Exa vs Kai
Exa and Kai are both AI assistants tools. Exa is aimed at developers and enterprise, while Kai is aimed at freelancers and small businesses. Both have a free plan.
Web search and content API built for AI agents and LLM apps
AI executive assistant for email, meetings, calendar and tasks
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid · $20 |
| Starting price | Not published | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers, Enterprise, Small businesses | Freelancers, Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web, macos, android |
| Country | US · 2021 | CH |
| 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 Kai if
Founders, executives and consultants who want one assistant across email, meetings, calendar and tasks with approval before every action.
- Never sends or deletes without your confirmation
- No meeting bot joins your calls
- Free trial with no card and no time limit
Look elsewhere if: People who only need a fast email client or a meeting notepad (Superhuman, Granola).
Exa vs Kai 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
Kai
- Free trial$0One-time allowance, all features, no card, no time limit
- Base$20/moPer seat; base monthly allowance
- Pro$50/moPer seat; 5x Base allowance, includes Morgen Pro
- Ultra$100/moPer seat; 10x Base allowance, includes Morgen Pro
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
Kai · Key features
- Botless meeting capture with live transcripts
- Meeting summaries with owners, action items and drafted recap emails
- Email triage into needs reply, FYI and waiting for reply
- Reply drafts in your own writing style and follow-up nudges
- Unified Google and Outlook calendar timeline with a daily brief
- AI-ranked task list filled from meetings and email
Cons
- Usage allowances are not published in absolute terms
- Hitting the monthly allowance pauses work until you upgrade
- Full two-sided call capture needs the Mac app
Exa vs Kai: FAQ
Do Exa and Kai have a free plan?
Yes, both Exa and Kai have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.