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Overview

Endpoint: POST https://api.exa.ai/search. News search is integrated into the main search endpoint. No category parameter needed. What it searches: Real-time index of web news sources including major publications, trade press, and niche outlets. Semantic search returns results ranked by topical relevance.

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Minimal Working Example

curl -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"query": "AI regulation updates", "type": "auto", "contents": {"highlights": {"maxCharacters": 4000}}}'

from exa_py import Exa
exa = Exa(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
result = exa.search("AI regulation updates", type="auto", contents={"highlights": {"max_characters": 4000}})

import Exa from "exa-js";
const exa = new Exa("YOUR_API_KEY");
const result = await exa.search("AI regulation updates", { type: "auto", contents: { highlights: { maxCharacters: 4000 } } });

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Supported Parameters

News search is integrated into the main search endpoint. All standard search parameters are supported:
ParameterTypeNotes
querystringNatural language. Topic, company, person, or event.
typestring"auto" recommended. All search types supported.
numResultsinteger1–100. Default 10.
includeDomainsstring[]Restrict to specific publications (e.g. ["reuters.com", "techcrunch.com"]).
excludeDomainsstring[]Exclude specific sources.
startPublishedDatestringISO 8601. Limits to recent articles.
endPublishedDatestringISO 8601. Upper bound on publication date.
contentsobjecttext, highlights, summary, all nested under contents.

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Query Patterns

Industry news: 
"AI startup funding announcements"
"semiconductor supply chain disruptions"
Company-specific coverage: 
"OpenAI product launches"
"Tesla quarterly earnings results"
Geopolitical events: 
"trade policy changes US China"
"climate summit agreements 2026"
Time-bounded monitoring: 
{
  "query": "cybersecurity breaches",
  "type": "auto",
  "numResults": 20
}

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Common Mistakes

WrongCorrect
Vague queries like "news"Be specific: "AI regulation updates in the European Union". The more specific the query, the better the news results.

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Patterns and Gotchas

  • News search is integrated into the main search endpoint. No category parameter needed. Just use descriptive news-related queries with type: "auto".
  • includeDomains controls source quality. For trusted sources, restrict to ["reuters.com", "bbc.com", "nytimes.com"]. For trade press, use ["techcrunch.com", "theverge.com"].
  • Use highlights for agent workflows. News articles are verbose. Highlights extract the key facts and quotes.
  • Python SDK uses snake_case. numResults → num_results, maxCharacters → max_characters.
  • News works well with deep search. Use type: "deep" with outputSchema to extract structured event summaries, sentiment, or entity mentions from news results.