Get started with Exa

Python
JavaScript
cURL

1
Set up your API key
Get your API key from the Exa Dashboard and set it as an environment variable.
Create a file called .env in the root of your project and add the following line:
EXA_API_KEY=your api key without quotes
2
Install the SDK
Install the Python SDKs with pip. If you want to store your API key in a .env file, make sure to install the dotenv library.
pip install exa-py pip install openai pip install python-dotenv

Create your code

Once you’ve installed the SDKs, create a file called exa.py and add the code below.

Search and crawl
Answer
Chat Completions
Find similar links and get full text

Get a list of results and their full text content.

python

from exa_py import Exa
from dotenv import load_dotenv

import os

# Use .env to store your API key or paste it directly into the code
load_dotenv()
exa = Exa(os.getenv('EXA_API_KEY'))

result = exa.search(
  "An article about the state of AGI",
  type="auto",
  contents={
    "text": True
  }
)

print(result)

Get an answer to a question, grounded by citations from exa.

python

from exa_py import Exa
from dotenv import load_dotenv

import os

# Use .env to store your API key or paste it directly into the code
load_dotenv()
exa = Exa(os.getenv('EXA_API_KEY'))

result = exa.stream_answer(
  "What are the latest findings on gut microbiome's influence on mental health?",
  text=True,
)

for chunk in result:
  print(chunk, end='', flush=True)

Get a chat completion from exa.

python

from openai import OpenAI
from dotenv import load_dotenv

import os

# Use .env to store your API key or paste it directly into the code
load_dotenv()

client = OpenAI(
  base_url="https://api.exa.ai",
  api_key=os.getenv('EXA_API_KEY'),
)

completion = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="exa",
  messages = [
  {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
  {"role": "user", "content": "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"}
],

  extra_body={
    "text": True
  }
)
print(completion.choices[0].message.content)

Find similar links to a given URL and get the full text for each link.

python

from exa_py import Exa
from dotenv import load_dotenv

import os

load_dotenv()

exa = Exa(os.getenv('EXA_API_KEY'))

# get similar links to this post about AGI
result = exa.find_similar(
  "https://amistrongeryet.substack.com/p/are-we-on-the-brink-of-agi",
  exclude_domains = ["amistrongeryet.substack.com"],
  num_results = 3
)
urls = [link_data.url for link_data in result.results]

# get full text for each url
web_pages = exa.get_contents(
  urls,
  text=True
)

for web_page in web_pages.results:
  print(f"URL: {web_page.url}")
  print(f"Text snippet: {web_page.text[:500]} ...")
  print("-"*100)

1
Set up your API key
Get your API key from the Exa Dashboard and set it as an environment variable.
Create a file called .env in the root of your project and add the following line:
EXA_API_KEY=your api key without quotes
2
Install the SDK
Install the JavaScript SDK with npm. If you want to store your API key in a .env file, make sure to install the dotenv library.
npm install exa-js npm install openai npm install dotenv

Create your code

Once you’ve installed the SDK, create a file called exa.ts and add the code below.

Search and crawl
Answer
Chat Completions
Find similar links and get full text

Get a list of results and their full text content.

javascript

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import Exa from 'exa-js';

dotenv.config();

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

const result = await exa.search(
  "An article about the state of AGI",
  {
    type: "auto",
    contents: {
      text: true
    }
  }
);

// print the first result
console.log(result.results[0]);

Get an answer to a question, grounded by citations from exa.

javascript

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import Exa from 'exa-js';

dotenv.config();

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);
for await (const chunk of exa.streamAnswer(
  "What is the population of New York City?",
  {
    text: true
  }
)) {
  if (chunk.content) {
    process.stdout.write(chunk.content);
  }
  if (chunk.citations) {
    console.log("\nCitations:", chunk.citations);
  }
}

Get a chat completion from exa.

javascript

import OpenAI from "openai";
import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import Exa from 'exa-js';

dotenv.config();

const openai = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.exa.ai",
  apiKey: process.env.EXA_API_KEY,
});

async function main() {
  const completion = await openai.chat.completions.create({
    model: "exa",
    messages: [
      {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
      {"role": "user", "content": "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"}
    ],
    store: true,
    stream: true,
    extra_body: {
      text: true // include full text from sources
    }
  });

  for await (const chunk of completion) {
    console.log(chunk.choices[0].delta.content);
    }
}

main();

Find similar links to a given URL and get the full text for each link.

javascript

import Exa from 'exa-js';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config();

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

// Find similar links to this post about AGI
const result = await exa.findSimilar(
  "https://amistrongeryet.substack.com/p/are-we-on-the-brink-of-agi",
  {
    excludeDomains: ["amistrongeryet.substack.com"],
    numResults: 3
  }
);

const urls = result.results.map(linkData => linkData.url);

// Get full text for each URL
const webPages = await exa.getContents(urls, { text: true });

webPages.results.forEach(webPage => {
  console.log(`URL: ${webPage.url}`);
  console.log(`Text snippet: ${webPage.text.slice(0, 500)} ...`);
  console.log("-".repeat(100));
});

1
Set up your API key
Get your API key from the Exa Dashboard and set it as an environment variable:
export EXA_API_KEY='your-api-key-here'

Make your first API call

Pass one of the following commands to your terminal to make an API request.

Search and crawl
Answer
Chat Completions

Get a list of results and their full text content.

bash

curl --request POST \
    --url https://api.exa.ai/search \
    --header 'accept: application/json' \
    --header 'content-type: application/json' \
    --header "x-api-key: ${EXA_API_KEY}" \
    --data '
{
    "query": "An article about the state of AGI",
    "type": "auto",
    "contents": {
      "text": true
    }
}'

Get an answer to a question, grounded by citations from exa.

bash

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.exa.ai/answer \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: ${EXA_API_KEY}" \
  --data "{
    \"query\": \"What are the latest findings on gut microbiome's influence on mental health?\",
    \"text\": true
  }"

Get a chat completion from exa.

bash

curl https://api.exa.ai/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: ${EXA_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "model": "exa", 
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "system",
        "content": "You are a helpful assistant."
      },
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": "What are the latest developments in quantum computing?"
      }
    ],
    "extra_body": {
      "text": true
    }
  }'

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