# Exa Agent pricing in 2026: what a row with an email costs Compared on Nov 12, 2026. The page: https://specstream.ai/exa-agent-pricing Exa Agent bills the run: $0.012 to $1.00 at a fixed effort, or $0.10 per compute unit and $0.005 per search on `auto`, capped at $5 by default. Each email it finds adds $0.02 and each phone number $0.07. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. Deep Search prices the row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone, with the most a run can cost approved before it starts. [Describe your data](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-exa-agent-pricing&utm_source=alternatives-md&utm_campaign=exa-agent-pricing&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fask%3Fq%3DAI%2520infrastructure%2520companies%2520in%2520the%2520US%2520that%2520raised%2520a%2520Series%2520A%2520or%2520B%2520in%2520the%2520last%25206%2520months%252C%2520with%2520an%2520engineering%2520leader%2520and%2520a%2520work%2520email) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. Reading and pricing a request cost nothing. ## SpecStream and Exa Agent, price by price | | SpecStream | Exa Agent | |---|---|---| | What you pay for | A delivered row that meets every condition you wrote: 5¢, 15¢ or $1, by how much the row needs | A run: a flat price per request at a fixed `effort`, or metered usage on `auto` and `ultra` | | Fixed price | The same row rates on every plan. The quote names the most the run can cost before it starts, and it is good for 30 minutes | `minimal` $0.012, `low` $0.025, `medium` $0.10, `high` $0.50 and `xhigh` $1.00 a request | | Metered price | None. The searches and pages read to find a row are not billed apart | $0.10 per Agent Compute Unit and $0.005 per search tool call, up to a default cap of $5 on `auto` and $20 on `ultra`. A budget can be set from $1 to $100 | | An email | 5¢ added to the row that carries the email the request asked for | $0.02 per email found, billed on top of the run | | A phone number | 15¢ added to the row that carries the phone the request asked for | $0.07 per phone number found, billed on top of the run | | Cap on contacts | The contacts sit inside the approved maximum, with the rows. A run never costs more than that maximum | On a fixed effort, `budget.maxCostDollars` caps contact enrichment after the request price. Fixed efforts have no default contact cap | | A run that finds little | Pays for the rows it delivers. A run that finds nothing costs nothing, and what a run does not use goes back to your balance | A fixed effort bills a flat price per request. A metered run bills its usage up to the cap, and a run that finishes early costs less | | Rows not charged | Duplicates, rows you already own and rows a page contradicts | Contacts bill per contact found. Compute and searches bill as the run uses them | | Source of each value | Source URL and read time on every value. Each condition shows the page that states it, or that no page states it yet | `output.grounding`: citations for text or structured fields, when emitted | | More rows later | A saved request reruns hourly to yearly. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢, and nothing is bought twice | A follow-up request on a previous run, such as "find 10 more results" | | Where the rows go | Sheets, Excel, Notion, Airtable, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Affinity, Ashby, Bullhorn, Outreach, Slack, Teams, webhooks, Zapier, Make, n8n, the API, SDKs and MCP | JSON in `output.structured` through the API, the OpenAI-compatible Responses API and Exa MCP, with Exa for Google Sheets and Exa in Slack | | Free to start | $10 of credit, no card | $10 in credits on sign-up, reset to $10 on the first of every month, no payment method | ## What a row costs on each ### The price of a row, known before the run Exa Agent prices compute, searches and contacts, so the cost of one row is known after the run, when you divide `costDollars` by the rows that came back. SpecStream reads your request back as the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, and prices the row from that. The quote shows the most the run can cost, and nothing runs until you approve it. ### Emails and phone numbers Exa's contact lookups cost less per contact: $0.02 an email and $0.07 a phone number, billed per contact found, on top of the run. SpecStream adds 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone to the row that carries it, inside the approved maximum. That row is a company or person checked against each of your conditions, with the page and the read time behind each value. An email that no page printed is built from the company's published pattern, labeled likely, and billed as an email. ### 100 companies with a work email On SpecStream, 100 rows at 5¢ with a work email at 5¢ cost at most $10, and that maximum is on the quote before the run starts. Rows that a page contradicts, duplicates and rows you already own are not charged. On Exa Agent the 100 emails cost $2, and the run that finds the 100 companies is billed on top: $1.00 at `xhigh`, or metered on `auto` at $0.10 per compute unit and $0.005 per search, up to the cap you set. ### Reruns and delivery Save a request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row costs 1¢, and new matches land in HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Sheets, Slack or Teams, or in your agent through `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. See [Deep Search](https://specstream.ai/deep-search?