Pick Context7 if
coding-agent users who keep hitting stale training-data APIs.
Read the Context7 pageContext7 vs Exa
Our take
Pick Context7 if you're coding-agent users who keep hitting stale training-data APIs. Pick Exa if you're a developer wiring retrieval into an agent who will pay per 1k requests. Skip Context7 if you're people who want ranked web search (Exa) or a full-site crawler (Firecrawl). Skip Exa if you're people who want a cited answer box without an API (Perplexity) or a scrape-to-markdown crawler (Firecrawl).
Best for
Context7 Up-to-date library docs inside the agent
Exa Ranked web results plus page contents in one request
Free plan
Context7 $0 · mIT. Local npx @upstash/context7-mcp or npx ctx7 setup
Exa $0 · $10 credits on signup; balance resets to $10 on the 1st of each month. No payment method required. First-team onboarding bonus +$10 one-time (docs)
Lowest paid
Context7 Not published by the vendor
Exa Agent (fixed effort) $0.012
Next step up
Context7
Exa `/contents` $1
Coding agent
Context7 Claude Code (paid plans)
Exa Search playground
Runs where
Context7 Hosted
Exa
Watch out
Context7 A free key is recommended
Exa Credits are prepaid dollars
Last checked
Context7 2026-11-01 · github.com/upstash/context7
Exa 2026-10-21 · exa.ai/docs/admin/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Exa if
developers wiring retrieval into an agent who will pay per 1k requests.
Read the Exa page