Search API Reference

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Overview

Endpoint: POST https://api.exa.ai/search Auth: Pass your API key via the x-api-key header. Get one at https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys

Installation

pip install exa-py    # Python
npm install exa-js    # JavaScript

Minimal Working Example

curl -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"query": "latest developments in LLMs", "contents": {"highlights": true}}'

from exa_py import Exa
exa = Exa()
result = exa.search("latest developments in LLMs", contents={"highlights": True})

import Exa from "exa-js";
const exa = new Exa();
const result = await exa.search("latest developments in LLMs", {
  contents: { highlights: true },
});

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`query`	string	(required)	Natural language search query. Supports long, semantically rich descriptions.
`type`	string	`"auto"`	Search method: `auto`, `fast`, `instant`, `deep-lite`, `deep`, `deep-reasoning`.
`stream`	boolean	`false`	If `true`, returns `text/event-stream` with OpenAI-compatible chat completion chunks instead of a JSON body.
`numResults`	integer	`10`	Number of results (1-100).
`category`	string	—	Focus on specific content: `company`, `people`, `research paper`, `news`, `personal site`, `financial report`.
`userLocation`	string	—	Two-letter ISO country code (e.g. `"US"`).
`includeDomains`	string[]	—	Only return results from these domains. Max 1200.
`excludeDomains`	string[]	—	Exclude results from these domains. Max 1200.
`startPublishedDate`	string	—	ISO 8601 date. Only return links published after this date.
`endPublishedDate`	string	—	ISO 8601 date. Only return links published before this date.
`moderation`	boolean	`false`	Filter unsafe content from results.
`additionalQueries`	string[]	—	Extra query variations for deep-search variants. Used alongside the main query.
`systemPrompt`	string	—	Instructions guiding synthesized output and, for deep-search variants, search planning.
`outputSchema`	object	—	JSON schema for synthesized `output.content`. When provided, the response includes `output`. See Output Schema section.
`compliance`	string	—	Enterprise-only compliance mode. Set to `"hipaa"` for HIPAA mode. HIPAA search requests fail closed if the resolved search path requires live retrieval, keyword/SERP-backed retrieval, summaries, or any other non-HIPAA-safe processor path.

Contents Parameters (nested under `contents`)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`contents.text`	boolean or object	—	Return full page text as markdown. Object form: `{maxCharacters, includeHtmlTags, verbosity, includeSections, excludeSections}`.
`contents.highlights`	boolean or object	—	Return key excerpts relevant to query. Pass `true` for the highest-quality default. Object form: `{query, maxCharacters}` — use `query` to guide which highlights are returned, `maxCharacters` to cap the budget.
`contents.summary`	boolean or object	—	Return LLM-generated summary. Object form: `{query, schema}`.
`contents.livecrawlTimeout`	integer	`10000`	Timeout for livecrawling in milliseconds.
`contents.maxAgeHours`	integer	—	Max age of cached content in hours. `0` = always livecrawl. `-1` = never livecrawl. Omit for default (livecrawl as fallback).
`contents.subpages`	integer	`0`	Number of subpages to crawl per result.
`contents.subpageTarget`	string or string[]	—	Keywords to prioritize when selecting subpages.
`contents.extras.links`	integer	`0`	Number of URLs to extract from each page.
`contents.extras.imageLinks`	integer	`0`	Number of image URLs to extract from each page.

Text Object Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`maxCharacters`	integer	—	Character limit for returned text.
`includeHtmlTags`	boolean	`false`	Preserve HTML tags in output.
`verbosity`	string	`"compact"`	`compact`, `standard`, or `full`. Should use `maxAgeHours: 0` for fresh content.
`includeSections`	string[]	—	Only include these page sections: `header`, `navigation`, `banner`, `body`, `sidebar`, `footer`, `metadata`. Should use `maxAgeHours: 0` for fresh content.
`excludeSections`	string[]	—	Exclude these page sections. Same options as `includeSections`. Should use `maxAgeHours: 0` for fresh content.

Highlights Object Options

Prefer highlights: true for the highest-quality default. Only supply this object when you specifically need to guide selection with a custom query or cap output size.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`query`	string	—	Custom query that guides which highlights are returned.
`maxCharacters`	integer	—	Cap on total highlight characters per URL. Omit unless you have a specific budget — leaving it unset gives the highest-quality default.

