Yes. POST https://api.switch402.com/v1/scrape with {"url": "..."} returns the page as markdown for $0.008 USDC on Base per call, paid over x402 and charged only on success. A lower-cost endpoint, /v1/scrape/lite, is $0.003 per call.

How much does Exa cost?

Checked Nov 10, 2026 on exa.ai/pricing and exa.ai/docs/pricing: no public monthly subscription. You get $10 of free credits a month (up to 2,500 Lite searches) plus a $10 onboarding bonus. Lite or instant search is $4 per 1,000 requests, Auto or fast $7, Deep $12, Contents $1 per 1,000 pages, Answer $5 per 1,000 requests, and Monitors $2 per 1,000 requests. Agent runs start at $0.012. Enterprise is $12,000 a year.

Did Exa Monitors move to $2?

Yes, as of this check. On Nov 10, 2026, both exa.ai/pricing and the Exa pricing docs list Monitors at $2 per 1,000 requests, with $1 per 1,000 extra results above 10 and $1 per 1,000 pages for summaries. Always re-check the live pricing page; this is not a permanent price lock.

Is Exa cheaper than Tavily?

On Lite, yes. Exa Lite is $0.004 per search, below Tavily's $0.008 pay-as-you-go credit and below Tavily Growth at $0.005 per credit when the 100,000-credit pool is fully used. Tavily's free 1,000 credits a month still cover low volume at $0. See Exa vs Tavily pricing for the side-by-side table.

Is switch402 cheaper than Exa?

No, not on Lite or Auto search. switch402 /v1/search is $0.008 per successful call; Exa Lite is $0.004 and Auto is $0.007, and Exa also gives $10 of free credit a month. switch402 costs less only if you would otherwise leave prepaid Exa credits unused, or if your agent cannot hold an Exa account. It still charges $0 in months with no searches.

Does Exa have a free plan?

Yes. Starter is free: $10 of credits every month that reset on the first of the month, a $10 onboarding bonus, and no payment method required. That covers up to 2,500 Lite searches a month, or fewer Auto or Deep searches, or up to 10,000 Contents pages of one type, if you spend the $10 only on that product.

Where do these numbers come from?

Exa's public pricing page (exa.ai/pricing) and pricing docs (exa.ai/docs/pricing, which redirects to the admin pricing docs), fetched Nov 10, 2026, plus Tavily's public pricing and API credits docs for the comparison lines, and switch402's live payment terms. Prices can change; check the sources before you decide.

Exa Pricing Explained (2026): $10 Free Credits, Search from $4/1k, Monitors $2/1k

Exa is pay as you go, with no monthly subscription on its public pricing. Checked Nov 10, 2026 on exa.ai/pricing and exa.ai/docs/pricing: new accounts get $10 of free credits (up to 2,500 Lite searches) plus a $10 onboarding bonus, and the free balance resets to $10 on the first of every month, with no payment method required. After that you spend credits at the rates below. Short answer: Lite or instant search is $4 per 1,000 requests ($0.004 each, up to 10 results), Auto or fast is $7 per 1,000, Deep is $12 per 1,000, Contents is $1 per 1,000 pages, Answer is $5 per 1,000 requests, and Monitors are $2 per 1,000 requests. switch402 /v1/search is $0.008 per successful call with no account; that is not cheaper than Exa Lite.

How Exa credits and plans work

The public Starter tier is free: $10 of API credits every month, a $10 onboarding bonus, MCP server access, and no payment method required. Your free balance resets to $10 on the first of each month. There is no monthly seat or plan floor on the public pricing page; you add a payment method when you need to spend past the free credit.

Prices are quoted per 1,000 requests. A $4 per 1k Lite rate is $0.004 per call. The base search price covers up to 10 results; each result above 10 adds $1 per 1,000 results. Optional AI page summaries are $1 per 1,000 pages on endpoints that return them. Contents bills $1 per 1,000 pages per content type (for example text and highlights are separate).

Monitors, which run scheduled searches for fresh events, are $2 per 1,000 requests as of this check, plus $1 per 1,000 extra results and $1 per 1,000 pages of summaries when you use those options. Team owners can buy an annual Enterprise plan at $12,000, which includes that amount in API credits, Zero Data Retention on supported products, and 25 search QPS.

Search: from $4 per 1,000 requests
Lite and instant are $4 per 1,000 requests. Auto and fast are $7 per 1,000. Deep, deep-lite and deep-reasoning are $12 per 1,000, with deep-reasoning at $15 per 1,000 listed in the docs as a legacy setting. Latency and depth rise as you move from Lite to Deep.
Contents, Answer and Monitors
Contents is $1 per 1,000 pages per content type, for full page text, highlights or summaries on URLs you already have. Answer is $5 per 1,000 requests. Monitors are $2 per 1,000 requests for scheduled searches, checked Nov 10, 2026 on exa.ai/pricing.
Agent: fixed effort or metered
Agent is billed per run. Fixed efforts: minimal $0.012, low $0.025, medium $0.10, high $0.50 and x-high $1.00 per request. Metered auto defaults to a $5 cap and ultra to a $20 cap, with Agent Compute Units at $0.10 each, search tool calls at $0.005, and optional contact enrichment on top.
switch402 search, if you do not want an Exa account
/v1/search is $0.008 per successful call in USDC on Base over x402, up to 10 ranked results, with no signup, key or prepaid credits. That is twice Exa Lite's $0.004 sticker and in line with Tavily pay as you go. It fits agents that cannot hold an Exa balance; it is not the cheaper per-search option.

