Question 1

Exa vs Perplexity — which is better for AI agents?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the query class. Exa is strong at academic, semantic, and page-content retrieval; Perplexity is strong at cited answer synthesis. On plain web/news, a cheaper engine often matches both — which is why GroundRoute routes per query instead of betting on one.

Question 2

Is Exa or Perplexity cheaper?

Accepted Answer

$7.00 vs $5.00 on list pricing (verify at publish).

Question 3

Can I use both Exa and Perplexity?

Accepted Answer

Yes — GroundRoute routes each query to whichever clears the quality bar for less, caches repeats, and gives you one schema across both. You keep half the cache savings and never pay more than direct.

Exa vs Perplexity: which search API for your agent?

Pick Exa if… pick Perplexity if… or route both

Don't pick one — route to the cheapest that clears your bar.