date.

$5 per 1,000 searches on both routes, from credit that does not expire

Exa's price depends on the search type and the number of results, and Brave's free credits arrive as $5 a month. SpecStream charges one price on both routes: $0.005 for up to 10 results, and each started block of 10 more adds $0.006. There is no monthly plan, credit you buy never expires, and a call stopped by a 429 charges nothing.

The most accurate web search API in the world

The SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

About one second a search, with no limit per key

Every drop-in route runs the fast search unless the call asks for page text or results past the first ten. On November 9, 2026 production took 1 to 20 fast searches a second and answered 718 of 720: the median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, and the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s. There is no limit per key and no daily limit; a busy call gets a 429 with Retry-After and is not charged.

Zero retention on any key

Set zero_retention when you create a key, or later. A search made with that key keeps no request text and no answer after the reply: it is not in the history, its answer is not reused for another call, and its log lines carry neither.

curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'

Search, pages and rows on one key

A search API returns links and snippets, and your product still has to read the pages and build its records. On SpecStream the same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, maps and crawls a site at the page price, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. The most a run can cost is approved before it starts. Saved requests rerun hourly to yearly, with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, and new rows arrive in Slack, a sheet, a CRM or a signed webhook.

Tavily

A search API for agents billed in credits: a basic search is 1 credit and an advanced search 2, at $0.008 a credit pay as you go, with 1,000 free credits every month. SpecStream answers Tavily's call at https://api.specstream.ai/tavily for $0.005 a search.

Serper

Google results sold as prepaid credit packs, from $1.00 per 1,000 on the 50k pack, and the credits are valid for 6 months. SpecStream answers Serper's call at https://api.specstream.ai/serper, and its credit never expires.

Parallel

Search, Extract and Task APIs priced by their own units. Web search starts at $1 per 1,000 requests, and the Developer plan allows 600 Search requests a minute. SpecStream answers Parallel's search call at https://api.specstream.ai/parallel with no limit per key.

Firecrawl

Search and page endpoints billed in credits: a search costs 2 credits per 10 results, and the Standard plan is $99 a month for 100,000 credits. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's v2 calls at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl, with search at $5 per 1,000 and pages at $0.80 per 1,000.