Exa API rates (per 1,000, up to 10 results), as of Nov 10, 2026

Product	Base price	Extra results above 10	AI page summaries
Search lite or instant	$4 / 1k requests	$1 / 1k results	$1 / 1k pages (instant)
Search auto or fast	$7 / 1k requests	$1 / 1k results	$1 / 1k pages
Deep Search (deep / deep-lite)	$12 / 1k requests	see docs	see docs
Answer	$5 / 1k requests	—	—
Monitors	$2 / 1k requests	$1 / 1k results	$1 / 1k pages
Contents	$1 / 1k pages, per content type	—	$1 / 1k pages
switch402 /v1/search (for comparison)	$8 / 1k successful calls	not billed per extra result (max 10)	not offered

Free tier: $10 of credits that reset on the first of every month (up to 2,500 Lite searches) plus a $10 onboarding bonus; no payment method required. Deep-reasoning is listed at $15 per 1,000 in the docs as a legacy setting. Agent is separate (fixed $0.012–$1.00 per request, or metered auto / ultra with $5 and $20 default caps). Enterprise is $12,000 a year. Honest reading: Exa Lite is cheaper per search than switch402 /v1/search ($0.004 vs $0.008) and cheaper than Tavily pay as you go ($0.008) or Tavily Growth when fully used ($0.005). switch402 still charges $0 in months you run no searches and needs no Exa account or prepaid credits.

Sources, checked Nov 10, 2026: exa.ai/pricing, exa.ai/docs/pricing, tavily.com/pricing, docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits. Prices can change; check the source before you decide.

Example: 10,000 Lite searches in a month. Exa bills $40 and the $10 monthly free credit brings that to $30. The same 10,000 calls on switch402 /v1/search cost $80, with no account and no unused-credit risk. At 1,000 Lite searches, Exa stays inside the free $10 (up to 2,500). Tavily pay as you go would be $0 at 1,000 basic searches (free credits) and $72 at 10,000. Pick Exa if you can hold an API key and want the lower per-search rate; pick switch402 if your agent should pay per call without a vendor account.

Code example

Exa Lite search, $4 per 1,000 requests (curl)

curl -s -X POST https://api.exa.ai/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query": "x402 payment protocol", "type": "lite", "numResults": 10}'

Exa Contents, $1 per 1,000 pages (curl)

curl -s -X POST https://api.exa.ai/contents \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://example.com"], "text": true}'

switch402 search, $0.008 per call, no key (JavaScript)

// npm i @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem
import { wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.AGENT_KEY)
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPaymentFromConfig(fetch, {
  schemes: [{ network: 'eip155:8453', client: new ExactEvmScheme(account) }],
})

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://api.switch402.com/v1/search', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'User-Agent': 'my-agent/1.0' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ query: 'x402 payment protocol' }),
})
const { results } = await res.json() // up to 10 results, $0.008, charged only on success

FAQ

Is switch402 live?: Yes. POST https://api.switch402.com/v1/scrape with {"url": "..."} returns the page as markdown for $0.008 USDC on Base per call, paid over x402 and charged only on success. A lower-cost endpoint, /v1/scrape/lite, is $0.003 per call.
How much does Exa cost?: Checked Nov 10, 2026 on exa.ai/pricing and exa.ai/docs/pricing: no public monthly subscription. You get $10 of free credits a month (up to 2,500 Lite searches) plus a $10 onboarding bonus. Lite or instant search is $4 per 1,000 requests, Auto or fast $7, Deep $12, Contents $1 per 1,000 pages, Answer $5 per 1,000 requests, and Monitors $2 per 1,000 requests. Agent runs start at $0.012. Enterprise is $12,000 a year.
Did Exa Monitors move to $2?: Yes, as of this check. On Nov 10, 2026, both exa.ai/pricing and the Exa pricing docs list Monitors at $2 per 1,000 requests, with $1 per 1,000 extra results above 10 and $1 per 1,000 pages for summaries. Always re-check the live pricing page; this is not a permanent price lock.
Is Exa cheaper than Tavily?: On Lite, yes. Exa Lite is $0.004 per search, below Tavily's $0.008 pay-as-you-go credit and below Tavily Growth at $0.005 per credit when the 100,000-credit pool is fully used. Tavily's free 1,000 credits a month still cover low volume at $0. See Exa vs Tavily pricing for the side-by-side table.
Is switch402 cheaper than Exa?: No, not on Lite or Auto search. switch402 /v1/search is $0.008 per successful call; Exa Lite is $0.004 and Auto is $0.007, and Exa also gives $10 of free credit a month. switch402 costs less only if you would otherwise leave prepaid Exa credits unused, or if your agent cannot hold an Exa account. It still charges $0 in months with no searches.
Does Exa have a free plan?: Yes. Starter is free: $10 of credits every month that reset on the first of the month, a $10 onboarding bonus, and no payment method required. That covers up to 2,500 Lite searches a month, or fewer Auto or Deep searches, or up to 10,000 Contents pages of one type, if you spend the $10 only on that product.
Where do these numbers come from?: Exa's public pricing page (exa.ai/pricing) and pricing docs (exa.ai/docs/pricing, which redirects to the admin pricing docs), fetched Nov 10, 2026, plus Tavily's public pricing and API credits docs for the comparison lines, and switch402's live payment terms. Prices can change; check the sources before you decide.