Exa

§1What it does

Exa's MCP server connects agents to Exa's search engine for web search and content retrieval. A hosted remote endpoint is available.

§2Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Snippets adapted from the official documentation. Check the official page for current options and auth requirements.

§2aTools (live-checked Oct 16, 2026)

Returned by the server's own tools/list via remote https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp. No credentials used; no tools were called.

• web_search_exa — Search the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use content. Best for: Finding current information, news, facts, people, companies, or answering questions about any topic. Returns: Clean text content from top search results. Query tips: describe the ideal page, not keywords. "blog post comparin
• web_fetch_exa — Read a webpage's full content as clean markdown. Use after web_search_exa when highlights are insufficient or to read any URL. Best for: Extracting full content from known URLs. Batch multiple URLs in one call. Returns: Clean text content and metadata from the page(s).

§2bWhen you disconnect

1. Removed locallyClear the sign-in or remove the server in your MCP client (for example claude mcp logout or claude mcp remove in Claude Code, or log out of the server in Cursor). This only deletes the client's copy of the tokens.
2. Authorization revokedFind Exa's connected-apps / authorized applications page and revoke the grant there. We haven't found an official page for it yet. This is what stops the refresh token; clearing the client alone is not enough.

Why both steps: OAuth token refresh in the security checklist.

§3Prompts to try

1. “Find recent research papers on agent tool use.”Copy
2. “Search for companies building MCP gateways.”Copy