Models and Modes Reference

Stable selection guidance for Exa search types and compatibility-layer model routing.

Canonical Docs Links

Base docs URL: https://exa.ai/docs
Search reference: /reference/search
OpenAI SDK compatibility: /reference/openai-sdk

Search Types

Exa’s primary search modes for new work:

Type	Use When	Tradeoff
`auto`	You want the default	Best general-purpose starting point
`fast`	Latency matters more than maximum synthesis quality	Lower latency
`instant`	Real-time UI and assistant flows	Lowest latency
`deep-lite`	You want lightweight synthesis	More reasoning than default modes
`deep`	You need deeper synthesized retrieval	Higher latency
`deep-reasoning`	You want the strongest research-style reasoning	Highest latency

How Output Controls Affect Behavior

outputSchema adds synthesis work and therefore adds latency across search types
systemPrompt guides synthesis behavior but does not replace schema control
maxAgeHours: 0 forces fresh crawling and can increase latency substantially

Do not choose a deep variant only because you want structured output. Choose it when the retrieval task itself needs more reasoning or multi-step synthesis. If you are optimizing for responsiveness, start with:

type: "fast" for coding or agent workflows, type: "instant" for real-time UX, or type: "auto" for general retrieval
no outputSchema
default freshness behavior

Then add deeper reasoning or stronger freshness only when the use case requires it.

Answer and Compatibility Models

In OpenAI-compatible flows, current model routing is:

Model	Typical Use
`exa`	Answer-style compatibility via `/chat/completions`
`exa-research`	Research-style compatibility
`exa-research-pro`	Higher-effort research-style compatibility

These are compatibility-layer names. Native Exa endpoint choice remains the more important design decision. Use deep-reasoning when:

the task needs multi-step synthesized retrieval
you want a current Exa-first path instead of the legacy research surface
you need a replacement for legacy /research/v1 structured output flows

Practical Defaults

General retrieval: type: "auto"
Fast coding or agent path: type: "fast" with highlights
Real-time UX: type: "instant" and minimal synthesis

​Models and Modes Reference

​Canonical Docs Links

​Search Types

​How Output Controls Affect Behavior

​Answer and Compatibility Models

​Practical Defaults