Exa vs Jina AI (2026)

An agent reads the web and partner data through Exa's tools for search, contents, answer, monitors and the Exa Agent. Exa Connect adds partner sources inside an Agent run, among them Fiber.ai, Similarweb, Baselayer and Polymarket, with Exa handling the provider authentication. Every connection only reads. Exa takes no action in another system and holds no per user credentials for one.

Sourceexa.ai/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

An agent gets read access to the web and to Jina's own models as tools. Reader turns a URL into markdown, s.jina.ai returns search results, and the embedding, reranking and classification APIs are reachable directly or through the MCP server at mcp.jina.ai. The tools only retrieve. They take no actions in other systems and have no per user credentials to scope.

Sourcejina.airead 2026-09-22

Inside an Exa Agent run, the agent orchestrates its own tool calls. It fans out searches, splits list building into parallel subtasks and verifies candidates, and that pipeline is Exa's own ready made agent. The customer supplies a query, an output schema, an effort level and data sources, and cannot define, branch or sequence the steps. The Batch API queues many requests to run asynchronously as jobs. There is no workflow runtime where the customer sequences, branches, retries or routes work, and the customer's own logic lives in its own framework.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/agent/quickstartread 2026-09-22

Each call to Jina's API stands alone. Model calls for embeddings, rerank, classify, batch jobs and chat completions run independently, as do Reader requests. The API has no way to sequence, branch or route steps into a workflow, so pipelines that chain Reader, embeddings and reranking are built in the customer's own code or tools.

Sourceapi.jina.ai/openapi.jsonread 2026-09-22

Monitors run an Exa search on a schedule the customer sets, from hourly upward. They drop results already returned, synthesize the new findings and post them to the customer's webhook with a signed payload. A monitor can also be triggered on demand, and Websets monitors keep a dataset refreshed on their own schedule. Exa also answers when someone tags @Exa in Slack. It names no way to subscribe to events in other systems.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/monitors/quickstartread 2026-09-22

Requests are answered as they arrive. The API has no schedule, webhook, event subscription or channel that starts an agent, so work begins only when a person initiates it with a request.

Sourceapi.jina.ai/openapi.jsonread 2026-09-22

The index Exa searches is its own, built from the public web plus select partner data such as people, company and scholarly indexes and premium providers reached through Exa Connect. None of it is the customer's own documents, and Exa names no way for a customer to add its own documents to a structure Exa maintains and queries. Websets imports take a CSV of entities to enrich and filter for a research job. The Enterprise plan includes custom, tailored indexes, and Exa does not say whose content they hold.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/search/data/overviewread 2026-09-22

Customers can build a retrieval layer over their own documents from Jina's models. These include multimodal, multilingual embeddings, rerankers, a classifier and a segmenter for chunking, with batch embedding jobs and fine tuning of classifiers on the customer's data. Jina keeps no index or store of the customer's corpus, and the vectors live in the customer's own database or Elasticsearch. Web search and Reader work over the web, not the customer's corpus.

Sourcejina.ai/models/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

An Exa Agent run can continue from an earlier one. The previousRunId field carries the earlier run's context into a follow up request, such as asking for ten more results, so the agent picks up where it left off. The team's stored runs can be listed, retrieved and deleted. Continuation is scoped to the team, with no per user scope or editing, and it is switched off under Zero Data Retention. Exa states no retention period and names no memory beyond this continuation. A monitor keeps a record of results it has already returned and uses it to drop duplicates, not as context.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/agent/quickstartread 2026-09-22

No agent context carries between calls to Jina's APIs. Stored classifiers and batch job outputs are model artifacts and results, and the API has no memory layer for agents.

Sourceapi.jina.ai/openapi.jsonread 2026-09-22

The agent reads the web and returns data. It takes no action in another system that a person would need to approve. Job controls let a customer stop an Agent run, keeping the results gathered so far, or cancel it, and pause a scheduled monitor, which stops its automatic runs. Stopping a run ends it, and pausing a monitor halts its schedule, so neither holds work for someone to review. Exa names no approval step, consent checkpoint, escalation rule, guardrail or policy constraint, and no run waits for a person.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/monitors/quickstartread 2026-09-22

The APIs read, embed and rank content and take no actions in other systems. Jina names no approval step, review queue, escalation rule or policy constraint on what an agent does. A token budget can be set per request to control cost.

Sourcejina.airead 2026-09-22

The SOC 2 reports and Data Processing Agreement are shared through the Trust Center at trust.exa.ai, and Exa says it is SOC 2 Type II certified. The Enterprise plan carries SSO and SCIM for the Exa Dashboard and Zero Data Retention enabled per team. An Exa organization with SSO and directory sync can let Claude reach Exa's MCP server through Okta, so removing a person in Okta ends their access. Team admins invite members, and a Team Management API creates, rate limits and deletes API keys. HIPAA mode with a BAA is available on Enterprise for eligible cached retrieval.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/admin/security/overviewread 2026-09-22

Customers are isolated in dedicated trust zones, with encryption at rest and in transit using keys for each customer. Jina runs internal and external penetration testing, secure development training and design reviews, and its terms offer a GDPR data processing agreement. A per request option keeps processing inside the EU. Access is by API key, and Jina names no SSO, roles or attestation.