Summary Object Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`query`	string	—	Custom query for the summary.
`schema`	object	—	JSON Schema for structured summary output.

Token Efficiency

Choosing the right content mode can significantly reduce token usage while maintaining answer quality.

Mode	Best For
`text`	Deep analysis, when you need full context, broad research
`highlights`	Factual questions, specific lookups, multi-step agent workflows
`summary`	Quick overviews, structured extraction, when you want tighter output size control

Use highlights for agent workflows. When building multi-step agents that make repeated search calls, highlights provide the most relevant excerpts without flooding context windows. For real-time information, set contents.maxAgeHours: 0 to force livecrawl, knowing that this may increase latency.

{
  "query": "What is the current Fed interest rate?",
  "contents": {
    "highlights": true,
    "maxAgeHours": 0
  }
}

Use full text for deep research. When the task requires deeper understanding or when you’re unsure which parts of the page matter, request full text and cap it with maxCharacters.

{
  "query": "detailed analysis of transformer architecture innovations",
  "numResults": 5,
  "contents": {
    "text": {
      "maxCharacters": 15000
    }
  }
}

Combine modes strategically. You can request both highlights and text together. Use highlights for quick answers and fall back to full text only when needed.

Search Types

auto (default): Balance of speed and quality
fast: Low latency. Optimized search models. Good balance of speed and quality.
instant: Lowest latency. Optimized for real-time apps (e.g., chat, voice)
deep-lite: Lightweight synthesized output with lower latency than the deeper research modes
deep: Multi-step search with reasoning and structured outputs
deep-reasoning: Deep search with maximum reasoning capability for every step

If you encounter older docs or responses that mention neural, treat that as legacy terminology rather than the recommended setting for new code. Start with auto unless you have a specific latency or synthesis requirement.

Latency Characteristics

Approximate latency by type (hardcoded ballparks — same values surfaced in the dashboard latency slider). Synthesis (outputSchema) and forced livecrawls (contents.maxAgeHours: 0) stack on top of the base type.

`type`	Approx latency	Notes
`instant`	~250 ms	Real-time apps (chat, voice, autocomplete).
`fast`	~450 ms	Optimized search models with good relevance.
`auto` (default)	~1 second	Balanced mode that optimizes for both quality and speed. Recommended for most applications.
`deep-lite`	4 seconds	Lightweight synthesis; cheaper than full `deep`.
`deep`	4-15 seconds	Multi-step planning with structured outputs.
`deep-reasoning`	12-40 seconds	Deep search with maximum reasoning capability per step.

Modifiers that stack on top of the base type:

Modifier	Effect on latency
`outputSchema` present	Adds synthesis latency on top of the base `type`. Applies to every search type — not just `deep` variants.
`contents.maxAgeHours: 720`	Returns cached version if page was crawled before this many hours. Cached contents are much faster than live crawling

If you’re optimizing a real-time path, start with type: "fast" or "instant", omit outputSchema, omit maxAgeHours, and add them back only when the use case requires synthesis, structure, or fresh content.

Category	Best For	Restrictions
`company`	Company pages, LinkedIn company profiles	Does NOT support: `startPublishedDate`, `endPublishedDate`, `excludeDomains`.
`people`	Multi-source people data, LinkedIn profiles	Does NOT support: `startPublishedDate`, `endPublishedDate`, `excludeDomains`.
`research paper`	Academic papers, arXiv	—
`news`	Current events, journalism	—
`personal site`	Blogs, personal pages	—
`financial report`	SEC filings, earnings reports	—

Output Schema

For any search type, use outputSchema to control the shape of output.content:

{"type": "text", "description": "..."} — returns plain text output
{"type": "object", "properties": {...}, "required": [...]} — returns structured JSON

Limits: max nesting depth 2, max total properties 10. Do NOT include citation fields in your schema — /search returns grounding data automatically in output.grounding.

