Exa vs Parallel in 2026

Keep both calls and change two lines

Your Exa call and your Parallel call keep their bodies, their headers and their parsers. Each one changes its address, and both carry the same key.

# Exa: was https://api.exa.ai/search
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}'

# Parallel: was https://api.parallel.ai/v1/search
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/parallel/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $SPECSTREAM_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"search_queries": ["open source vector databases"], "mode": "fast"}'

A team that has not chosen yet writes to either format and moves nothing later. The parameter by parameter tables are in the Exa migration guide and the Parallel migration guide.

What each path reads and returns

On /exa/search, query, numResults from 1 to 100, includeDomains, excludeDomains, includeText, excludeText, startPublishedDate, endPublishedDate and contents.text work as on Exa. The reply has requestId, results[] with id, url, title, publishedDate and text when asked, searchTime and costDollars.total. score, summary, image and favicon are not returned; the results arrive in rank order.

On /parallel/v1/search, search_queries, mode, advanced_settings.max_results up to 100, source_policy with include_domains, exclude_domains and after_date, the excerpt settings and session_id work as on Parallel. The reply has search_id, session_id and results[] with url, title, publish_date and excerpts. warnings and usage are not returned.

$5 per 1,000 searches in every mode, from credit that does not expire

Exa prices a search by its type and charges Contents per page and per content type. Parallel prices by mode, adds $1 per 1,000 extra results and stops public modes at 20 results. On SpecStream a search of up to 10 results is $0.005 on either path, with page text in the same call, and 100 results are $0.059. There is no monthly plan, a top-up 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 a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, with 978 correct. On WideSearch it scores 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official tasks, and the Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. The scores and the method are at specstream.ai/benchmarks.

About one second a search, with no limit per key

Both paths run 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. 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. The charge keeps the account, the key, the request ID, the price and the time.

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, crawls and rows on the same key

The same key reads up to 20 pages a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, maps and crawls whole sites, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match on the live web as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. 10,000 rows with 5 facts each cost $500, and the most a run can cost is approved before it starts.

Tavily

Search for agents sold by credit: 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 own POST /search at https://api.specstream.ai/tavily, in Tavily's JSON, at $0.005 a search.

Brave Search API

Results from Brave's own index at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 in free credits every month and 50 queries a second. SpecStream answers Brave's GET /res/v1/web/search at https://api.specstream.ai with the key in X-Subscription-Token, at $5 per 1,000 searches.

Serper

Google results as prepaid credits, from $1.00 per 1,000 on the 50k pack, and credits valid for 6 months. SpecStream answers Serper's POST /search at https://api.specstream.ai/serper, and a SpecStream top-up never expires.

Firecrawl

Scrape, crawl and search by monthly credits: Hobby is $19 a month for 5,000 credits, and search costs 2 credits per 10 results. SpecStream answers Firecrawl v2 search and scrape at https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl, at $0.005 a search and $0.0008 a page.