Sourcejina.ai/legalread 2026-09-22

Completed Agent runs are stored with their answer, structured output, citations for each field and a cost breakdown, and can be listed and retrieved later. Each monitor keeps a run history with every run's output and any failure reason. The Team Management API reports usage and cost per API key. While a run streams, its events carry search traces, sources and tool progress grouped by research step.

Afterwards only the run's lifecycle events are stored for replay. Outputs and their sources are kept, but Exa does not say whether the step by step trace of prompts, tool calls and retrieved knowledge is kept. It names no audit log, export to monitoring or SIEM systems, or retention period by plan.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/agent/quickstartread 2026-09-22

The API dashboard shows a key's available tokens and usage, and rate limits are published by tier. Token balances and rate limits are billing views. Jina names no per request log, trace or audit record of what an agent sent and received, and no way to inspect prompts, tool calls and outputs step by step.

Sourcejina.ai/api-dashboard/pricingread 2026-09-22

Delivery is a hosted API. The only regional control blocks requests from sanctioned countries. There is no dedicated or private cloud, self hosted or on premises option, and customers cannot choose a region or pin model traffic or data storage to specific infrastructure. Zero Data Retention sets how long request data is kept.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/admin/security/overviewread 2026-09-22

Models run where the customer chooses. By Jina's account, every model can be deployed fully air gapped in private infrastructure with no external network dependency. Customers can also deploy through their own AWS or Azure account, billed through the cloud provider, and the hosted API has a per request option that keeps infrastructure and data processing inside the EU.

Sourcejina.ai/models/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

The prebuilt piece is Exa Agent, which builds lists, enriches entities and runs deep research, returning cited output validated against the customer's schema. It is also offered in Slack and Google Sheets. Exa publishes Agent Skills for coding agents (Build with Exa, Search and Contents) and example Agent configurations for list building, KYB and job postings. All of them serve one job, research over web and partner data. There is no browsable catalog of workflows, templates or role specific agents beyond the one research agent and three skills.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/agent/quickstartread 2026-09-22

Models (embeddings, rerankers, readers, OCR) and a guide to choosing among them are what Jina publishes. Customers build with these components, and there are no ready made workflows, templates or role specific agents.

Sourcejina.ai/models/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

Whatever model the customer's agent runs can take Exa's web data. Exa works with OpenAI and Anthropic tool calling, the Vercel AI SDK and AI Gateway, OpenRouter, where it grounds any OpenRouter model, open models on Baseten, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI and Pydantic AI, and any MCP client can connect. Only Exa's own Agent, Answer and page summaries run on models Exa chooses, and the customer picks the model for its own agent.

Sourceexa.ai/docs/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

Whatever model the customer's agent runs can take retrieval from Jina, through its API and an MCP server any client can add. Within Jina's API the customer picks among many embedding, reranking and reader models by setting the model parameter, and the API includes an OpenAI compatible chat completions endpoint.

Sourcejina.ai/models/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

Developers call Exa through a REST API with published OpenAPI specifications (search, contents, answer, monitors, batches, the Agent API, and a Team Management API for keys), official Python and JavaScript SDKs, an endpoint compatible with the OpenAI SDK for chat completions and the Responses API, a hosted MCP server with OAuth, and Agent Skills for coding agents.

Sourceexa.ai/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

An OpenAPI specification is published for Jina's API, covering embeddings, rerank, classify, train, models, batch jobs and OpenAI compatible chat completions. The Reader and search endpoints sit at r.jina.ai and s.jina.ai, and Jina also offers an MCP server at mcp.jina.ai, a CLI and llms.txt guides for coding agents.

Sourceapi.jina.ai/openapi.jsonread 2026-09-22

Published evaluations and open source benchmarks measure Exa's own search quality, latency and research performance, not the customer's agent. Exa names no fixtures, test datasets, scoring or quality gates for the customer's agent workflows. Citations and confidence on Exa's output let a builder check sources.

Sourceexa.ai/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

Research papers and benchmark results cover Jina's own models, and a speed test covers Reader. None of these tests or scores the customer's agent, and Jina names no testing, scoring or quality gate for the customer's agent workflows.

Sourcejina.ai/models/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

The Contents API extracts clean content from any URL, including pages rendered with JavaScript, PDFs and complex layouts, and fetches live when the indexed copy is older than the caller allows. Exa's crawler reads the public web while respecting robots rules and does not bypass logins, paywalls or CAPTCHAs. It reads and renders pages that have no API through scraping and a headless fetch. Exa names no interactive control of a browser or computer, such as clicking, typing, filling forms or operating a logged in session.

Sourceexa.ai/llms.txtread 2026-09-22

The Reader loads a page in a browser engine Jina runs, with options for viewport size, cookies for authenticated pages, waiting for a selector, removing elements and running custom JavaScript on the page before it extracts the content as markdown. It works as a headless browser fetch for extraction, and an agent cannot use it to click through or operate an interface step by step.

Sourcejina.airead 2026-09-22