Exa vs Insomnia
Exa and Insomnia are both developer tools tools. Exa is aimed at developers and enterprise, while Insomnia is aimed at developers and small businesses. Both have a free plan.
Web search and content API built for AI agents and LLM apps
Open-source API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and MCP from Kong
| Pricing | Freemium | Open source · $12 |
| Starting price | Not published | $12/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 14 days |
| Built for | Developers, Enterprise, Small businesses | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | macos, windows, linux |
| Country | US · 2021 | US · 2015 |
| Rating | — | — |
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).
Choose Insomnia if
Developers who want a fast, local-first, open-source API client with Git-based collaboration.
- Open-source core under the Apache 2.0 license
- Local-first storage keeps sensitive requests off the cloud
- Clean, fast interface that is lighter than Postman
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need a full API platform with published docs and broad workspace collaboration (Postman, Apidog, Stoplight).
Exa vs Insomnia pricing
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
Insomnia
- Essentials$0Local, Git and cloud projects; Git Sync for up to 3 users
- Pro$12/user/mo$10 billed annually; unlimited users, RBAC, 10K mock requests
- Enterprise$45/user/moSelf-serve up to 50 users; SSO, SCIM, storage policies
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
Insomnia · Key features
- Requests for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE and Socket.IO
- MCP client for testing Model Context Protocol servers
- OpenAPI design editor with live preview and linting
- Local, Git or end-to-end encrypted cloud storage per project
- Collection runner with pre- and post-request scripts and tests
- Mock servers built from specs, responses or plain-language prompts
Cons
- Collaboration and API documentation features trail Postman
- Free Git Sync is limited to 3 users
- Past login and sync changes hurt community trust
Exa vs Insomnia: FAQ
Do Exa and Insomnia have a free plan?
Yes, both Exa and Insomnia have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.