MCP server · Docs and web search
Exa MCP server
Lets an assistant search the web with Exa and read pages as clean Markdown, with optional multi-step research.
- Maintainer
- Exa (official)
- Licence
- MIT
- Runs
- Remote (URL)
- Sign-in
- Optional token
- Last activity
- 2026-10-07
Overview
What it does
Exa’s MCP server connects assistants to the Exa search engine. The recommended setup is the hosted endpoint, which works anonymously at rate-limited levels; signing in with OAuth or adding an API key raises the limits. The same code is published on npm as exa-mcp-server.
By default it loads two tools: web_search_exa returns search results with ready-to-use page content, and web_fetch_exa reads one or more known URLs as Markdown. You can opt in to web_search_advanced_exa, which adds domain, date, category and text filters, summaries, highlights and subpage crawling, and to agent_run, which runs an Exa Agent for multi-step research and structured output and needs authentication. Tools are chosen with a tools query parameter on the URL, which replaces the defaults. It suits research tasks where you want full page text in one call rather than a list of links.
Tools
What the assistant can do
- Web search that returns clean page content
- Fetch one or more URLs as Markdown
- Advanced search with domain, date and category filters and subpage crawling (opt-in)
- Exa Agent runs for multi-step research and structured output (opt-in, needs sign-in)
Install
Install Exa MCP server in your app
You need:
- An MCP client that supports remote HTTP servers
- An Exa account (OAuth) or API key for higher limits and Exa Agent (optional)
Run in your project. --scope local keeps the servers private to you in this project; use user for every project.
claude mcp add --scope local --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
- exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask (run /mcp in Claude Code).
Project root. Commit it to share the servers with your team; each person sets the variables in their own shell.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
- exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask (run /mcp in Claude Code).
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config). Restart Claude after saving.
{
"mcpServers": {}
}
- exa is a remote server: add it as a custom connector (Customize → Connectors → + Add → Add custom connector; on Team and Enterprise plans an owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors), with the URL https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp.
In your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
- exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask.
In your workspace. VS Code asks for each secret the first time a server starts and stores it securely.
{
"servers": {
"exa": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
- exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask.
macOS/Linux: ~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\devin\mcp_config.json. Read by the default Devin Local agent and by the legacy Cascade agent.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
}
}
}
- exa: if the server needs a sign-in, the app will ask.
Want it alongside other servers? Open Exa MCP Server in the MCP config generator and add the rest; it writes one file per app. The snippets follow the setup in the server’s README, checked on 2026-10-14.
Before you install
- Queries and fetched URLs are sent to Exa’s hosted service; it cannot reach your local files.
- Fetched page content can contain prompt-injection text, so review actions an assistant takes based on it.
- If you use an API key, send it as an x-api-key or Authorization header rather than in the URL, and note agent_run usage is billed to your Exa team.
- A remote server sees whatever the assistant sends it. Sign in with the narrowest access the service offers. See how to choose a safe server.
Why it’s listed
Why we list it
A key-less, well-maintained search server that returns full page text, built and hosted by Exa.
Related
More MCP servers
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- Brave Search MCP ServerLets an assistant search the web, news, images, videos and local places through the Brave Search API.
- Tavily MCP ServerLets an assistant search the web in real time, extract page content, and map or crawl a website through Tavily.
- Firecrawl MCP ServerLets an assistant scrape, search, map and crawl websites through Firecrawl and get clean Markdown or structured JSON back.
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