Exa vs Mediastack: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Exa (4.2/5) edges ahead of Mediastack (3.8/5) overall. Exa is the better choice for RAG and agent developers needing semantic news retrieval. Mediastack is the stronger option for low-traffic sites needing a cheap commercial headline feed. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Exa vs Mediastack: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Exa | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2021 | 2015 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | Vienna, Austria (apilayer); owned by Idera |
| Team size | 51–200 | Part of Idera |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request | Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Monthly request plans |
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | $24.99/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
Exa vs Mediastack: 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.
Mediastack
Mediastack belongs to apilayer, the Vienna company behind ipstack and weatherstack, which Julian and Paul Zehetmayr founded in 2015 and the US software group Idera bought in January 2021. If you already use another apilayer API, the key format, parameters and error codes will look familiar. It covers live and historical news from 7,500+ sources in 13 languages, with filters for country, category, language and keyword. The free plan gives 100 requests a month, which a day of testing can use up, and paid plans run from $24.99 for 10,000 requests to $249.99 for 250,000. Responses carry descriptions and metadata, without full text or enrichment.
Features: Exa vs Mediastack
| Capability | Exa | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✗ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✗ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Exa vs Mediastack
| Format / SDK | Exa | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Exa vs Mediastack
| Criterion | Exa | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | $24.99/mo |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Monthly request plans |
| Access models | Free tier, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Budget |
Who each API suits: Exa vs Mediastack
| Dimension | Exa | Mediastack |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | News & content apps, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | Grounding chatbot answers in recent articles. Research agents gathering background on a topic. | A category news feed on a small website. Classroom projects that need commercial terms. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Free tier |
Exa vs Mediastack: 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 |
| Mediastack | |
|---|---|
| + | Among the lowest paid entry prices for general news |
| + | Shares conventions with the other apilayer APIs |
| + | History included on paid plans |
| + | Short docs with copy-paste code |
| - | 100 free requests a month barely covers testing |
| - | Only 7,500 sources in 13 languages |
| - | No full text, entities or sentiment |
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 Mediastack?
A typical fit: a category news feed on a small website.
Commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. Paid access starts at $24.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, Marketing & PR.
Decision matrix: Exa vs Mediastack
| 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 | Exa |
| You need years of historical news | Mediastack |
| You want an official SDK | Exa |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Exa |
Use case fit: Exa vs Mediastack
| Use case | Exa fit | Mediastack fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Exa |
| Research & academia | Strong | Limited | Exa |
| News & content apps | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
| Marketing & PR | Limited | Strong | Mediastack |
Verdict: Exa vs Mediastack
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.
Mediastack (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need classroom projects that need commercial terms. If your situation matches that, Mediastack is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Exa vs Mediastack FAQ
Is Exa better than Mediastack?
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. Mediastack's strongest advantage: among the lowest paid entry prices for general news.
How do Exa and Mediastack differ in pricing?
Exa: pay per request; free monthly credit, with paid access from $7 per 1,000 searches. Mediastack: monthly request plans, with paid access from $24.99/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Exa or Mediastack?
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 Mediastack?
What sets Exa apart: search by meaning with page text returned in the same request. What sets Mediastack apart: commercial use and historical news from $24.99 a month. They also differ on entry price ($7 per 1,000 searches vs $24.99/mo) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Research & academia vs News & content apps, Marketing & PR).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.