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=exa-agent-pricing) and the [pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=exa-agent-pricing) page. ## Other Exa Agent alternatives ### Exa Websets Exa's list-building and enrichment API, billed in Websets credits that are separate from Search API credits. Verified results, enrichments, contact data, imports and API previews each use credits, and the Free plan stops a webset at 25 verified results. SpecStream bills the delivered row at a rate printed on its pricing page; the [Exa Websets comparison](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/exa-websets?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=exa-agent-pricing) has the detail. ### Parallel FindAll A fixed $0.10 to $10.00 for each run plus $0.00 to $1.00 for each match, by the generator you pick, in public beta. Each fact you add to a match is an enrichment, billed again per match at Task API rates. On SpecStream the facts are part of the row and its rate. ### Clay Paid plans from $185 a month, or $167 billed yearly, for 15,000 Actions and 2,500 Data Credits, with data bought from 150+ providers. The Free plan does not include phone number enrichment. SpecStream starts with $10 of credit and no card, and bills per delivered row. ## How to move a run from Exa Agent 1. Write your `query` and the fields of your `outputSchema` as one request in plain words: the records you want, the conditions each must meet and the facts to bring back, an email or a phone included. 2. Send it from code. This call spends nothing: the `402` reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost. ``` curl -i -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"request": "AI infrastructure companies in the US that raised a Series A or B in the last 6 months, with an engineering leader and a work email", "count": 100}' ``` 3. Pay with MPP by card, or in USDC with x402, and send the same request again. You get a `status_url`, and the rows are there when the run ends. What the run did not use goes back to the card. The [agent payments guide](https://specstream.ai/docs/agent-payments?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=exa-agent-pricing) has each step. 4. On an account, connect your agent to `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. `compile` reads the request, `quote_capacity_work` prices it, `authorize_capacity_work` runs it under the maximum you approved, and `list_find_rows` reads the rows with their sources. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does Exa Agent cost? $0.012 to $1.00 a request at a fixed effort: `minimal` $0.012, `low` $0.025, `medium` $0.10, `high` $0.50 and `xhigh` $1.00. The default `auto` effort is metered at $0.10 per Agent Compute Unit and $0.005 per search, up to a $5 cap, and `ultra` up to $20. ### How much does Exa Agent charge for an email or a phone number? $0.02 per email and $0.07 per phone number, billed per contact found and separately from the run's own price. ### Does an Exa Agent budget cap contact enrichment? Only when you set one. On a fixed effort, `budget.maxCostDollars`, from $1 to $100, caps contact enrichment after the request price, so `high` with a $1 budget allows up to 25 emails. Fixed efforts have no default contact cap. ### What does a row with an email cost on SpecStream? 10¢ for a row at the 5¢ rate with the work email the request asked for, 20¢ at the 15¢ rate, and $1.05 at the $1 rate. A phone adds 15¢. Duplicates, rows you already own and rows a page contradicts are not charged. ### What is the best Exa Agent alternative? SpecStream, for a list priced per delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone, with the most the run can cost approved before it starts. Each value carries its source URL and read time, and the rows can land in your CRM, sheet or agent. ### Does SpecStream have an API and an MCP server? Yes. The MCP server is at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` over Streamable HTTP, with OAuth or an API key, and an agent with no account can buy one list with `POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists`, paying by card or in USDC. ## Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page. - [Exa pricing](https://exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa pricing page](https://exa.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa Agent quickstart](https://exa.ai/docs/agent/quickstart.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa docs index](https://exa.ai/docs/llms.txt), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa Websets overview](https://exa.ai/docs/reference/websets-overview), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Exa Websets questions](https://exa.ai/docs/websets/faq.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Parallel pricing](https://docs.parallel.ai/getting-started/pricing.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Parallel FindAll quickstart](https://docs.parallel.ai/findall-api/findall-quickstart.md), read Nov 12, 2026 - [Clay pricing](https://www.clay.com/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing), read Nov 12, 2026 - [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md), read Nov 12, 2026