exa.ai
exa.ai · Developer / Data APIs modeIntegrated
Last probed 2026-08-10 00:40 UTC · Verified (Partial)
exa.ai — Search API for AI agents that need real-time web data, deep research, and structured content from one endpoint. Try our API for free.
Verdict: Partially — an AI agent can use exa.ai, but activate is blocked — A CAPTCHA blocks automated signup.
- DiscoverEasy
- ActivateBlocked
- OperateEasygated by Activate
- ManageNot assessedgated by Activate
Capability parity
Each stage answers one question about what an agent can do unattended. Stages are ordered by the credential-gateway dependency: Activate issues the keys that unlock Operate and Manage.
Discover
Can an agent find and read it, no account?
- Be found by a retrieval agentEasy
Retrieval access present.
Evidence
- Path tried
- robots.txt / sitemap / discovery headers
- Where it stalled
- completed
- Evidence tier
- Tier 2 (live attempt)
- Verification
- Evidence-only — graded from passive signal, not live-verified.
- Backing checks
retrieval_bot_access, sitemap_xml
- Read what it does and how to use itEasy
Machine-readable docs present.
Evidence
- Path tried
- llms.txt / AGENTS.md / schema.org / docs
- Where it stalled
- completed
- Evidence tier
- Tier 1 (unauth probe)
- Verification
- Evidence-only — graded from passive signal, not live-verified.
- Backing checks
llms_txt, llms_full_txt, agents_md, agent_card, schema_org_jsonld
- Read pricing & limits without loginNot assessed
Activate
Can an agent sign up and walk away with the keys it needs?
- Create an account self-serveBlocked
A CAPTCHA blocks automated signup.
CAPTCHA / bot-challenge blocks this.
Evidence
- Path tried
- signup flow
- Where it stalled
- verification step
- Evidence tier
- Tier 2 (live attempt)
- Verification
- Evidence-only — graded from passive signal, not live-verified.
- CAPTCHA / bot-challengeSignupTier 2 encountered a CAPTCHA/challenge before signup submission.
- Obtain an API / MCP access credentialEasy
Self-serve credential path detected.
Evidence
- Path tried
- docs → key issuance
- Where it stalled
- completed
- Evidence tier
- Tier 1 (unauth probe)
- Verification
- Evidence-only — graded from passive signal, not live-verified.
- Backing checks
api_key_self_serve
- Obtain a management / admin keyNot assessed
- Accept the terms without a bot-banEasy
No bot-prohibition signal found.
Evidence
- Path tried
- ToS / policy scan
- Where it stalled
- completed
- Evidence tier
- Tier 0 (passive scan)
- Verification
- Evidence-only — graded from passive signal, not live-verified.
Operate
Can an agent do the service's actual jobs — call, transact, pay?
Gated by Activate — the credential this stage needs isn't issued unattended, so these rows may be unreachable even where they read Easy.
- Call the primary service over MCP / APIEasy
Verified by a live call.
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
Evidence
- Path tried
- API / MCP / browser
- Where it stalled
- completed
- Evidence tier
- Tier 2 (live attempt)
- Verification
- Verified — a live attempt completed.
- Backing checks
openapi_spec
- Complete a transaction / checkoutNot applicable
Integrated tool — the API call is the transaction, no separate checkout.
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
- Pay via an agent rail (x402 / ACP / AP2)Not assessed
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
Manage
Can an agent administer the account and provision resources?
Gated by Activate — the credential this stage needs isn't issued unattended, so these rows may be unreachable even where they read Easy.
- Provision / scale / tear down a serviceNot assessed
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
- Change account details / set budget / rotate keysNot assessed
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
- View usage & billingNot assessed
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
- Cancel / export / delete (offboard)Not assessed
Gated by Activate — the credential this needs isn't issued unattended.
Findings
How scoring works →Interrupt tier: Moderate-Interrupt — derived from 1 finding; interrupt score 66 / 100 — the badge-driving metric. (range 35–85 · 8 unassessed)
Every tool starts at 100. Each interrupt found subtracts a penalty of base weight × timing × hardness × evidence — the multiplier values below come from the same rubric tables the score is computed with. New snapshots also provisionally subtract 50% of the full worst-case tax for each unassessed property and 25% for evidence-graded successes not live-verified by Tier 2.
Property coverage
A check only counts as clean when a probe tier capable of detecting that interrupt actually ran and found nothing. Not tested ≠ clean.
