Is Exa or Serper more stable?

Exa has 2 recorded changes and is rated caution on a record dated 2026-10-01. Serper has 0 recorded changes and is rated stable. Serper has a more stable pricing history (0 recorded changes vs 2).

Can I use Exa and Serper together?

While both are in the AI / ML category, some teams use both for different workloads. Check each vendor's free tier limits to see if they complement your stack.

Exa vs Serper Free Tier Comparison

Verdict

Exa offers a free tier ("Free"). Serper has no ongoing free tier; what it offers is a credit grant that runs out ("Free Credits"). Serper has a more stable pricing history (0 recorded changes vs 2).

A verdict here is not a fixed property of the vendor. A one-off pricing event demotes a vendor while its recorded date falls in the last 180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn and not restored, a product retired — does not lapse with time. A badge carrying a date states the record it rests on; a badge with no date rests on no record in force.

Exa profile → Serper profile →

Exa

Riskcaution 2026-10-01 reduced

CategoryAI / ML

TierFree

Verified2026-10-28

Last read2026-10-28

Changes2 recorded

Web search API for AI agents with Search, Contents, Answer, Monitors and Agent endpoints. The free tier gives $10 in credits each month, up to 2,500 Lite searches, resetting on the first of the month without rollover, plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus; no credit card or other payment method required. Only a user's first team gets the free credits. Free teams get 10 QPS on search. Search costs $4 per 1,000 requests with up to 10 results for Lite, $7 for Auto, and $12 for Deep. Contents costs $1 per 1,000 pages per content type. Since October 19, 2026, Instant, Fast and Deep Reasoning are legacy search types that keep working at their current prices. Exa recommends Lite in place of Instant and Fast. Search and Contents can also be paid per request over x402 in USDC on Base or Solana, with no API key.

When a team's credits run out, requests return 402 Payment Required. Auto recharge is optional. (From exa.ai/docs/admin/billing, read 2026-10-06.)
Exa uses anonymized data on default plans to improve its models. Zero Data Retention is available only on Enterprise plans. (From trust.exa.ai/faq, read 2026-10-06.)

Serper

Riskstable

CategoryAI / ML

TierFree Credits

Verified2026-10-21

Last read2026-10-21

Changes0 recorded

Google Search API returning real-time results. 2,500 free queries when you sign up, no credit card required; a plain search uses one credit, and Maps and Lens searches use 3. No Serper page says the free queries renew or expire, and the terms bar registering more than one account. Serper stops accepting queries when the balance reaches zero. Paid credits are prepaid packs with no subscription: Starter is $50 for 50,000 queries ($1.00 per 1,000) at 50 queries per second, valid for 6 months; the largest pack falls to $0.30 per 1,000.

Serper is a business-to-business service. The Terms of Service do not restrict commercial use. The same Terms apply to free and paid queries. (From serper.dev/terms, read 2026-10-29.)

Pricing Change History

Exa

reduced effective 2026-10-01 medium impact

Between 2026-09-16 and 2026-10-01, Exa replaced the $20 sign-up credit with a one-time $10 bonus for completing onboarding, which only a user's first team earns. The $10 monthly credit, available in full on the day of sign-up, continues. Source ↗

reduced effective 2026-07-24 high impact

Between 2026-07-17 and 2026-07-24, Exa replaced its free tier of up to 20,000 requests a month with $10 of credits a month, plus $20 of credits on sign-up. Source ↗

Serper

No recorded pricing changes for Serper.

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.

curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=Exa
curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=Exa
curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=Serper
curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=Serper

API docs →

Exa vs Serper

Verdict

Exa

Serper

Pricing Change History

Exa

Serper

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

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