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What Are Websets?

A Webset starts with a natural-language query and a target item count. Add criteria that every result must satisfy and enrichment fields to populate for each accepted item. Results arrive asynchronously through the dashboard, API, or webhooks. You can also build websets visually in the Dashboard, no code required.
Starting a new list-building or enrichment workflow? Use Exa Agent. Use this guide to maintain or extend an existing Websets integration. The Websets API requires a paid Websets plan; Search API credits and Websets credits are separate.

How It Works

  1. Define a search: Provide a natural-language query, a result count, and optional verification criteria and enrichments.
  2. Search and verify: Websets finds candidates and checks each one against your criteria. Only matching results become items.
  3. Run enrichments: For each verified item, Websets searches for the additional data you requested, such as a CEO name, funding amount, or contact information.
  4. Receive results: Poll for status, use webhooks for updates, or check the dashboard as items arrive.

Choosing a result count

count is a target, not a guarantee. Websets keeps searching until it has found that many items that pass every criterion, or until it runs out of candidates that could match, so the final item count can be lower than requested. Small websets finish in minutes; requests for 1,000+ items scan a much larger candidate pool and take significantly longer. The Free plan caps a webset at 25 verified results.
For large or exhaustive lists, use Agent Ultra. It runs Exa Agent at its highest effort, accepts a budget (maxCostDollars, maxDurationSeconds) so you control cost and duration, and returns what it has found when the budget is reached.

Key Capabilities

Human Quickstart

Get your Exa API key

Create a key in the dashboard. New accounts start with free credits.
Install the SDK:
Then make your first request:
See Zero Data Retention for product availability.

Plans and credits

Websets is billed in Websets credits, which are separate from Search API credits. Verified results, enrichments, contact data, imports, and API previews each consume credits; current rates, plan comparison, and top-ups are on your Websets billing page. Exa Agent is billed pay-as-you-go from your API account instead — see Agent pricing.

Not getting enough results?

Websets only returns items that pass every criterion, so a short or empty webset usually means the search is over-constrained rather than broken.
  • Loosen the narrowest criterion. Remove or broaden the most restrictive rule and search again. Each criterion should be verifiable from public web pages.
  • Ask for a list, not an answer. Websets finds entities that match attributes. Open-ended questions (“how is the European economy doing?”) and single-fact lookups belong in Search.
  • Split rare intersections. Find the broader set first, then capture the rare attribute as an enrichment instead of a criterion.
  • Widen without starting over. Use Find more results in the dashboard, or create another search on the same webset.
If the list needs multi-step research — find entities, then verify hard-to-check criteria for each one — Exa Agent runs that loop for you. See Writing list-building and enrichment queries.

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Last modified on September 24, 2026