| Property | Stage | State | Evidence | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPTCHA / bot-challenge | activate | failed | Active finding — itemized in the penalty matrix below. Tier 0 assesses this property. | no |
| Mandatory phone verification call | activate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Mailed physical code (postal) | activate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| “Contact sales” wall (no self-serve path) | activate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Manual approval queue | activate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Rate-limit-triggered manual review | manage | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| One-time account / payment-method provisioning | manage | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Identity / KYC verification | activate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Crypto wallet / key-custody setup | operate | unassessed | Tier 2 (live attempt) ran but did not gather enough evidence to claim clean. Tier 2 assesses this property. | no |
| Email OTP verification | activate | success | None found — checked at Tier 1 (unauth probe) + Tier 2 (live attempt) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 1 assesses this property. | no |
| SMS / phone OTP verification | activate | success | None found — checked at Tier 1 (unauth probe) + Tier 2 (live attempt) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 1 assesses this property. | no |
| ToS clause banning automated/bot access | discover | success | None found — checked at Tier 0 (passive scan) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 0 assesses this property. | no |
| Mandatory redirect to vendor’s own site | operate | success | None found — checked at Tier 1 (unauth probe) + Tier 2 (live attempt) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 1 assesses this property. | no |
| SSO-only signup, no API-key issuance | activate | success | None found — checked at Tier 1 (unauth probe) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 1 assesses this property. | no |
| No Machine Interface | operate | success | None found — checked at Tier 1 (unauth probe) (evidence-graded; not yet live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) Tier 1 assesses this property. | yes |
| Interrupt found | Base weight | × Timing | × Hardness | × Evidence | = Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting score | 100 | ||||
| CAPTCHA / bot-challengeSignupTier 2 encountered a CAPTCHA/challenge before signup submission. | 6 | ×1one-time setup | ×2.5hard | ×1Tier 2 (live attempt) | −15 |
| Total penalty | −15 | ||||
| Full unknown tax 95 — capped at 25 (point score uses 50% of the capped value) | −95 | ||||
| Evidence-graded tax (successes not live-verified by a Tier 2 probe) 152.4 — capped at 25 (point score uses 25% of the capped value) | −152.4 | ||||
| Raw score = 100 − 15 = 85 Point score = 85 − 50% × 25 − 25% × 25 = 66.3 → 66 | 66 | ||||
What would make this Easy
One concrete change per blocker found. These are the diffs between this listing's current parity and an unattended agent path.
- Activate — CAPTCHA / bot-challengeDrop the CAPTCHA, or gate it behind a documented bot-detection signal a well-behaved agent can pass.
How we scored this
- Confidence: Verified (Partial) (0.75) — A live Tier-2 session ran but stopped early at a detected hard blocker — verified up to that point, unknown beyond it.
- Machine-Readability sub-score: 51 / 100 (a separate integration-ease signal — it never enters the Interrupt Score or badge).
- Some capability stages are not yet assessed — shown plainly in the spine above, never as a pass.
- Rubric, tiers, confidence model, and badge thresholds →
Machine-readability checks 51 / 100
Four check groups, equal weight: machine interfaces, browsing efficiency, element discoverability, and discovery/agent access. Each check carries an evidence grade (proven / plausible / emerging) — an honesty label that never weights the score. What these mean →
- llms.txtemergingFound — exa.ai/llms.txt (25.1 KB, 186 links)
- llms-full.txtemergingFound — exa.ai/llms-full.txt (1024.0 KB, 577 links)
- AGENTS.mdemergingFound — docs.exa.ai/AGENTS.md
- A2A agent cardemergingFound — docs.exa.ai/.well-known/agent-card.json
- MCP server (well-known or official registry)plausibleNot provided
- OpenAPI/Swagger specplausibleFound — api.exa.ai/openapi.json
- Rate-limit headersplausibleNot provided
- Structured JSON error responsesplausibleNot provided
- OAuth authorization-server metadata (RFC 8414)provenNot provided
- API catalog (RFC 9727) (emerging)emergingNot provided
- Agent-payment discovery (x402 / UCP) (emerging)emergingNot provided
- Lean HTML transfer sizeplausible228 KB raw HTML (threshold 488 KB)
- Manageable DOM sizeplausibleNot provided
- High content-to-markup densityplausible2.5% text/HTML (5781 chars in 228 KB, threshold 2%)
- Content readable without JS executionprovenraw HTML holds 116% of rendered text (5781 vs 4996 chars; threshold 40%)
- Clean-content alternate (RSS/Atom/feed/markdown)plausibleNot provided
- Serves markdown on Accept: text/markdownplausibleNot provided
- Interactive elements are semanticplausible112/112 semantic (100%); 0 div/span click targets
- Form fields have accessible namesplausibleNot provided
- Inputs carry autocomplete hintsplausibleNot provided
- WebMCP tools (modelContext API)emergingNot provided
- AI retrieval/search fetchers allowed (robots.txt)provenno retrieval-fetcher blocks in robots.txt
- Sitemap (indexability)plausibleFound — exa.ai/sitemap.xml
- schema.org JSON-LD in raw HTMLplausible2 valid JSON-LD block(s) in raw (pre-JS) HTML
- Content-Signal directives (robots.txt)emergingNot provided
- Web Bot Auth key directory (emerging)emergingNot provided
- Discovery Link headers on homepage (emerging)emergingNot provided
- robots.txt AI-crawler accessplausibleno AI-crawler blocks in robots.txt
- Unauthenticated API error is structured JSONplausibleFound — api.exa.ai/openapi.json (HTTP 200)
- Unauthenticated API returns auth guidance (401/403 or documented)plausibleFound — api.exa.ai/openapi.json (HTTP 200)
- API exposes rate-limit headersplausibleNot provided
- API key obtainable without human interactionplausibleOpenAPI spec published and signup is not SSO-only
Evidence & history
Last probed 2026-08-10 00:40 UTC. The raw JSON is the archival record.
| Date | Score | Badge | Rubric version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-10 00:40 UTC | 66 | Moderate-Interrupt (current) | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-10 00:24 UTC | 81 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 23:53 UTC | 66 | Moderate-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 23:53 UTC | 81 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 23:53 UTC | 81 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 17:13 UTC | 81 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 05:29 UTC | 88 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 05:29 UTC | 88 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 03:14 UTC | 88 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 01:51 UTC | 88 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-09 01:45 UTC | 88 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-08 22:13 UTC | 100 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
| 2026-08-08 22:13 UTC | 100 | Low-Interrupt | [email protected] |
Alternatives in Developer / Data APIs
Other Developer / Data APIs tools in the same mode (integrated), ranked by Overall LLM-Friendliness (the mean of Interrupt Score and Machine-Readability) — comparable to this listing because they share its usage mode.