Microsoft Copilot vs Exa
Microsoft Copilot and Exa are both AI assistants tools. Microsoft Copilot is aimed at enterprise and small businesses, while Exa is aimed at developers and enterprise. Both have a free plan.
AI assistant inside Windows and Microsoft 365
Web search and content API built for AI agents and LLM apps
| Pricing | Freemium · $10 | Freemium |
| Starting price | $9.99/mo | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Enterprise, Small businesses | Developers, Enterprise, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, macos, windows, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 2023 | US · 2021 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Microsoft Copilot if
Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365.
- Deep integration where people already work
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance
- Uses organizational context
Look elsewhere if: Google Workspace teams (Gemini) or individuals who prefer ChatGPT or Claude.
Choose Exa if
Developers and AI teams who need a fast, controllable web search and content layer for agents, RAG or research products.
- Free $10 monthly credit grant with no card required
- Lite search at $4 per 1,000 requests suits high-volume agents
- Highlights cut token usage and LLM costs compared with full pages
Look elsewhere if: Non-technical users who want a finished answer engine or chat app rather than an API (Perplexity, You.com).
Microsoft Copilot vs Exa pricing
Microsoft Copilot
- Copilot (free)$0Limited free version subject to capacity
- Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99/mo$99.99/yr; Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
- Microsoft 365 Family$12.99/mo$129.99/yr; 1-6 people, AI for owner only
- Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99/mo$199.99/yr; extensive Copilot usage, agentic AI
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business$25.20/user/moAdd-on; $21 paid yearly (promo $18 to 31 Dec 2026)
Exa
- Free$0$10 in credits every month plus a one-time $10 onboarding bonus
- Search Lite$4/1,000 requestsUp to 10 results per request; $1 per 1k extra results
- Search Auto$7/1,000 requestsUp to 10 results per request; AI summaries $1 per 1k pages
- Deep Search$12/1,000 requestsdeep-lite (about 4 seconds) and deep (4 to 15 seconds) types
- Contents$1/1,000 pagesPer content type; prepaid credits, no subscription or minimum
Microsoft Copilot · Key features
- Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams
- Grounded in Microsoft Graph work data
- Meeting recaps and action items in Teams
- Copilot Studio for custom agents
- Enterprise data protection
- Free consumer Copilot with web grounding
Cons
- Per-user business add-on is expensive
- Quality depends on permissions and data hygiene
- Uneven experience across apps
Exa · Key features
- Search API with lite, auto, deep-lite and deep types on one independent index
- Dynamic Highlights that pass only the most relevant tokens to the model
- Contents API for full page text, highlights and AI summaries
- Agent API for cited research, list building and enrichment with structured output
- Coverage of people, companies, code, papers, ecommerce listings and local businesses
- Monitors for recurring searches and Websets for verified datasets
Cons
- No flat monthly plan, so spend rises directly with traffic
- Websets API needs a separate paid Websets plan and credits
- Benchmark leadership is reported by Exa itself
Microsoft Copilot vs Exa: FAQ
Do Microsoft Copilot and Exa have a free plan?
Yes, both Microsoft Copilot and Exa have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.