Exa vs MiniMax
Exa and MiniMax are both AI assistants tools. Exa is aimed at developers and enterprise, while MiniMax is aimed at developers and small businesses. Both have a free plan.
Web search and content API built for AI agents and LLM apps
Low-cost agentic coding models, video and speech via API and M Plan
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium · $22 |
| Starting price | Not published | $22/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers, Enterprise, Small businesses | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise, Creators |
| Platforms | web | web, macos, windows, linux, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2021 | — · 2022 |
| 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 MiniMax if
Developers and cost-sensitive teams that run agentic coding and automation workloads and want low token prices behind Anthropic- or OpenAI-style APIs.
- Very low token prices for agentic coding workloads
- Drop-in base URL for tools built on the Anthropic SDK
- One platform covers text, video, speech and image generation
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need top-tier frontier models with mature enterprise admin and compliance controls (Claude, Gemini).
Exa vs MiniMax 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
MiniMax
- MiniMax Code Free$0Limited M3.1 Flash, image and speech use in MiniMax Code
- M3.1 Flash API$0.15/1M input tokensOutput $0.60/1M, cached input $0.015/1M; pay-as-you-go
- M3 API$0.30/1M input tokensUp to 512k input, after permanent 50% off; output $1.20/1M
- M Plan Go$22/moM3.1 Flash, image and speech models; $220 billed yearly
- M Plan Explore$55/mo3x Go usage, adds H3 video; $550 billed yearly
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
MiniMax · Key features
- MiniMax-M3.1-Flash at $0.15 input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens
- 1M-token context window on M3.1 Flash and M3
- Effort setting on M3.1 Flash, from low to max, to trade thinking depth for cost
- Anthropic- and OpenAI-compatible endpoints, plus the Responses API
- M Plan key usable in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode
- MiniMax Code agent on web, desktop, CLI, iOS and Android
Cons
- M Plan is for individual interactive use, not production traffic
- Usage resets in 5-hour and weekly windows that can cut sessions short
- M2.5 and M2.7 retire on November 18, 2026, forcing migrations
Exa vs MiniMax: FAQ
Do Exa and MiniMax have a free plan?
Yes, both Exa and MiniMax have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.