# Exa through toolfare

> Neural search across public pages, a single written answer with the sources it came from, and the readable text of pages you already have — answered inside ChatGPT, Claude, Codex or Cursor. No Exa account or API key of your own: toolfare makes each call and tells your AI the price before it runs.

Page: https://toolfare.ai/exa

## Use it from your agent

Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any agent with a shell:

> Set up https://toolfare.ai/skill.md, then use toolfare to answer: Find recent articles about MCP adoption in marketing teams.

Apps without a terminal connect toolfare as an MCP server: https://toolfare.ai/docs#connect

## Use it from a script

```sh
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fsSL 'https://toolfare.ai/toolfare/toolfare.mjs' -o ~/.local/bin/toolfare
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/toolfare
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
export TOOLFARE_MCP_URL='https://api.toolfare.ai/mcp'
toolfare login
```

Sign in once per machine; the CLI renews the sign-in itself. On a CI runner or another server, create an API key in the toolfare console and set it as `TOOLFARE_API_KEY` instead of signing in. Paid calls on one sign-in or key run one at a time. `--max-cost` refuses a call quoted above that many credits (1,000 credits = $3).

## Tools

### Search the web by meaning, not keywords

Tool: `exa_search`

Takes a question or a description in plain language and returns the public pages that match it, optionally with their text.

Ask:
- Find recent articles about MCP adoption in marketing teams.
- What are people saying about this product on the open web?

### One sourced answer to a question

Tool: `exa_answer`

Searches the web for a question and returns a single written answer with the citations it was drawn from.

Ask:
- Who founded this company, and what did they do before?
- When did this competitor launch its enterprise plan?

### The text of pages you already have

Tool: `exa_contents`

Returns the readable text, the relevant highlights, or a summary for up to 100 URLs, without searching for them first.

Ask:
- Get the text of these three pages.
- Summarise what this page says about pricing.

## Price

Quoted to your AI before the call runs, then charged at Exa’s flat per-call rate. One charge per successful call, whatever the call returns — Exa does not report a cost in the response, and the rate lives in the provider’s billing module. No fixed price table on the page, on purpose: a reprice is one change in the billing module, not here. A call that fails is never charged.

Balances and top-ups are in US dollars. Quotes and `--max-cost` count credits: 1,000 credits = $3 ($0.003 each).

## Use it when

- You need what the public web says about a person, company, product or topic.
- You want a conclusion with its sources attached rather than a list of links.
- You are researching something no dedicated data provider covers.

## Look elsewhere when

- You want what Google ranks for a keyword, in order. That is a results page, not a meaning search.
- You need a structured person record with typed fields. That is an enrichment provider.
- You want your own analytics, ads or store data. This reads the public web only.

## Limits

- It reads public pages only; anything behind a login is invisible to it.
- An answer is only as good as the pages it found — the citations are there so you can check.
- Pay as you go from your toolfare balance, in US dollars; there is no subscription. A call runs when your balance covers its quote.