Exa vs Tavily

Exa and Tavily are both in Search and retrieval in this directory. The table repeats the description, category, transport, auth, publisher mark, and links stored on each listing. A field this directory does not have says Not listed. This page is not a ranking and does not add features, prices, or test results.

Exa listing Tavily listing

Exa vs Tavily
Field	Exa	Tavily
Description	Exa is an MCP server for web search and for fetching page content as markdown.	Tavily is an MCP server for web search, with extract, map, and crawl tools.
Category	Search and retrieval	Search and retrieval
Transport	Streamable HTTP, shown as type streamable-http in the client example.	The remote Claude Code example uses HTTP (--transport http). The local section shows an npx command and does not name stdio or HTTP for that command.
Auth	The README says anonymous use works with rate limits. OAuth is preferred, via https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login or https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp/oauth. An API key can be passed as the exaApiKey query parameter, an Authorization: Bearer header, or an x-api-key header. Exa Agent requires OAuth or an API key. The README links API keys at https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.	API key in the tavilyApiKey query parameter or an Authorization: Bearer header. OAuth on the remote server is optional. The local example sets TAVILY_API_KEY. The README says a free account is available at https://app.tavily.com/home.
Publisher	Not listed	Not listed
Listing link	https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Repository	https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Homepage	https://exa.ai	https://tavily.com
Source	https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server/blob/main/README.md	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp/blob/main/README.md

Connect it: Exa

from vendor docs, not tested by us

Source: Exa MCP server README

Remote URL

Claude Desktop

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

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http exa "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"

Cursor

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

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Connect it: Tavily

from vendor docs, not tested by us

Source: Tavily MCP README

The README also shows a tavilyApiKey query parameter on the remote URL. This snippet uses the URL it prints without a key.

Remote URL

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http tavily "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "tavily": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local command

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add tavily -- npx -y tavily-mcp@latest

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "tavily": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}