The best web search MCP servers for Claude, Cursor, and Cline

Oct 19, 2026

AI assistants such as Claude, Cursor, and Cline become far more useful when they can search the web for current, relevant information. Model Context Protocol servers provide that connection, but their features, hosting models, and setup requirements differ widely.

At Exa, we run a hosted search MCP server, Exa MCP.

This guide compares eight web search servers on hosting, API keys, free allowances, and tools, then covers choosing one.

Web search MCP servers compared

Three of the eight servers are hosted, and three need no API key.

Server	Hosting	API key	Free allowance	Main tools
Exa MCP	Hosted (`https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp`)	Optional (`x-api-key` header)	Free, rate-limited without a key	Search (`web_search_exa`), fetch full pages (`web_fetch_exa`)
Tavily MCP	Hosted or local	Required	1,000 API credits a month	Search, extract, map, crawl
Brave Search MCP Server	Local	Required (`BRAVE_API_KEY`)	$5 in credits a month	Web, news, image, video, and local search
Serper MCP Server	Local	Required (`SERPER_API_KEY`)	2,500 queries for new accounts	Google search, scrape
Perplexity MCP Server	Hosted (`https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp`)	Required	—	Search (`perplexity_search`), ask (`perplexity_ask`)
DuckDuckGo MCP Server	Local	None	Free, rate-limited by the server	Search, fetch page content
WebSearch-MCP	Local	None	Free, with a crawler you run	Search through your crawler
Open-WebSearch	Local	None	Free	Multi-engine search (Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Exa, and other engines), fetch article content

Choosing a web search MCP server

Hosted servers (Exa, Tavily, Perplexity) need no install and update themselves. Local servers give more control, but setup and updates are on you.

For token-efficient highlights with a full-page fallback, use Exa MCP.
For Google results, use Serper MCP Server.
For image or video search, use Brave Search MCP Server.
For answers rather than ranked results, you might like Perplexity MCP Server's perplexity_ask.
For crawling tools, use Tavily MCP.
For keyless local search, use DuckDuckGo MCP Server or Open-WebSearch.
To run your own crawler, use WebSearch-MCP.

Our search tool, web_search_exa, requests highlights by default: query-relevant passages with source URLs that use up to 17 times fewer tokens than full-page text. When they aren't enough, the assistant calls web_fetch_exa to read the full page. Both tools are on by default.

Setting up Exa MCP in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Cline

Choose a connection method once, then follow your client's block.

Connection method. The plain URL https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp works without a key at free rate limits. Add ?login to sign in with OAuth, or send your key in an x-api-key header for your plan's limits.

Claude Code. Install the plugin with claude plugin install exa@claude-plugins-official, or add Exa as a remote server with claude mcp add --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp.

Claude Desktop and web. Select the plus button in a new chat, choose Add connector, search for Exa, and select Connect to Claude.

Cursor. Install Exa from the Cursor marketplace, or add this entry to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or a project's .cursor/mcp.json (that project only).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Cline. Add Exa to Cline's mcpServers block. Include "type": "streamableHttp"; without it, Cline falls back to legacy SSE.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Then start a new session and ask something that needs current information.

FAQ

Will connecting several search servers fill Claude Code's context window?

Not by default. Claude Code's tool search loads only tool names and server instructions at session start; Claude fetches a tool's full definition when it needs it. Setting ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH to auto loads tools upfront until their definitions reach 10% of the context window, then defers them all. Tool search requires Claude Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5, Opus 4.5, or later.

Can I use a web search MCP server in ChatGPT?

Yes, if the server is available there. Exa is an official plugin in OpenAI's directory for ChatGPT and Codex and includes our hosted MCP server.