Response Schema

{
  "requestId": "b5947044c4b78efa9552a7c89b306d95",
  "searchType": "auto",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Page Title",
      "url": "https://example.com/page",
      "id": "https://example.com/page",
      "publishedDate": "2024-01-15T00:00:00.000Z",
      "author": "Author Name",
      "image": "https://example.com/image.png",
      "favicon": "https://example.com/favicon.ico",
      "text": "Full page content as markdown...",
      "highlights": ["Key excerpt from the page..."],
      "highlightScores": [0.46],
      "summary": "LLM-generated summary...",
      "subpages": [],
      "extras": {
        "links": ["https://example.com/related"]
      }
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "content": "Synthesized answer or structured object (deep search only)",
    "grounding": [
      {
        "field": "content",
        "citations": [{ "url": "https://example.com", "title": "Source Title" }],
        "confidence": "high"
      }
    ]
  },
  "costDollars": {
    "total": 0.007
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
`requestId`	string	Unique request identifier.
`searchType`	string	Which search type was used (for `auto` queries).
`results`	array	List of result objects.
`results[].title`	string	Page title.
`results[].url`	string	Page URL.
`results[].id`	string	Document ID (same as URL). Use with `/contents` endpoint.
`results[].publishedDate`	string or null	Estimated publication date (YYYY-MM-DD format).
`results[].author`	string or null	Author if available.
`results[].image`	string	Associated image URL if available.
`results[].favicon`	string	Favicon URL for the domain.
`results[].text`	string	Full page text (if `contents.text` requested).
`results[].highlights`	string[]	Key excerpts (if `contents.highlights` requested).
`results[].highlightScores`	float[]	Cosine similarity scores for each highlight.
`results[].summary`	string	LLM summary (if `contents.summary` requested).
`results[].subpages`	array	Nested results from subpage crawling.
`results[].extras.links`	string[]	Extracted links from the page.
`output`	object	Synthesized output object (returned when `outputSchema` is provided).
`output.content`	string or object	Synthesized answer. String by default, object when `outputSchema` is provided.
`output.grounding`	array	Field-level citations and confidence labels.
`output.grounding[].field`	string	Field path (e.g. `"content"`, `"companies[0].funding"`).
`output.grounding[].citations`	array	Sources: `{url, title}`.
`output.grounding[].confidence`	string	`"low"`, `"medium"`, or `"high"`.
`costDollars.total`	float	Total dollar cost for the request.

Streaming Response

When stream: true, /search returns text/event-stream instead of a JSON body. Each data: frame contains an OpenAI-compatible chat.completion.chunk payload. Read partial text from choices[0].delta.content. Example chunk shape:

{
  "object": "chat.completion.chunk",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "delta": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "..."
      },
      "finish_reason": null
    }
  ]
}

Error Handling

HTTP Status	Meaning
400	Bad request — invalid parameters, unsupported filter for category.
401	Invalid or missing API key.
422	Validation error — check parameter types and constraints.
429	Rate limit exceeded.
500	Internal server error.

Error response shape:

{
  "error": "Error message describing the issue"
}

Common Mistakes

LLMs frequently generate these incorrect parameters. Do NOT use any of the following:

Wrong	Correct
`useAutoprompt: true`	Remove it. `useAutoprompt` is deprecated and does nothing.
`includeUrls` / `excludeUrls`	Use `includeDomains` / `excludeDomains` instead. There are no URL-level include/exclude filters.
`text: true` (top-level)	Nest under `contents`: `"contents": {"text": true}`. The `/search` endpoint requires content params inside `contents`.
`summary: true` (top-level)	Nest under `contents`: `"contents": {"summary": true}`. Same nesting rule as `text`.
`highlights: {...}` (top-level)	Nest under `contents`: `"contents": {"highlights": {...}}`.
`numSentences`	Remove it. This highlights parameter is deprecated. Use `highlights: true` instead.
`highlightsPerUrl`	Remove it. This highlights parameter is deprecated. Use `highlights: true` instead.
`tokensNum`	Remove it. This parameter does not exist. Use `contents.text.maxCharacters` to limit text length.
`livecrawl: "always"`	Use `contents.maxAgeHours: 0` instead. The `livecrawl` parameter is deprecated.
`excludeDomains` with `category: "company"` or `"people"`	Remove `excludeDomains`. These categories do not support `excludeDomains`, `startPublishedDate`, or `endPublishedDate`.

