Perigon vs Exa: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Perigon (4.5/5) edges ahead of Exa (4.0/5) overall. Perigon is the better choice for startups wanting enriched news with transparent tiers. Exa is the stronger option for RAG and agent builders needing semantic news retrieval. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Perigon vs Exa: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Perigon | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 | 2021 |
| HQ | Austin, Texas, USA | San Francisco, USA |
| Team size | 11–50 | 51–200 |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.0 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Published plans from $25 with enrichment and saved-query monitors included | Meaning-based search finds relevant pages even when the keywords differ |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Pay per request; free monthly credit |
| Entry price | $25/mo | $7 per 1,000 searches |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON, Python SDK |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia |
Perigon vs Exa: overview
Perigon
Perigon was founded in 2022 by Joshua Dziabiak and Josh Rickel, is based in Austin, Texas, and closed a $5 million seed round led by LiveOak Ventures in February 2024. The API collects from more than 230,000 sources (per company website; independently unverifiable) and returns articles with entities, topics, summaries and story clusters, plus Monitors that run saved queries on a schedule. All three plans are public: Individual at $25 a month for personal use, Startup at $250 with limited commercial rights, and Commercial at $1,250 with real-time data, an SLA and SSO. Below the Commercial tier, data carries a one-hour delay unless you buy the real-time add-on.
Exa
Exa Labs was founded in 2021 in San Francisco by Will Bryk and Jeff Wang under the name Metaphor, and raised an $85 million Series B led by Benchmark in September 2025. It runs its own embeddings-based web index. A request can be narrowed to the news category and can return cleaned page contents in the same call. As of 2026 the Search endpoint is listed at $7 per 1,000 requests with contents for the first 10 results included, and new accounts get $20 in credit. Exa is a general web search engine first, so small regional outlets and strict publication-date filters are weaker spots than in dedicated news APIs.
Features: Perigon vs Exa
| Capability | Perigon | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✗ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Licensed publisher content | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Perigon vs Exa
| Format / SDK | Perigon | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webhooks | ✓ | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | N/A | ✓ |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Perigon vs Exa
| Criterion | Perigon | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25/mo | $7 per 1,000 searches |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Pay per request; free monthly credit |
| Access models | Free trial, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise contract |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Budget |
Who each API suits: Perigon vs Exa
| Dimension | Perigon | Exa |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia |
| Example use cases | A startup building a news-aware product that needs commercial rights early. Brand or risk alerts driven by saved searches. | Grounding LLM answers with recent news pages. Research agents that need the most relevant articles on a topic. |
| How you get access | Free trial | Free tier |
Perigon vs Exa: pros and cons
| Perigon | |
|---|---|
| + | Even the $25 tier returns entity and topic data instead of bare headlines |
| + | Monitors turn a saved query into a recurring alert without extra code |
| + | The Commercial tier bundles a 10+ year archive, an SLA and SSO in one price |
| + | License terms spell out that you are buying the structured data, which helps legal review |
| - | Real-time data costs extra below the $1,250 Commercial plan; otherwise expect a one-hour delay |
| - | Request quotas are tight for the price, with 10,000 a month on Startup |
| - | The license does not cover republishing full article text |
| Exa | |
|---|---|
| + | Semantic queries surface coverage that keyword APIs miss |
| + | Search results and page contents come back in one call, which keeps RAG code short |
| + | Official MCP server and SDKs for Python and TypeScript |
| + | No monthly minimum on pay-per-request pricing |
| - | It is a search engine without a source taxonomy, sentiment or story clustering |
| - | Date filters rely on crawl and publish metadata that can be imprecise |
| - | Per-request costs climb fast for high-volume monitoring |
Who should choose Perigon?
A typical fit: a startup building a news-aware product that needs commercial rights early.
Published plans from $25 with enrichment and saved-query monitors included. Paid access starts at $25/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose Exa?
A typical fit: grounding LLM answers with recent news pages.
Meaning-based search finds relevant pages even when the keywords differ. Paid access starts at $7 per 1,000 searches. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia.
Decision matrix: Perigon vs Exa
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Exa |
| You need full article text in the response | Both |
| You need years of historical news | Perigon |
| You need licensed premium or wire content | Neither; look at Factiva, AP or LexisNexis |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both |
Use case fit: Perigon vs Exa
| Use case | Perigon fit | Exa fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | Exa |
Verdict: Perigon vs Exa
Perigon (4.5/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Published plans from $25 with enrichment and saved-query monitors included.
Exa (4.0/5) is worth a look if you need research agents that need the most relevant articles on a topic. If your situation matches that, Exa is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Perigon vs Exa FAQ
Is Perigon better than Exa?
Perigon (4.5/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Perigon's strongest advantage: even the $25 tier returns entity and topic data instead of bare headlines. Exa's strongest advantage: semantic queries surface coverage that keyword APIs miss.
How do Perigon and Exa differ in pricing?
Perigon: monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume, with paid access from $25/mo. Exa: pay per request; free monthly credit, with paid access from $7 per 1,000 searches. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Perigon or Exa?
Both sell enterprise contracts. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Perigon and Exa?
What sets Perigon apart: published plans from $25 with enrichment and saved-query monitors included. What sets Exa apart: meaning-based search finds relevant pages even when the keywords differ. They also differ on entry price ($25/mo vs $7 per 1,000 searches) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring vs AI & LLM apps, Research & academia).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.