Exa vs GDELT Project: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Exa (4.2/5) edges ahead of GDELT Project (3.9/5) overall. Exa is the better choice for RAG and agent developers needing semantic news retrieval. GDELT Project is the stronger option for zero-budget data projects and research prototypes. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Exa vs GDELT Project: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Exa | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2021 | 2013 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | Open research project (no commercial HQ) |
| Team size | 51–200 | Not publicly disclosed |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 3.9 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request | No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Free |
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | Free |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON, CSV |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
Exa vs GDELT Project: overview
Exa
Exa Labs started in San Francisco in 2021 as Metaphor, founded by Will Bryk and Jeff Wang, and raised an $85 million Series B led by Benchmark in September 2025. It runs its own web index searched by meaning, so a query like "startups cutting cloud costs" can match articles that never use those words. Set the category to news and ask for contents, and one request returns cleaned text you can drop into a prompt. As of 2026 search costs $7 per 1,000 requests with contents for the top 10 results included, and new accounts start with $20 of credit. SDKs cover Python and TypeScript, and an official MCP server plugs it into agent tools. It is a search engine at heart, so expect weaker coverage of small regional outlets and fuzzier publication dates than a dedicated news API gives.
GDELT Project
The GDELT Project, created by Kalev Leetaru, watches broadcast, print and web news in more than 65 languages and publishes fresh data every 15 minutes. The DOC 2.0 API needs no key and no signup, which makes it the fastest free start here, and it returns article lists and timelines for a query. Bulk event and knowledge-graph tables are also available in Google BigQuery for SQL users. Two things trip developers up. Responses contain metadata and links only, so you have to fetch and parse each article yourself, and the data formats were designed for researchers, with field names and conventions that take some reading to understand.
Features: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Capability | Exa | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✗ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Format / SDK | Exa | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | ✓ | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | ✓ |
Pricing comparison: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Criterion | Exa | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | Free |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Free |
| Access models | Free tier, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise contract | Open data |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Free |
Who each API suits: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Dimension | Exa | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
| Example use cases | Grounding chatbot answers in recent articles. Research agents gathering background on a topic. | A free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch. Geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Open data |
Exa vs GDELT Project: pros and cons
| Exa | |
|---|---|
| + | Finds relevant coverage that keyword queries miss |
| + | Contents come with results, so there is no second fetch-and-parse step |
| + | An MCP server and Python and TypeScript SDKs are official |
| + | Pay per request with no monthly minimum |
| - | No source taxonomy, sentiment or story clusters |
| - | Publication dates come from crawl metadata and can be off |
| - | Monitoring thousands of queries a day gets expensive |
| GDELT Project | |
|---|---|
| + | You can call it right now with no account |
| + | BigQuery tables let you query years of events with SQL |
| + | Machine-translated coverage in 65+ languages |
| + | Event coding of who did what to whom suits geopolitical work |
| - | No article text, only links and derived fields |
| - | No SLA or support channel |
| - | Research-style schemas take time to learn |
Who should choose Exa?
A typical fit: grounding chatbot answers in recent articles.
Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request. Paid access starts at $7 per 1,000 searches. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia.
Who should choose GDELT Project?
A typical fit: a free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch.
No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. Paid access starts at Free. Typical uses: Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring.
Decision matrix: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | GDELT Project |
| You need full article text in the response | Exa |
| You need years of historical news | GDELT Project |
| You want an official SDK | Exa |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Exa |
Use case fit: Exa vs GDELT Project
| Use case | Exa fit | GDELT Project fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Exa |
| Research & academia | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Risk & compliance | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
| Media monitoring | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
Verdict: Exa vs GDELT Project
Exa (4.2/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request.
GDELT Project (3.9/5) is worth a look if you need geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. If your situation matches that, GDELT Project is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Exa vs GDELT Project FAQ
Is Exa better than GDELT Project?
Exa (4.2/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Exa's strongest advantage: finds relevant coverage that keyword queries miss. GDELT Project's strongest advantage: you can call it right now with no account.
How do Exa and GDELT Project differ in pricing?
Exa: pay per request; free monthly credit, with paid access from $7 per 1,000 searches. GDELT Project: free, with paid access from Free. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Exa or GDELT Project?
Exa sells enterprise contracts with negotiated volume and SLA terms. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Exa and GDELT Project?
What sets Exa apart: search by meaning with page text returned in the same request. What sets GDELT Project apart: no key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. They also differ on entry price ($7 per 1,000 searches vs Free) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Research & academia vs Research & academia, Risk & compliance).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.