Remember: On the /search endpoint, text, highlights, and summary must all be nested inside the contents object. This is different from the /contents endpoint where they are top-level.

Patterns and Gotchas

Use highlights over text for agent workflows. Highlights return 10x fewer tokens with the most relevant excerpts. Pass highlights: true for the highest-quality default.
auto is almost always the right type. Only use fast/instant when latency matters more than quality, or a deep variant for complex multi-step queries.
maxAgeHours: 0 forces livecrawl on every result. This increases latency. Omit maxAgeHours for the default (livecrawl only when no cache exists).
category: "company" and category: "people" disable many filters. Date filters, text filters, and excludeDomains are not supported. Using them returns a 400 error.
outputSchema works with every search type. When you need more reasoning depth or more reliable synthesis, prefer deep-lite, deep, or deep-reasoning.
systemPrompt controls behavior, outputSchema controls shape. Use systemPrompt for instructions like “prefer official sources”; use outputSchema for the JSON structure you want.
stream: true switches /search to SSE mode. Expect OpenAI-compatible chat completion chunks, not a single JSON response body.
Python SDK uses snake_case — including dictionary keys. numResults → num_results, maxAgeHours → max_age_hours, outputSchema → output_schema, etc. This applies inside contents dicts too: contents={"text": {"max_characters": 4000}}, NOT {"text": {"maxCharacters": 4000}}. JavaScript SDK and raw JSON (cURL) use camelCase: contents: { text: { maxCharacters: 4000 } }.
Combine content modes. You can request text, highlights, and summary in the same call — all nested under contents.
useAutoprompt is deprecated. Do not include it in requests.

Complete Examples

Basic search with highlights

{
  "query": "recent breakthroughs in quantum computing",
  "type": "auto",
  "numResults": 5,
  "contents": {
    "highlights": true
  }
}

Domain-filtered news search

{
  "query": "AI regulation policy updates",
  "type": "auto",
  "category": "news",
  "numResults": 10,
  "includeDomains": ["reuters.com", "nytimes.com", "bbc.com"],
  "startPublishedDate": "2025-01-01",
  "contents": {
    "highlights": true
  }
}

Deep search with structured output

{
  "query": "compare the latest frontier AI model releases",
  "type": "deep",
  "systemPrompt": "Prefer official sources and avoid duplicate results",
  "outputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "required": ["models"],
    "properties": {
      "models": {
        "type": "array",
        "items": {
          "type": "object",
          "required": ["name", "notable_claims"],
          "properties": {
            "name": { "type": "string" },
            "notable_claims": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string" } }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Company research

{
  "query": "agtech companies in the US that have raised series A",
  "type": "auto",
  "category": "company",
  "numResults": 10,
  "contents": {
    "highlights": true
  }
}

API

Data

MCP

SDKs

Integrations

Admin

Additional Resources

Search API Reference

Overview

Installation

Minimal Working Example

Request Parameters

Contents Parameters (nested under `contents`)

Text Object Options

Highlights Object Options

Summary Object Options

Token Efficiency

Search Types

Latency Characteristics

Category Filters

Output Schema

Response Schema

Response Fields

Streaming Response

Error Handling

Common Mistakes

Patterns and Gotchas

Complete Examples

Basic search with highlights

Domain-filtered news search

Deep search with structured output

Company research

​Overview

​Installation

​Minimal Working Example

​Request Parameters

​Contents Parameters (nested under contents)

​Text Object Options

​Highlights Object Options

​Summary Object Options

​Token Efficiency

​Search Types

​Latency Characteristics

​Category Filters

​Output Schema

​Response Schema

​Response Fields

​Streaming Response

​Error Handling

​Common Mistakes

​Patterns and Gotchas

​Complete Examples

​Basic search with highlights

​Domain-filtered news search

​Deep search with structured output

​Company research

Overview

Installation

Minimal Working Example

Request Parameters

Contents Parameters (nested under `contents`)

Text Object Options

Highlights Object Options

Summary Object Options

Token Efficiency

Search Types

Latency Characteristics

Category Filters

Output Schema

Response Schema

Response Fields

Streaming Response

Error Handling

Common Mistakes

Patterns and Gotchas

Complete Examples

Basic search with highlights

Domain-filtered news search

Deep search with structured output

Company research