Compare/Head to head

Exa vs Firecrawl

Same facts, side by side: starting price, free tier, MCP, API and what each one is actually built for.

Starting price

Exa

$4/1k searches Free tier

Web, people and company search API built for AI agents. Free plan with $10 in credits each month; paid search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests.

Where Exa fits

  • Builders putting web search inside coding or research agents
  • GTM teams enriching people and companies through an API
  • Teams that want search inside Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT
  • Startups living on free monthly credits before paying

Firecrawl

$16/mo Free tier

Web scrape, crawl, search and interact API with a hosted MCP server, and now Directory: more than 240 million professional profiles your AI agent can search for free inside ChatGPT or Claude. Free plan available; Hobby is $19/mo, or $16/mo billed yearly.

Where Firecrawl fits

  • Recruiters sourcing candidates by title, company and location from inside ChatGPT or Claude
  • Builders who need markdown or JSON from URLs
  • Agents that call Firecrawl over MCP
  • Teams that will grow into Standard at $83/mo yearly

At a glance

DetailExaFirecrawl
Starting price$4/1k searches$16/mo
Free tier✓Yes✓Yes
MCP server✓Yes✓Yes
Public API✓Yes✓Yes
Listed underLead generation, SourcingLead generation, Sourcing

Where they pull apart

Exa

Stands out: Hosted MCP server on the free plan, with people and company indexes alongside the web index.

Watch out: Pay-as-you-go has no monthly floor, but Deep Search, Agent runs and phone lookups are billed separately. Free is a small monthly credit, not unlimited.

Not the right fit for

  • Recruiters who want a point-and-click sourcing UI
  • Teams that need a fixed-price annual seat license

Firecrawl

Stands out: Directory searches across 240M+ professional profiles cost no credits, so a recruiter can explore and refine a candidate search in ChatGPT or Claude and spend credits only when pulling full profile and work contact details. Every account gets 1,000 free credits a month with no card, shared with the scrape, crawl and search API.

Watch out: Hobby is 5,000 credits a month. Search costs 2 credits per 10 results, Directory profile and contact lookups also draw on credits, and extra credits come in $5 increments. Directory finds and researches people; it has no outreach sequencing or ATS of its own.

Not the right fit for

  • Non-technical users who will not use an AI assistant or an API
  • Recruiters who want a point and click search screen with sequences built in
  • Crawl jobs that need millions of pages on day one

Pros and cons

Exa

  • $10 in free credits every month, no card
  • Hosted MCP server on the free plan
  • People and company indexes besides web search
  • Phone lookups cost $0.07 each on Agent
  • Free credits cover light testing only
  • SSO and zero data retention need Enterprise

Firecrawl

  • Free Directory searches across 240M+ profiles
  • Works inside ChatGPT and Claude via the Firecrawl plugin
  • Free 1,000 credits a month, no card
  • Hosted MCP plus REST API
  • Profile and contact lookups spend credits
  • Search uses 2 credits per 10 results
  • Hobby allows 5 concurrent requests
  • Credits roll over only on Scale and up

What each one costs

Exa

$4/1k searches

Free plan: $10 in credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus, no card. Pay-as-you-go search per 1,000 requests is $4 for Lite, $7 for Auto and $12 for Deep, with $1 per extra result above 10; contents are $1 per 1,000 pages. Agent runs are $0.012 to $1.00 each. Enterprise is custom. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 4 Nov 2026

Firecrawl

$16/mo

Free includes 1,000 credits a month. Hobby is $16/mo billed annually, or $19 monthly, for 5,000 credits. Standard is $83/mo billed annually ($99 monthly), Growth $333/mo ($399 monthly) and Scale $599/mo ($749 monthly). Enterprise is custom. Paid plans can top up credits in $5 increments. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 4 Nov 2026

Common questions

Is Exa cheaper than Firecrawl?
Exa starts lower, at $4/1k searches against $16/mo for Firecrawl. That is the entry plan on each side, so the real number depends on seats and the tier you land on.
Can you try Exa or Firecrawl for free?
Exa and Firecrawl carry a free tier on our listing.
Does Exa or Firecrawl have an MCP server?
Exa and Firecrawl ship a first party MCP server, so an AI assistant can work the product directly.

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 4 Nov 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?