Exa alternative for AI agents

Looking for a search API that combines semantic search with specialised data? Valyu provides Exa-style semantic search plus dedicated datasets, such as SEC filings, PubMed, clinical trials, patents and market data, that a web index alone doesn’t cover.

Valyu vs Exa comparison

Feature	Valyu	Exa
Semantic search	Yes	Yes
Web search	Yes	Yes
Proprietary and licensed data sources	Web + specialised datasets	Limited
Academic papers	Dedicated PubMed, arXiv, bioRxiv and medRxiv indexes	Web index (`publication` category)
SEC filings	3M+ filings, indexed by section	Web index (`financial report` category)
Clinical trials	530K+ trials from ClinicalTrials.gov	Web results only
Financial data	Stocks, earnings, financial statements, crypto, forex	Web results and company entity data
Drug databases	ChEMBL, PubChem, Open Targets, FDA drug labels	No
Patent search	14M+ USPTO and EPO patents	Web results only
Economic data	FRED, BLS, World Bank, IMF	Web results only

“Web results only” means the provider can return public web pages on the topic but does not offer a dedicated, filterable dataset for it.

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Specialised data access

Exa excels at neural search over the web. Valyu adds datasets that aren’t fully covered by a web index:

PubMed, bioRxiv and medRxiv - Biomedical literature, with full text where available
3M+ SEC filings - Corporate disclosures, searchable by section
530K+ clinical trials - Study protocols and outcomes
2.4M+ ChEMBL compounds - Drug discovery and bioactivity data
14M+ patents - USPTO and EPO records for IP and prior art search
Licensed journals - Wiley health, life sciences and finance content (on request)

2. Better for specialised domains

For AI agents in finance, healthcare or research, you need more than web search:

from valyu import Valyu

valyu = Valyu()

# Semantic search across specialised biomedical data
response = valyu.search(
    "CRISPR delivery mechanisms for therapeutic gene editing",
    included_sources=["valyu/valyu-pubmed", "valyu/valyu-clinical-trials"],
    max_num_results=20
)

3. Structured data support

Valyu returns structured data alongside unstructured content:

# Get structured financial data
response = valyu.search(
    "NVIDIA quarterly revenue 2024",
    included_sources=["valyu/valyu-earnings-US"]
)

# Returns structured JSON with revenue figures
print(response.results[0].content)

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

DeepResearch runs multi-step research on top of Valyu search and returns a cited report. Pick a mode for the depth you need, from instant (a cited answer in under 30 seconds) to max (up to 90 minutes), and request up to 10 deliverables as CSV, XLSX, PPTX, DOCX or PDF files.

When to choose Valyu over Exa

Choose Valyu if you need:

Domain-specific data - Healthcare, finance, academic and patents
Specialised and licensed sources - Data that sits behind paywalls and APIs rather than on the open web
Structured data - Financial metrics, clinical trial records and drug properties
Full-text academic search - Paper content where available, not only abstracts
Deep research - Multi-step research with cited reports and file deliverables

Exa may fit if you only need:

Neural search over publicly available web content

Code comparison

from valyu import Valyu

valyu = Valyu()

# Search web + specialised sources
response = valyu.search(
    "transformer attention mechanisms",
    search_type="all",
    max_num_results=10
)

for result in response.results:
    print(f"Title: {result.title}")
    print(f"Source: {result.source}")  # Shows web vs dataset
    print(f"Content: {result.content[:200]}...")

# Exa searches its web index
from exa_py import Exa

exa = Exa(api_key="...")

response = exa.search(
    "transformer attention mechanisms",
    num_results=10
)

Benchmark performance

Valyu outperforms alternatives on domain-specific benchmarks:

Benchmark	Valyu	Exa	Google
FreshQA (time-sensitive)	79%	24%	39%
SimpleQA (factual)	94%	91%	38%
Finance	73%	63%	55%
MedAgent (medical)	48%	44%	45%

Pricing

On Valyu, Search, Contents and DeepResearch draw from one credit balance. Search charges per result returned, priced by source: a web search that returns 10 results uses 1 credit. DeepResearch tasks start at 8 credits in instant mode. See pricing for plans and per-source prices.

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Comparisons

Exa alternative for AI agents

Valyu vs Exa comparison

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Specialised data access

2. Better for specialised domains

3. Structured data support

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

When to choose Valyu over Exa

Code comparison

Benchmark performance

Pricing

Get started

Quickstart

Data sources

Get started free

​Valyu vs Exa comparison

​Why teams switch to Valyu

​1. Specialised data access

​2. Better for specialised domains

​3. Structured data support

​4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

​When to choose Valyu over Exa

​Code comparison

​Benchmark performance

​Pricing

​Get started

Quickstart

Data sources

Get started free

Valyu vs Exa comparison

Why teams switch to Valyu

1. Specialised data access

2. Better for specialised domains

3. Structured data support

4. Research reports and quick answers from the same API

When to choose Valyu over Exa

Code comparison

Benchmark performance

Pricing

Get started